Luigi Ghersi - The Virgin

The Annunciation is a popular iconography throughout the history of Western art, as well as Byzantine art. It is recurrent in all historical periods from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The Annunciation is narrated in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Iconographically, there are simple variations featuring only the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and more complex variations depicting the interior of the Madonna's house. The present work is part of a diptych in which the subjects of the announcing angel and the Madonna, juxtaposed with the still life, form a companion piece.

In this work, Ghersi draws inspiration from Renaissance art not only for the thematic choice but also for the interpretative approach. In addition to seeking a perfect naturalistic rendering of the subject, the artist creates a perfectly proportioned and calibrated composition. The expansive volumes and monumentality of the Madonna's figure, as well as the plastic connotation of the still life, denote a revisitation of sixteenth-century painting. The pictorial interpretation, then, deliberately introduces a patina of antiquity, as if the work were a torn fresco bearing the signs of time on its surface. However, everything is given a new, contemporary contextualization, and the composition is developed in a complex, multidimensional space, with a vibrant and dynamic touch.

Luigi Ghersi, Messina 1932-2022. For about fifteen years he divided his time between journalism and art, until finally deciding to devote himself entirely to painting. When he exhibited at the Galleria Due Mondi in Rome (1974), he was almost intimidated by the extraordinary success with the public and critics: he reexamined his own works in relation to the examples of the great masters of the past, retracing ancient, Renaissance, and Baroque traditions. He thus discovered a personal poetics, developed in both painting and sculpture. Among the many important commissions of recent years, it is worth mentioning the vast murals in the Atrium of the Aula Magna of the new Faculty of Science at the University of Messina (1986-1988/'89) and for the Council Chamber of the Municipality of Piana degli Albanesi. In 1991, Ghersi completed Centauromachy, a large bronze bas-relief of Michelangelo-like power (cast in 1992), which he had been working on since 1990 for the new Messina Hospital. In 1993, he completed The Agora for the new Palermo Airport. Between 1995 and 1996, he worked on the renovation and murals of the Chapel of the Patti Hospital (Messina). Among his major works is the bronze sculpture Pegasus, exhibited in June 2003 in the courtyard of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza in Rome for the University of Reggio Calabria. In November 2007, a bronze bas-relief he created for the victims of terrorism was unveiled at the Ciminiere complex in Catania.

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