It was another sunny afternoon and a good time to go to the Piazza del Duomo to wander around. I hadn’t known that there was a sidewalk art sale going on. Much of the work was very mediocre, as if the artists were uncertain. I saw the work of a few painters that showed surety, fresh thinking, sophistication and a developed style. And then I saw Nino’s work, and it stopped me.
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In the last year I have seen so much art of the old masters in the great museums and galleries of Italy and France. Portraits, landscapes, abstracts… and still lifes. When I saw the small oil paintings of Nino L’Annunziata, I could have been in the Uffizi or the Louvre. He has a finezza, a fineness, an eye and hand, a sense of color and detail that I don’t often come across in contemporary painters, especially in a casual sidewalk display. Nino has skill, control and certainty that elevate him to “contemporary master”.
We talked for about 45 minutes in an engaged, pleasant chat. We gave each other the classic two-cheek kiss, said goodbye and I walked away with two of his small paintings. When I take them back to Seattle, they will bring to mind a pleasant connection with a fine artist on a sunny, early summer day in Italy. And I will smile.
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