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Lot Essay
Following the completion of his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Fabio Fabbi travelled to Egypt, where scenes of exotic bazaars and bustling marketplaces inspired a lifelong fascination with the Orient.
Informed by his experience of the Middle East, Fabbi's evocative narratives were almost certainly as much a mixture of fact as fiction, and it is precisely to this intoxicating blend of memory and fantasy that the present lot belongs.
Set within a breezy interior overlooking an idyllic coastline, four sumptuously dressed and turbaned women lounge languidly on cushioned divans. Their richly trimmed and embroidered garments complemented by their lavish gold and pearl jewellery, which catch the light in thick strokes of impasto.
Evidencing his training as a sculptor (a discipline for which, alongside painting, he won several awards as a student in Florence) Fabbi's women are beautifully modelled. The long, sinuous curves of their undulating bodies guide the eye along the painting, and echo the soft lines of the carved arches opening above. To the far right of the composition, a densely patterned rug serves as a makeshift curtain, elevating the painting's sensual appeal by suggesting a second, more private sphere lying just beyond the viewer's reach.
A riot of texture, pattern and colour the present lot is an excellent example of Fabbi's full maturity, and of the evocative Oriental scenes that gained him widespread recognition among his contemporaries.
Informed by his experience of the Middle East, Fabbi's evocative narratives were almost certainly as much a mixture of fact as fiction, and it is precisely to this intoxicating blend of memory and fantasy that the present lot belongs.
Set within a breezy interior overlooking an idyllic coastline, four sumptuously dressed and turbaned women lounge languidly on cushioned divans. Their richly trimmed and embroidered garments complemented by their lavish gold and pearl jewellery, which catch the light in thick strokes of impasto.
Evidencing his training as a sculptor (a discipline for which, alongside painting, he won several awards as a student in Florence) Fabbi's women are beautifully modelled. The long, sinuous curves of their undulating bodies guide the eye along the painting, and echo the soft lines of the carved arches opening above. To the far right of the composition, a densely patterned rug serves as a makeshift curtain, elevating the painting's sensual appeal by suggesting a second, more private sphere lying just beyond the viewer's reach.
A riot of texture, pattern and colour the present lot is an excellent example of Fabbi's full maturity, and of the evocative Oriental scenes that gained him widespread recognition among his contemporaries.