Portrait of Signora Morrocchi

This canvas was chosen to represent the paintings of Antonio Puccinelli in an exhibition dedicated to portraits, held in Florence in 1910. The painting plays with the effects created by chiaroscuro contrasts: fro the woman’s small hands, abandoned on the fur, to the more marked white lace on black fabric. In the clear definition of the volumes, it is possible to note influences from the French school of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, one of the masters most appreciated by Tuscan painters of the period. The artist has also constructed a careful piece of psychological research around his subject, as we can note from the woman’s melancholy expression and intense gaze. She is usually identified as the young wife of the owner of the historic Caffè Michelangelo in via Larga (now via Cavour), where Florentine artists such as Puccinelli would meet up and discuss the renewal of art.