Domestic Intimacy
Raffaele Tafuri, oil on canvas, cm 36x55
(Salerno 1857 – Venice 1929)
A prominent figure within the landscape of Italian art between the 19th and 20th centuries, the Salerno-born artist Raffaele Tafuri trained at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples under Stanislao Lista. From 1886 onwards, he frequented Venice, drawing influence from Giacomo Favretto and the raw verismo of Spanish painters such as Martín Rico. His work stands as one of the most significant manifestations of late Naturalism, harmonising Neapolitan figurative culture with the international currents encountered at the Venice Biennales. The celebration of popular life, seen here in this domestic interior scene, is expressed through a narrative that upholds the consoling function of form, whilst opening itself to a renewed sensitivity towards social themes
