ARARNO0286256
Painting by Bruno Croatto
Portrait of a Young Woman with a Red Cloak,1928
Oil on panel. Signature, date and location Rome top right. Bruno Croatto, an artist from Trieste, is considered a master of Magic Realism. His artistic production, especially after the 1920s, is oriented towards a portrait production that looks to the great masters of the Italian Quattrocento (in particular Antonello da Messina), remaining attached to the ancient tradition in language and technique, but choosing a modern language in the setting, in the clothing and, at times, in the boldness or vice versa in the haughtiness of his models. The clarity of the sign, the sharpness of the colors, the plastic strength of the objects leads Croatto to express a pure and refined naturalism, a meticulous attention to the real data. In keeping with the characteristic taste of his very refined still lifes, in which flowers, vases and oriental objects appear, or even often precious Murano glass (very popular among the bourgeoisie of the 1930s), his female portraits also feature refined elements, evening or day dresses, silks, jewels, fashionable hairstyles, and are painted both indoors and against a landscape background, often separated from the human figure by a dark drape based on the Venetian Renaissance model. Also in this female portrait, the young woman leans against the column of a loggia overlooking a Roman landscape, in which the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella can be recognized, on the Appian Way. The model portrayed here appears in many other works by Croatto, just as the presence of an enveloping piece of clothing, a fringed shawl, a cape, a stole, often bright red, is recurrent in his portraits. The work is presented in a period frame.
