De pictura (Itaca/Delos), 1979

Nine canvases placed close together at short intervals from each other reproduce the drawing in perspective of an exhibition space, with two paintings on the side walls, whose verisimilitude is corroborated by the nails along the exterior vertical side. The overturned central element simulates the verso of the painting displayed on the fourth side of this room. The collage of torn fragments, distributed in the area corresponding to the two paintings on the side walls and on the floor of the virtual room, recall the two works mentioned in the title and exhibited in the solo show for which the work was conceived: the black and white details of juxtaposed exhibition views recall Itaca (GPO-0410), while the colour fragments of a sunset at sea recall Delos (GPO-0411).
Akin to the overturned central canvas, the nails and the torn fragments invite the gaze towards the material plane that at the same time opens and closes the space of the representation, that is, on the threshold dividing the physical space on this side of the scene from the inaccessible space situated beyond the painting surface. The signature, title, and date of the work featured on the verso of the central element certify the authenticity of the painting that escapes our gaze, and at the same time of the work that we are looking at .
The dimension of the representation evoked by way of the perspective, with its illusory spatiality and ambiguous virtuality, is accentuated by the title, which harkens back to that of the famous treatise by Leon Battista Alberti (1435), in which, for the first time ever, the author theorized the ideas of the new Renaissance vision, founded on perspectival construction in relation to its use in painting.
The same theme was developed in six other variants on the same theme, developed between 1977 and 1979 (GPO-0344, GPO-0345, GPO-0367, GPO-0385, GPO-0412, GPO-0417).