Emilio Larocca Conte - Lucanian Girl

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to convey their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation. Emilio Larocca's work typically features subjects in which portraiture is combined with a realist and folkloristic interest in common people and peasants.

The portrait reflects the more veristic tendencies in Emilio La Rocca's artistic production. Even the subject itself reveals an interest in the lower classes of society, a playful portrayal of a common figure. However, in Larocca's verism, we can discern a certain element of idealization in the desire to create a folkloristic representation, lively and rich in curious and interesting details. Hence, a certain didactic nature in the work's conception, discernible in the studied pose and in the details of the clothing and accessories, which, however, in no way diminishes the popular vitality of Larocca's portraits. This is largely thanks to the artist's characteristic application of color, which rests on a rapid, cursive brushstroke, typical of the cultural context of realism-verism.

Emilio Larocca was born in Trecchina in 1932 and passed away in 2017. In Lauria, he learned the art of fresco painting and portraiture from the master Lanziani. A figurative painter with eighty solo and group exhibitions under his belt, Larocca worked for several years in Naples. He received important awards, including the Puglia International Prize for Sacred Frescoes and the Grand Prix International d'Art Contemporaine in Venice. A painter of landscapes and large-scale altarpieces, over a fifty-year career, Larocca became a member of several academies. His paintings are held in public and private collections in Italy, as well as in the Vatican, Spain, and the Americas.

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