Enrico Accatino - The Passion

The iconographic subject of Christ has ancient origins and is connected to the legend of Veronica. The episode in which Christ's true likeness was imprinted on a cloth used by a woman to wipe his face is also recounted in the Gospels. This woman was identified as Veronica, likely due to the similarity with the Latin words "Vera Icon." Since the early Christian era, therefore, the face and figure of Christ have been the object of particular veneration. His representation has pervaded the entire history of Western art. In this case, we have a precise contextualization relating to the theme of the Passion: Christ appears standing, with his wrists bound. This figure of Christ arrested and suffering fits perfectly with the poetics of the derelict, the least fortunate, part of Enrico Accatino's Expressionist production.

The intent to narrate and denounce social issues in his early work led Enrico Accatino to adopt a decidedly Expressionist language. Expressionist art sought to proclaim its emotional states to the world and flaunt them with passion. Formally, this translated into a summary rendering of figures, through a highly nervous and animated line, as well as the use of a violent color palette. These characteristics are found in the historical avant-garde movements of Expressionism, such as Fauvism and the Die Brücke movement in Germany. Thus, in Enrico Accatino's figurative work, he sought to forcefully express the toil of labor and the harsh living conditions of the most deprived. He did so with a highly energetic and nervous line that synthesized the figures according to a frenetic rhythm of broken lines. In the works of this socially charged production, unlike historical Expressionism, Accatino's use of a sparse palette of earthy and brown tones prevails, in keeping with the essentiality of the representation.

Enrico Accatino was born in Genoa in 1920 and passed away in Rome in 2007. He grew up in a rural area and began drawing as a self-taught artist. He later graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and entered Felice Casorati's studio in Turin. He spent a year in Paris, where he refined his technique and style. Returning to Italy in the late 1940s, he developed a figurative, strongly expressionist style inspired by social issues. From the 1950s onwards, his work evolved towards a rather rigorous abstraction, placing the circular element as a fundamental theme in his painting.

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