Angelo Mucchetti Biography
(Preseglie, 22 December 1912 - Salò, 24 February 1960) Garda portrayed in its hidden corners animated by washerwomen and fishermen; admired from the top of its rolling hills over the vast luminous horizon of perpendicular light; enjoyed in the restful shady parks, Garda transposed in all its aspects into the canvas, with evident love. It is the fruit left by Angelo Muchetti and which reveals the author as a spontaneous, joyful interpreter of the beauties of Benacenza. Many of his works repeat motifs caught along the shores of the Riviera: from Bogliaco to Portese, from Toscolano to S. Felice, Campoverde. Clear colours, luminous plaster, masses of full-bodied cypress trees, transparent foliage of olive trees in the light of inviting hours. But alongside these works that made him best known, Muchetti has collected less bright motifs where the fine colourist can be most recognized as he lets his brush play on minimal variations of gray and pearly tones of melancholic days moved by rainy winds; of morning hours spent in front of the expanse of water penetrated by the gray of the sky: a more thoughtful research, born from the intimate need to give meaning to what the eye admires. Muchetti's soul is contained in these canvases. Having moved to Salò while still young, he spent his entire life there, except for brief periods in Vicenza. He met Pier Focardi, indicated as his first teacher: and perhaps traces of this teaching remain in the cutting of the paintings; in the portraits reference is made to Angelo Landi: and perhaps from him the young Muchetti learned the taste for loose brushwork, the solidity of the characters depicted, in which there is evident introspective research. Muchetti's activity also becomes fervent in participation in exhibitions, with the staging of solo shows in Vicenza, Thiene, Salò, Brescia where he participated in the foundation of the AAB and exhibited with the Group of Independent Artists. One of his works is owned by the Civic Museum of Vicenza, a city in which the painter portrayed streets and squares animated by little figures against the contrast of lights and shadows of ancient portals. Alongside the landscapes and portraits there are quite a few still lifes: tidy and composed household objects, which in their linearity attest to clear and profound family affections. The latest works take on a new light: very luminous landscapes, almost as if the artist wanted to enclose in them the color of the sun that he felt was escaping from him.
