Domenico Gnoli was born into an intellectual family passionate about the arts (his father was an art historian, his mother a ceramicist), and after a promising artistic start in Rome, he moved to Paris in 1954 to pursue a career in theatrical scenography. Sous la chaussure (1967) exemplifies Gnoli’s mature style, characterised by a hallucinating, obsessive, meticulously observed hyperrealism influenced by Renaissance masters and metaphysical painting. Shoes are a recurring subject for the artist, who was fascinated by details like hair, buttons, cuffs, and collars, and by simple objects’ parts made uncanny through exaggerated enlargement. In this painting, the light background’s progressively thinner and closer horizontal stripes, seemingly suggesting a traditional perspective, contrast with the sinuous shapes of the polished black shoe and its stitching. The apparently laconic title Sous la chaussure (Under the shoe) – shedding light on what is usually invisible – also lends a melancholic feel to the painting, referencing the Italian phrase “avere il morale sotto le scarpe” (to feel down).
—Antonella Camarda
