Luigi Scarpa Croce - Pope John

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.

In this portrait of Pope John XXIII, Luigi Scarpa Croce demonstrates remarkable painting technique, allowing him to render the subject perfectly in profile. The pontiff appears in perfect profile. There is great precision and richness of detail, both in his physiognomy and in his clothing and accessories. In addition to this meticulous attention to detail, Scarpa Croce also stands out for his loose brushstrokes, which create a delicate softness in the modeling. The subject's forms blend seamlessly with the decontextualized space of the background. The use of light, enhancing the subject's sculptural texture, is highly skilled. The light comes from the right, illuminating the pope from above.

Luigi Scarpa Croce was born in 1901 in Venice, where he died in 1967. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1923, having studied under Ettore Tito. Around 1925 and 1926, Scarpa Croce participated in exhibitions at Cà Pesaro and the Venice International Art Biennale, where he continued to exhibit on an alternating basis until 1950. In 1930, he was appointed artistic consultant to the First Rome Quadrennial. He was extensively active in the glass sector in Murano, as a designer and technician from 1940 to 1942 and again between 1950 and 1956. He exhibited in almost all the Bevilacqua La Masa group exhibitions from 1926 to 1957. In 2010, the exhibition “Settepittori Settemondi. La Bohème di Palazzo Carminati” was held at the Torre Massimiliana di Sant'Erasmo, Venice.

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