Mario Gianello (1935) - Commedia dell'Arte in Blu

AUTHOR

Mario Gianello (1935) Italian painter. Born in Bologna, later he settled in Milan, a city that becomes his main personal and professional reference point. His formation matures in a context strongly tied to the “doing” of handicraft: the approach to painting comes through studies and experiences in the applied arts, with time at the State Institute of Ceramics in Faenza and in craft workshops between San Marino and Vicenza. This apprenticeship, grounded in manual skill and craft, decisively marks his way of building images and, above all, his relationship with color, understood as a body of substance and a dominant presence in the composition.

On the stylistic plane Gianello moves within a free figurative approach that is often theatrical, alternating subjects more traditional with outcomes more openly expressionist. In some series, where masks appear, figures and suspended atmospheres, sometimes close to circus and carnival imagery, the brushwork and the chromatic blend become the true engine of the narrative. The form tends to crystallize into dense, material layers, and the gestural quality takes on emotional weight. His poetics, in this vein, aims to go beyond the appearance of the sensorial data to seek an inner essence of things, entrusting colors with a function that is not descriptive but symbolic and almost spiritual, capable of determining the tone and meaning of the work.

Description

"Commedia dell'Arte in Blu", oil on canvas, 61 × 71 cm with frame, 40 × 50 cm the canvas alone, datable to the late 1970s of the 20th century, signed lower right.

On the canvas, the characters are arranged like a small traveling company caught in a silent interval: not a narrative action, but a choral presence. The figures, in long and stylized costumes, recall the traditional masks of Commedia dell’Arte more for types and attitudes than for minute description: the white figure with a pointed hat and a masked face evokes an essential, abstract Pulcinella; the central red figure, more “noble” and frontal, evokes the register of the Capitano or a leading-protagonist, while the side profiles recall the world of Colombina and the “lovers,” suspended between theatrical illusion and intimacy. Beside the main group there also appears a stringed instrument held as an emblem, not merely as an object: the music seems to be an integral part of the mask, a second voice that substitutes for words and strengthens the atmosphere of wandering theater.

The composition is built on a balance between foreground and distance: the left-hand core, closer and more detailed, opposes the rear group on the right, which fades like an echo, creating depth without relying on a true perspectival space. The background is a large field of nocturnal blue, compact and vibrant, pierced by lighter glints that suggest an almost moonlit light: it is a blue that does not describe a place, but a psychological climate. The brushwork alternates between opaque, tactile passages and lighter, delicate touches; the outlines, often sharp but not rigidly closed, hold the volumes like theatrical silhouettes, while the folds of the costumes are brightened by strikes of light that give rhythm and verticality to the figures. The chromatic play works through contrasts: the whites and especially the central red—with orange and pink accents—emerge as emotional signals within the cold expanse, achieving a suspended effect that places the painting at the heart of Gianello’s poetic of that era. It is one of his works from the series of masks with suspended atmospheres, in a rarefied space, between metaphysical and surrealist. A painting of good painterly handling and a touching emotional note.

Condition Report

Overall good condition. The work is intact in every part with vivid and clearly legible color and brushwork. Note a slight indentation of the canvas at the upper right corner, which in no way affects the painting's aesthetic quality. The frame is to be considered complimentary.

Tracked and insured shipment with adequate packaging.