It is without a doubt that Pierluigi Di Francesco 's work begins from a meditation on classical metaphysics which is understood as being a moment or a denomination that contains a complex artistic culture as it is made of a grouping of iconographic sructures capable of assuring a reduction of the language in "minimal terms" without of course reducing its expressive complexity and the ability to communicate.
Deprived o fhis ow nparticular face, a man becomes all men and his own particular existence becomes an emblematic case. Power becomes meaningfli in those famous mannequins created by De Chirico, those made to represent, or rather, signify for example Ettore and Andromaca. It is precisely here in this provident lack of characterization that makes them universal beings, more convincingly human, because they are more generically human then men themselves.
At the same time, they are masks which is an indication of humanity so widely developed to the point that it is able to understand itself which turns it into an alien or artifìcial mechanism and confìrms its terrible ambiguity as modern man.
The film '''Biade Runner” for example, is probably one of the most valid and at the same time problematic of the 1980's. In this film, the notion ofman as exclusively coming from human beings and of those who were bornfrom human mothers is discussed which proves to be an act of inexpressible violence as well as in front of the spheres of difference even broader and less circumscribible.
Anthropomorphic forms seem to be the best way of describing them as they are elaborated by Pierluigi Di Francesco because it is a response to his dual need of expressionism. That is, on one side they demonstrate themselves as being able to separate the human element, since it contains the unessential and on the other side since it makes it more ambiguous and problematic because it forces them to react and influence spheres of meaning where they do not seem so clear.
That which comes into play is a robot or a man or a clone defìned by its science-fìction dimension of possibility or as afree actor on the stage of reality. On the other hand, this dichotomy comes into play on the level of meaning, therefore already one of a "message", while on the level of reality, as is evident, there is the representation of the painting itself.
It is precisely here in this painting by Pierluigi Di Francesco that there is something worthwhile reflecting upon, seeing as though the artist presents it with evidence that it is representative art or in other words, as being a highly elaborated language, not indifferent, not interchangeable and not even transparent infront of its subject.
In a certain sense, there is more than just "content” in Pierluigi Di Francesco's work as it seems necessary and correct to concentrate more on the painting themselves. Let's begin then from its language and how this pictorial "word" is articulated.
In this painting the iconographical aspect, the metaphysical aspect or better still the vibration of unreality that characterizes this painting is obtained by the artist in several ways. This is done so completely by pictorial means, thanks to the recurrent use of exaggerated bacliighting which results in being extreme and dramatic as if the bottom of the horizon, a horizon not as much landscape as spatial and perceptive, were aiways reddened by copper tones and a dazzling sunset.
These chromatic reflexions, all through which ionized the pictorial weaving, has its form silhouetted against a darkness that is so dense as to seem metallic. One can notice, for example, the oppressed and paradoxically claustrophobic spatiality despite the apparent presence (that is formally) of a horizon or of something beyond the sky and in some recent paintings, the works look as though they have been fìltered through a slab of cold rock. Examples of this effect are: "Figure with a Boat” or "Hand".
It is ofcourse rare to fìnd in this sort of atmosphere, which can be defìned as being thick and full or tension, a sort of tear, opening or gap. One could say that this happens in "Family" which is a work that dates back to a few years before. In the painting, the presence of the are and, still further, two fìgures which are drawn together as a sort of meditative but explicit homage paid to Giorgio De Chirico. This image reminds us of an idea that is the sign of household architecture that is a house or a habitable piace in a dimension which is essentially less restricted and more liveable. It is in a sort of spatial trap that Pierluigi Di Francesco confìnes his characters which are clearly existential and yet are not necessarily autobiographical. It is not a coincidence, as has already been mentioned, that the fìgures which appear in this painting are all deprived of their individual identities and sent to a more vague indistinct connotation of anthropomorphism.
Some works, though, seem to suggest more incisiveness of the fìgures created with sharper brush-strokes and less description as well as the will to deepen that which does not despise nuances and the changing of tonal register, even without ever coming to delineate a real physiognomy. One can see,for example, in "Friends" where the illogical tangle gains almost a flavour of expressionism.
There is a story that these shapes tell because behind every painting there is always an inspiration, as for example, in one of his recent works such as "Figure with a Red Light". In this work, the apparition or the epiphany of the shape is guaranteed by a powerful and unrealistic beam of a coloured oval light which is silhouetted against the absolute darkness with the precision of a geometrical figure. In the work "Model", the convexity ofthe curvilinear body is underlined by this sort of astral eclipse that is taking piace behind the figure.
In another more recent work, "Shipwreck", Pierluigi Di Francesco lingers in the representation of the horizon where he gives some detaiis, described as naturalistic, as a sort of shipmast with a knotted sail.
It is this crepuscular vision of glares and reflexions where the bright light cuts out a piece ofevidence out of obscurity's embrace, in which the stare sinks everywhere. This is the type of vision, as has been mentioned, that defìnes the limits of what is now typical and inevitable.
One couid say that all of Pierluigi Di Francesco’s works are veered around and are reduced by the effect of the grazing light to the essentiality of brown, orango and red which are embittered every now and then by a touch of green, blue-green and of an opaline colour as it happens for example in such works as in "The Intruder" or "Tired Icarus".
"Tired Icarus" is one of his most mysterious and interesting works which has a double oval shape and which almost always seems to reflect the sign of destiny from one figure to another as in a psychological connotation. It is precisely this sensation of darkness and warmth, in certain points of the work, which at times gives the impression of being incandescent and gives the painting an air of imminence. It seems so impending as if the shapes and actions that appear on the canvas, were taking piace in an empty theatre.
It is the story about the facts of life that is taken out of a contingent and personal context in which they are inevitably submerged. They result in being sufficiently open and comprehensive so as to sound familiar, at least to a certain point, to almost everyone.
Therefore something happens between them in the gloomy light of "The DayAfter" or in the sacred subjects in which, not by chance, because it concerns excellent universally known topics. Pierluigi Di Francesco lingers for example in "Crucifixion” or in the two depostions from the vibrating green light. Pierluigi Di Francesco’s method and natural even his expressive necessity which is emotionally at the source of the work, is always the same.
The artist perceives the necessity to paint in relation to an event or to a precise emotion. He describes these events or sensations by using his typical mannequins, that infact, are always present without exception in everyone of his works.
As a consequence, the painting swallows up the excuse from where it originated from, leaving a due in the title as the only unused residue. As for the rest, his lack of interest for genres or for any other classical style of painting is absolute for Pierluigi Di Francesco. In his paintings there isn’t a landscape, nature, abstraction or sign experiments, but only this large reiterated, even obsessive story, of which in the end there is something very serious that remains, life itself.

Martina Corgnati