Natura morta

Morandi painted Natura morta ('Still Life') in 1956, the year of a large exhibition of his works in Winterthur in Switzerland that prompted a rare - possibly a first - visit abroad for Morandi. 1956 was more importantly the year that Morandi retired from his position as professor of etching at Bologna's Accademia di Belle Arti, which gave more time to dedicate himself to his art. Natura morta forms part of a small series of works Morandi painted showing the same group of objects in varying positions and from various angles. As a group, it seems that Morandi painted each at a different time of day, allowing the shadows and light to change gradually. This in itself is rare in still-lifes of the period, where Morandi deliberately avoided any clues as to time passing - he usually shunned references to time altogether, painting dusty bottles and silk flowers, removing any possibility of change or decay in his objects. Here, though, his reprise of the same objects expressly reveals the passing of time, the lengthening of the shadow. The bold intensity of the shadow itself is unlike Morandi, who had special curtains in his room to omit any extreme considerations of light, creating instead a diffused glow. Here, however, the objects act as a kind of sundial, casting a heavy, dark shadow that tells of a low sun.