The Artwork of the month - June 2021

The painting represents a table showing a small dish, bottles and pottery of different shapes and sizes, and a ruler-like object cutting across the table surface. The subject is typical of Morandi's compositions, and he was fond of the still life genre, which allowed him to meditate on the volumes and geometric archetypes of forms. "There are two things in a painter, the eye and the brain", Cézanne had said. Re-reading the experience of the master from Aix-en-Provence and then the Cubists, Morandi, after passing through the metaphysical period, from the 1920s investigated landscape and objects to arrive at the study of "plastic values" and universal form. In this still life, the composition is conceived with extreme rigour, control and balance, in a delicate game of internal balancing, in which the objects and their shadows build an organic and compact whole.

The colour - a range of neutrals and browns, complemented by soft yellows and wisteria purples - is full-bodied and animated by skilful lighting accents. The cerebral approach of the Cubists is thus transformed into an intimate and real vision, in which the objects acquire a secret and enigmatic charm, arising from the poetry of the everyday and the grace of a miraculous reduction to the essential, in the search for a new classicism.

Return to the section > The Galleria d'Arte Moderna artwork of the month