Stella and Piero is the title of the newest artwork to enter the collection at the Gallery of Modern Art, in Palazzo Pitti, painted in 1889 by portraitist Vittorio Matteo Corcos. The work depicts two youths in a moment of relaxation, the girl weaving a straw hat while the boy reclines carefree behind her, a subject and a style typical in paintings by Corcos, who was known to have a keen interest in the industrious spirit of women. Stella looks at the observer straight on, her timid wistfulness unlike the guile found in many of Corcos’ other portraits of high-society women, while Piero teases her with loose pieces of straw.
Stella and Piero by Vittorio Matteo Corcos
Press photo provided by the Uffizi Galleries
“The museum’s holdings continue to grow,” said Eike Schmidt, director of the Uffizi Galleries, “not only through donations […] but also through prudent acquisitions that complete the collections with works that offer new perspectives on the history of art and the history of the 19th and 20th centuries. The newly-purchased portrait attests to aspects of life and work in that period that have perhaps been for forgotten, and it makes us reflect on a kind of typically Tuscan craftsmanship, the art of woven straw, which should be preserved as our intangible heritage.”
