

XIVa Esposizione d'Arte della Città di Venezia, Venice 1924 n° 49a, titled The figure
Adolfo Venturi, Armando Spadini, Duecentocinquantasei tavole, Milan, 1927, pl. 47, illustrated, titled Figure
Armando Spadini, article in "ABC rivista d'arte", N°XV, mai 1937, illustrated, titled Figure
Leonardo Borgese et Orio Vergani, Spadini, nella vita e nelle opere, Milan 1946, reproduced pl.VII titled Figure;
This magnificent Maternity was painted at the beginning of the Roman period. Spadini executed it in 1911, at a time when he gives up on tumultuous effects, to reach a form of calm and serenity that could be linked to classicism. The colours he uses are soft and bright, and his brushstroke is very supple. The composition and the figures of the women and the child impress by their monumentality. In Adolfo Venturi's own words (A. Venturi, Armando Spadini, Milan, 1927, p. XI), the painting seems imagined as a "pala d'altare", a panel from an altarpiece. Likewise, the deliberately light handling of the faces shows Spadini's will to set the scene outside any precise realism, thus giving a timeless image of maternity, that in some ways refers to the Cinquecento art, specifically to Andrea del Sarto's manner, that seemed to inspire Spadini.