Nicola De Maria | Artists | Gori Collection

Nicola De Maria (Foglianise, 1954 – )

On the top floor of Villa Celle, a rectangular room opens, through two French doors, onto the north-facing terrace, offering views overlooking the greenery of the historic park, the architecture of the chapel, and the farm. The room stands out from the others for its lack of those 19th-century painted ceiling decorations, which characterize the other rooms on the top floor. In fact, only the floor maintains its original condition while the rest of the room was painted white many decades ago. The flood of natural light and the vastness of the empty space to be used undoubtedly influenced the creativity of Nicola De Maria, who took over this room for his 1982 work; the resulting “all-over” composition is particularly suited to the spiritual universe represented by the Turin-born artist, who makes specific reference to Saint Francis’ thought.

De Maria’s first step was to completely paint an old suitcase– with the same bright blues, greens, and oranges used throughout the rest of the space — and place it on the floor, as if the earthly possessions of Saint Francis were abandoned here.

After preparing the first, longer wall, De Maria began to cover it from top to bottom, along with the ceiling, with layers of blue that communicate a particular atmosphere, giving the space an almost palpable breath. He continued his extensive work using two scaffolds on wheels that allowed him to work symmetrically on the walls of the rectangular space. In this blue cosmos, the first form-references related to the prayers of Saint Francis stand out: the moons, here in orange, and some touches of bright green representing the leaves of the woods crossed by the saint. At the same time, De Maria prepares the fourth and final wall, the one pierced by the French doors, where he creates a schematic drawing of the Basilica of Assisi. In the blue universe that unfolds around the observer, the gaze naturally falls on the suitcase on the ground and, a few steps away, on the only other recognizable form: the profile of a church flanked by the doors in direct connection with the woods and the sky.

“[Nicola De Maria is one of the artists who] intervene directly on the walls of their respective rooms as if to continue the work of the anonymous nineteenth centurydecorators, naturally in more dedicated and resolute ways but without betraying a certain feeling of levity. One knows that the 1980s, in correcting the intentions of the 1970s, wanted to recover lost graces, skills of the hand, values of craftsmanship.” Renato Barilli in “A Perfect Harmony between Indoors and Outdoors: Italian Artists at theFattoria di Celle” in Art in Arcadia, ed. Umberto Allemandi & Co., Turin, 1993, p.17.

Works by the artist

The Room of Saint Francis

For more info:

wikipedia.org