Marina di Celle Ligure

This seascape, dated 1951, is divided into several distinct swathes: the widest is that of a blue sea from which a band of clouds of a lighter blue appears to emerge on the left of the picture, rising diagonally towards the sky and spreading into a fringe on the right.
Above this swathe, in turn, is another made up of the lighter portion of sky, which appears to be free of clouds. In the forefront a bathing establishment faces the sea, set for the most part on the left-hand side of the picture.
The painting is a typical example of the particular form of tonalism practised by Melli, who took over from Morandi the theme of form and colour modified by light as it changes, but who declines the constructive lesson of Cézanne as a search for essential forms that nonetheless play down the theme of the third dimension in favour of a two-dimensionality that is implied rather than explicitly declared.