Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

The Card Game #2
Gaetano Bellei

Bellei as an Italian painter of scenes of regular people living regular lives. He seems to have been especially attracted to faces, and how an individual’s face can reveal personality and tell a story. The artist’s technique and style is highly academic, but where contemporary academic painting gets pretty stale by this point in history, Bellei’s work is quite charming. His paintings are full of joy and life.

Bellei painted a lot of card games between different groups of people—elderly villagers, priests, monks, folks in a pub, etc. For me, this was one of his better versions of the theme. This is also the second of two using this specific group of people. In the first work (seen here: https://tinyurl.com/wcyee23), the game has become intense. The player on the left considers his hand as his friends show worry or concern. The group on the right, displaying zero poker-face, is confident in their cards and wait for the player on the left to accept the inevitable defeat. In the second painting, the player on the left shows his hand and the results are wonderful.

Bellei composes his figures in #2 so that they frame the card table, a flat trapezoid in the dead middle of the work. The card game is the prime mover of the action and mood of the piece. The absolute center is occupied by the winning hand and four glasses of wine—items of pleasure. No money is on the table. This was not a game with high stakes, or any stakes really, except bragging rights. This was a friendly game of cards between old friends. There was no chance of hurt relationships, just bruised egos and good-natured ribbing. The loser may have had to buy the winners a round of drinks, which is why the very happy man in the center is filling four glasses.

Many times with a color scheme like this, the mood is somewhat dank and drab, sometimes dour. But here Bellei uses these colors to indicate the commonness of the figures. They are everyday folks, doing everyday things. If the colors were bright or pure, the painting would look too romanticized and fake. This looks real—a scene one would see in any gin-joint in any town in all the world. The browns and blacks have warm tones and highlights, and the painting is dotted with reds. Yellow provides a final, overall wash to warm it up further. The skin tones are rosy, and the smiles and laughter lighten the mood further. The mood is all joy. There is nothing at all to feel bad about here.

Each figure and face is carefully rendered and arranged so that every gesture and every expression is separate and distinct. They can be read clearly and easily. The woman on the far left is the only figure sitting straight up-and-down. She frames the work and makes sure the viewer’s eyes stay in the work. She directs our gaze to the rest of the group. The next two figures look very similar—same expression, same smile, similar pose, similar clothes, same colors. They literally double the movement rightwards towards the losers. The man on the very right edge counters and almost mirrors the woman on the left. He reflects the viewer’s gaze back into the work. The losing woman is probably my favorite character here. She is the Kermit Drinking Tea meme with an “I told ya so” look on her face.

This is a very charming painting with a lot going on. It has a simple theme and uses simple people. It is jolly and wholesome… and just plain fun to look at.

posted by CBD at 09:30 AM

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