Angels in the Starry Night or the Three Geese

In this large canvas, we do not see, or at least only glimpse, encircled objects, but rather scattered icons, luminous fragments in a night-time darkness that bears little resemblance to a starry sky. In the brief explanation provided by the artist about his “mixed technique,” he states that it is a “rotation of the celestial spheres,” that is, a cosmic phenomenon that generates glittering. The transcendental device was supposed to be the pretext for the animated action of several characters, with the banishment of demons by a troop of angels. The preliminary versions were later cleared of demons to focus on the presence, in the upper part of the painting, of three anthropomorphic apparitions in different attitudes, Angels, demons, and stars seem to explode in a shower of light splinters, in a spectacle in which the winged pseudo-creatures are not at the angels of the Christian tradition but simple birds, the “geese” indicated in the title caption. (A. Longatti)