(Perugia 1884–1977)
L’ Assunta, 1940, signed and dated; titled, signed and dated on a label on the reverse, tempera on panel, 207 x 153 cm, framed

This work is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity released by the Archivi Gerardo Dottori, Perugia

Provenance:
European Private Collection

Literature:
M. Duranti, Gerardo Dottori Catalogo Generale Ragionato, vol. II, Effe Fazi Fabbri, Milan 2006, no. 501–1450, p. 553

Gerardo Dottori – L’Assunta, 1940
L’Assunta (The Assumption) of 1940 is key to understanding how Gerardo Dottori engaged with sacred painting: monumental, three-dimensional and dynamic.
In an aeropictorial sky, a gigantic Virgin stands, her head adorned with a ‘real’ crown set with stones and her face surrounded by a halo embellished with 7 metal stars.
The angels, unfailingly present in the iconography of the Assumption, are evoked by the transparent wings that crowd the lower part of the composition as if to support the weight of the imposing figure. The Perugian landscape, so dear to the painter, is depicted according to the dictates of Futurist aeropittura, which he himself codified in the Umbrian Manifesto of Aeropittura of 1941.
The monumentality of the figure and the considerable size of the panel make it possible to speculate that the work might be a religious commission, while the acidic, bright, almost fluorescent colours used in contrast, combined with the metallic inserts, give the work an irresistibly Pop aura.
“As the first among futurists, I gave a sky populated and geometrialised by aeroplanes and thus ‘mysticised’ the aerial machine.
Through the moods of aeroplane speeds, I was able to create the earthly landscape by isolating it out of time-space and feeding it with sky so that it could become paradise; thus doing the reverse of the great Umbrian painting of the Renaissance, which religiously dragged much of the sky down to earth.”
Gerardo Dottori, Manifesto umbro dell'aeropittura, 1941

Zitat:
“The marvellous sacred paintings of Gerardo Dottori, the first futurist who renewed Sacred Art with original intensity (...) are the signs of this indispensable renewal of Sacred Art”.

F. T. Marinetti, Manifesto dell’Arte Sacra Futurista in Gazzetta del Popolo, 23 June 1931