Giudecca 795

Berico (Enrico Bartolini) Eclectic Italian contemporary artist, Berico was born to a fisherman and as a very young boy distinguished himself for his artistic talent. It was the "al terzo" sails, so common in the upper Adriatic, which inspired Berico's painting on sails. The "al terzo" sail is shaped like an irregular trapezium and named so because it is raised on the mast to one third top side, tied to the top yard. The surfaces consist of tarpaulin sections, meaning strips of fabric stitched vertically along the aligned selvages; the sections are stitched with two whipstitches. From the "al terzo" sail hang the reefs, cord strings stitched parallel to each other, horizontally, used to tie up the rolled sail. At the four corners of the sails, reinforcements are stitched. To dye the sails, earth was used diluted in water, applied first on one side and then on the other, and then the sail was soaked in sea-water to remove the excess dye and then left to dry. Symbolic representations are combined with an explosive fantasy. See the photo gallery of his works (Vele Innamorate) Dario Fo, Italian NObel prize for Literature, is one of Beric's early fans: "In the large entrance to the portico of our Sala di Cesenatico house, - Dario Fo says - a sail proudly stands which extends along the wall as far as the floor. This is in fact a painting with pieces of fabric of different colour, stitched one to the other with veins that make it magical. This is the work of Enrico Bartolini, aka Berico, a painter with great sensitivity and a fine taste fotr materials and colours. Using simple and poor materials he manages to create extremely poetic atmospheres."