In the Boudoir

The painting
This work dates from a later period than Art Nouveau, yet it may be seen to fit this artistic phase perfectly in both iconographic and stylistic terms. Giovanni Alicò was born in Sicily in the early 20th century, into a milieu steeped in Art Nouveau culture. His cultural background no doubt influenced his early works (including this pastel drawing), prior to his embrace of the Futurist avant-garde. This sensuous portrait strongly reflects the spirit of Rococo “boudoir painting” first developed in France in the mid-18th century. The concept was further developed through European Symbolism and the notion of the “Femme Fatale”: woman as a symbol for the greatest glory, as personified by the Virgin Mary, but also a medium to the gloomiest damnation, represented by the image of the progenitor Eve. Giovanni Alicò’s nude fully draws upon this mysterious and suggestive 18th-century taste, while adapting it to a style closer to his own times and inevitably influenced by the rear-view nudes in Giulio Aristide Sartorio’s large allegorical compositions.