The volume is dedicated to the collection of works by Giorgio Morandi gathered by Antonio and Matilde Catanese, which for the first time in these pages is given an exhaustive and definitive account.
For the wide number of artworks, for their chronology distributed over a period of time that embraces almost all the years of the artist's activity, for the technique that characterizes them, for the themes represented, for the collecting history, and above all for the the artistic relevance, this art collection represents an exemplary microcosm for deciphering and understanding Giorgio Morandi's activity. It includes fifteen paintings executed between 1914 and 1959, which are distinguished by the particular themes of the master's oeuvre: still lifes, landscapes, flowers and, above all, a self-portrait dated 1914 which, also due to the author's reluctance to treat the human figure, represents the outstanding piece of the collection. Of great importance are also three watercolours and the almost complete series of etchings, testifying to the completeness of the collection, interested in a technique that Morandi practiced in parallel with painting, and which cannot be separated from it.
The artworks have been the subject of scientific investigations preliminary to restoration and conservation conducted by the University of Urbino, the results of which are presented here in this catalogue.
The Catanese collection, formed in the 1960s, is part of the tradition of the great Milanese collectors who were able to look at Morandi the artist with foresight, contributing among the first to his fame.

Contents

Story of a Collection
Mariella Gnani and Antonio Catanese in Conversation

The Morandis in the Catanese Collection
Maria Cristina Bandera

Paintings

Entries
Stella Seitun

The Poetics of Black and White
Giorgio Morandi's Etchings in the Catanese Collection
Luca Cecchetto

Etchings

The Conservation History of Giorgio Morandi's 1914 Self-Portrait
Mariella Gnani

Conservation and the Function of pH
Federica Buccolini

Looking at Morandi
Diagnostic and Technical Results of Multispectral Imaging
Paolo A.M. Triolo

Canvas from Morandi Paintings
Morphological and Compositional Investigation through Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy
Sabrina Burattini, Laura Valentini

Bibliography