Description

"Giovan Francesco Caroto had a penchant for painting faces that, today, appear vaguely disturbing. The painting depicts a boy in the attitude of showing a drawing which, despite its extreme schematic nature, could be a self-portrait. This is one of the first and rare examples of an image of a child acting as children do in reality. The portrait is an important graphic document for the study of the life and customs of an era. As can be seen from the careful observation of the scribble, there is little difference between this sketch painted by a child in the 16th century and the drawing that a child of the same age could make today. The British pediatrician Harry Angelman, visiting the Castelvecchio Museum, found himself in front of the canvas by Giovan Francesco Caroto, finding in the portrait of the child various similarities with some boys who laughed a lot and had jerky movements of the limbs and trunk. He therefore decided to describe his studies on three boys in medical literature with the essay "Puppet Children" (literally "puppet boys"), published in 1965. Only after many years of research it was discovered that there were several of these patients in the world, suffering from what has since been called Angelman's syndrome."

A strange feeling of restlessness and tenderness at the same time.

The painting continues on the sides of the canvas, in order to make the frame optional.

(Federica)