Roberto Ferri

Roberto Ferri is a young Italian artist whose work seems to be inspired by Romanticism and Baroque art a la Caravaggio. This tickles my fancy. I love to see this style come out of someone who was born in 1978.
His paintings remind me a bit of Auguste Rodin… the way he paints the male back, specifically. Some of his paintings are painfully evocative, others are just beautiful.

These are my favorites from the gallery on his website. Each one fascinates me for different reasons. It’s so rare to find an artist whose work prods at so many parts of your artistic taste.

Apollo e Dafne

I love the vertical tension in Apollo e Dafne. The woman hangs like a carcass as the man pulls her down towards him while craning his neck upwards and arching his body back… all soft lines that look like human desperation to me. Also, the realism with which the woman’s back is painted is in such stark contrast to her head, neck and leg…

Donato

Donato is all body and no head, no man, just human. I like the use of light in this one. The way it dehumanizes and humanizes all at the same time.

Eros Anteros

Eros Anteros is actually the painting which I was the least excited about visually, but I had to include because of my initial response. I immediately fell into the painting… meaning, I sympathize. She looks not only horribly uncomfortable but also really vulnerable (yes, the vulnerability is a bit BDSM, but it’s there and it’s powerful.)