Carlo Carrà, Madre e figlia
We are looking at one of the most intense and spiritual works from Carlo Carrà’s mature period. The great Piedmontese painter lived through one of the most exhilarating periods in modern art, initially associating himself with the Futurists, then exploring the Cubist style he had encountered in Paris, and finally forming a partnership with Giorgio de Chirico within the realm of Metaphysical painting. Despite his involvement with various avant-garde movements, from the 1920s onwards he arrived at a new style of painting that sought the primordial essence of things, drawing inspiration from the monumental solemnity of the 14th- and 15th-century masters to translate reality into a timeless myth. At the same time, many artists were seeking a more balanced relationship between intellectual vision and objective reality. This stylistic renewal involved, in part, a rehabilitation of the past: it has been termed a ‘return to order’. Broadly speaking, it was an attempt to renew the connection between humankind and the world, moving beyond hermeticism and avant-garde ideology.
The work tackles a universal and intimate theme: the archetype of motherhood, explored through a silent and poignant dialogue between two women from different generations. On the left, we see the monumental figure of the mother. Her face, with its concise, angular features, evokes the solemnity of ancient sculptures; her gaze is absorbed, directed towards an undefined point beyond the pictorial space. On the right, the daughter reaches out towards her mother’s womb. The little girl tilts her head back and looks up, gazing at her mother’s face in a silent plea for protection and love. The hands of the two figures brush against one another and reach out to each other, sealing an unbreakable and sacred bond. The setting itself, rendered in an abstract manner, seems to share in the scene’s contemplative atmosphere, frozen in a suspended, timeless moment.
Within the exhibition itinerary, this work takes on crucial significance: by rejecting all rhetoric or empty decorativism, Carrà strips the female universe of all social or cultural contingencies. Mother and Daughter can be seen as a celebration of the dignity, resilience and ancestral strength of women, guardians of affection and the continuity of life on the eve of the tragedies of the Second World War.