Enrico Prampolini

Galleria Fonte d'Abisso Arte, Milan
Private Collection, Switzerland
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1999

Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Enrico Prampolini, 1894-1956, 1961, no. 225
Rome, Istituto Italo-Latino-Americano, E. Prampolini, 1974, no. 52.2
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (& travelling in Canada), Enrico Prampolini: Stage Design and Paintings, 1976, no. 52.13

Executed on brown wove paper. Not laid down and the work is inserted into adhesive corner holders. There are two incisions in the sheet associated with previous mounting, not visible when framed. Overall this work is in very good condition.
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The present work is dated to the beginning of 1942. At this time, Enrico Prampolini had an intense period of activity as a set designer for the most important Italian theatres. The ballet La bella addormentata (Sleeping Beauty) from I Racconti di Charles Perrault (The Tales of Charles Perrault) was staged at the Teatro delle Arti in Rome in May 1942 and was subsequently taken to the Teatro della Pergola in Florence in 1944 and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1945. The present work is the sketch for Il bosco (The wood), Act II, when a hunt takes place in the forest surrounding the castle where the sleeping princess lies. The style of the present work, corresponding to the maturity of the artist, shows Prampolini's total mastery of the visual language of the stage. In this sketch, Prampolini creates depth and space orientation by putting the trunk of a fallen tree at the forefront where it is immediately contradicted by a massive stone. An atmosphere of mystery and threat is materialised in the inclination of three trees in the foreground which look like anthropomorphic arms rising up. The air, portending a storm, treated in black and blue at the top closes the space and emphasises the threat. Below, the colours are those of the red and yellow vivid foliage of Autumn, whereas a blue and green diagonal in the back indicates the path of the princess's castle. The interplay of colours and obliques gives great life to the landscape.