La pacca di maiale (The Half Pig) 1924

Luigi Bartolini made this etching, "The Half Pig," with ink on paper. You can see the process right there in the lines—the artist thinking, searching, and feeling his way through the image. It's like he's drawing with his guts. The physicality of the medium is so present. Look at the way the dark lines create this hanging form and then dissolve into this grey atmosphere. It's a brutal image, but the delicacy of the etching gives it a strange beauty. The lines swarm around the pig's carcass like flies buzzing around meat. It's kind of gross, but you can't look away. Bartolini reminds me a little of Goya, who was also obsessed with the dark side of life. But where Goya is grand and theatrical, Bartolini is more intimate, more personal. It's like he's inviting us to witness something private and unsettling. Art isn't about answers but dwelling in the question.