Italian school (XX) - Venezia Metafisica - NO RESERVE

DESCRIPTION

"Metaphysical Venice", oil on panel, 55x75 cm, signed at the bottom right, datable to the 1970s of the 20th century.

The painting offers a suspended, silent, and deeply enigmatic view of the lagoon city, transfigured into a deserted, timeless stage. In the center stands the geometric volume of a bright red building, dominating the foreground, flanked to the left by an ocher-toned palazzo with characteristic Gothic openings and windows in a deep green. The complex geography of Venice is synthesized here through pedestrian bridges with stairways, ramps, and guardrails that leap over barely visible canals, while in the background other historic architectures appear, including a palazzo decorated with Gothic polychromy and the typical spiral mooring poles. Human presence, almost entirely absent, is reduced to two tiny distant masked figures (evoking Commedia dell’Arte characters such as Pierrot or Pulcinella) placed near a quay, whose microscopic scale emphasizes the sense of disorientation and the monumental solitude of urban space.

From a compositional standpoint, the painting is governed by a rigorous and almost theatrical geometric construction, in which perspective, fragmented and forced, leads the viewer’s eye through a labyrinth of overlapping planes, from the foreground ramps to the architectural backdrops. The brushstroke is laid on in a flat, compact, and controlled manner, minimizing atmospheric vibrations to enhance the volumetric solidity of the forms and the sharp definition of the contours. The color play rests on strong and almost unnatural contrasts: the vibrant warmth of Venetian red and earth tones (ochre, yellow, and orange) contrasts with the cool neutrality of the grays and whites of pavements and bridges, punctuated by the dark notes of green—visible in the canals and the shadows of the windows—and by the clear, flat, two-dimensional blue of the sky. The light, artificial and zenithal, generates sharp shadows that freeze the scene into absolute stillness, devoid of movement or transience.

The work coheres with the production of the Italian school that, starting in the 1970s, looked with nostalgic and cultivated intent at the historical lesson of Metaphysical painting by Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà, reworking its poetics in a late-20th-century key. Through the deconstruction of the Venetian landscape, the artist does not seek a vedutistic rendering, but rather a translation of the city into a “mental” and fantastic space, where familiar architectural elements become archetypes of the absurd and the marvelous. This Metaphysical Venice fully responds to the search for an art that, by rejecting dynamism and contingency, takes refuge in the dream, alienation, and mystery, celebrating the charm of enigmatic and solitary beauty that survives beyond history and daily life.

CONDITION REPORT

Good overall condition. Work intact in every part with vivid and legible color and brushwork.

The photo of the painting placed in an environment was generated with artificial intelligence and should be considered purely illustrative. Only the remaining photos, which faithfully show the object and its features, both in general and in detail, are authoritative.

Tracked and insured shipment with adequate packaging.