Portrait of Vittorio Talamona

Vittorio Talamona (1876-1937) is the classic "self made man". He is orphaned as a child, he begins to work in a print shop and, in order to learn and get a culture, since he was unable to go to school, he uses the material that the workplace offers him: texts to print. Left unemployed at 16, he sells grease to lubricate the wheels of the wagons, then becomes a soap salesman. Volunteer in the Africa first war, when he returns, after a long stay at the Military Hospital of Naples, he becomes manager in a large industry, traveling a lot for work during the over thirty years of activity. In life, in memory of his wife Alice Butti, he finances the restructuring of the male Orphanage in Pallanza (Verbania). He then donated 700,000 lire to the Ospedale Maggiore, in memory of his mother, Maria Ciapparelli, whose portrait he also sent, executed by Vittorio Tironi. At his death, in 1937, the hospital received a further legacy of one million lire and two paintings by Leonardo Bazzaro. The hospital dedicates the homonymous Pavilion to him and entrusts the portrait commission to Augusto Colombo, a painter highly appreciated by the Milanese client and also by the Quadreria Ospedaliera for which he performs 20 works, for his extraordinary ability to create a strong interaction between the person depicted and the context, which becomes a significant element for characterizing the character. Dressed in an elegant gray double-breasted, inserted in a well-defined composition, between a foreshortened table in the foreground and the flat background of the wall, the figure of the benefactor "occupies" the space, not only for his proud and determined posture, but also because the point of view of the observer is lowered compared to the picture. Cross-legged, he is surprised at a moment of reading, with the book resting on the arm of the Frau armchair, the photo of his mother on the table, in a sober and essential environment, which fits perfectly with the elegance and class of the person. Cold colors prevail: green dominates, declined in different shades.