(Bagheria/Palermo 1912–1987 Rome)
Natura morta con drappo rosso (Sedia bucranio e drappo rosso), 1942, signed and dated 42, oil on canvas, 110 x 80 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of I. Eichmann-Pudelko (1907–1980), Florence
D. Gerosa Collection, Mendrisio
Collection of F. Pellin (1936–2009), Varese
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
IV Premio Bergamo, Palazzo della Ragione, September-October 1942, p. 28 no. 23
Rome, Renato Guttuso, Studio d’Arte Palma , October 1947, exh. cat. no. III.
London, Renato Guttuso-Catherine Yarrow, The Hanover Gallery, 1 June – 1 July 1950
Paris, Cinquante peintres italiens d’aujourd’hui, Galerie la Boétie, 23 May – 23 June 1951, exh. cat. no. 45
Zurich, Junge italienische Kunst, Kunsthaus Zurich, 21 November 1953 –
10 January 1954, exh. cat. p. 16, no. 52
Rome, VIII Quadriennale Nazionale d’Arte, December 1959 – April 1960,
exh. cat. p. 52, no. 23
Ferrara, Rinnovimento dell’arte in Italia dal 1930 al 1945, Casa Romei,
June – September 1960
Bologna, De Chirico-Guttuso-Romiti, Galleria La Loggia, 6–30 June 1962,
exh. cat. no. 3 with ill.
Parma, Renato Guttuso. Mostra Antologica dal 1931 ad oggi, Palazzo della Pilotta,
15 December 1963–31 January 1964, exh. cat. no. 57
Cologne, Renato Guttuso. Gemälde und Handzeichnungen, Kunsthalle,
4 June – 24 July 1977, exh. cat. p. 72, no. 131
Venice, Guttuso. Opere dal 1931 al 1981, Centro di Cultura di Palazzo Grassi,
4 April – 20 June 1982, exh. cat. p. 134, no. 27 with ill.
Genoa, Guttuso a Genova nel nome della Ragione, Villa Croce,
October – November 1985, exh. cat. p. 66, no. 42 with ill.
Milan, Corrente: Il Movimento di Arte e Cultura di Opposizione, 1930 – 1945,
Palazzo Reale, 25 January – 28 April 1985, exh. cat. p. 141, 143, no. 13 with ill.
Tübingen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Renato Guttuso, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf im Ehrenhof, Kunstverein in Hamburg, September 1991 – April 1992,
exh. cat. no. 18 with ill, pp. 106–107
Milan-Rome, Renato Guttuso. Opere della Fondazione Francesco Pellin, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, 27 January – 6 March 2005, Chiostro del Bramante, 16 March –
5 June 2005, exh. cat. pp. 64–65 with ill., p. 274 no. 9

Literature:
G. Marchiori, Guttuso, Edizioni Moneta, Milan 1952, p. 63 with ill;
R. De Grada, Il Movimento di Corrente, Edizioni del Milione, Milan 1952, no. 15 with ill.;
D. Morosini, Renato Guttuso, Cusmano Editore, Rome 1960, p. 8 with ill.;
G. Castelfranco, D. Durbé, La Scuola Romana dal 1930 al 1945, De Luca editore,
Rome 1960, no. 55, no. LVI with ill.;
A. Moravia, F. Grasso, Guttuso, Edizioni Il Punto, Palermo 1962, p. 69 with ill.;
A.M. Brizio, Ottocento Novecento, Utet, Turin 1962, p. 583 with ill.
“Paese Sera”, Rome, 27 December 1963 with ill.;
F. Bellonzi, Pittura Italiana: Il Novecento, Martello, Milan 1963, p. 197 with ill.;
“Comunità”, Milan, January 1964, p. 47 with ill.;
W. Haftmann, Guttuso. Immagini autobiografiche, Toninelli Arte Moderna, Milan-Rome 197, p. 90 with ill.
Renato Guttuso negli scritti di Guttuso, De Micheli, Soby, Russoli, Sciascia…, Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milan 1976, no. 31 with ill.;
Omaggio a Renato Guttuso, Graphis Arte – Toninelli Arte Moderna, Livorno-Milan 1982, p. 29 with ill.;
E. Crispolti, Catalogo ragionato generale dei dipinti di Renato Guttuso, Mondadori e Associati, Milan 1983, vol. I, no. 42/19, p. 119 with ill. and pp. 126-127 with col. Ill.;
C. Brandi, Guttuso, Gruppo Editoriale Fabbri, Milan 1983, no. 34 with ill.;
E. Crispolti, Guttuso nel disegno: Anni Venti / Ottanta, Festa Nazionale de l’Unità, Reggio Emilia, Edizioni Oberon, Rome 1983, p. 57
I Premi Fiuggi 1984, Renato Guttuso: Una vita per la cultura. Arte: pittura, Ente Fiuggi, 1985, pp. 192–193
E. Crispolti, Leggere Guttuso, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan 1987, pp. 72–73,
240 with ill.;
E. Crispolti, Catalogo ragionato generale dei dipinti di Renato Guttuso, Mondadori e Associati, Milan 1989, vol. IV, no. 42/19, p. 94 with ill.

Despite its first impression as a collective arrangement of objects in an interior setting, in this still life Guttuso wishes to dwell on the characteristics of the individual elements that make up the scene. Whilst the basket, the bottles, the empty cigarette packet, the rustic stuffed chair hint at the kind of everyday lived experience typical of Guttuso’s “still lifes” from the early 1940s, the present work also undoubtedly wants to present itself as a symbolic construction. Thus, the red of the large and sumptuous drape, in additional to its role as a dominant chromatic element, also has a specific symbolic significance as an ideological emblem – specifically the red of hope. The books are the same ones that a few years previously had been publicly burnt by the Nazis and the ram’s skull serves as a reference to the historic death of Europe – a witness and participant in the Spanish Civil War. In this way the artist gives life to a rich articulation in which the object takes on a profoundly metaphorical value.