Italian Artists: Antonio Sicurezza, Painting Landscapes and Still Life

Still Life With Pitchers Antonio Sicurezza

If you are living in Italy, and if you want to be an artist, you are playing on a good wicket. 

You would get proper courses to train yourself, you would get enthusiast colleagues and you will get the presence of master artists nearby.   

Antonio Sicurezza (1905-1979) got all these facilities in his life. He used it. He used it very well. It made him an artist of recognition. He is one of the most-loved artists of the twentieth-century of Italy. 

Antonio Sicurezza painted landscapes; he painted still life, and he painted wonderful street scenes. At the age of 28, he was called for painting at the chapel of Saint Anthony in the Curch of Maranola. Very good opportunity; at a very young age. But the Second World War played a disturbing role in his life. He had to flee with his entire family to another place. His artworks done at the Church was destroyed in the war. 

Still life in white Antonio Sicurezza

However, he tried to renovate some paintings after the war was over. In fact, the Church connection kept him in constant touch with the religious paintings. He observed these paintings; he learned from observation of these paintings. That is the most precious gift what living in Italy gives to an artist.

The Art: Look at the still life paintings Still Life With Pitchers and  Still life in white. Here we can observe the control of the artist over the movement of his spatula. The use of green, yellow and white is an eye-catching combination. The final outcome is utterly aesthetic.

If we were to select two great subjects which fascinate the artists much; one would be painting the flowers, and another would be painting landscapes. The Italian painter Sicurezza had mastered both of these subjects.  He painted beautiful flowers; he painted excellently beautiful landscapes. Many of his landscapes were street scenes. 

Here we can see the marvellous use of green and yellow. His street scenes are beautifully painted in yellow and green, making the light and shadows creating the volume in the painting. 

Saint Albina Antonio Sicurezza
Oil painting in the Church of
Saint Erasmus in Formia, Italy

The Artist: Sicurezza used a spatula, a palette knife, in most of his paintings. After starting the use of a spatula, and not the brush, an artist had to be extra careful. He or she had to load the colours at the edge of the spatula. It helps in applying the colours evenly. if the lines are kept broken, it helps, too. 

While using a knife, an artist has to care much about the aspects of keeping the right balance of colours. The hues of each colour and the mass of the colours need a special skill. 

Paintings Analysed: Antonio Sicurezza had painted a small collection of canvases. If we look at his paintings, we would see that his paintings are bold in strokes and terrific in creating impression on the head and hearts of the art-lovers.  After he left the brush and took a spatula in his hand, Antonio Sicurezza had built up his style of painting on two fundamental elements.  This helped him converting his artistic representation into an aesthetic outcome. 

Corner of Castellone
Antonio Sicurezza

While laying colours on the canvas, Sicurezza cared much about the physical construction. The size and the measurements of each canvas. He would look carefully at the still-life object he wanted to paint. He would look well at the perspective of the street and corners of each street he decided to make alive. Thereafter he would take is weapons in hand: the weapons were the colours, the spatula and artistic skill.

Antonio Sicurezza had painted a  small collection of canvasses. But his painting, especially after he left the use of brush and took spatula in his hand, are bold in stroke and excellent in creating the impression of the art-lovers' minds.

Sicurezza had built up his style of painting based on two fundamental elements. One was the physical construct of the object to be painted. Another was the appropriate colour scheme. These styles of painting helped him representing his artistic prowess at the best. At the time of painting, especially putting his bright colour palette in full swing of action, he kept caring much about the physical construction of the subject.

Alley of Itri Antonio Sicurezza
Oil on Panel

Paintings Analysed: Look at this painting. Here in this painting of cityscape Alley of Itri, he had marvellously depicted the sloppy street of a small Italian town. The perspective of the painting and the effects of his colours lead us to feel that we are virtually walking to the downside of a street. 

For an artist, one of the greatest challenges while depicting his or her artistic skill remains in understanding the play of light and shadow. The effects of these often lay the shadow on the subconscious thoughts of an artist and it leads him or her to think in a different manner. Sicurezza has done his best to maintain the road of depicting the effects of light in its natural position.

After accepting spatula as the tool to put the colours on canvass; Sicurezza had painted some of his masterpieces. If this painting Alley of Itri is any evidence, his spatula must have cared much about the aspect of keeping the right balance of colours; the hues of the colours; and the mass of the colours to be laid down on canvas. He had masterly laid the colours in all of their hues. His brush possessed bold strokes, and the spatula had artistic eyes. [All the images are in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons]