FNetti

Street Art

The very young artists who created the mural using that work, and who initially wanted to create another one that was not very representative of the artist (even if the project was very appreciable), probably did not realize that they had paid a great tribute to our artist, beyond the quality that we don't want to judge.

“La messe” is the opera Francesco Netti was working on before he died. He was working on it with unspeakable fatigue due to the lung disease he was suffering from. His nephew Giuseppe Protomastro speaks of it with affectionate words in his RICORDI:

“In the morning, as soon as he got up, he would go downstairs to shut himself up in his new studio…to work on the vast canvas pinned with nails in the corner of the second room, and placed two-thirds on the wall and one-third on the other…

A reaper, or rather the one who binds the manna to make the sheaves, and who therefore takes the name of BINDER, is further on, standing, with his leather apron, with the sheaf already made, and is drinking greedily from a tub to dampen the 'drought, to seek refreshment…

It is the only fairly well delineated and almost complete figure.

In that man who drinks, you can read all of Netti's soul, all of his effort, who feels his life failing, and seeks any refreshment. He foresaw his imminent end, and made an effort to anticipate the ideas to be translated on canvas also in writing: on one of the sketches, and specifically on that of the man drinking, it was written, at the top, in pastel "very blue".

But all the efforts, all the energy were wasted against his breathlessness, which forced him to go immediately to the countryside to breathe deeply, and the work was not finished."

How not to love this great artist who has honored art and his land.

In the future, young artists who approach his works must study him with respect and in a deeper way.