Oscar Ghiglia (Leghorn 1876 - Florence 1945) BOWL WITH PLASTER HEAD AND SHELL oil on canvas, 59x54 cm BOWL WITH PLASTER HEAD AND SHELL oil on canvas, 59x54 cm Bibliography L. Ghiglia and S. Zampieri (eds.), Oscar Ghiglia. General catalogue. Paintings, Cinisello Balsamo 2022, p.440, n.790 The hypnotic beauty of Oscar Ghiglia's painting presented in the catalogue is a beauty in which the "object" becomes the absolute protagonist of the representation, investigated with such emotional and structural lucidity as to instil a sort of reverential awe. Forced by the artist into a close, unmediated vision, still life immediately ceases to be a composition to assume the sacred and seraphic aura of an eternal idol. Thus, enchanted, we admire the orange of the citrus fruits almost suspended in the reflections of the cobalt glass. Full and deep colour in the shell, which in the 'unfinished' allows us to investigate and prefigure the power of revelation, savouring it as motionless as the plaster statue in the background. Datable to the mid-1930s -slightly later than the similar Still Life with Copper Basin-, the painting presented in Pandolfini's auction is ready to lead you through Oscar Ghiglia's calibrated research, welcoming the viewer among the objects silhouetted against the essential sumptuousness of the amaranth drapery.