(Berlin 1895–1971 St. Tropez)
Pittrice e modela or atelier, signed and dated Campigli 49, verso signed and dated Campigli 1948–49, oil on canvas, 63 x 78 cm, framed, (PP)

Photo certificate from the artist

Provenance:
Galleria d’Arte Sianesi, Milan (label on the reverse)
Galleria Zanini, Rome (verso stamp)
Private Collection, Italy

Exhibitions:
Taranto, Galleria d’Arte Taras, ente provinciale Turismo, cinquanta pittori figurativi, 2 – 17 May 1949 (label on the reverse);
Rome, Campigli, Galleria d’arte Zanini, 1960 (opening: 16. Januar);
Rome, Omaggio a Campigli: opere 1929–1971, Galleria Il Collezionista d’arte contemporanea, 15 December 1971 – 30 January 1972, exh. cat., with ill. page 209 (curated by Giancarlo Serafin and Carlo Bestetti)

Literature:
Giancalo Serafini (ed.), Raffaele Carrieri, André Castel, Rafaele de Grada, Jean, Paulhan, Franeo Russoli, Galleria il Collezionista d’arte Contemporanea, page 594, no. 49-010, Carlo Bestetti - Edizioni d’arte, Rome 1972, Vol. II

Although Massimo Campigli began painting towards the end of the 1910s, it was the discovery of Etruscan art during a visit to Villa Giulia in Rome in 1928 that marked a turning point in the artist’s life, stimulating his artistic research throughout his career. Campigli always remained true to himself in his paintings, evoking a mythical, primeval dimension based on pure, essential forms. This purity appears in his work Pittrice e modella (‘painter and model’), executed in 1949, depicting a small figure with a marked geometrical shape in the act of painting another figure that seems to reflect its mirror image. The formal archaism of the two women and the intimate, quiet atmosphere that permeates the painting, are accentuated by the choice of opaque, earthy shades of colour, almost like a fresco capturing a moment outside time; an eternal, constant dimension that constituted the aim of every formal research the artist conducted. “I would like people to be able to live together with my paintings as if they were a slow, silent pendulum”, stated Campigli on the occasion of a personal exhibition at Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, in 1953.