Fabrizio Cotognini, Navi Fantastiche (omaggio a Jurgis Baltrusaitis), 2013, lapis, sanguigna, biacca, colore organico su carta giapponese montata su legno/lapis, sanguigna, biacca, organic colour on japanese paper mounted on wood, cm 190 x 300, Courtesy l'Artista/the Artist e/and Prometeogallery di/of Ida Pisani, Milano/Milan-Lucca

Fabrizio Cotognini is a young artist from the Marches who painstakingly produces his complex works combining drawing, writing, architecture and photography using a working method that is both reminescent od Da Vinci and innovative. 

Every one of his works is a tale, a legend, where each individual element, just like each individual word, holds the metaphorical key of interpretetion of the event represented.

Cotognini draws on the story of ancient art and does so above all by drawing. But alsowith his choice of canvas. Navi Fantastiche (omaggio a Jurgis Baltrusaitis), is a large polyptych whose title contains the name of person to whom this artistic tribute is paid, in other words the name of the lithuanian art critic (1903-1988). whose essay Art sumèrien,art roman, published in 1934,revealed an understanding of the relationship between two art styles separated in time. The artist makes this connection conceptually by putting a Sumerian ship on the central panel of the polyptych. While the ships on the side panels are copies of those painted in the Temptation of St.Antony (1501),Hieronymus Bosch visionary masterpiece.

(L.F.)