Tona Scano, Donna in costume, oil on canvas, 1928

Rita Moro

A multifaceted artist within the Sardinian art scene of the 20th century, Tona Scano (Cagliari, 1907–1992) stands out for a body of work that spans drawing, painting, and, above all, the art of printmaking.

Daughter of architect Dionigi Scano, the designer of Cagliari’s former Royal Museum, Tona grew up in a cultured and stimulating environment that nurtured her artistic calling from an early age. Self-taught, she developed a personal style marked by a constant formal exploration and a strong expressive independence.

Among the works in the MAN collection is Donna in costume, an oil on canvas from 1928 that encapsulates the stylistic and cultural tensions of her visual language.

The subject is a female figure wearing the traditional dress of Ollolai, a small town in the Barbagia region. The composition is unusual: the woman, shown in profile but with her gaze turned toward the viewer, breaks with the classical half-length portrait scheme by displaying her crossed legs prominently in the foreground. This detail adds a sense of dynamism to the figure while also creating a rupture with traditional iconography.

The dark, monochromatic background, devoid of spatial references, helps create a suspended, almost dreamlike atmosphere, heightened by the magnetic force of the subject’s gaze. Her kohl-rimmed eyes evoke the female faces of Melkiorre Melis, the artist from Bosa whom Scano regarded as an ideal master. The vivid and vibrant colors of the dress are rendered with great care: the floral patterns on the su zippone and the skirt, the wide-sleeved white blouse, and the distinctive su cappiale lend the figure an ancient solemnity, reinterpreted through a modern sensibility.

The attention to detail, the textured rendering of fabrics, and the use of saturated colors reveal a deep connection to Sardinian iconographic roots, enriched by broader artistic influences.

Tona Scano is a conscious and refined artist, capable of expressing Sardinian identity through a personal and modern reinterpretation of tradition. Through her work, she restores a central and active role to the feminine, where the power of the gaze and the dignity of the pose become key elements in a new narrative.