A few years ago, returning from a trip to Rome, after studying the works of Caravaggio from the truth, I felt the need to confront the great masters of the past, the 'only option was to address the issues that they had already addressed . So in 2009 I decided to engage in the creation of a Calling of St. Matthew (right starting from the work of Caravaggio in San Luigi dei France), deciding to work at full size. I started as a 'work of 230 × 122 cm, the bigger picture I'd ever done. I 've completed only now, after two years of work and thoughts with respect to the initial graphic design ...
'S initial idea involved a specific context: the character in front of a desk with notes, records and objects of luxury, the perfect environment for a stockbroker (St. Matthew was a tax collector) behind an overturned chair; on background a wall and a curtain of precious velvet. The 'frame of' work was the front, like all the paintings before the 'advent of the camera, which revolutionized the' art from the nineteenth century onwards.
Simultaneously with the construction of 'work, I continued to study the great masters of the past and when I realized that the strength of their work was not in the details, but in the expressive power of the characters represented, I realized that the key to the' work, the key that would best describe the St. Matthew was not the context that surrounded him, but the feelings that animated him. Then I started to eliminate all the details I had originally thought: via registers and money on the table, chairs and tents, only the 'man and that shook him. So the background has been reduced to a wall and a floor. On the wall, the repetition of the phrase Et cum inde Iesus vidit hominem transiret sedentem in Telonio et ait illi Matthaeum appointments seized me, the phrase is repeated more than 10 times, but on the repetition of a white background and black to cover it (you see some letters) , to symbolize how the vocation is only within, a voice hidden inside the 'man. Although I am not a believer, I think it is an unexplained force, but hidden, so I covered the writing.
The search for these two years has led me to meet many artists whose work I still had not seen any, of these, almost contemporary, Arcabas. A French painter who has dealt with the theme of sacred techniques. Of his work appealed to me the 'use of' almost pure gold, as a natural continuation of the painting of light. Inspired him I applied sheets of 'gold 23 kt in the brightest, the most important parts.
With this' final touch I think I've finished the most difficult part I've ever done: two years of work and a painted surface of 2.3 x 1.22 meters.
The work will be presented to the public (along with studies and sketches that have characterized the development) in the second week of July at my studio in Via Malta, 45.
