Antonio Morato (1903–1989) - Composizione con Volti 2

ARTIST

Antonio Morato (Este, March 17, 1903 – Padua, March 13, 1989) trained in the vibrant Padua of the 1920s, outside the traditional academic paths. Initially aligned with the ideas of the “Novecento” movement, he stood out for his keen figurative sensibility, grounded in an instinctive engagement with reality. Indeed, he liked to describe artists as “animals with glasses,” able to sense in advance what was in the air. In his early canvases, devoted to still lifes, masks, and views, he combined a genuine popular spirit with meticulous formal and compositional care.

In the postwar period, his style evolved, absorbing Picasso’s spatial dislocations and Matisse’s use of color, before moving, from the late 1950s onward, toward a more intimate and disenchanted body of work. Rejecting passing fashions, his late period took on a more introspective tone: the landscape of the Veneto, once rendered in a primitive, idyllic song, gave way to paintings expressing a palpable unease at the spread of urbanization and industrial civilization. His characteristic subjects were thus rendered with a more austere and essential application of color, while color remained central to the construction of volume.

Technically, as well as being a skilled easel painter, working in everything from oils to pastels, Morato was an excellent fresco painter. Among his most prestigious public works are the decorations in the “Sala delle studentesse” at Palazzo del Bo and the fresco cycles, including the “Via Crucis,” in Padua’s Church of the Holy Family (1939–1940). Today, his works, a valuable record of the full arc of his stylistic evolution, are preserved and showcased in the civic collections of the city of Padua and feature in prestigious private collections, confirming the importance of this original and solitary interpreter of twentieth-century art in the Veneto.

DESCRIPTION

“Composition with Faces 2,” oil on canvas, 84x104cm framed, 80x100cm canvas only, 1971, signed and dated at the lower edge.

The work stages a magnetic theatrical chorus, filtered through the enigma of the mask. On the left, fully illuminated, appears a Pierrot in a white jacket with black buttons, his head tilted and his hands held to his chest in a gesture of astonishment. Around him, in the upper section and along the right side, is an assembly of five figures with stern faces, sculpted like tragic masks. They are joined at the center by a dense interweaving of large, outstretched hands that converge on a vivid circular core of yellow and red, the symbolic focal point of the scene.

The composition sets Pierrot’s luminous expansiveness against the solemn vertical rhythm of the busts in the background, while the rhythmic gestures of the hands create a powerful dynamic axis. The dense, vigorous brushwork sculpts the volumes into faceted planes and incisive strokes. The construction and harmony of the colors are especially striking: color itself generates the sculptural structure and depth. A vibrant weave of turquoise and emerald green envelops the figures like a unifying aura, counterpointing the chalky white of the garment on the left and the warm tones of brown, crimson, ochre, and violet in the tunics. Against this backdrop, the polyphony of faces—ranging from ochre to cyclamen, cerulean to olive green and finally purple—engages in dialogue with the sun-bright central ring, creating a tonal composition of rare formal balance.

Dated 1971, the painting belongs fully to Antonio Morato’s late, more intimate and disenchanted period. The European influences he absorbed in the postwar years—evident in the Picasso-inspired sculptural fragmentation of the mask-like faces and expressive hands, as well as in the freedom of tone that recalls Matisse—here arrive at an austere, essential synthesis, with color remaining the absolute cornerstone in the construction of volume. Far from passing fashions, Morato renews the theme of masks, so dear to him, affirming himself as that “animal with glasses,” endowed with an instinctive receptivity, able to sense in advance the anxieties in the air and translate the human comedy into an intense pictorial vision.

CONDITION REPORT

Overall condition is good. The work is intact in every respect, with vivid, clearly legible color and brushwork. The frame is included as a gift.

The image of the painting shown in a room setting was generated using artificial intelligence and is for illustrative purposes only. Only the remaining photographs should be considered authoritative; they faithfully show the item and its features, both overall and in detail.

Tracked and insured shipping with suitable packaging.