Jug c. 1937

Nicholas Amantea made this watercolor Jug in the style of a technical drawing, mapping the surface in infinite shades of umber. Look how the artist has coaxed out the jug’s form, bit by bit, with the kind of soft, repeated strokes you find in Pointillism. I imagine Amantea carefully observing the interplay of light and shadow on the jug, patiently building up layers of pigment to capture its subtle gradations of tone. The texture, you can almost feel it, like an old ceramic warmed in your hands. The smaller jug floats as if it has just emerged from a dream. There is a quiet poetry in the everyday, I think, and Amantea sees it too. Like Morandi, he elevates the mundane to something worthy of contemplation. Artists borrow ideas across time, and there is a dialogue between them that transcends generations.