Morandi’s still lifes are essays in economy. Small vessels, thoughtfully arranged, appear to us at once as real objects, caressed by light and enveloped in space, as geometric forms in elegant proportion, and as strokes of paint, a veil of muted color through which we can make out his pale preparation layer, the weave of his canvas. Like Picasso, Morandi admired Cézanne, populating his pictures with homely household objects and struggling to see them anew. He painted variations on this particular arrangement three times in 1946, each one a triumph of simplicity.

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