Piazza San Marco 1940

Filippo De Pisis painted this oil of Piazza San Marco, and it’s all about touch, the tactile quality of paint. De Pisis lays it on thick, especially when you look closely at the domes, and the tower. You can almost feel the roughness of the brushstrokes, the way the paint catches the light, giving the buildings a real weight and presence. He hasn't tried to hide his process, but revels in it, and the painting is an accumulation of intuitive marks. Look at how he's rendered the crowd in the foreground, these tiny, quick dabs of black and grey, like a flurry of activity. It's as if the painting is constantly in motion. The color palette is really muted, mostly greys and whites with hints of warm color peeking through. There is a touch of Whistler, maybe, in the tonalist approach, but de Pisis has a raw, direct engagement with the materials which is totally unique. It feels like the painting embraces its own imperfections and ambiguities, inviting us to see the world in a fresh and unexpected way.