A travelling retrospective devoted to Felice Casorati, one of Italy's most enigmatic modern artists, has arrived in this northern Italian city, with the addition of his most famous painting.
Fresh from a successful run in Ravenna, the expanded version of the exhibit boasts Casorati's 1923 'Meriggio' (Midday), a lazy, relaxed scene of nude women sprawled in the noon heat.
The canvas, which was selected for the 1924 Venice Biennial, is one of the most prized possessions of Trieste's Revoltella Museum, where the retrospective is being staged.
Museum Director Maria Masau Dan explained that the painting had a particular symbolic significance for the institute, having been acquired just after World War II.
"A desire to return to normal life led the museum's postwar trustees to make the utmost effort to acquire the work, spending 20,000 lire - more or less half of the museum's budget at the time," she said.
In addition to 'Meriggio', the exhibit will also feature a number of paintings by Casorati's contemporaries from the museum's own collection, helping visitors to put his work in context.
In total, the retrospective numbers well over 100 works on loan from museums and private collections, showcasing the full range of styles and themes that Casorati explored during his lengthy career.
Born in 1883, Casorati was captivated by art from an early age. Although he graduated in law to satisfy his parents, he soon returned to his true passion and his first painting was displayed at the Venice Biennial of 1907.
Entitled Ritratto di Signora (Portrait of a Lady), it shows his sister Elvira, who frequently posed for him.
"She was 10 years older than him and, truth be told, not the most attractive of women but my father loved using her as a model," recalled Casorati's 73-year-old son, Francesco, at the exhibition's recent presentation
La Preghiera (The Prayer), completed in 1914, recalls the artist's brief flirtation with symbolism. The painting, depicting a woman, head bowed, against a backdrop of flowers, is strongly reminiscent of Gustav Klimt, whose work Casorati studied closely.
This painting was followed by a break in Casorati's artistic output for several years, as he was sent to fight in World War I.
He left the front in 1917, when his mother died, and moved to Turin, where he became an important figure on the local art scene.
In line with many of his contemporaries, a more formalist, classical approach started to dominate his work at that time, a reaction against the chaos and uncertainty of the war.
It was during this period that he produced some of his best-known paintings, including his most famous work of all, Ritratto di Silvana Cenni (1922).
Inspired by 15th-century artists, particularly the work of Piero della Francesca, the portrait shows a seated woman in a white dress. Its symmetrical style and meticulous balance, both in terms of composition and colour, infuse it with a sense of the unreal.
Casorati, often referred to as the 'painter of silence' continued in this vein of rigid simplicity, focusing on cool female forms and minimalist still lifes, which won him space at the 1924 Venice Biennial.
Yet in 1928, his work took a sudden turn in a different direction, moving towards more fluid lines and richer, brighter colours.
This resulted in a more emotionally and pictorially vivid style, which would characterize his art for the rest of his life.
Vocazione (Vocation), painted in 1939, is typical of this later work, a warmly illuminated painting of a woman kneeling before a low table, her head resting on her arms, on top of an open book.
After being arrested during a brief brush with the anti-Fascist movement in the early 1920s, Casorati steered well clear of politics and his career consequently flourished throughout both the Fascist and the post-war period.
He exhibited widely and won many awards, including First Prize at the Venice Biennial of 1938. He died in Turin in 1963.
Felice Casorati: Dipingere Il Silenzio (Felice Casorati: Painting Silence) runs at the Revoltella Museum until November 4.
