FNetti

The Refectory

Oil on canvas, cm 35x52

Signed on the lower right «FNetti»

Inscription on the back: “This sketch is by the Neapolitan-Sicilian artist of birth [sic!] Augusto Licata, who then had to compose a large painting, entitled Refectory, the newcomer, personally known to me, Bari 20 nov. 1933, XII, The Principal De Palma”.

Bari, Pinacoteca Metropolitana “Corrado Giaquinto”

Initially attributed to Antonio Licata, due to a misleading inscription on the back of the painting, only after the discovery of the autograph Francesco Netti’s signature, the paternity returned to him. According to further investigation, the painting is a free copy of Licata’s Refectory time, a work that appeared in «L’Illustrazione Italiana» of 1885, as an engraving. Although inspired by the group of four boys sitting at the center of the composition of the Licata, Netti employs multiple changes, starting from the attitudes of children and the attention paid to the tables laid, that deliver to the viewer small still life formed by glasses, jugs, plates, napkins. Then, using diagonals, the artist offers a very interesting spatial representation and close to the Edgar Degas’ as seen in The Absinthe (1872).