Technique:
Oil on Canvas
Dimensions:
61X50
Theophilus Patini
Domestic interior with seated male figure
Oil on canvas,
In a poor, rural domestic interior, a man sits on a chair, placed next to a table. If the foreground is in full light, the back part of the room is in shadow, and the few furnishings present - such as the cupboard, on the left, and the large fireplace on the opposite side - are barely perceptible, thanks in part to a small window. In the center, finds its place the table - caught in perspective - and, immediately behind it, some miserable cloths, resting on a backrest.
The only human protagonist in the scene is off-center, a mute witness to the poverty around him. The man - looking, expressionless, at the viewer - has his left hand in his pocket, and his right arm resting on the table; his shoes are covered by light-colored leggings, and on his head he wears a wide-brimmed hat.
The pictorial stroke is made up of quick brushstrokes, although the light filtering through the small window even recalls the realism of certain post-Caravaggesque painting.
The signature makes certain the attribution to Teofilo Patini, a great protagonist of the verist turn in Abruzzo painting at the end of the 19th century.
