Monday, January 21, 2013

Gennaro Villani (Napoli 1885-1948) is an Italian artist of European renown, his paintings are being sold at auctions in Europe at roughly 3,000 Euros apiece (see p.ex. www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/villani_gennaro/artist/29743/) . There is a monograph written about him by Luisa Martinelli in 1986 (to commemorate his 100th anniversary), mentioned in www.italianpainters.net/Italian-Painters/gennaro-villani.html.

I happen to have one of his paintings that is quite unusual. If you look at this picture straight, you see a nice mountainous lake or a river with a bridge, etc. Now, if you move to the right of your computer screen (say, to the edge of it) and look at the picture, you can see a rather stern face of the Spirit of the Mountain, blowing steam out of his left nostril, in apparent displeasure of humans disturbing the pristine tranquility of his beloved mountain.

Actually, you can try and see similar "tricks" in the paintings of Master Villani here: www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/villani_gennaro/artist/29743/

I was able to see a few "double images" there... I wonder if others see them or I am getting paranoid :-)



Another fine picture by the same artist from the collection of Mr. Clark Kent :