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Dimensions: measurements 9 7/8 by 18 1/4 in. alternate measurements 25 by 46.4 cm
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Provenance: Galleria del Milione, MilanE. Savonuzzi, BolognaW. Macchiati, MilanGalleria d'Arte Narciso, TurinGalleria Falsetti, PratoGalleria d'arte, PratoPrivate Collection, RomeMDG Fine Arts Ltd., LondonAcquired from the above by the present owner
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Literature: Lamberto Vitali, Morandi, Dipinti, catalogo generale, volume primo, 1913/1947, Milan, 1994, no. 505, illustrated
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Notes: PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION
The present work is a brilliant example of Morandi's mastery of the still-life, and of the painterly virtuosity with which he combined the simplest forms and a nearly monochrome palette into a delicate and perfectly balanced compositions. The theme of still-life, which remained central to Morandi's art throughout his career, was always guided by his concern to bring together space, light, color and form, and his great achievement was to reconcile this traditional genre with the abstract aesthetic of his own time. Focusing his artistic efforts on a limited range of subjects, he was able to perfect these pictorial concerns to their purest expression. In Natura morta of 1946, the ensemble of rectangular objects is rendered in subtle tonal variations lending them a dream-like quality, and their material presence is transformed into a composition of pure color and form. Morandi's mastery was in rendering these common objects with a timeless grace unique to his oeuvre. The sense of classical beauty and harmony in the present work is derived not only from the subtlety of palette, ranging from cool stone white and grey to warmer rose, but also from the elegant shapes of the objects themselves, reminiscent of scattered antique ruins bathed in the summer light.
