For many years it has been my goal to own a piece of art from Italy. Our first adventure into art purchases took place five years ago when Anna and I stumbled upon an original oil on canvass in a small town called Montelpulciano. The piece was approximately five feet by five feet and the shop owner claimed that it dated back to the 1600’s. There was no way for us to know of its authenticity and with only a hour to contemplate the option of spending nearly thirty thousand dollars while on vacation, we took the prudent route and held off on such an important investment.
When we decided to come to Florence for a year, it became our goal to educate ourselves on the ins and outs of art investment and to buy the ultimate souvenir from our family adventure. As we educated ourselves by visiting numerous art and antique shops, we quickly realized that we were in for a rude awakening. All of the quality oil on canvass available from the 15, 16 or 1700’s were priced greatly beyond where we were comfortable. We were astonished to find that prices were ranging between one hundred and fifty and four hundred thousand euro! We resolved ourselves that it just wasn’t reasonable for us to continue looking for art…
In early May, our buddy Paolo “The Gentile Giant” gave us tickets to one of the biggest art fairs held in Europe every year “The Mostra” which comes to Florence for ten days each May.
When we arrived we were surprised to find that the show consisted of several large buildings which housed literally hundreds of artisans showing off their craft. The first building we entered featured artists of various crafts (Silver artists, painters, weavers of fine linens etc…) we were immediately attracted to an artist however that seemed particularly unique. He was a middle aged man who had on display numerous “Frescos”.
For those of you who think you know what a fresco is (And for those that don’t) I will clarify in a moment, but there was something else very special about the artist Antonio Di Vito. When Anna saw him she immediately grabbed my arm, “Honey, oh my God! I read about this man in the paper. He’s one of the last Fresco artists around. He’s amazing. God honey, this is a sign! We’re meant to buy something from him!” Those of you who know Anna are probably laughing right now because you could see her getting all worked up in her adorable way and saying that to me!
The story actually continues a couple of weeks later, but for now lets say that we worked out a deal over the phone the following week to buy our two favorite pieces from Antonio Di Vito.
Two weeks later we were at his home in the countryside where he does all of his painting in the privacy of his farm house that was built in the 1400’s! We decided to take my Alex to meet Antonio, knowing that she would be appreciative of his talents. My mom had just arrived the night before and what better way to welcome her back to Italy than to take her to the house of an artist!
The art of Fresco dates back seven to eight hundred years. Perhaps the world’s most famous fresco is that of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in Rome (Painted by the master Michelangelo). Frescos are most commonly found in churches, but what makes them unique is that they painted directly onto the wall rather than on canvass or wood.
What many don’t know about fresco is the difficulty behind the technique itself. The artist uses “pigment” rather than paint. As an example, one such pigment common in Italy is a pigment named “Terra” which is the color of the earth in Sienna, a mustard yellow color. The artist simply takes the terra and mixes it with a little water on his or her brush and paints directly onto the stucco itself. The catch is that the stucco must be fresh and wet! When the terra is mixed into the wet stucco, the stucco absorbs the pigment and the cement literally becomes that color once dried.
A fresco artist, unlike any other type of artist must be very quick in creating their masterpiece. If the stucco dries, it’s too late to continue and therefore the artist only has about six hours to compete his work.
Additionally the artist must have a very delicate hand when using the brush. The surface of the wet stucco is of course movable and a heavy hand would create indentations that would forever be seen once dried.
Di Vito, recreates some of the worlds most famous works on wet stucco and adds his own twist. In particular he is a big fan of Da Vinci. The two works that we purchased are recreations of the great Leonardo, including “The Annunciation” (The original oil on canvass hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence).
For Anna and I to have met one of the worlds remaining fresco artists, purchased his original works and spent time with him at his home watching him exercise his craft was really an amazing experience and yet another irreplaceable memory of our time here. The icing on the cake was when he and his wife made lunch for my mom, Alex, Anna and I and we spent a lazy afternoon in his garden eating together.
You may be wondering how we can bring home a piece of stucco that was once affixed to a wall. It’s a special technique (That few know about using glue that allows him to slowly remove the stucco from the wall that it was painted on. Since the “terra” is dry upon removal and therefore the color is a part of the cement itself, the glue doesn’t in any way damage the quality of the painting.
The photos will prove this point! Now we just need to find room in our house to hang all this stuff :>)
No comments:
Post a Comment