Danilo Ricciardi

Danilo Ricciardi (b. 1958) is a distinguished Italian painter who merges the art of antiquity with modernity.

His oil paintings offer a pop-culture-inspired iconography, painted with technical mastery in color and chromatic tones, capturing the distilled essence of beauty.

Ricciardi depicts the female nude, highlighting sensual corporeality against a black background. Those familiar with painting understand that two color challenges have historically posed near-insurmountable issues for artists: the depiction of skin tone and the use of black.

Capturing skin color is no easy feat, as skin lacks a definitive, natural color that can be pinned down. A skilled artist portraying skin understands the importance of harmonizing both “physical light” on the skin’s surface and “psychic light” beneath it.

The artist from Syracuse masterfully renders skin tone against a black background. Ricciardi’s photorealistic work, depicting woman as a figure of eros and life, is iconic. This is not solely due to its place within figurative painting but also in the sense that the word “iconic” etymologically suggests a sacred image. The tender play of light and shadow across the body makes the essence of eros tangible and vivid. Yet the painter envelops the sensuality of his subjects in a sweet, hieratic sexual purity. His portrayal touches upon the sacred dimension of sexuality—the essence of nature itself, a reverence for the rites and rituals at life’s origins, intended to sacralize the mundane. Perhaps somewhere, in the mountains, it remains. Danilo Ricciardi’s magical surrealism elevates his female nudes to the heavens of “perfection.”

Prof. Sergio Turtulici – Art Critic and Curator