Antonio Ligabue - Self-Portrait with Dog

The self-portrait is a genre that has been widespread throughout the history of art up to the present day. The first examples date back to the Middle Ages, but not as an independent genre, but rather contextualized within a work. As the artist's self-awareness and his or her role developed, self-portraits, especially those set within other works, began to gain popularity as early as the Renaissance. The first examples of independent self-portraits, however, date back to the 16th century. Often, the artist's self-portrait serves as a sort of stylistic manifesto for the painter who conceived it.

In his simplification of reality, Ligabue simultaneously grasps its complexity. For this reason, the subject is synthesized in a two-dimensional space, but, at the same time, is constructed through a complex system of lines that takes into account both the volume and the dynamism of the depicted scene. This system of lines also moves across different planes, compensating for the spatial two-dimensionality and recreating it on a conceptual level. The color tends to adhere to a naturalistic rendering, but with excessively intense tones, reminiscent of naive poetics.

Antonio Ligabue was born in Zurich in 1899 and died in Gualtieri in 1965. His entire life was marked by frequent nervous breakdowns. He was hospitalized for the first time in 1917, then expelled from Switzerland and taken to Gualtieri, his relatives' hometown. For a long time, he lived as a beggar on the margins of society, until he landed a job on a construction site on the banks of the Po. It was during this period that he began painting. It was the critic Renato Marino Mazzacurati who recognized his potential and guided him toward his own personal development. His first solo exhibition was held in Rome in 1961. He is considered one of the leading exponents of Naive painting.

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