Tumbler c. 1937

Curator: Allow me to draw your attention to "Tumbler," a c. 1937 watercolor drawing by Giacinto Capelli. Editor: There's a striking fragility about this work, isn't there? The almost ethereal rendering, especially in that shadow, suggests something fleeting. Curator: Indeed. Watercolors, like glass, have this inherent delicateness that invites such interpretations. This is more than just a depiction of an everyday object, don't you think? Capelli imbues this tumbler with a sense of preciousness. Editor: I am quite interested in the choice of hue. The way that subtle verdant shade permeates both the object and the ground of this still life—and also, in the patterning of those raised bubbles—suggests fertility. Curator: Green does evoke life, growth. Considering this piece dates to around 1937, we might read into the tumbler as a symbol of resilience, something fragile yet enduring amidst the backdrop of pre-war anxiety in Europe. What a visual echo of the anxieties of a world heading towards profound societal change. Editor: I’m fascinated by the shadow play here. How does Capelli suggest transparency with this almost cloudlike gray mass beside it? The lack of sharper definition complicates, rather than clarifies, the illusion. Curator: Precisely. It becomes a sort of double image, almost ghostly. He offers us the object itself, and then a shadow that almost reflects an absence, a hollowness. Does he want us to ponder what has been consumed? Editor: Well, perhaps he prompts us to focus more closely on our own methods of assigning importance and permanence, rather than the thing itself? That subdued coloring asks you to lean in close, as if deciphering meaning—which, in this light, maybe makes you reconsider how "clear" that glass is in the first place. Curator: Thank you, that does add yet another rich dimension. It suggests perhaps that clarity is never simply inherent but also a quality we project onto the world, into the object itself. Editor: The real power here comes from those contradictions of permanence. And what can it mean to consider those shadows carefully as we seek the truth that a work holds? Curator: Indeed. With "Tumbler," Capelli presents not just an image, but an invitation to ponder our own relationship with everyday artifacts, imbued with meaning and the ephemerality of existence.