Massimo Giannoni performs an audacious, ironic operation with a highly symbolic value in the semiotic dynamics of this painting.
The artist, who usually loves to paint places of isolation grasped in the ontological intimacy of meditation, goes beyond this for Fabbri, to atmospheric-spatial reproduction with a desecrating gesture that he himself does not hesitate to define as “irreverent”, though attributing the insolence to the small jar on the counter; the motif is simple: the place depicted is the old Pharmacy of Roccavaldina, which has now become the Museum of Pharmacy with its over 230 decorated vases from late 16th-century production, all inventoried with great devotion. But in the painting Irreverent Little Jar it is evident that something has been missed by the museum’s strict taxonomy, violating the sacredness of the space with a characteristic flourish: it is the Fabbri vase, perfectly recognisable in its forms and “heraldic” decoration, which poses in the foreground, resulting perfectly consistent with the definition of the place.