Giorgio Morandi

Ernesto Montù, Capolavori dell’arte moderna italiana, Milan, 1950, pl. XIV, illustrated
Lamberto Vitali, Morandi, Dipinti, Catalogo generale, volume primo, 1913-1947, Milan, 1994, no. 197, illustrated

Landscape was Morandi's favourite subject matter in the early years of his artistic output, and it was through this traditional genre that the artist developed the simplicity of pictorial means and the purity of form that characterised his mature œuvre. The majority of his landscapes were executed during the summer months that the artist spent at Grizzana, a small village in the Appenines, alternating with those painted from his studio in Via Fondazza in Bologna. While his depictions of the courtyard in Via Fondazza are usually frontal, enclosed views of the city’s buildings and walls, in Grizzana Morandi was able to paint broader horizons and distant views of hills and woods. Writing about the conception of his landscapes, Giuliano Briganti commented: ‘It is not difficult to imagine Morandi at the window of the house in Grizzana staring steadily into the distance, his eyes narrowed to perceive some detail, searching for the right light to amplify, simplify and transfigure it, to make it into a painting by the process of thoughtful elaboration first in the mind and then on canvas’ (G. Briganti, ‘Morandi’s Landscapes’ in Giorgio Morandi (exhibition catalogue), Accademia Italiana delle Arti e delle Arti Applicate, London, 1989, p. 31).

Fig. 1, A view of Grizzana