La cena dei rimasti

Mitchell Wolfson Jr. 2007 Genova - donazione

Potente, Carlo

GD1993.46.1

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 185.5; Larghezza: 200

olio su tela

The muffled atmosphere of a modest rural interior; the crystallised immobility of the characters on stage and a chilled incommunicability between them, which the looming melancholic snowy landscape helps to emphasise. The horror of war can also be described through the disturbing negative charge of absence: that of the young father, perhaps still at the front, but whose death has more likely already been announced. Potente's large painting, exhibited in 1924 at the 14th International Biennial Art Exhibition in Venice, appears pervaded by an evocative atmosphere of timeless suspension, common to the research of Magic Realism and here exemplified by a depiction of the mother with child inspired by the maternities of 14th-15th century Italian painting. In this work, however, the expressive short-circuit between the prosaic ambience and the lyrical scenic transfiguration of the characters helps to highlight the pain of the ‘’ those left behind‘’, petrified victims of the tragedy of war.