Veiled character

Although sometimes misunderstood, Mancini is the true great painter of the nineteenth century in Italy, at the same level as Fattori and Macchiaioli. A child prodigy, and technically superb, his career knew great success in the context of a life that was progressively deteriorating, due to attacks of a form of nervous pathology difficult to accurately diagnose, probably a serious bipolar disorder. An irregular artist with a genius for color, he was, in a certain sense, still more gifted than Boldini, as Mancini, compared to the Ferrarese master, shows the same ability to outline characters with supreme freedom, using a brushstroke that, closely inspected, seems almost insane. But where Boldini is sharp, Mancini is enveloping. In this work of ambiguous meaning, it is difficult to clarify whether the character portrayed is a girl at a carnival party or a transvestite boy. It is certain, however, that the presence of the mask indicates an emphasis on disguise, just as the veil, magnificently rendered by a sort of black cloud that descends from the head to the middle of the chest, indicates ambiguity as soft as it is penetrating. The game is all in the red and black colors, which on one side indicate the noisy colors of the party, and on the other collapse upon the person portrayed in a sort of progressive disturbance, also making us viewers lose the coordinates of time and place.