Canale Burlamacca

74. Canale Burlamacca , 1954, oil on canvas, cm 50 x 70

This horizontal work captures a classic view of the Burlamacca Canal from the 1950s: a large two-masted vessel moored at the dock. The large brown sailboat is depicted three-quarters of its length from the other bank of the canal and dominates the left half of the painting at the center. Its bow faces to the right, and its two masts and taut shrouds are clearly visible. Next to its bow, moored at the same dock, is a small blue boat facing the opposite direction. In the background, beyond the dock that bisects the painting, stands a group of houses of varying heights and colors. The lower half of the canvas is entirely dedicated to the canal water. As if in a mirror, the liquid surface reflects the shapes and colors of the boats and buildings, creating a captivating symmetrical composition. Here Catarsini uses dark color like a pencil: the roofs, doors, windows, and hull of the boat are outlined by bold black contours, which define the volumes with extreme precision.

INSIGHTS

In this work, Catarsini seems to use the reflection of the elements on the water to create a pronounced two-dimensional flattening effect in the lower half of the painting, almost as if to soften the greater solidity of the volumes in the upper section.

And in the blue water of this canal, which reflects his hometown of Viareggio, he seems to rediscover the same pleasure in painting—in his own words—that “orgy of cadmium yellows mixed with scarlet vermilion” of his youth, which sink into the mirrored waters of the dock, now less ignited by his romantic temperament and more marked by the search for a balance between reason (graphic structure) and sentiment (emotional value of color).