VITTORIO MIELE

Ciociaria

Farmstead

Spring

In "Ciociaria" Miele uses very warm colours that give the picture an almost melancholic tone. The image seems to be dominated by a deep atmosphere of sadness, as if he wants to express the nostalgia that he feels when he remembers the landscape of his loved country. There is a sense of separation and it is underlined by the absence of human figures ; the effort to remember is represented by shaded lines. The soft colours reproduce the atmosphere of a dream, they make us feel the heat of the land, but it is made cold and detached by the restlessness conveyed by the dark colours. "Farmstead" doesn’t describe the simple and care-free life of the inhabitants of a village, but a natural landscape whose desolation underlines the fear felt by the painter because of the war and its ravaging effects; there are domestic places without life, as if the painter feels the impossibility for him to come back to his house. The fields and the trees are bare like the heart of the artist. These melancholic features convey the nostalgic and sad feelings of the painter: they portray the autumn of his soul. "Spring" is different from the other two pictures. Its liveliness is expressed by springlike colours and by the harmony of flowers and fields. Its elegance is emphasised by the presence of a woman, who by her gracefulness seems to mingle with the beauty of that uncontaminated landscape. The peace and quietness of this picture represent the serenity of the soul of the painter, free from the anguish of the war. His nostalgia for his land has turned into a sweet dream, in his artistic life he is living a new "spring".

Valentina Bruno II C