M. Perone (1982) - Il bacio della volpe

Title: The Fox's Kiss

The oil painting on canvas (40×30 cm), signed in the lower right M. Perone, presents itself as an artwork of refined contemporary figurative sensibility, oriented toward magical realism and a soft fairy-tale atmosphere.

At the center of the composition dominates a female figure of ethereal beauty, a young woman with long fire-red hair – a warm, coppery, luminous red – which falls in soft and sinuous waves over her shoulders and back, almost touching the water. The face, delicately profile and absorbed, tilts gently downward: the eyes are half-closed in an expression of intimate tenderness, the lips slightly parted touch, in a light and reverential kiss, the sharp, pointed snout of a red fox.

The fox, with a vivid ocher-orange coat rendered softly with fluent and confident brushstrokes, emerges partially immersed in still water; the snout is extended upward, the dark, gleaming eyes fix the girl with absolute trust, almost in complicity. The black tip of the nose touches the young woman’s lips in an intimate and symbolic contact, while a front paw gently brushes her chin, sealing the silent bond between the two.

The woman is up to the chest immersed in a dark, reflective pool, dotted with blooming water lilies: pure white petals with golden hearts open in the foreground and in the background, creating circular and luminous rhythms that contrast with the deep green vegetation surrounding them. The round, waxy leaves of the water lilies float in the foreground, while slender long stems rise vertically from the depths, intertwining with dark reeds and grasses that close off the space behind, generating a sense of enclosed intimacy, almost a secret nest.

The light is soft, crepuscular, a green-gold filtered through a thick curtain of leaves and branches glimpsed in the background: it creates reflections on the still water, sparks warm coppery glints on the hair and fur, delicately models the volumes of the female body wrapped in a diaphanous veil, almost transparent, that blends with the water itself, suggesting a mythological fusion between human, animal, and natural elements.

The palette is dominated by deep and emerald greens, warm and intense reds, bright whites of the water lilies and touches of pale gold in the centers of the flowers and in the reflections. The painting is smooth but not slick, with a substantial, velvety matter that returns the tactile sensation of cool water, silky fur, and translucent skin.