Filippo Palizzi

(Italian, 1818 - 1899)

Signed lower right. "With Filippo Palizzi there was the first beginning of pictorial realism. After the Posillipo school, the observation of reality became the object of pictorial speculation. Since the 1950s he has been interested in photography which he practices with in-depth technical knowledge. He used the photos that he himself developed, as observation and models for his paintings. In this way he developed an immediate and direct naturalism, linking up to the Flemish animalist school of the 17th century, but paying much more attention to details, combining neoclassical dignity with the genre painting of costumes popular. His trip to Europe and Paris (1955) allowed him to perfect his luministic investigation. Upon his return he stayed in Florence. Here he met Giovanni Fattori and the Macchiaioli. He stated that what we must look for in modern painting are the refinements and the totality, with these concepts Palizzi defines his poetics which is based on his personal conception of the "stain" meaning that the "totality" had to be the expression of the whole, of the whole of the stain which had to be completed by the subtleties, that is by the rendering of perceptive subtleties. The chiaroscuro landscapes had to undergo meticulous, micrographic attention to the effects of light and had to be created with the tip of the brush to ultimately express the totality of the work. The painting in question is a typical example of this pictorial concept. Final product of what he himself defined as cosmic naturalism." STUDIO ASOR