Antonio Ballero, Paesaggio con alberi, 1890, oil on canvas, MAN Collection

We inaugurate the new monthly space dedicated to the works of the MAN, titled Pills from the Collection, with a focus on a work by Antonio Ballero from 1890.

This choice is not accidental, as the artist will be the protagonist of an ambitious project that the MAN will present to the public at the end of this year, placing him in dialogue with the painter Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and the Divisionist movement.

The oil on canvas, signed at the bottom left ‘A. Ballero 890,’ is, along with two small temperas by Giacinto Satta, the work with the oldest dating in the MAN collection.

It is precisely during these years, at the end of the 19th century, that Antonio Ballero decides to abandon writing – after publishing the two novels Don Zua and Vergini bionde in 1894 – to devote himself to the visual arts.

The work, titled Paesaggio con alberi, represents a transitional moment in his career, marked by the experimentation that Ballero practices also through the study and creation of copies. Although the composition does not achieve the balance and harmony of the masters, it is still an important step in his creative journey. It is, in fact, a study that, while revealing the influence of great traditional models, already detaches itself from what will be the future evolution of his style, steering, for example, toward plein air painting.

Even the brushstroke, although already rich in material thickness, appears in this phase less heavy and more restrained compared to the later developments in which Ballero will use the palette knife, but still reflecting a growth process that would evolve over time.

From a thematic point of view, however, the landscape will remain a constant throughout his entire production.

Rita Moro