The cats (1947) cm 37×52 – Tempera su tela

Throughout his career Dady Orsi cultivates a vein of animalier painter. Far from naturalistic and illustrative ways he prefers to paint symbolic animals from an intellectual and fabulous imagination. Rarely drawn and painted from life, they are mostly executed from memory. To 1947 dates a tempera painting with an unusually dull palette to which the artist remained inextricably linked for the rest of his life: The Cats. This work of precise and detailed execution is the symbolic representation of the painter’s family. It is a declaration of love towards his first wife, Gabriella Masino Bessi, who took care of his sons (Giovanni Battista and Andrea) during the tormented years of the war. In this feline transfiguration, Orsi reveals himself to be the heir of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, an artist who loves to represent the human through animals. But if the Japanese painter transforms his cats into humans Orsi does the opposite: he represents humans as cats. The scene is set in a room paved with tiles called “cementine”, so common in the interiors of Milanese houses as in those of Genoa, his hometown. The transfiguration of loved ones into animals is not the prerogative of painting alone. Umberto Saba in his poem A mia moglie (1911) compares his wife to various animals. Over the years, the painting has aroused great interest on the part of many collectors, including an exceptional admirer: Giovanni Testori who, as Megy Bassi reminds us, has repeatedly expressed a desire to buy it.