Gianfranco Curandai - The Lily Island

Landscape has always been a central theme in artistic research, both as a setting, as a backdrop, and as a subject itself. The naturalistic depiction of landscape has been a major aspiration for artists of every era. Each historical period has offered its own interpretation of landscape, contributing to the evolution of its depiction: first with an exploration of space, through Brunelleschi's perspective in the early Renaissance; then with atmospheric rendering in the sixteenth century; and finally with the depiction of every single vibration of light on objects in Impressionism. In this specific case, we are faced with a beautiful example of a seascape, and the subject of the work is a suggestive view of fishing boats. This choice is perfectly in keeping with the artist's background, Gianfranco Curandai. The work is inspired by a vision of a popular, rural, or maritime Tuscany, made up of solitary places where human presence is almost or entirely absent. Consequently, Curandai is connected to a long tradition of Tuscan painting that began with the interest in rural and popular subjects of the artists of the Macchiaioli group in the second half of the 19th century.

Gianfranco Curandai's style is firmly rooted in the Post-Impressionist tradition. The painter was still firmly rooted in an en plein air approach to painting, aiming to create a vivid and immediate rendering of the landscape by capturing every vibration of light and atmosphere. However, this style already transcends the purely sensory, embracing a structural pictorial conception that explores objects in depth, placing brushstrokes on different dimensional planes within a non-univocal space. The dense and textured paintwork relies on broad patches, reflecting the rural spirit of the Macchiaioli tradition. This work is also noteworthy for its interesting choice of color. The tonal unity of a deep yellow, while reaffirming the Macchiaioli tradition of intense use of light, almost transcends phenomenal reality to take on a spiritual, symbolist connotation.

Gianfranco Curandai was born in Florence in 1938. His artistic career began in 1963, inspired by the Tuscan landscape filtered through the Post-Impressionist and Macchiaioli traditions. He has been invited to participate in numerous exhibitions, and his works are included in private collections both nationally and internationally. Curandai has also withdrawn physically, working and living primarily in a country house in the Valdarno.

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