Modern Italian Oil Paint Masks Painting Signed Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto
This wonderful painting is an oil on panel by Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto, titled *Masks*.
The work fully reflects the artist’s characteristic expressionist style and his experience in the world of theatre set design.
The work bears the artist’s handwritten signature in the bottom right-hand corner, written in red with the abbreviated cursive inscription typical of his work: ‘A. U. FABBRETTO’.
The scene is viewed from behind.
The two figures are walking away from the viewer towards an undefined background.
They are two characters in historical or theatrical costumes, reminiscent of period masks or extras. The man on the right wears a wide red cloak edged with gold, short light blue trousers, white stockings and a feathered hat, and is holding a walking stick.
The figure on the left (smaller, perhaps a woman or a child) wears a burgundy gown and a similar hat adorned with a green feather.
The composition plays on a slight, dynamic diagonal, accentuated by the position of their moving feet and the tilt of their bodies, which conveys a sense of movement.
This artwork, never before on the market, comes from an important private collection and is beautified by an impressive antique frame in gilded wood, in almost perfect condition.
Our company has been present on this platform for many years, with more than 100 sales made and just as many excellent reviews received that you can under our Furniture account.
The style is distinctly textural and expressionist. Urbani del Fabbretto applies the colour with rapid, full-bodied and concise strokes (brushstrokes in the manner of ‘alla prima’).
The forms are not defined by sharp outline lines, but emerge directly from the overlapping patches of colour.
The volumes of the clothes and the cloak are rendered through strong chiaroscuro contrasts achieved with rapid, sweeping strokes of pure white for the highlights.
On the shoulders, the feathers on the hats and the stockings and darker shades for the folds of the fabric.
The background is entirely abstract and devoid of any defined architectural or spatial references.
It is rendered with a neutral, blended application in shades of grey, beige and powder blue, isolating the figures and lending the scene a suspended, theatrical atmosphere.
The colour contrast is sharp and vivid.
The vermilion red of the main character’s cloak dominates, balanced by the bright blue of the trousers.
The use of dark burgundy for the second figure creates a point of chromatic transition, whilst touches of golden yellow on the edges of the cloak and on the hats and the acid green of the feather enrich the palette.
The touches of pure white on the feathers and collars act as genuine points of light that draw the eye and give rhythm to the composition.
Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto, born in Trastevere in 1903, as well as the author of famous Roman nativity scenes - to remember the one set up on the staircase of Trinità dei Monti in the 1960s - was a real painter, set designer and costume designer.
The name Del Fabbretto"of the Blacksmith" added to the surname derived from being the son of a blacksmith. He died on September 30, 1974.
Best known as a theatrical set and costume designer, he worked for several years at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. His signature appears on numerous sets and costumes for operas staged between the 1940s and 1960s, including Tosca in 1949 and L’isola degli incanti at the Terme di Caracalla in 1962.
The name of Angelo del Fabbretto is often associated with the representation of carnival and festivities belonging above all to Roman popular culture.
The nativity scene (presepe) made before 1974 and kept in the Museo di Roma in Trastevere belongs to him.
As a skilful set and costume designer, the author, alongside the representation of the Holy Family, created a tranche de vie of nineteenth-century Rome, near the Vicolo del Corallo, near Piazza Navona, where this nativity scene was exhibited for a long time at Christmas.
Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto was therefore also a figurine maker, following in some ways the tradition of Bartolomeo Pinelli’s father, the famous maker of the so-called ‘puppets’ of the traditional Roman nativity scene.
His painting activity, which he carried out in parallel with his theatre work, is little known but very rich.
Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto’s most well-known works are small representations of masks and theatrical scenes, painted with a loose brushstroke and a very personal expressionism, as can be seen in some of his oil paintings from the 1950s, dedicated to Italian Masks.
From the previous decade, animated by an energetic and nervous drawing, by a bright chromatism and by a wavy brushstroke that seems to fully express the artist’s vitality, he also worked as an illustrator.
In 1951, he was among the authors of the images for the Strenna dei romanisti, a collection of Romanesque poems in memory of Trilussa, in which he was responsible for the illustration of Monte Cavallo by Armando Fefè.
As regards his painting production, as mentioned, he is mainly attracted to the story of the theatrical world, the backstage of the show and the work in uniform, an aspect that can be seen in his most significant works, Carabinieri in High Uniform, Instrument and Costumes and Controfigures.
The first painting was presented by Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto at the Venice Biennale in 1942, while the last appeared at the Rome Quadriennale in 1948.
It probably represents Angelo Urbani del Fabbretto’s greatest period of painting, not only because of its brilliant handling of colours, but also and above all because of its suspended and allegorical atmosphere: the painter is painting himself while he is finishing the colours of a mannequin, a theatrical stand-in.
This expressionism veiled in almost metaphysical sensations also includes Instrument and Costumes, in which Harlequin’s attributes – the coloured rhombus suit, the black mask and the mandolin – recall an absent character, a moment of pause from the stage, where the costumes seem to take on a life of their own, independently of the actor who is supposed to be wearing them.
This artwork, never before on the market, comes from an important private collection and is beautified by an impressive antique frame in gilded wood, in almost perfect condition.
Our company has been present on this platform for many years, with more than 100 sales made and just as many excellent reviews received that you can under our Furniture account.
Dimensions are frame included
Under existing legislation, any artwork created over 70 years ago by an artist who has died can requires a license for export regardless of the work’s market price. The shipping may require additional handling days to require the license according to the destination of the artwork.
