Garden

(1857-1921)
Born in Maiori, the artist trained at Gaetano Capone’s studio and subsequently at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Naples under Domenico Morelli. Alongside Pietro Scoppetta and his master Capone, D’Amato inherited Morelli’s teachings, joining a realist movement that was often oleographic, yet also capable of a psychological analysis of figures conducted with the expertise of a history painter. In this 1919 painting, the artist renewed his visual language following a creative crisis that had suspended his work for nearly twenty years. Moving beyond the conventions of genre painting, the work bears witness to a new period of high pictorial quality, where the rendering of reality reaches decidedly post-impressionist tones.