Every story deserves to be painted

When I create a commissioned work, I do not simply reproduce a photograph. My aim is to listen to the story behind that photograph and transform it into a painting capable of telling its own story.

Sometimes only a few words are needed: a special place, a detail, a colour, a shared memory. At other times, a longer dialogue develops, made up of ideas, suggestions and symbols. It is precisely from this exchange that a unique work comes to life, conceived exclusively for the person who imagined it.

Every painting is different because the story it represents is different.

In this section, I have chosen to share some of the commissions that have been entrusted to me, explaining the meaning behind each detail. I believe that knowing the story of a work allows us to see it through different eyes.

The Works

Click on the images to take a closer look. Continue down the page to discover the story behind each work.

Cuor di Carbone

Oil and mixed media on canvas · 30 × 40 cm · 2021

Private collection — Trieste

The Story

This is one of the most unusual commissions I have ever received.

A young man asked me to create a painting as a graduation gift for his girlfriend, a psychology student. He did not give me a photograph or ask me to paint a portrait. Instead, he simply described the person to me through the qualities that, in his eyes, represented her: blue eyes, a brilliant mind and a heart of stone.

From those few words, a completely symbolic work began to take shape.

The Work

At the centre is an intense blue eye, symbolising the ability to observe and understand the world.

Above it, the brain appears as a brain, enclosed within a circular form almost like a planet: it represents rationality, the study of psychology and the power of thought.

The heart, suspended and distant, evokes instead the perception the person who commissioned the work had of the woman he loved: difficult to reach, apparently impenetrable.

Colours, sketches, matter and symbols complete a composition in which emotion and reason, lightness and distance, love and incomprehension are constantly in dialogue.

More than a portrait, it is the story of how a person can be seen through the eyes of someone who loves them.

Villa Negroni

Oil on canvas · 35 × 50 cm · 2009

Private collection

The Story

This commission began with a very particular request.

A woman contacted me after seeing a postcard depicting Villa Negroni, a historic residence in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland. She had been deeply struck by that image and wanted to transform it into a painting to keep in her home.

The Work

While remaining faithful to the original image, I tried to give it something that a photograph or postcard cannot convey: the breath of painting.

The subtle layers of the sky, the light filtering through the foliage, the depth of the long avenue and the different shades of green were patiently built up, seeking to give life to a silent and harmonious landscape.

This work belongs to the early years of my artistic activity and reflects a period when many commissions called for a faithful representation of reality. Even in this case, however, my intention was not simply to make a copy, but to transform a two-dimensional image into a painting capable of conveying the same emotion that had inspired the client to preserve that postcard for so long.

Tivoli nel cuore

Oil on canvas · 40 × 50 cm · 2009

Private collection — United States

The Story

This commission was entrusted to me by a woman originally from Tivoli, who had been living in the United States for many years.

Before returning to America, she wanted to take with her something that would remind her of her roots. She was not looking for just any view of the city, but for a painting that could capture the place that, more than any other, represented Tivoli in her heart.

Her choice fell on the panorama of the Acropolis of Tivoli, with the Temple of Vesta overlooking the Villa Gregoriana Park, one of the city's most iconic views. For centuries, this landscape has fascinated travellers, artists and painters of the Grand Tour and has become one of the symbols of Tivoli itself.

Creating this work meant giving the client a fragment of her homeland to cherish thousands of kilometres away..

The Work

The painting is built around the balance between nature and history.

The Temple of Vesta, the focal point of the composition, emerges from the vegetation like a timeless presence, while the great Roman pine and the green foliage lead the eye towards one of Tivoli's most characteristic views.

I chose a soft, diffused light, capable of conveying the tranquillity of this place while emphasising the contrast between the monumentality of the ancient architecture and the vegetation surrounding it.

More than a simple landscape, this work represents the profound bond with one's homeland. Every brushstroke was conceived so that, once the painting was hanging in a house on the other side of the ocean, that view could continue to speak of Tivoli, of memories, and of the emotions that only the place where we grew up can preserve.

Piazza Duomo - L'Aquila

Oil on canvas · 30 × 40 cm · 2009

Work sold at charity auction — Fundraising for L’Aquila

The Story

This work was created at a particularly difficult time for the city of L’Aquila.

After the devastating earthquake of 6 April 2009, I was asked to take part in a charity initiative aimed at raising funds for reconstruction. I did not hesitate to accept and decided to donate this painting so that it could contribute, even in a small way, to supporting a deeply wounded community.

For me, L’Aquila was not just any city.

During my military service, I lived in L’Aquila for a long period and spent important years of my life there. Those squares, streets and buildings represented far more than simply a place: they had become part of my personal history.

The entire proceeds were donated to the fundraising campaign for the reconstruction of the Conservatory of Music in L’Aquila.

The Work

I chose to depict Piazza Duomo, one of L’Aquila’s most symbolic places, as it appeared in its lively, everyday life, before the earthquake profoundly changed its face.

The large fountain in the foreground leads the eye towards the façade of the Cathedral of Saints Maximus and George, while the people who animate the square restore that sense of normality which, after the earthquake, had become even more precious.

The diffused light and delicate tones are intended to convey serenity, almost as if fixing onto the canvas the memory of a city full of life.

This painting does not merely celebrate a place; it also carries a message of hope. It is my personal tribute to a city that welcomed me for many years and to which I still feel deeply connected.

La casa dei ricordi – Garbatella

Oil on canvas · 40 × 60 cm · 2008

Private collection — Rome

The Story

This commission was entrusted to me by someone deeply attached to one of the most authentic corners of Garbatella, Rome’s historic neighbourhood.

The client had spent his childhood there, and his parents still lived in that building. He did not want a view of the neighbourhood or one of its best-known sights, but his home, the place where the most important memories of his life had been formed.

To create the painting, he asked me to photograph the façade of the building myself. The task proved far from simple: an enormous pine tree stood in the centre of the courtyard, preventing a complete view of the property. After numerous attempts, this was the photograph that best captured that place.

From that image, the painting was born.

The Work

The great pine tree inevitably dominates the composition. At first, it might have seemed like an obstacle, but as I worked on the painting I realised that it was, in fact, an integral part of the story of that house. For those who had lived there, that tree was as familiar a presence as the building itself.

Light filters through the branches and casts soft shadows across the façade, while the inner garden, with its lawn, trees and small flower beds, conveys the quiet, welcoming atmosphere so characteristic of Garbatella.

This work is not intended to portray a famous place in Rome, but a fragment of life. It is the portrait of a home that, in the eyes of its owner, represents childhood, family and his deepest memories.

Donne in cucina

Oil on canvas · 20 × 30 cm · 2010

Private collection

The Story

This commission grew out of another painting of mine.

A woman had seen an interior I had previously painted, which in the meantime had been sold. What had impressed her most was the atmosphere of that house: a simple, warm, lived-in setting, capable of evoking memories of another time.

She therefore asked me to create a new interior for her that would preserve that same feeling, without reproducing the previous painting. This time, however, the house did not exist in reality.

I began to construct it through imagination, looking at images of old domestic interiors and separately searching for the elements that might have inhabited them: the large fireplace, utensils, pots, tools for the fire, crockery and the many small objects of everyday life. I brought them together on the canvas until a new and believable setting began to take shape.

This large kitchen was born in this way, populated by small everyday gestures and familiar objects. I particularly remember the woman’s enthusiasm when she saw the finished painting: she had rediscovered something of her own memories in a house that, in reality, had never existed.

The Work

This work belongs to my earliest attempts to construct complex interiors rich in detail, a genre I would continue to explore in the years that followed.

The large fireplace dominates the room and becomes almost the centre of domestic life. Around it, pots, crockery, containers, strings of garlic, chillies, tools and small objects all contribute to giving the house the impression of being truly inhabited.

But above all, it is the figures that transform the interior into a story: the woman and child gathered together on the left, the dog lying in front of the fireplace and the elderly figure on the right. Nothing extraordinary is happening, and that is precisely the meaning of the work: to tell the story of the familiarity of simple gestures and the quietness of an old-fashioned home.

Looking back at it today, I recognise an important phase of my research in this work: I was beginning to understand how much a setting could tell a story through its details. Constructing a place that did not exist and succeeding in making it feel familiar to those who looked at it was, for me, a discovery that would also influence my later work.

Let’s Talk About Your Work

Do you have a place, a memory or an image that holds a special meaning for you?
I can transform it into an original work, interpreting it through my own pictorial language.
I create personalised commissions for private clients, collectors and businesses, working together to define the subject, format and composition of the work.