Antonio Ligabue - Cockfight

Animal portraits in art have ancient origins, appearing even in primitive cave paintings. For religious reasons, various types of animals appear in the works of various ancient civilizations. It was especially in the Middle Ages, within the International Gothic style, that animal depictions became widespread as true life portraits, both within works of art and in notebooks of drawings and sketches. The presence of animals as subjects in art remained constant until the contemporary era. Specifically in our work, the type of subject and the manner of representation are typical of Naïve art, of which Antonio Ligabue was one of the greatest exponents. The Naïve artist is by definition self-taught, someone who has not attended academies but has found inspiration within himself. Stylistically, this translates into figurative painting that offers a simplified interpretation of reality, with childlike and unconsciously primitivist overtones. However, even the naive artist, in his spontaneity, has his own awareness that leads him to develop a very specific aesthetic language, differentiating it from amateurism.

Antonio Ligabue can truly be considered, in the history of art, the greatest example of the concept of naive painting, both for his biographical story and for the translation of that story into an instinctive and highly original pictorial style. Marginalization, nervous breakdowns, and self-taught training led the artist to rework reality into infantile and primitive forms. But the artist's greatness lies in delineating an elaborate vision of the world even within that essential and instinctive representation. Indeed, in his simplification of reality, Ligabue simultaneously grasps its complexity. For this reason, the subject is synthesized in a two-dimensionally conceived 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 two-dimensionality of space and recreating it on a conceptual level. The color tends to adhere to a naturalistic rendering but with excessively charged tones, attributable to the Naif 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.

The transaction takes place with maximum security for both the seller and the buyer. We take care of the conformity (provenance, authenticity, state of conservation) of the work and handle the shipping.
Returns are possible no later than 14 days after receiving the order.