A coffee with Art

Assumption of the Virgin about 1526 Oil painting on canvas (379x222 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence ******* The painting is divided in a physical and spiritual way, two large rooms characterize it: sky and earth. The Virgin ascends to heaven, surrounded by angels, while on earth the apostles watch the scene with great amazement. St. Thomas is characterized by his scientific spirit: I must ascertain and prove that Mary is no longer in her tomb and that she is actually taken up into heaven even with her body. In front of the scene two important saints: Nicola and Margherita; the patrons of the donor and of the city for which the altarpiece was designed. The painting is somewhat rigid, a typical aspect of the Italian Renaissance. The Florentine painters enjoyed the fame of great draftsmen and Andrea del Sarto no less; there is no doubt that he made several preparatory drawings to achieve the desired balance. Andrea del Sarto received many commissions in life, especially frescoes and was known...

Hans BELLMER - The spinning top (about 1937-1956)

The spinning top about 1937-1956 Oil painting on canvas (65x65 cm) Tate Gallery, London ******* The subject of the work is a skeletal female figure spinning a top, held in her bony hands. Bellmer's idea was to make a sculpture that symbolized the woman's power to turn men's heads and hearts, while she herself whirls in zero gravity. Undoubtedly, we are faced with a work with a strong disturbing character. This painting has undergone many reworkings by the author, who only signed the painting in 1956 when he found an interested buyer. Bellmer was of Polish descent and moved to Paris in 1938, a time when she joined Surrealism. This work represents many features of Surrealism, such as the distortion of the image that appears to float in a space that could represent the artist's subconscious. The reference point of Hans Bellmer's art is the female body, very often treated in an erotic way, almost obsessively. By the same artist, we usually know his articulated female ...

Domenico Fetti - Portrait of an actor (1623)

The Italian lesson learned from Rubens and enriched by the vision of Northern Europe, returns to Italy. Domenico Fetti is strongly influenced by Rubens who was trained in Italy. The portrait is enriched by the attention to detail and fabrics typical of the northern countries with an all-Italian (better, Venetian) attention to color and chiaroscuro. Who is this actor? The beauty of portraits made anonymous by time is that you can play guesswork. Two are the most popular names: Claudio Monteverdi and Tristano Martinelli. It really doesn't matter. More interesting is to think of Mantua, the court where Domenico Fetti finds a home and where culture explodes.

Rembrandt - Danae (1636-1650)

Authentic or not, some still discuss it. Original? After a restoration someone says it has been replaced. A deranged man ruined it in 1985 and it is thought that the secret services are also behind it. One certainty: in Dutch painting they have never been so bold with a nude! Rembrandt seems to have broken the mold of demure Northern European education. A theme that has studied and reworked a lot is presented in this riot of drapes and fabrics.

Pietro Perugino - Apollo and Marsyas (c. 1495)

The Master from Perugia, who deserves more space in the world of art, was not a trivial and easy to read painter. The first criticism is based on the falcon that seizes the prey to interpret the painting as an Apollo listening to Marsyas, in the competition that obviously will win the beautiful Greek god. Marsyas was a satyr, does the painted one seem a satyr?!? A more current (and perhaps more precise) interpretation sees the young pastor Dafni intent on playing the young (in Greek it means laurel, from laurel comes Lorenzo). A beautiful allegory wanted by Lorenzo the Magnificent? Likely. What is certain is that the two figures are copied from two great works of the past signed by Praxiteles and by the school of Lisippo.

Annibale Carracci - Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1604)

Annibali Carracci is a master in creating the perfect balance between space, nature and human presence. A crowded escape, in fact in addition to the three protagonists that one would expect there are two angels, who guide the way. The space is almost infinite, our gaze goes to the sea. In the middle of the work, on the path you can see two other people walking, in the beautiful center of a Nature that seems to be the real protagonist of the work.

Jean-Marc Nattier - Peter the Great (1717)

Jean-Marc Nattier is a curious character. In France he was not famous, one of his most important clients was the Tsar of Russia who asked him to follow him to Moscow and become his court artist. But he refuses preferring to stay in his native country. Tenacious, he manages to achieve notoriety in his country, thanks to his elegant ability to portray and the speed of his stroke. His career will end in oblivion, moreover attacked and opposed by Diderot, consultant of Catherine II to create the collection that would later become the central nucleus of the Hermitage ... where this work found a home.