Oltre | Matteo Massagrande

He prepares his panels using the techniques of the old masters, with a ground of gesso and glue, following the advice found in Cennino Cennini’s late 14th-century treatise. He has a deep knowledge of the properties of pigments, studies their reactions and durability over time, and possesses the tricks and secrets of workshop masters. He proceeds through thin glazes and carefully constructs the perspective grid, just as Renaissance masters did, so that the painting might be— as Leon Battista Alberti wrote—“an open window through which the historia can be seen.”

Matteo Massagrande paints thresholds and windows, balconies that open not only onto concrete, visible reality, but also onto “the aleatory dimension of memory, emotions, and revelations that may arise from the most disparate sources: impressions, sensations, readings, and reflections,” as Ivan Quaroni writes in the text accompanying the exhibition he curated at the PUNTO SULL’ARTE gallery in Varese, an institution founded and led by Sofia Macchi, particularly active not only locally but also at an international level.

[Read the article] (only in Italian)