Vaseros Fabbri by Mataro da Vergato is a reflection on the body as a subject and an artistic style. The poses of the male and female figures design the blue and white decorations, typical of Faenza, which can be found on the Fabbri jar. The spectacular physical exercises of the acrobatic performers and the choreographic positions of the ballerina from La Scala, stylised in the graphic architecture of the bodies, are converted into decorative patterns. The choreographic theatricality of the poses is a skill that the artist learned during his past as a ballet dancer and theatre actor.
In Vaseros Fabbri not only is the identity of the subject lost, but also the relationship between the figures and the background, as Gestalt teaches, tricks our eyes. This is a trompe l’oeil work, or more precisely a trompe-l’esprit, with this intentionally sought-after effect. Mataro starts with a digital photograph which he then modifies using a computer. His digital painting work began at the beginning of the 1990s, much ahead of its time, and aims to represent reality by means of a completely contemporary technical and creative process.
The works are created using different bases, and in our case it could be a large light box, although they all share an ambiguous fluctuation between what is visible and what is invisible. Vaseros Fabbri is the title of this work, supporting this interpretation, and it opens a gap in the mirror, which Alice was able to go through. If we look carefully we not only notice the bodies which make up the decorative pattern, but the material nature of the pleasure of tasting Fabbri’s mouth-watering fruit.