Guatelli - Still Life with Musical Instruments, 1989
Archival Giclée Pigment Print on Archival Paper
Limited Edition of 5
42 x 42 in
107 x 107 cm
US $ 4,200
This photograph from the Guatelli series presents a richly textured arrangement of musical instruments and books, evoking the spirit of 17th-century still-life paintings. Ragazzini transforms mandolins, stringed instruments, and drums into a tableau of cultural and artistic resonance. Bathed in warm, dramatic lighting reminiscent of chiaroscuro techniques, each object reveals its worn surfaces, telling stories of craftsmanship, history, and daily use. These instruments, more humble than the polished Stradivari violins of noblemen, reflect the music of everyday people. The timeworn books in the background symbolize knowledge, memory, and the passage of time, enhancing the composition’s depth and meaning.
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This photograph from the Guatelli series presents a richly textured arrangement of musical instruments and books, evoking the spirit of 17th-century still-life paintings. Ragazzini transforms mandolins, stringed instruments, and drums into a tableau of cultural and artistic resonance. Bathed in warm, dramatic lighting reminiscent of chiaroscuro techniques, each object reveals its worn surfaces, telling stories of craftsmanship, history, and daily use. These instruments, more humble than the polished Stradivari violins of noblemen, reflect the music of everyday people. The timeworn books in the background symbolize knowledge, memory, and the passage of time, enhancing the composition’s depth and meaning.
Ragazzini’s arrangement intentionally recreates a historical still life as a contemporary homage to peasant instruments and books, drawing on the symbolism of Vanitas still-life paintings common in 16th- and 17th-century Dutch culture. In these works, musical instruments symbolized harmony and the fleeting nature of life, while books represented knowledge and the passage of time. The arrangement invites comparison with artists such as Pieter Claesz and Harmen Steenwijck, who meticulously positioned objects to evoke life’s transience. Ragazzini approaches his subjects with an artist’s instinct, skillfully manipulating light, shadow, and texture. By blending historical tradition with his distinctive vision, he bridges past and present, transforming modest objects into evocative stories that pulse with life and memory, creating multilayered visual poetry.
Ragazzini’s photographs of the Guatelli Museum's collection were artfully curated into the book I Giorni, Le Opere: oggetti d'uso della vita contadina [Days and Works: Everyday Objects of Peasant Life], published in 1988. The title mirrors Works and Days, the major work by 8th-century BC Greek poet Hesiod, which offers practical farming advice and underscores the necessity of human labor. This reference to timeless themes of toil and daily life in I Giorni, Le Opere is enriched by six poems from Attilio Bertolucci, father of renowned film director Bernardo Bertolucci, linking Ragazzini’s evocative imagery with Bertolucci’s poetic reflections on rural culture and tradition.