Pasetti's Collection

In Northern Italy, and in Bergamo in particular, in the sixteenth century, a portraiture school of great prominence developed, drawing its origins from Moretto realism and developing through a chain of painters from Giovan Battista Moroni to Cavagna. This journey, which runs through the entire second half of the sixteenth century, has the fundamental trait of adhering deeply to the truth of the effigy, which is painted only as it is, without sentimental feelings or bombastic emphasis. This beautiful portrait, for example, shows a gentleman with a slightly sad look, in clothing covered with a fur cape. It can probably be dated to the end of the sixteenth century, or even to the beginning of the seventeenth. Therefore, attributing it to Gian Paolo Cavagna seems convincing, as he lived at the turn of the century and was also known for sacred works.Also, among the second and third generation painters of Bergamo, he is closest to the Venetian school. In the present work, in fact, the artist’s ability to create the brightness of the skin and the slightest details of the eyes, the forehead, the thin hair, the beard and the white collar brings him closer to the luministic sensibility which descends from Titian towards many artists, both average and minor.

"The young man left together with the angel, and even the dog followed them and went with them. They walked together until he surprised them on the first evening; then they stopped to spend the night on the Tigris river. The young man went down into the river to wash his feet, when a big fish leaping from the water tried to devour the boy's foot, who started screaming. But the angel said to him: "Grab the fish and do not let it escape." The boy managed to catch the fish and pull it to the shore. The angel told him then: - Open the fish and take out the gallbladder, the heart and the liver; put them aside but throw away the intestines. In fact, its gall, heart and liver can be useful for medications. The boy quartered the fish, took away his gallbladder, heart and liver. He roasted a portion of the fish and ate it; the other part, he put it in storage after salting it. Then both resumed the journey, until they were close to Media. " In the Bible, the book of Tobit tells a long journey of this young man, who faces different tests with the help of the Archangel Raphael. One of the episodes is capturing the fish that will then be used to defeat the devil. In this painting of the Nordic school, probably Flemish, the two fundamental characters are relegated to a tiny space at the base of the painting, which unfolds in a triumph of vegetation, reflective water, and large trees. All of this naturally corresponds to the taste of the era: the anonymous artist invites the viewer to discover small details which offer a more complex meaning to a work that at first appears to be only a landscape. Also noteworthy is the cute dog and the other figurs on the right, which give a further rural feel to the whole scene. The artistic touch is meticulous, effective, and almost romantic in representing the expanse of leaves and branches that rise upwards, where large clouds move the sky.

The Parisian Valadon well represents the prevailing group of painters who, in the second half of the nineteenth century, were the core of the current French art, far from the Impressionists’ innovations, yet creating meaningful works. Jules often attended the Paris Salon and was repeatedly awarded. He was therefore a well-known painter, artist of genre scenes, portraits, and still lifes. He was known for his desire to give his creations a thoughtful, romantic, and almost sad attitude. The painting that we admire here corroborates this style. The young girl, with a bohemian look, seems to meditate under a light that illuminates her from above, revealing all the beauty of her countenance and her hair. At the same time, the eyes open with a melancholy that contrasts with her youthful age. The brushstroke is extremely effective and traces the different details of the garment and the body with agility, vigor and an excellent sense of color. One cannot speak of Impressionism, because the approach remains fundamentally nineteenth century and conformist. This does not prevent Valadon, however, from perfecting a work of great effectiveness and wise sentimental vibration.

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.

The real name of Jacques Villon is Gaston Duchamp, which shows he is part in a family of famous artists, including his sister Suzanne, his brother Raymond and his other more famous brother Marcel, a brilliant and transgressive inventor of conceptual art. Instead, Jacques chose to take the avant-garde path in France, remaining in the figurative, creating people and scenes characterized by a sharp scribble, with almost futuristic movements, which gradually become agile characters, who are graceful, nervous, yet pleasant. In this work, created using only shades of green, the painter writes over his own initials a dedication that reads "to Suzanne", perhaps alluding to his sister, or maybe not. Then he continues: "dans mon jardin, in my garden". This explains how the canvas as a whole plays between the face of the young woman and the surrounding vegetation. The green thus dominates every part of the face, while the brush travels through straight lines that then fracture to create a thoughtful countenance. It is an interesting portrait, which probably dates back to the 1910s.

The OK initials and the style of the portrayed character probably indicate that this work is the result of the genius of Oskar Kokoschka, one of the founders of Middle-European expressionism, who spanned the twentieth century with unrestrained virtuosity, thanks to his immense talent. Starting from the works of the first period, distinguished by a harsh style and by a desire to represent the world in an immediate and grotesque way, he later arrived at a more mature, meditated approach, which makes color and vibrant brushstroke the strengths of a sincere and powerful art. In the painting we admire here, we discover an elegant man with similar features to those of the artist. He shows his palette while behind him is a painting or a poster that reveals a jockey and a horse, under the inscription "Hippodrome". Notice especially the beautiful hand, which caresses the brush, which in turn touches the palette. One of Kokoschka's fundamental qualities is indeed his ability to render the subjects three-dimensional, giving to bodies and things the physicality and weight they need to be credible and realistic.

Pechstein is one of the leaders of German Expressionism. In particular, he is an representative of the Die Brücke group, or "The Bridge", which includes other celebrated masters such as Kirchner and Heckel. It was this group who, while still young, created a fundamental stylistic break that, incorporating the works of Van Gogh and Gauguin, first introduced a new expressionist way of conceiving art in Germany and then in Europe: painting with strong tones, which in part refer to African and oceanic suggestions, exhibiting provocative nudes and figures that were appear roughly sketched, but are in reality very intense. Pechstein was the only one of the group with a true scholastic education. He specialized above all in scenes of young women with African or Asian traits, often immersed in large, resplendent, colorful landscapes. This work shows us a half-naked girl with a dry and attractive body, portrayed in a reddish interior. The artist's brush embellishes some details with green and blue highlights. Thus appears a character with spontaneous sensuality, halfway between the Polynesians of Gauguin and a female protagonist of modern Germany. Needless to say, Pechstein and his friends were ensnared in the great bonfire of the arts ordered by Hitler, who led this nefarious mission with which he intended to destroy so-called degenerate art.

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.

Although born in the capital of Argentina, the painter draws his origins from a noble family of Spilimbergo, or the homonymous town in Friuli where he later returned and where he died. This artist is one of the fundamental representatives of the so-called Chiarista trend, which developed between Milan and Upper Mantua in the period between the two world wars. As the name explains, it is a group of arists who prefer light colors, if not white itself, and a unrestrained treatment of the subjects, following the taste of the most up-to-date trends beyond the Alps, and in particular the teachings of Henri Matisse. Spilimbergo is a sincere painter, capable of excellently constructing his themes; he was very interested in landscapes, sometimes snow-covered, sometimes embellished with the features of a ethereal Venice, but he was also inclined towards portraiture. For example, this work shows a young lady with a slightly brazen look, watching us in her generous décolletage. As you can see, the shades of the canvas go from pink to blue, then darkening in her brown hair and almost provocative red lips. He was an interesting artist, who led a fairly modest life, yet was nonetheless certain of his genius and capability of bringing together artisanal refinement and a great scope of talent.

Marcel Janco, born Hermann Iancu, was an integral part of the generation of brilliant arists who founded the so-called Dada movement. In particular, he collaborated with Arp and Tzara at the launch of Cabaret Voltaire, the Zurich tavern in which provocative objects and extravagant paintings were exposed in 1916, so as to upset the traditional art scene once and for all and create the most innovation among the avant-gardes. He then continued his adventure as a refined intellectual, entering the great bedrock of European Surrealism. Then, the persecutions against the Jews forced him to flee from Europe, now become a terrible stepmother, and take refuge in Israel, where he lived for the rest of his life. His subsequent work, as well as the work we admire here, should be seen in the vast category of ​​international Surrealism. In particular, this piece brings him closer to the art of Max Ernst. In fact, both of them have a similar ability to produce a dreamlike world in which fantasy has absolute domain, and without which free will would govern the paintbrush. On the contrary, this universe conveys very deep notions inherent in the human being, powerful archetypes that still dwell in our minds, and above all, freedom of invention that is often impeded in the modern citizen.