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Through this compelling work, the exhibition introduces us to one of the most free-spirited and tormented figures of early 20th-century Italy: Leonardo Dudreville. Born in Venice in the late 19th century, he perfectly embodies the story of the avant-garde artist in perpetual search, unable to conform to dogmatic formulas or political compromises. His life was a succession of feverish stylistic shifts: Dudreville began with naturalistic and Divisionist influences before briefly dabbling in Futurism.

The work on display here was first exhibited at the 1919 National Futurist Exhibition (where Gabriele D’Annunzio also had the opportunity to admire it), and belongs to this crucial period of experimentation, preceding the stylistic shift that would lead the artist, in the 1920s, to a radical ‘conversion to reality’ and to his temporary affiliation with Margherita Sarfatti’s Novecento group.

In this unique canvas, Dudreville tackles the theme of the female nude as an explosion of psychophysical energy, translating into paint the dizzying sensation of desire, eroticism and the abandonment of the senses. The painting’s disruptive power lies in its transcendence of all rigid anatomical boundaries. The woman’s naked body appears almost fused and engulfed in a vortex of chromatic waves, curved lines and streams of light that evoke his early Divisionist influences and his explorations of dynamic decomposition. Her long, blonde hair cascades down to the right like a liquid, golden waterfall. Her torso and breasts emerge with statuesque sensuality, yet lose all classical stillness: the flesh and the surrounding environment become a single vibrant substance, aimed at visualising not an objective body, but a state of mind or the profound perception of romantic passion. Senso provides a perfect counterpoint to the bourgeois icons and traditional nudes of the nineteenth century, with a unique, avant-garde form that embodies all the values of movement and the swirling of bodies that Futurism succeeded in capturing in painting. Whilst Grosso introduced a powerful femininity through the sophisticated provocation of modern accessories, Dudreville bears witness to the decisive step towards the contemporary: the female nude is liberated from salon conventions and transformed into a pure expression of the avant-garde.