Giulio D'Anna (1908-1978) - Madonnina

Giulio D’Anna — La Madonnina, 1933

Oil on panel, 55 × 35 cm
Signed and dated on the front and back

Rare work by Giulio D’Anna (Villarosa, 1908 – Messina, 1978), one of the leading figures of Sicilian Futurism, created in 1933 and titled La Madonnina.

The painting, executed in oil on panel, depicts a Madonna with Child reinterpreted in a futurist and aeropainting key. The aureoled female figure is shown standing, while holding the Child, also aureoled. The figures are built through broad green, blue, and azure fields, with synthetic forms, curved lines, and luminous geometries. The entire composition is inscribed within a large cross that almost covers the whole surface of the panel.

At the bottom appears a green-yellow globe, upon which looms the stylized silhouette of a church, outlined by a yellow profile. In the background are hints of a marine landscape, probably referring to the morphology of the Strait of Messina and the Sicilian and Calabrian coasts. The work is signed and dated at the bottom: “GIULIO D’ANNA 1933 XI,” referring to the eleventh year of the Fascist era.

The work is documented in Virginia Buda’s monograph, «Un pittore limpido e festoso». Giulio D’Anna a Messina tra Futurismo e Astrattismo, Messina, 2006, where it appears as cat. no. 21, plate VII. It is also archived at the Archivio dei Futuristi Siciliani as an autograph work by Giulio D’Anna.

From an art-historical point of view, La Madonnina belongs to the sacred strand of D’Anna’s production and sits within the atmosphere of Futurist aeropainting and early 1930s Futurist sacred art. The work dialogues with contemporary examples by Fillìa and Enrico Prampolini and anticipates or accompanies the research conducted by D’Anna in the later Madonnina dell’Aria of 1934.

On the back are brush-written inscriptions in black pigment:

GIULIO D’ANNA
“MADONNINA”
1933
VIA XXVII Luglio, 189 MESSINA

The panel also preserves graphic traces, pencil marks, and a printed numbering “511.”

Provenance

The work comes from a Messina family tied to artistic and sacred decorative production. According to the technical report, the painting would have been received directly from Rosario Genitore or from one of his heirs. Genitore was active in Messina within commissions for the Monumental Cemetery and for the decoration of churches that arose during the reconstruction after the 1908 earthquake.

The work remained for generations in the same family and was kept as a domestic votive image.

Condition

The pictorial surface remains overall in good condition, with colors still vivid and clearly legible. There are light traces of craquelure along the central axis of the panel.

The wooden support, poplar, shows on the back signs of loosening due to previous infestation by xylophagous insects, with some small gaps along the perimeter, particularly at the corners. A conservative intervention on the support is therefore necessary.

The work is currently housed in a non-original frame, added in recent decades.

Technical data
Author: Giulio D’Anna
Title: La Madonnina
Year: 1933
Technique: oil on panel
Dimensions: 55 × 35 cm
Signature: signed and dated on the front and back
Bibliography: Virginia Buda, «Un pittore limpido e festoso». Giulio D’Anna a Messina tra Futurismo e Astrattismo, Messina, 2006, cat. n. 21, tav. VII
Archive: Archivio dei Futuristi Siciliani
Conditions: good condition of the pictorial surface; wooden support to be consolidated/conserved

The export of the work is subject to Italian national legislation.