Vito Lombardi - Country Road

We're faced with what we might call an urban portrait. The artist chooses to meticulously capture, with almost lenticular detail, a corner of Rome—specifically, a section of Via del Tritone, today better known as Largo Chigi.

This is a limited-edition graphic design. This means the work is based on a matrix that allows for multiple reproductions of the same subject. There are various types of graphic design, including woodcut (probably one of the oldest and most familiar), aquatint and etching (which are complementary techniques), silkscreen, and many others, such as lithography. All these techniques are not simple prints, but graphic art created through the direct intervention of the artist's hand. The word lithography derives from the Greek and literally means "writing on stone." The technique exploits the mutual repulsion between aqueous and greasy materials. The artist, on a specially prepared, thick stone (approximately 6–12 cm), begins to trace a design with a greasy pen. This design must mirror the intended representation. As the ink is drawn over the stone, the watery parts of the stone, due to the initial treatment, repel the ink, which settles only on the design. When pressed, the paper absorbs only the ink previously applied to the drawing. Precisely because this technique offers the painter great freedom, it is the closest to a true drawing. Thanks to multiple layers, lithographs can be created in various colors, each color requiring a separate press pass. Typically, each copy produced in this way is called a print run and is numbered in pencil in the lower left corner. The painter signs himself in pencil in the lower right corner.

Once the desired print run has been reached, the matrix is ​​"crossed out", meaning it is disfigured in such a way as to prevent further copies from being placed on the market, other than those desired by the artist.

In this rare case, we don't find a print run number, but based on other works by the same artist, also unsigned and unnumbered, we can confirm that it is a graphic work. Precisely because of the lithography technique used in this case, and even more so because of the lack of numbering, it's difficult to distinguish between a graphite drawing and a lithography. Lombardi's meticulous observation of reality is evident, as he juxtaposes short, regular, linear strokes with areas drawn with almost scribbled speed.

Vito Lombardi was born in 1885 in Bagni di Lucca. He trained at Europe's most renowned academies of fine arts, including Rome, Florence, and Paris. During the First World War, he was drafted as an infantry captain, which, upon his return, led him to atone for his negative experiences in the form of panels depicting painful and tragic episodes etched in his memory. This series, presented in charcoal, ink, and pen drawings, can now be found in the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento in Rome. After the war, the painter settled in Rome and continued to paint views and landscapes, leaving behind notes on the capital's urban transformation. The artist died in his adopted city, Rome, in 1962.

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