Armando de Stefano - Untitled

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to capture their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation.

Since the 1960s, the work of Neapolitan painter Armando De Stefano has been characterized by a refined and cultured citationism. Specifically, the painter draws inspiration from the great portraiture of the 16th century, reworking it with his own artistic sensibility. The painter engages in a truly philological process, reproducing 16th-century pictorial techniques in his paintings. His subjects are always positioned at a three-quarter angle, engaged in free twists that hark back to the exploration of the movement of bodies in space conducted by Italian Renaissance artists. De Stefano's philological research continues, reproducing the typical clothing of the period and reproducing, through his painting technique, the materials and fabrics, as well as the effect of light falling on them.

Armando De Stefano was born in Naples in 1926. Early in his career, he and other Neapolitan artists founded the "Gruppo Sud" (Southern Group), adhering to a predominantly social-realistic style of painting. In the 1950s, his artistic research focused on abstract, material expressionism. From the 1960s onward, De Stefano returned to figurative painting, dedicating himself to major cycles inspired by the paintings of the past, such as The Inquisition, Masaniello, and The Neapolitan Revolution. He has participated several times in the Venice Biennale and the Rome Quadrennial, and has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including those at the MADRE museum and the Palazzo delle Arti in Naples.

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