A man lying under a tree is joyfully contemplating the prospect of tasting an Amarena, with a large Fabbri jar beside him. The man is the artist’s grandfather, and is depicted in an open-air landscape, a crystalline version of the theme of déjeuner sur l’herbe. However, this is a real landscape, in the countryside near San Cataldo in Sicily, and the leafy pistachio tree possesses the basic monumental nature of Gustave Courbet’s The Oak of Flagey.
The man is a strong presence, restoring the physical aspect of the human figure, thus creating a distinct contrast with the ideal commercial image. His face is sweet, his eyes are half-closed and his ravenous mouth is captured in the moment just before he tastes the succulent fruit. The photograph introduces a link between the location and the iconic Fabbri jar, brought together in this recollection of a moment suspended in time. The memory of his hometown of Caltanissetta is linked to his memories of childhood, and combined in a single image.
The iconic nature of the Fabbri jar makes it far more than a mere container, but rather a fanciful vessel for holding fragments of memory. It belongs to the everyday life of each one of us, and forms part of the domestic landscape of our memories. Like Proust’s madeleines, the iconic jar brings back flavours and scents of the past to the artist. The clear, bright blue sky also evokes the white and blue decorations of the ceramic jar. The photographer is an admirer of the works of Ferdinando Scianna and Letizia Battaglia, two very different artists who both tell the story of Sicily from a new perspective, both ironic and playful, interpreting the light and colours of the landscape with the language of memory.