More information
Dimensions
55 x 38 cm
Technique
Pencil, watercolors and touches of white
Description
Like a reporter, Lewis in his watercolors photographs reality from multiple points of view, inserting himself into the rhythm of daily life of those who animate the places and transferring it into his paintings. In this case, the Valsecchi watercolor can be compared with a work preserved at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh (inv. D 3605), where the same monument is seen from a different perspective. Here the street takes on a non-secondary role, as the elevations of surrounding houses appear.
Also in the watercolor of Palazzo Butera, a crowd of people condenses on the street and in front of the stores, giving movement to the composition, enriching the monumental vision of the building, which nevertheless ends up prevailing. The large entrance door is embellished with a muqarnas decoration surmounted by a hemisphere and the two-color scheme that characterizes the walls, bringing back all the particularity of the decorative solutions.
