Vittorio Zecchin

(Murano, 1878 - 1947)

Signed lower right. On the reverse, autographed inscription:

"Do Done in sciale

ricamando de oro

e colori desmentegai 

fixes the stele

in the silence of the shadow

that's the mystery

specia' ne' fulgor

of tigers' eyes

lampai dal color

de la luna

F. Z. 1914"

"The tapestry was derived from this painting, executed in the embroidery workshop founded during the Great War by Zecchin himself under the patronage of Countess Pia di Valmarana Embroidered in 1920 and published in the "Rassegna d'Arte Antica e Moderna" of the same year, the tapestry owes its composition to the painting in question, although simplified in the rendering of details, which in the painting rise to levels of unusual perfection and executive complexity [...]" Extract from the expertise del Prof Giovanni Mariacher, on cart letterhead of the Venetian Civic Museums of Art and History, dated 1972.

"The fact that the painting under study here is dated to 1914 is particularly interesting, since, precisely that year, Zecchin gave birth to what is defined as 'the masterpiece of Venetian Liberty', or the pictorial cycle of the 'Arabian Nights', created for an area of over 30 square meters, divided into over a dozen canvases, on which I wrote an essay in 2017 of which I reproduce below a preparatory study. The two women with a shawl and tiger's eyes, could by style, colors and executive technique made with murrine placed on the canvas like flashes of color and light, in fact be one of the panels that make up the above cycle, even if it is clear that this is a painting in its own right." Retrieved from the expertise ofby Dr. Alessandra Artale, dated 2022.