Roberto Melli

Roberto Melli was born in Ferrara in March 1885 and died in Rome in 1958. By the early 1940s, Melli had already established a long and remarkable career, which, beginning with youthful experiences in the applied arts, led him to the definitive choice of painting, always accompanied by his work as a critic. Since his involvement with Valori Plastici, his primary interest was the use of the constructive qualities of color, which he employed to depict volumes in a manner influenced by Cézanne. "His choice is precise and instinctive, and from the start, it focuses on color," upon which his "'sense of plasticity' is based," understood as "possible volumetric and mass inflections of the pictorial form," wrote Calvesi in 1954. From these reflections on the relationship between light and color, surfaces emerged whose depth could be "explored, where even the voids play a volumetric role." In the striking contrast between the blue and yellow of the hanging clothes in La Lettura (part of a private collection), one recognizes a bolder juxtaposition than the tonal delicacies Melli usually employed. The scene hints at the painting of family affections, which characterizes much of the artist's production. His wife and daughter are captured in a moment of delicate intimacy, particularly expressed through the girl's posture and the welcoming environment, filled with simple everyday objects such as books, a ball of yarn, and some clothes.