The Author Purchases a Mysterious "Villa di Lago" C.Proietto Original Oil Painting

In June 2012, I acquired a previously unknown oil painting by the Italian artist, Costantino Proietto (1910–1979). As soon as my new painting arrived, I shared pictures and descriptions of it on this website. The painting is of the Tiber River and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Italy. Angled gracefully into the scene are the Castel Sant’Angelo and its attendant bridge, the Ponte Sant’Angelo. In addition, a statue of Archangel Michael unsheathes his mighty sword atop the castle.
 
Soon after publishing that article, I received an email from yet another owner of a C.Proietto painting. Mr. Craig Casey of San Diego had acquired his painting at a friend's moving sale. From images of both the front and back, I was able to study the Casey painting. Although the age of the painting soon became apparent, I could not determine the scene’s geographical location. Knowing that the artist painted real scenes, I searched both my C.Proietto archives and internet photos of Swiss and Italian lakeside villages.
 

of the piece, someone used shorter, 38” Grumbacher stretcher bars. That action reduced the visible width of the painting by almost two inches, partially obscuring the “C” in the artist’s “C.Proietto” signature.
 
This wide aspect ratio is a clue to the age of the Casey C.Proietto. By 1956, Cinemascope and Panavision lenses, with aspect ratios of almost 2:1 had influenced all the visual arts. Instead of tall, boxy layouts, new paintings, live stages and movies began retooling toward wider, horizontal formats. During his 1957 visit to Southern California, the artist may have viewed wide-screen movies and other examples of this trend. In addition to its wide angle view, the entire composition has a left-standing perspective. Rather than a vanishing point in the center of the scene, we look from left to right and then to the far shore to see the painting as the artist intended.
 
By mid-century, C.Proietto had painted hundreds, if not thousands of original compositions. Thanks to Mr. Casey’s clear photography, we can see many details of the artist’s work. As testament to the Proietto’s technique, many flourishes of his palette knife still stand in raised relief. Over one half century after creation, small waves of paint still curl and shine. After World War II, the reintroduction of foreign trade brought brighter, more durable paints to Proietto’s studio in Stuttgart, Germany. The high quality paint in this piece again indicates a late 1950’s date of origin.
 
On the back of the canvas is another clue to the age of this painting. Still showing traces of the artist’s wax seal, a printed tag adheres to the back of the canvas. First utilized by the artist in the 1950’s, printed tags, seals and the occasional “Certificate of Authenticity” point again to a date of 1957 or later.
 

Translated from German to English, the printed tag reads: “Proietto, Costantino, born in Catania, Sicily, was pupil of Prof. Fernando Cappuccio of the Academy of Florence, has had exhibitions in Palermo, Naples, Rome, Lugano, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Dresden, Los Angeles, Hollywood and New York.”
 
In 1957, Costantino Proietto visited the U.S., spending time with American cousins on either coast. During that trip, he completed his U.S. gallery representation, including exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and Hollywood. With its mention of Los Angeles and Hollywood, this tag points to a date of origin in 1957, or later.
 
On all of his printed tags, Proietto gave credit to his teacher, “Prof. Fernando Cappuccio” of the Academy of Art, in Florence, Italy.

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Two Scenes of Venice by Mid 20th Century Master Costantino Proietto

Recently, Ms. Jennifer Malloy sent me two images of her family’s Costantino Proietto original oil painting. With help from Google Maps and Google Images, I have determined that the main subject of the painting is the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, in Venice, Italy. The view of the basilica is from across Tronchetto - Lido di Venezia. In the foreground, a gondolier plies a covered craft across the ripples of the lagoon. In the middle ground, sailboats hover in the dying light. Some distance behind the sailboats is the grand basilica, bathed in reflected pink light.

According to Ms. Malloy, “From 1964 - 1966, my father worked for the Department of National Defence for Canada. During that time, he was stationed at Fort Chambly, Germany. After returning from an Italian holiday, my father attended a base exhibition, where he fall in love with the C.Proietto Venice scene. Ever since, it has hung in my parents’ living room, in a small town in Ontario, Canada. The painting’s dimensions are 32” X 24” (81-cm. X 61-cm). I hope this little bit of info helps and I look forward to reading more about the artist.”

Originally, both Jennifer Malloy’s father and I believed that his painting was of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. However, using aerial views from Google Maps, I could not reconcile the painted image with photos of St. Mark’s Basilica. As viewed from across the water, the domes in the painting did not match those of St. Mark’s. Unless hidden behind the painting's sailboats, the skyline-dominating Campanile was missing.

Broadening my photo search of Venice, I soon found a match with the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute. For an aerial view of the basilica, click this link. As viewed from the Chiesa del Redentore, across the “trunk” to the southwest, Santa Maria della Salute matches well with this C.Proietto painting. Even the lighthouse, to the right in this painting, is in proper perspective. With such conclusive photographic evidence, I believe that this painting features Santa Maria della Salute.

According to artist’s cousin, Nunzio LoCastro, pastel paintings by Costantino Proietto are rare. In the artist’s early days in Germany, during World War II, brightly colored oil paints were rare. After the war, when new paint formulas became available, the artist’s paintings included lighter and brighter colors.

Together, St. Mark’s Basilica, its plaza and bell tower make up the iconic scene of Venice, Italy. Even so, Claude Monet selected Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute for a series of early-twentieth-century paintings. The Monet series depicts the basilica as viewed from across the Grand Canal, looking south. Since Tino Proietto painted from his own photographs, we can imagine him on the water at sundown, taking pictures of the basilica with his vintage Leica camera. To some, C.Proietto's Venice scene may seem fantastic and surreal. I believe that it is an accurate impression of what the artist saw and photographed one evening in Venice.

After researching and writing this article on the Malloy Family C.Proietto painting, I went back to my photographic archives and made a worthwhile discovery. There, among many other paintings in the LoCastro collection, I discovered another C.Proietto painting of Venice. The final painting on this page is a Costantino Proietto painting of St. Mark’s Basilica, the plaza and Campanile. In contrast to the pastel sunset at Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, the St. Mark’s painting shows a rising sun.

Undoubtedly, the Malloy Family C.Proietto is another of Tino Proietto’s masterworks. With notable humility, Costantino Proietto’s 1960 era business card represents him as a “Kunstmaler”. Translated from German to English, the word means “production painter”. Over his five decade career, Tino Proietto’s output was indeed prodigious. Despite the large number of C.Proietto paintings in existence, I expect the international art community to recognize him as the grand master of “spaddle work” and a great mid-twentieth-century artist.

Email James McGillis

In July 2011, I published my first article regarding the Italian artist Costantino Proietto (1910-1979). Other than the signature “C.Proietto” on our own original oil painting, I then knew nothing about this modern Italian impressionist. At that time, I published pictures of our Amalfi Coast painting, asking other owners of C.Proietto paintings to share them with our world and me. Soon, several individuals in the U.S. came forward with photographs of their own treasured C.Proietto masterpieces. U.S. soldiers stationed near Stuttgart, Germany purchased each of those initial paintings there.

Some people would write and promise to send pictures, but never deliver. One man sent stories about his family’s close relationship to Costantino Proietto, who they called “Uncle Tino”. There was a story about a dark painting designed not to hurt the eyes of a young measles patient. At the Sistine Chapel in Rome, using real gold leaf, Tino had painted an image of the Madonna. I had only one unconfirmed photographic image of a balding man in his mid to late sixties. If that picture was of Costantino Proietto, I could not prove it. Now, I believe it to be a later image of the man.

In March 2012, I received letters from two relatives of Costantino Proietto, each of whom knew the artist in life. With their stories, Larry LoCastro, second cousin, and Nunzio LoCastro, first cousin of Costantino Proietto brought life to the artist and the man. Within the LoCastro family in New Jersey, there are almost a dozen signed original oil paintings attributed to the artist. Although there are too many new paintings to show them all here, I will post the remaining works in later articles.

Nunzio LoCastro is now eighty-five years old. In 1951, U.S. Army service took him to Germany for two years. Before shipping out, his father told Nunzio to look up a cousin who lived in Germany. That cousin, an Italian emigrant to Stuttgart, Germany was the forty-one year old Costantino Proietto. Having settled in Stuttgart near the beginning of World War II, C.Proietto quickly established himself there. By the early 1950s, he painted at his own atelier/studio, located at the fashionable address, Stuttgart-S. Danneckerstraße 34.

Through the wonders of Google Street View, we can see that building as it looks like today. According to one person who photographed it, in 1899 architect Gottlob Schäufelin finished the mehrfamilienhaus (multifamily property), which later housed C.Proietto’s studio. In describing the studio, Nunzio LoCastro told me that it was had one large room with many windows. According to Nunzio LoCastro, Tino painted on the first floor of that building.

According to Nunzio, Tino lived with his common law wife Gisela at Stuttgart-S. Hohenheimer Straße 62. There we see a four-story apartment building, which dates to the prewar era. Again, with the aid of Google Maps, we can see that his home and studio were only two hundred thirty meters apart. Every day, Tino would rise early, have a cup of black coffee and then walk to his studio. There, he would paint until noon and then return home for lunch with Gisela. After a leisurely lunch, Tino would don a freshly ironed shirt and return to his studio.

Painting there until the sunlight failed, Tino would then go out on the town, enjoying whatever nightlife postwar Stuttgart had to offer. During his evening activities, Gisela was at home. By then, Tino had come to expect a spotless house and two freshly washed and ironed shirts each day. Since he often worked seven days a week, I imagine Gisela at their apartment boiling, washing and ironing shirts well into the night. Although many artists wear a smock, Costantino created his masterpieces while wearing a dress shirt. After work he was still impeccably dressed for a night on the town. With his signature palette knife work, C.Proietto brought elegance, skill and exactitude to his work. For him, creating modern impressionist masterworks in a dirty shirt was unacceptable.

The business card of Costantino Proietto, as displayed on this page, tells us how the man saw himself. On the card, “Costantino Proietto” appears in bold script. The top two entries on his list are in English. First is “Oil Paintings”, followed by “Specialist in spaddle work”. Next, in his native Italian, is “Artista pittore”, meaning “painter of pictures”. In a nod to the French, he follows with “Artist peintre”. Finally, for his host country, Germany he lists “Kunstmaler”, meaning artist, painter or “production painter”.

In less than one year, Costantino Proietto and his works have gone from obscurity to fame. Soon, I expect him to be among the most collectable of twentieth century painters. We can now confirm Randazzo, Sicily 1910 as his place and year of birth. We know that at age fourteen he began an eighteen year unpaid apprenticeship to a master Italian artist and art restorer. In his early thirties, C.Proietto immigrated to France, and then to Switzerland. By 1942, he had settled for good in Stuttgart, Germany. By 1951, he had a studio and a nearby apartment home. According to his cousin Nunzio LoCastro, every day, Tino Proietto lived the good life, traveling, photographing and painting exquisite pictures of scenes that people loved. Any observer of an original painting by C.Proietto can see and feel his joy in life shine through.

Email James McGillis