Gnoli felt his work reflected the times in which he was living. In 1966 he wrote: "It seems that the experience of those who wanted to interpret, deform, decompose, and recreate has come to an end, and reality is presented undaunted and intact. The common object, isolated as it is from its usual context, appears as the most disquieting testimony to our solitude." (repro. in Italian Art in the 20th Century, London 1987, p. 435). His beautifully-observed, quasi-photographic style draws the viewer into his subjects. These meticulous studies of commonplace objects filled the entire canvas, and attempted to reveal their very essence and structure. Works depicting such banal objects as furniture and clothing combined the subject-matter common to Pop Art with the tense lucidity of Magic Realism, and the style and colour of his works is clearly linked to the Metaphysical painting of Morandi.
Gnoli treats his subjects with the utmost sensitivity; he is the arch-illustrator, and "La Casa Vuota" is a prime example of his achievement. Adopting his characteristic, frontal, close-up perspective, he records this simple, empty interior scene, and uses the palest colours with only very slight tonal variations. The pattern of the wall-paper and niche give the work a kind of vertical rhythm, whilst also creating a framework, rather like a grill or metal grate, which holds the design together.