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In 1911 Henri Matisse was able to visit the monasteries of Russia and their artistic and spiritual beauties, bringing back such a great impression that from that moment on his works appear influenced by the fascination exercised in him by icons, especially in the search for light and color harmony. Matisse was not the only one to be overwhelmed by the explosive force of the icon, he was the first to be influenced by it. Before him and even after many artists tried to partially translate the Christian iconographic language into other forms of painting. Western art itself, in the Middle Ages owes its rebirth, according to what Vasari writes, to the work of the Greek iconographer masters called to fresco the churches of Florence, of which Cimabue was a pupil and from whom he learned the techniques, from whom then came Giotto and in Siena Duccio di Boninsegna and then many others. But iconographic influences can also be traced in modern and contemporary art. In Kandinsky, Malevich, even in Warhol with his repetitiveness. But all these contemporary painters did not come from an iconographic background, they sensed its depth and mystery, they were fascinated by it but ignored its source, origin, meaning.

Perhaps the only one who really knew how to effectively condense the fundamental elements of Byzantine art, in its anti-naturalness and anti-plasticity was El Greco, who trained in Crete as an iconographer and only later on in contact with Venetian and Italian painting did he change his own art, but inserting fundamental elements of iconography in his painting. In particular, the light which, as in the icons, does not strike the figures from the outside but emerges from within, and also the search for color and stylization are clearly influenced by his past and his experience as an iconographer.

In the wake of these, like other artists, I too, who come from an iconographic background, try to translate the style or at least some characteristics of the technique, design and symbolism of the icon, to the extent that this is possible, without distort or confuse languages, in my non-sacred subject paintings. It is not an easy translation but my experience leads me to continue this research. What I am looking for in particular is expression, rhythm, harmony, immediacy, light.