San Giovanni 2018

Roberto Ferri made this painting, San Giovanni, with careful application and a muted palette. I imagine Ferri standing before the canvas, his mind a whirl of art history as he paints. The artist's work looks at the old masters and Caravaggio. He is thinking about the interplay of light and shadow, the weight of tradition. The saint sits, melancholic, and holds a long cross, almost as if he's leaning on it for support. See how the shadows wrap around his torso? It's like Ferri is feeling his way through the chiaroscuro, trying to find the right balance, the perfect contrast to make this figure feel both real and ethereal. You can see other Italian artists like Guido Reni in the hyperrealism, the high definition of everything. Painting is like having a conversation across time. Artists are constantly responding to what came before, building on it, pushing back against it. Each brushstroke is a small gesture, a whisper in a long and ongoing dialogue.