Media-Untitled

Text by Camilla Trussardi (excerpt)

A famous tribute by the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin is the work that depicts the burial place of the author Ferdinand Keller.
An evident reference that, together with the works of other artists such as Böcklin himself, Bekszynski, Friedrich, can be perceived in the elements that mark the composition of Francesco Galmarini, masterfully conceived and balanced by exploiting the geometric rules of the golden ratio.
A first reference that does not escape the most attentive observer is the bas-relief that towers above the entrance.
A mask that acts as a symbolic guardian watching over the threshold, beyond which one can only imagine what lies hidden.
A key element then recurs in Galmarini’s representations.
The forest of cypresses is embraced in its typical symbolic interpretation, the same one taken up by Böcklin in the Isle of the Dead.
Once again, the hooded figure is emblematically inserted into the scene, acting as a counterpoint to the tree in the foreground, among whose details, rendered with meticulous painterly skill, one cannot help but lose oneself in ecstatic admiration.