FNetti

Sister Mariannina at the piano, 1861

Oil on canvas, cm 63x50,3

Santèramo in Colle, private collection

The protagonist is Netti’s sister, Mariannina, playing the piano, as Giuseppe Protomastro writes. The date of execution, fixed at 1861, also coincides with the age of the young woman, born in 1843 who is 18 years at the time of the painting. The comparison with the painting Portrait of his brother Antonio is spontaneous: there are dimensional differences, but also Netti’s intentions are different. In the first, you recognize an important psychological study, individual, with the protagonist who with his gaze can pierce the canvas and communicate with the observer. The image of his sister is only used by Netti to create the portrait par excellence of the girl belonging to the 19th century bourgeoisie. It can be considered the first of a series of portraits that have women as protagonists, fully integrated into nineteenth-society. It seems here mentioned a theme dear to Netti, the window, developed also in subsequent works.

The window is not present in the observer’s field of view, however Netti illuminates the young woman’s cheek and plays with round light brushstrokes on the soft fabrics of the dress, as if to make the light come from an opening in the left corner of the room.