Maternità con le uova 1958

Felice Casorati made 'Maternità con le uova' with paint, and a clear love for geometric form. Look at the table, how it tilts up towards us, but feels stable somehow. There's this tension between flatness and depth that makes the whole thing feel kind of dreamlike, almost like stage scenery. The colours are muted and chalky. The paint application is smooth, with clear outlines around the figures. It's as though Casorati is searching for an essence of form. See the shadow on the wall behind the mother and child? The way it suggests a third dimension but flattens everything at the same time. Casorati's figures are often like mannequins, but in this one, the eggs bring an element of organic life. There’s something both tender and unsettling in the way Casorati frames the scene, a balance between the serenity of motherhood and a more rigid formality. You could see Giorgio de Chirico as a reference, and his influence in the clean lines of the subjects. It's a quiet piece that leaves you with more questions than answers, and maybe that’s the point.