Priests ll

Roberto del Frate, Italy

FULL BIOGRAPHY He has started his career at the Atelier Frattini in Venice (Italy) founded by his farther Enrico del Frate (1929 – 2006) who was a renowned painter. Under the strict fatherly guidance, he acquired a certain automatic mechanism in the color research and preparation of canvas and board that allowed him to create the first artworks according to the two styles of his father: the typically mannerist one related to the vedutismo style of Venetian painters such as Francesco Guardi (Venice, 1712 – 1793), Guglielmo Ciardi (Venice, 1842 – 1917) and Pietro Fragiacomo (Trieste, 1856 – Venice , 1922): the second one “en plein air” reminding the French impressionism and the Italian Macchiaioli style. During the 1980s, he spent a considerable amount of time in Paris where he was completely floared by the French impressionism that encouraged him ti embrace painting “en plen air”. The landscaoes of Venice were replaced by the natural ones filled with children and women who sunbathe in the fields or with themes like seascapes, sunsets and sunrises. In the 1990s, he opened his own atelier in Venice and his interest in painting arcadian and etheral landscape was replaced by the urban landscape that become a new milestone in his artistic career. The city with its vitality becomes the fundamental subject of his fascinating and suggestive paintings in which the anachronistic impressionism was replaved by the contemporary reality. With the beginning of the new millennium, Roberto del Frate, beyond the production of neo-impressionist landscapes, started working on the portrait because he wanted to highlight the figures painted in his landscapes. In his portraits (inspired by the espressionist style), he likes to put on top of human figure (often painted in black and white) an abstract and colorful background in order to create a strong contrast. He currently lives in Trieste (Italy) and has his artistic residency at the Atelier Home Gallery