192 - Cesare Maggi (1881–1961)

Cesare Maggi (1881–1961) Mountain Pasture with a Small Valley (Valle Divedro or the San Domenico di Varzo Mountain Pasture?), 1939–1949 Oil on canvas 83.3 x 95.3 cm Signature: “.C. MAGGI.” on the front Provenance: Banca Popolare di Intra (until 2010); Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Certificates: report by Prof. Piergiorgio Dragone dated August 10, 2021; archive of verified paintings by Cesare Maggi (M/2021/ A-1/PD) Condition. Support: 70% (re-lining) Condition. Surface: 60% (general flattening of brushstrokes following hot re-lining; small areas of paint loss, partially restored; one exposed area on the left) For direct WhatsApp assistance before and during the live auction: +39 346 12 999 80 // Direct assistance via WhatsApp before and during the auction: +39 346 12 999 80 Piergiorgio Dragone dates the painting “to the period between the late 1930s and the early postwar years. During that period, in fact, the artist moved away from subjects and themes that were more rhetorically “heroic” and ideologically “Novecento-style” to focus on more intimate and everyday images; just as he set aside visions of grand and imposing mountain peaks to turn his attention to less conspicuous corners of alpine pastures—though characterized by a quiet, elegiac atmosphere that highlights the intense poetry of nature, finding in these unassuming corners all the charm of a natural landscape imbued with a vast sense of space, yet within a realm of gentle normality. During the same period, we witness a move away from the “flat” brushwork that had characterized the previous decades, toward experimenting with “thicker” brushstrokes in a sort of textural divisionist approach to application, regardless of their chromatic values, resulting in color combinations that might appear chaotic but instead integrate to create a vibrant and highly lively overall effect, capable of rendering the continuous variations in light that actually occur when observing a landscape, as the artist aims to capture every effect, moment by moment. In other words, we are faced with a spatially airy and remarkably evocative work, which reveals itself as we observe it more closely, almost gradually uncovering its secrets and hidden elements of charm, as we come to realize —beneath and behind the apparent banality of its “normality”—the intense sense of a living nature, with all its vitality, which makes us feel the lushness of the spring grass covering the slopes and little valleys, bringing to life the contours of the terrain and the boulders that characterize that particular alpine pasture, with its huts perched on the highest crags. The bird’s-eye view, adopted and constructed by the painter, accentuates the spatial effect of the steep mass on the right, enhanced by the optical perspective of the small valley, which then finds a broader outlet that stretches toward infinity—as tangible as it is mysteriously suggested and dreamlike. A pure elegy to nature in its natural state.” The subject of the painting is, in all likelihood, the Divedro Valley or the mountain pasture of San Domenico di Varzo, near Verbania. The conservation issues affecting the painting—briefly noted in the catalog entry and resulting from an ill-advised restoration—were first identified by Antonio D’Amico (communication dated May 24, 2021) and examined in greater detail by Piergiorgio Dragone in the entry dedicated to the work. The work has been included in the archive of verified paintings by Cesare Maggi maintained by Prof. Dragone, under the reference M/2021/A-1/PD. We thank Antonio D’Amico and Piergiorgio Dragone for their invaluable support in cataloging the work.