Mario Lupo - Via Crucis, the Deposition

The subject depicted here tells us an episode of the Passion, the Deposition from the Cross. The Gospel of John recounts that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus recovered Christ's body from the cross, so that the Redeemer's body could be given a dignified burial. The theme became popular in Byzantine art, later reaching the West, and was widespread by the 10th century. Mario Lupo explored the theme of the Passion of Christ, particularly between 1986 and 1988, and produced several drawings, many of them mixed media on straw paper. The artist recounts, “I've been drawing Christ on the cross for a while. And I don't know how the idea came to me; it just came spontaneously. One day, while I was alone, I started drawing a hand. It looked like it was suffering, and from there came the idea of ​​extending the hand, making the arm, and thus the first Crucifix emerged, which immediately moved me deeply. Then I felt the need to make another, and then another, and then another... I began drawing these Christs on poor paper, straw paper, which gave even more meaning to the suffering expressed by Christ on the cross.” (Taken from Mario Lupo - "I tell life, I tell painting”) It seems appropriate to note the presence of a seagull, a symbol used by Lupo to exemplify man's solitude.

This part of Mario Lupo's work is intense, expressive, imbued with profound feelings that reveal human suffering. While his other works have an almost naive undertone, here a pronounced drama emerges, expressed through a nervous and fragmented drawing line. The drawing is two-dimensional with a total absence of chiaroscuro; the limited depth is achieved through the positioning of the bodies. The colors are intense, yet dark and distressing in their juxtaposition, applied with rapid, thin strokes that do not create solid color fields but rather enhance the dramatic turmoil of the depiction.

Mario Lupo was born in 1926 in Giulianova, in the province of Teramo. As a young man, he moved several times with his family of five siblings, first to Gorizia, then to Pescara, and finally returning to Giulianova after the war. He decided to enlist in the Maritime Finance Police, and at the same time began painting in his spare time, starting with master copies of 19th-century works and later moving on to painting flowers and country houses. For work, he moved to Ancona, where he began to meet various painters, including Fanesi, who encouraged him to pursue his art. It was during this period that he exhibited in his first solo shows in Rome, Milan, San Benedetto del Tronto, and Siena. Perhaps also due to his passion for sailing, he began painting on canvas, a rough canvas used in sailing. He began to develop his own style, primarily depicting seascapes, hillside landscapes, black-and-whites, and religious subjects. In 1964, he painted his first "Woman in Waiting," a subject that would become a constant in his art. A few years later, seagulls also appeared, and the two often began to appear side by side. The artist died in 1992.

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