Alfredo De Martino - Madonna and Child

The iconography of motherhood is closely linked to the subject of the Madonna and Child. It is probably one of the most popular iconographies in the history of both Western and Eastern art. The Madonna and Child appears since the dawn of medieval painting and remained a constant subject as long as religious themes dominated artistic production (that is, until the 19th century, when themes inspired by everyday life began to be introduced). It is quite common for contemporary artists to treat the iconography of motherhood without directly linking it to the Christian religion.

Alfredo De Martino's pictorial production is deeply classically inspired, drawing on Renaissance aesthetics in an almost citational manner. In particular, the artist extols the aesthetic values ​​of the mature, sixteenth-century Renaissance, and the master he seems to draw most from is Raphael. Indeed, in Alfredo De Martino's Madonnas and Child, we find the same grace, the same sweetness, and also the same monumentality as the Urbino painter. Alfredo De Martino's works also reveal a desire to imbue his work with an antique patina, using old papers as a support and artfully imitating the look of a sketch or preparatory drawing to add the allure of the unfinished. This entire citational process is carried out by the artist with a masterful execution, evident in the complexity of his brushstrokes and the definition of volumes, which makes his works unique.

Alfredo De Martino (Naples, 1928) debuted in the world of painting in the 1950s, a period in which the entire cultural world was in full swing, trying to shake off a necessarily static past. De Martino came into contact with the painters of the time—Viti, Crisconio, Villani, Brancaccio, Bresciani, and others—and discussed, painted, and exhibited with them. De Martino was a regular visitor to the Forti Gallery, a veritable temple of painting in those years. He participated in several exhibitions, winning the drawing prize at the 1945 youth exhibition "Premio Forti." In the years that followed, De Martino participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, and his works are held in private collections in Italy and abroad. One of his paintings is preserved in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Naples.

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