Le Matelot

In a personal show of 1927, Savinio exhibited a painting entitled Le Matelot (the sailor), which is presumably this work. Though it is generally assigned to 1928, Pia Vivarelli concluded that it should be backdated by one year given the likelihood of it being the same work as the one in the exhibition catalogue. Subsequently, in 1963, the painting was titled Scrittura marina. Within the open space of a powerful stone cornice is a stormy sea surmounted by a tempestuous black sky. In the foreground is the profile of a man’s face. His eyes are half-closed and he is separated by a barometer from an open book on which several words are inscribed. Both the hand (according to a prototype of De Chirico) and the book are rendered in dull black. Although they appear to allude to the mariner who must mark the route, they are part of what is probably a metaphor or allegory of the writer, thinker and artist, whose half-closed eyes symbolize his clairvoyance in the stormy crossing of earthly matters. The signature “Savinio” is written in red, in the lower right-hand corner.