Costantino Proietto - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - 2012

 

Costantino Proietto - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

In July 2011, I published my first article regarding the Italian artist Costantino Proietto (1910-1979). Other than the signature “C.Proietto” on our own original oil painting, I then knew nothing about this modern Italian impressionist. At that time, I published pictures of our Amalfi Coast painting, asking other owners of C.Proietto paintings to share them with our world and me. Soon, several individuals in the U.S. came forward with photographs of their own treasured C.Proietto masterpieces. U.S. soldiers stationed near Stuttgart, Germany purchased each of those initial paintings there.

Some people would write and promise to send pictures, but never deliver. One man sent stories about his family’s close relationship to Costantino Proietto, who they called “Uncle Tino”. There was a story about a dark painting designed not to hurt the eyes of a young measles patient. At the Sistine Chapel in Rome, using real gold leaf, Tino had painted an image of the Madonna. I had only one unconfirmed photographic image of a balding man in his mid to late sixties. If that picture was of Costantino Proietto, I could not prove it. Now, I believe it to be a later image of the man.

In March 2012, I received letters from two relatives of Costantino Proietto, each of whom knew the artist in life. With their stories, Larry LoCastro, second cousin, and Nunzio LoCastro, first cousin of Costantino Proietto brought life to the artist and the man. Within the LoCastro family in New Jersey, there are almost a dozen signed original oil paintings attributed to the artist. Although there are too many new paintings to show them all here, I will post the remaining works in later articles.

Nunzio LoCastro is now eighty-five years old. In 1951, U.S. Army service took him to Germany for two years. Before shipping out, his father told Nunzio to look up a cousin who lived in Germany. That cousin, an Italian emigrant to Stuttgart, Germany was the forty-one year old Costantino Proietto. Having settled in Stuttgart near the beginning of World War II, C.Proietto quickly established himself there. By the early 1950s, he painted at his own atelier/studio, located at the fashionable address, Stuttgart-S. Danneckerstraße 34.

Through the wonders of Google Street View, we can see that building as it looks like today. According to one person who photographed it, in 1899 architect Gottlob Schäufelin finished the mehrfamilienhaus (multifamily property), which later housed C.Proietto’s studio. In describing the studio, Nunzio LoCastro told me that it was had one large room with many windows. According to Nunzio LoCastro, Tino painted on the first floor of that building.

According to Nunzio, Tino lived with his common law wife Gisela at Stuttgart-S. Hohenheimer Straße 62. There we see a four-story apartment building, which dates to the prewar era. Again, with the aid of Google Maps, we can see that his home and studio were only two hundred thirty meters apart. Every day, Tino would rise early, have a cup of black coffee and then walk to his studio. There, he would paint until noon and then return home for lunch with Gisela. After a leisurely lunch, Tino would don a freshly ironed shirt and return to his studio.

Painting there until the sunlight failed, Tino would then go out on the town, enjoying whatever nightlife postwar Stuttgart had to offer. During his evening activities, Gisela was at home. By then, Tino had come to expect a spotless house and two freshly washed and ironed shirts each day. Since he often worked seven days a week, I imagine Gisela at their apartment boiling, washing and ironing shirts well into the night. Although many artists wear a smock, Costantino created his masterpieces while wearing a dress shirt. After work he was still impeccably dressed for a night on the town. With his signature palette knife work, C.Proietto brought elegance, skill and exactitude to his work. For him, creating modern impressionist masterworks in a dirty shirt was unacceptable.

The business card of Costantino Proietto, as displayed on this page, tells us how the man saw himself. On the card, “Costantino Proietto” appears in bold script. The top two entries on his list are in English. First is “Oil Paintings”, followed by “Specialist in spaddle work”. Next, in his native Italian, is “Artista pittore”, meaning “painter of pictures”. In a nod to the French, he follows with “Artist peintre”. Finally, for his host country, Germany he lists “Kunstmaler”, meaning artist, painter or “production painter”.

In less than one year, Costantino Proietto and his works have gone from obscurity to fame. Soon, I expect him to be among the most collectable of twentieth century painters. We can now confirm Randazzo, Sicily 1910 as his place and year of birth. We know that at age fourteen he began an eighteen year unpaid apprenticeship to a master Italian artist and art restorer. In his early thirties, C.Proietto immigrated to France, and then to Switzerland. By 1942, he had settled for good in Stuttgart, Germany. By 1951, he had a studio and a nearby apartment home. According to his cousin Nunzio LoCastro, every day, Tino Proietto lived the good life, traveling, photographing and painting exquisite pictures of scenes that people loved. Any observer of an original painting by C.Proietto can see and feel his joy in life shine through.

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By James McGillis at 10:58 AM | Fine Art | Comments (0) | Link

First-Hand Stories About the Artist - Costantino Proietto - 2012

 

Two Family Members Offer First-Hand Stories About the Artist - Costantino Proietto

As some readers may know, I have been trying to solve the mystery of exactly whom the Italian artist Costantino Proietto actually was. Recently, the artist's first cousin Nunzio LoCastro  and his nephew, Larry LoCastro, both of New Jersey contacted me. Here are their combined stories of the artist C.Proietto, which I have edited for clarity.
 
Nunzio LoCastro – Cousin of the artist Costantino Proietto:
 
“Although I grew up in New Jersey and Costantino Proietto grew up in Italy, we were first cousins. While in the Army, I was stationed in Germany from 1951 - 1953. While there, I was fortunate to travel to Stuttgart, Germany where Tino, as we called him, lived and painted for many years. First, let me tell you a bit about his life.
 
I know that his birthday will be a surprise, but his birth year was 1910, not 1900, as previously believed. I know, because I was twenty-six in 1951 and Tino was forty-one when we met. It is time to rewrite history, only this time it will be correct. In 1979, skin cancer was the cause of his death. In his early days, the oil paints had a very high lead content. When I met him in the 1950s, he had a sore on one finger that sometimes bled and would not heal properly.
 
Costantino Proietto's father died when he was very young. In Randazzo, Sicily, Tino was soon was on the streets, smoking cigarettes and looking like he was up to no good. At age fourteen, a renowned professor of art came to the town, having received a commission to repaint and repair the artwork in one of the local Catholic churches. When asked who would be best to help the professor with his art, everyone in town pointed to Tino and said, "For his sake and ours, please take this kid off our streets". For the next eighteen years, Tino was apprenticed to the master artist and teacher. During that time, he received room and board, but no wages or compensation for his work.
 
During his apprenticeship, Tino learned the new technique of applying paint with a palette knife. As he developed in his career, he never used brushes again. By using the palette knife, he was able to add layering and texture to his work. He then added detail, through the addition or removal of paint material. His technique added depth, warmth and perspective to his paintings.
 
In the 1930s, with the approach of World War II, Tino emigrated from Italy to Switzerland, France and later to Stuttgart, Germany. At one time, he worked on a street corner, hand painting men's neckties on the spot. When he settled in Germany, he continued to paint scenes of Italy and Switzerland. In later years, he would photograph many scenes and then go to his studio to recreate the scene. In Germany, he was famous for his landscapes of Lake Como, Venice, San Remo and the Capuchin Convent on the Amalfi Coast. In addition, he was an accomplished portrait painter.
 
Again working from photographs, Tino once created a stunning portrait of Adolf Hitler. His likeness of der Fuehrer was so lifelike that the Mayor of Stuttgart had it sent to Berlin. Although Tino received no money for the painting, he likewise had not trouble being an Italian immigrant, living in Germany throughout World War II.
 
In 1952, when I married my wife, Doris in Vaihingen, near Stuttgart, Tino was my best man.  So that you know, Tino was a devoted and loving husband. His common law wife Gisela was German, and they were together for the rest of his life. The had a great relationship. He spoke perfect German and she spoke perfect Italian. Communications were never a problem. When Tino died, he left two condos in San Remo and all of his worldly possessions to Gisela.
 
After decades of training, painting came naturally to Tino. Although he was a great portrait painter, in his later years he preferred to paint landscapes. He was an energetic man and did not wish to spend the time required to paint portraits. Throughout his career, Tino could complete one of his signature landscapes of Italy or Switzerland in only a day or two. At the beginning of each new year, Tino would paint daily, until almost Easter time. Then he would load the paintings into his car and distribute them to various Galleries around Germany. After his Easter break, he would paint until near Christmas time and then distribute his paintings again to the galleries. During his career, he produced and sold hundreds, if not thousands of signed C.Proietto original oil paintings.
 
When I met him, he had a wonderful apartment in Stuttgart, with oriental rugs and fashionable furniture. Paintings by other artists graced his walls. On his work days, Tino would walk one or two blocks to his studio. The studio was one big room, with lot of windows. This allowed natural light to inspire his creative processes. When he was working, he would paint all morning, return home for lunch with Gisela, put on a fresh shirt and head back to the studio. When it grew dark, he would stop painting and go out for some personal time in the City.
 
What you cannot see, but perhaps you can feel from his paintings was his enjoyment of life. He was a smoker, although it never affected his health. When he was out on the town, he loved to eat fine foods. He was a great cook and could make a fine meal at home. Although he would drink wine at appropriate social moments, Tino preferred "acqua minerale". Most of all, he had a great laugh, which I remember still. He was always laughing, telling stories over a meal and encouraging others to enjoy themselves. After eighteen years as an unpaid apprentice and having survived the Allied air raids on Stuttgart during the war, Costantino Proietto went on to enjoy every day of his life. He told me that if he "died today", he was happy with his life. He was always happy with life.
 
Although I do not recall the name, a prestigious art dealer in New York City accepted his works for sale. An academy in Berlin recognized him for his contribution to German art in the mid twentieth century. Oh, the stories I could tell you about my cousin Tino… his laughter, his love of the good life and his ability as a great artist. To this day, I have eight of his paintings in my home in New Jersey. I still look at them every day.”
 
Larry LoCastro – Nephew of the artist Costantino Proietto:
 
“Finally, I had the opportunity to talk with my uncle, Joseph Amante. Joseph is also a cousin of Costantino Proietto and visited him in Stuttgart, Germany. Although I have not yet spoken with my Uncle Nunzio LoCastro (see story above), I am providing biographical and family history for you here.
 
I have taken a number of pictures of Joseph's paintings, but have not yet transferred them all to my computer. However, I have attached pictures from my prized possession painting by Uncle Tino. It is a scene which includes the footbridge at Nesso, on Lake Como, in Switzerland. You might also find interesting some close up detail shots from the same painting. Note that in the rowboat a dark haired oarsman rows a blond female passenger in a custom built craft.
 
On a bum-around trip to Europe during my late teens, I had the pleasure seeing Tino paint in his studio. I watched him take dabs of color and apply it to the canvas in what seemed like rapid succession. I did not realize what was happening (being painted) before my eyes until I "saw" the picture come to life. The process and the result were amazing to see.
 
Here is some brief history regarding my family relationship to Costantino Proietto. Starting, I believe in Randazzo on the island of Sicily, Tino's mother was a daughter of Salvatore LoCastro. She had a sister Antonina who was my Uncle Joseph Amante's mother, and a brother Frank LoCastro. Frank was my grandfather. Frank, Salvatore, Nunzio, Vivien, Richard, Margurite, Costantino, and Joseph Amante were all first cousins by their grandfather Salvatore LoCastro.
 
Costantino Proietto was from Sicily and sensed upcoming conscription for the Second World War. In order to continue with his art, he went first to Switzerland and later settled in Stuttgart, Germany. There his brother, Epiphaneo, sister-in-law Brunhilda, and nephew Mario, joined him. Brunhilda survives to this day.
 
Tino found ready customers in the German people, who loved his paintings of Italy. Some of his early work in Switzerland included painting the walls of a church, and restoring Egyptian mummy cases under an art professor. In addition, he painted designs utilized later in the creation of printed fabrics.
 
In the future, I will provide more pictures that I took of C.Proietto paintings, including the backs of the frames, which typically included the name, and location of the painted scene and the "CP" seal over a label of Tino's "business card" information: studied under and places his art was sold.”
 
Author’s note: In the time since I first published this article some new information regarding Costantino Proietto came to me. As I learn more about the life of the artist, I will make corrections to this and to my earlier articles on the subject of Costantino Proietto. If any reader has additional information regarding the artist, his works or biography, please contact me via email. I will be happy to share such information with all. In addition, if you have a signed C.Proietto painting in its original frame, in good condition and for sale, I will pay $400, plus reasonable packing, shipping and insurance costs for each C.Proietto painting.

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By James McGillis at 10:10 PM | Fine Art | Comments (1) | Link

Two New Paintings by Italian Artist Costantino Proietto Surface in the United States - 2012

 

Two New Paintings by Italian Artist Costantino Proietto Surface in the United States

Since July 2011, I have been investigating an ongoing art mystery involving twentieth century modern impressionist master, Costantino Proietto (1910 – 1979). Among the most startling revelations, from the LoCastro family in New Jersey is that I have been spelling the artist’s name incorrectly. Originally, I understood his name to be “Constantino Proietto”, but after verification by two friends of the artist, I shall henceforth call him by his given name, Costantino Proietto.

After spending over seven months coaxing Google to recognize his misspelled name, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for Google to shift their search algorithm back to the proper spelling. In order to assist them, I have changed all my previous mentions of C.Proietto on the internet to the proper spelling of his name.

Many C.Proietto paintings that now reside in the United States originated in Stuttgart, Germany. Stuttgart had been an Allied bombing target during World War II, later becoming a major center for U.S. Military operations in Europe. Today, the 6th Area Support Group (ASG) is located in Stuttgart, providing command, control, communications and Base Operations to Headquarters United States European Command (EUCOM).

Why the Sicilian born artist immigrated to Germany during World War II, we do not yet know. Judging by the number of people and paintings with ties to both C.Proietto and the U.S. Military, it appears that the artist lived in Stuttgart for many years. With the recent discovery of more new pictures, it appears that he painted real life locations. In order to create those scenes, the artist probably made many trips from Germany to Italy and Switzerland. I have one report that he painted within the walls of the Sistine Chapel, at the Vatican.

This morning, when I opened my email, I had more good news. Peter Karns of Severna Park, Maryland provided images of two newly discovered C.Proietto oil paintings. Both works are family treasures, purchased by Peter Karn’s father, who served as an aide to a U.S. Army senior officer in Germany from 1944 to around 1946.

Both Karns family masterpieces appear on this page. One is an impressionist Italian coastal scene, with ethereal Mediterranean light. The other features a Swiss Chalet, with a river to one side and the Alps reaching for the sky in the background. Although I do not know either location, perhaps readers of this article could comment the locale of the two new C.Proietto pictures. (Author's Note, July 2012: The coastal scene is of Capri Marina Piccola. The alpine scene is of Northeastern Italy and the Dolomite Mountains.)

Costantino Proietto’s skill in depicting the sky is unrivaled in modern impressionism. In his Swiss Alps scene, the artist blends the granite of the mountains with the sky above. In the coastal picture, he employs mist or fog to blend light and color between sea and sky. Although these images do a good job of bringing out the artist’s interplay with water and light, viewing the effect in his original works is even grander.

In the near future, we expect to hear from more friends, family and collectors of Costantino Proietto. If any reader has pictures or information regarding the artist, please send an email or click on “Comments” below. Because so many of his works included Italy’s Amalfi Coast, we once called the artist “The Man from Amalfi”. With so many new Costantino Proietto works now surfacing, we may have to add, “The Man from Stuttgart” to his biography.

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By James McGillis at 04:39 PM | Personal Articles | Comments (3) | Link

Artist Costantino Proietto and Others Painted at The Capuchin Convent on The Amalfi Coast - 2011

 

Artist Costantino Proietto and Others Painted at The Capuchin Convent on The Amalfi Coast 

 

On July 4, 2011, I posted an article on this website regarding a relatively unknown twentieth century Italian modern impressionist painter. His name is Signore Costantino Proietto, but he signed his paintings “CProietto”. In our article, we mused about our C Proietto original oil painting and asked anyone else who owned one or had information on C. Proietto or his painting to please contact us and provide an image of his or her artwork.

 

Three days later, Marion Grayson of Belton, Texas sent us the image of the Amalfi Coast painting shown at the top of this article. American relatives of Marion Grayson lived in Italy in the mid-1950s and they purchased her painting while there. Please click on the image for a larger picture of the Marion Grayson painting. When compared to my CProietto original oil painting, the similarities are striking. Although some architectural may differ, both paintings feature a single potted plant beneath the pergolato, with a view to the sea. Each painting, however, shows a different perspective; mine includes a view to the Amalfi Coast, and Ms. Grayson’s looks out to sea. Both feature afternoon sun and clouds rising from the horizon, rather than floating above.

 

During my research, I discovered the name of the place from which Costantino Proietto painted the Amalfitan Coast. In Italian, it is the “Amalfi dal Convento dei Cappuccini”. In English, we call it The Capuchin Convent of Amalfi.  Although no evidence of the fifth century chapel originally built on that site exist today, the foundation of the original monastery dates to 1212 CE. For the following 650 years, various orders of the Catholic Church owned and used the property. In 1882, the interconnected buildings and grounds became the predecessor to the Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel. In 1899, the property experienced a catastrophic landslide, destroying its original cave and some early buildings. Over the next century, reconstruction occurred in many phases, culminating in 2002. Today, the "hotel dei Cappuccini Amalfi" combines enticing luxuries, such as an infinity pool and al fresco dining on the terrace, yet the beauty and tranquility of the original site remain for posterity.

 

Beginning in the 1870s or 1880s, artists of note painted seascapes and landscapes, both from the terrace itself and from locations, below and around the property. Notable among them were Italian artists Giacinto Gigante (1806-1876), Carelli Consalvo (1818-1900) and Hermann David Salomon Corrodi1844-1905). Austrian artist Franz Richard Unterberger (1838-1902) and Danish artist Carl Frederik Aagard (1833-1895) also painted stirring scenes of the monastery and the Mediterranean Sea beyond. Italian photographer Carlo Brogi (1850-1925) captured scenes from the terrace, which appeared on postcards as early as 1904.

 

It was during the mid-twentieth Century that Costantino Proietto stood many times upon the well-worn stonework of the old terrace, painting that classic scene, always from a new perspective.  It is rare in our world to find a place that retains its classic charm over hundreds of years. Destruction and reconstruction in and around classic monuments of the past may leave the monuments themselves in place, but rarely do the surroundings retain their original character. Even since C Proietto’s time, the terrace of the Convento di Amalfi Grand Hotel has changed, yet its columns and pergola echo the 1880 or perhaps the 1580 feeling of that place. Even today, the contemporary coastal scene, oft painted by the masters of old, retains the look and feel of the original place.

 

During our research into original oil paintings by C Proietto, we located or received new and heretofore unpublicized scenes of the Amalfi Coast. One is from Marion Grayson, as mentioned above and another is from the Italian Wannenes Group, and its Art Auctions website. Each clearly shows the unique signature of my favorite Amalfi Coast artist, twentieth century Italian Modern Impressionist, Signore C. Proietto. Although his art becomes better known to the world each week, biographical information regarding CProietto is still scant. If any reader knows more about him, please contact me with the information. Once verified, I will be happy to provide attribution, as requested by the contributor.

 

When I was young, I remember seeing a realistic copy of the sculpture, Michelangelo’s David at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As David spoke to me across the centuries, his magnificent grace and power struck me. Viewing that sculpture at age ten changed what I believed art could be. In that spirit, I am now writing a parallel art mystery story using my superhero comic characters, Moabbey, Coney, Kokopelli and Silver Girl. You will find them at my website, JimMcGillis.com. Join me there for the exciting story, and be sure to tell the kids.

Ciao

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By James McGillis at 12:19 AM | Fine Art | Comments (1) | Link

Costantino Proietto - Twentieth Century Italian Modern Impressionist - 2011

 

 

Costantino Proietto - Twentieth Century Italian Modern Impressionist 

At Casa Carrie, we own a midcentury original oil painting of Italy's Amalfi Coast hanging in my office. Southeast of Napoli and due west of Sorrento, the Amalfi Coast is famous for the play of light between its Mediterranean sun and sea. In the afternoon, the interplay of direct and reflected sunlight makes the Amalfi Coast perfect for a juxtaposition of seascape and landscape.
 

As I looked around our home, I realized that we have three separate pictures of the Amalfi Coast. The one mentioned above is the masterpiece, with its muted gilt frame, deep textures and sublime light. Adjacent to it is a framed print of a similar scene, painted from a different vantage point. The third is a small, sunny oil painting with lots of color and sailboats heeling in an afternoon breeze.
 

With thousands of Amalfi Coast photographs available through Google Images, It was easy to determine that all three of our images are true to their location, including the headlands and coves that make up the Amalfi Coast. From different locations on the same hill, each artist captured a coastal settlement, clinging to a steep hillside in the middle ground. In each, far mountains come down to the sea, ending in a cliff or in a gentler slope, depending on the artist’s perspective.
 

Although each scene is one that I would gladly place myself within, the C Proietto masterpiece is my favorite. At almost thirty-two inches wide by twenty-three inches high, its foreground includes the terrace of a classical villa. On the right is a long bench, with alcoves receding into its mortared structure. Above the stone bench is the azure blue water of the Mediterranean Sea. Dominating the center of the picture, and receding to the left are three great columns, two of which feature slender grapevines. The vines ascend to an arbor, culminating in a leafy crown. Showing a slight nicotinic haze from many years of exposure to cigarette smoke, our masterpiece still shows us gentle gradations of color, from the ocean to the sky. I now turn my head and view a wonderful depiction of both home and coast.
 

For years, neither Carrie nor I could decipher the signature on our masterpiece. Painted across and into the rough texture of the painting, the artist's name looked more like machine characters at the bottom of a bank check. It seemed that the artist did not care if we could read his splotches of black paint. Or, because of his anticipated fame, he expected us to know who he was. Each night, late in his life, Pablo Picasso would sit at the same table in his favorite cantina. When tourists, who knew he might be there stopped in and asked for an autograph, he agreed to do so, but demanded $10,000 in cash for signatures often scrawled on the back of a menu or on his own bill for dinner. Soon tourist seeking an autograph from Picasso, brought sufficient cash with them to obtain their own original Picasso. Something tells me that most of those buyers were not disappointed with their bargain. Pocketing ten or twenty thousand in cash each night satisfied Papa, as well. Perhaps, CProietto expected to be known by his signature alone.
 

One recent morning, Carrie deciphered the signature on our painting. As I awoke that morning, she said to me, "It's, CProietto”, as if I knew what she was talking about. She had been up early, Googling his name and quickly reaching a dead-end at the pay-for-play art database websites. Apparently, they have not yet discovered that data wants to be free. Perhaps they should check with Google for a new business model. With our artist's name now known, I set out to discover (for free) more about this "Man of Amalfi", Signore C. Proietto.
 

According to Google, there are two matches for the Google search, "artist+CProietto". Carlo Giuseppe Proietto is a contemporary Italian pyrographer of note. The other Costantino Proietto was born in Italy in 1900. According to a terse biography accompanying a German eBay listing for one of his paintings, "He was born in Catania, Sicily, studied at the Florence Academy under Professor Fernando Cappuccio. and lived in Italy". He is listed in the auction data bank ‘ADEC artprice’ under ‘Proietto’.” There are no visual images of the artist that are available on the internet, nor do we know his date or place of death. Despite an well documented body of work, CProietto, is not, as of this writing, included in the Wikipedia ‘List of Italian Painters’. Although most fine art catalog websites are available by subscription only, FineArtInfo.com publicly lists three CProietto paintings sold at auction since 2005, plus one that was unsold as of their posting date. Their prices ranged from $100 to $487.
 

While researching images of the Amalfi Coast, I came across a commercially available poster showing the same terrace as our C Proietto original. The biography accompanying that framed print was as follows: “Danish artist Carl Frederik Aagaard (1833 – 1895) was one of the most influential landscape oil painters of Copenhagen’s Golden Age. Aagaard’s work was so revered, that he was asked to paint King Christian IV’s chapel. Initially a student of drawing at the Danish Royal Academy, he was taught by many of the country’s renowned artists, and was strongly influenced by landscape oil painter Peter Kristian Skoovgaard.”
 

Aagaard’s painting includes the same terrace as our masterpiece, but emphasizes a field of view to the left of C Proietto’s. Costantino Proietto was born in 1900, five years after Aagaard’s death, so their paintings of the Amalfi Coast might differ in age by up to one hundred years. When we merge the edge of Aagaard’s image with that of C Proietto, they blend harmoniously. With the addition of Aagaard's view to the pergola, on the left, two separate images morph together in one continuous scene. To support provenance of both his art and the place, Aagaard later painted a perspective back to the terrace, from the far end of the pergola. For the first time we see, from that perspective, the precipice that we only feel in C Proietto's seascape. According to Aagaard's depiction, access to the terrace and pergola requires a walk up a long and arduous path, all the way from sea level to the summit of this "Angel's Landing" location. When I saw Aagaard's precipice for the first time, I felt a touch of vertigo; as if I had just been there.  The well-defined edge of the terrace and the vastness of the Mediterranean Sea heighten the difference in elevation between the terrace and the sea. C Proietto's sublime terrace scene features a landscape view, while Aagaard features landscape view towards his vanishing point.
 

When a master of the nineteenth century and a master of the twentieth century paint the same scene, from the same terrace, it raises as many questions as it answers. Together they answer the question, “Is this place real?” Aagaard's depiction of the place hints, but does not show that the classical villa exists. Left unanswered are questions about C Proietto’s knowledge of Frederik Aagaard and his earlier painting of the same scene. Since each painter includes the columns supporting an arbor above, we know that it is a central feature of the terrace. If one were to review Carl Frederik Aagaard's many variations on the one depicted here, C Proietto's scene varies in ways one would expect over a century of use. C Proietto includes a low fence between the columns. Did someone get too close and step off into the abyss, thus precipitation additional safety measures?. Since the terrace existed for parts of the past two centuries, might it still stand on that rocky precipice today? Before Aagaard or after Proietto, how many others have hiked that switchback path to sublime light and classical delight?
 

The internet image of Aagaard’s Amalfi Coast painting is too small for us to discern more than its overall artistry. On the far left of Aagaard's Amalfi Coast painting, his doorway to infinity tells us that he understood the concept of a vanishing point. Leaving these side mysteries for another day, I did not conduct further research into Aagaard’s other works or the prices that they fetch at auction. Costantino Proietto, on the other hand, we know as a twentieth century artist who combined both modern and impressionistic elements in his Italian seascapes and other water-related scenes.
 

Costantino Proietto created lasting art that graces our home and perhaps many others around the world. The low auction prices that C Proietto oil paintings now command reflect his relatively unknown status, rather than the quality of his work. In my opinion, if he were better known, his paintings would be more highly prized than the $100 - $500 indicated by recent auction prices . Although we do not yet know his date of death, nor do we have a picture of him, we hope that this article will stimulate interest in both the artist and his works. Someone may read this article, walk into his or her study as I did, only to discover that their seascape is a C Proietto original, or maybe a Carl Frederik Aagaard original.
 

In order for the world to appreciate Costantino Proietto as a great Modern Impressionist, we need more information about his art and his life. If any reader has additional images or biographical information to share, we would be happy to post it here. If you have knowledge that will help solve an ongoing twentieth century art mystery, please leave a comment at the bottom of this article or send your images via email. All information posted will include proper attribution, in accordance with the provider’s wishes.
 

Ciao

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By James McGillis at 01:01 AM | Fine Art | Comments (6) | Link