Asolo

The overpowering imagination of Filippo Tibertelli, who assumed the surname of de Pisis to claim presumed noble ancestry, is fully shown in this work, which portrays the enchanting Venetian town of Asolo. De Pisis is a fundamental figure of Italian art in the twentieth century. In a very perceptive way, he assimulates the lessons of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, in particular those of Manet and Utrillo. He then reworks them in his Parisian years, establishing his absolutely distinctive mark. His creations are characterized by a very agile and nervous writing, and by a sense of spectacular color. Here he represents a lively, provincial day, sketching many different episodes: the flowered and watered balconies, the coming and going of the inhabitants, the couple that brings the child on a walk, the young, muscular cyclist as he pauses. The silhouettes of the porticoes and the houses rest under the sky, stained with blue and gray, crossed by the swallows that he so loved. The composition is imbued with musicality, which the quick touch suggests, but at the same time hides. The desire to use the black as a fundamental color gives the painting a solid structure that draws its distant origins from the great Venetian painting, and which nevertheless appears very topical in representing the instability and fleetingness of the world, its subdued and elegant rustling.