oil on canvas, 72×60 cm
signed and dated top left P. Conti 1919
It is Filippo De Pisis, with whom Conti developed an intense correspondence during this period, who gives us one of the best descriptions of this work: “It makes me think of an old engraving of opium smokers, copied by a Verlaine, through the miracle of one of his deserted, opium-fueled nights, who became a painter.”
And, again, it is Conti's extraordinary combinatorial ability that gives the painting its extravagant charm. The idea of the metaphysical mannequin is here, in fact, only a flash, dreamed up in the peace of quiet Tuscan taverns, which reshapes forms and volumes. If anything, the blurring of contours in a sudden lyrical flare recalls a purer avant-garde, in the abstract line from Malevich to Delaimay, which grafts onto the original motif, reinventing it entirely. De Chirico would attempt these radiant exercises in color in the late 1920s, precisely while revisiting similar avant-garde ideas.
