Pino La Barbera

Cattedrale di Catania

Name: Cattedrale di Catania
SKU: 6092
Price: 800.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Paintings Straw threads

Single artwork

€800,00

Description by the artist

I come from Castronovo, inland Sicily and I grew up with the colors of grain: from the green mountains of spring to the golden yellow ocean of summer. And from the ears of grain I invented my art. Artwork made with straw threads (grain and oats). Unique technique in the world. Straw threads glued on light blue or blue cardboard, background made by hand in watercolor. The shading and depths are made using the same straw with lighter and darker shades and gradations.

Details and dimensions

Materials: Straw threads

Dimensions (cm): Height 50, Width 40

Weight (kg): 1.4

Handcrafted in Sicily

The artwork in the Sicilian culture

By the Governance of Sicilian Artisan Foundation

241 BC, Sicily was conquered by the Romans who replaced the Greeks by making Zeus, Jupiter, and so on for the other gods of Olympus. For Catone the Censor the island was “the granary of Rome“. Sicily alone exported about 3 million quintals per year to the capital. Even today, especially the center of the island, is an endless expanse of grain, as if it were sea, which makes it particularly characteristic landscape: deep green in winter and spring, and blinding yellow in the summer months.

The Cathedral of Catania was originally built in the Norman period (eleventh century) on the ruins of the Roman Baths (still visited today in the subterranean of the church). The apses that are still preserved are the original ones of the Norman period. Several earthquakes destroyed it continuously and several times it was rebuilt. The current facade is in clear Baroque style. Today we can still read its origins as ecclesia munita (fortified church). Carrara marble and lava stone are two of the elements most used for its construction. It is located in Piazza Duomo, the heart of the city.

(photo) Catania, view of Piazza del Duomo and Cathedral, 1822

Paints with straw threads

Pino La Barbera

“Art is for me is the expression of ones inner self. Many people do not know that they have potential within them and therefore do not manifest their knowledge and their attitudes. It’s a pity"

The Governance also suggests

The objective of the Governance is both to safeguard the traditions and ancient crafts of the people of Sicily, and to sustain economically the Artisans and the Artists, both the real ethno-anthropologists of the country.