The Piedigrotta feast 1895

Vincenzo Migliaro made this painting, "The Piedigrotta Feast", with oils on canvas. Oil paint, of course, is typically associated with the fine arts, but it is important to remember that every material has its own kind of history, its own kind of labor attached. The materiality here influences everything: the thick texture of the paint, laid on with verve, gives the image an immediacy, as if we are caught in a moment. We can consider how the artist has built layers of meaning into the painting through his technique. The canvas support—industrially produced, of course—provides a consistent ground for the illusion. The artist would have grounded the surface, perhaps with gesso, priming it to accept the color. And consider too the role of the brush, which has its own properties: the spring of the hairs, and the way that it interacts with the paint. "Fine art" like this is often set apart from the material concerns of craft, but in fact, every artist has to be a craftsperson as well. By appreciating that, we can get closer to the world that Migliaro wanted to conjure.