Pietro Capone
Meet Pietro Capone
Pietro Capone (b. 1995, Rome) is an Italian painter whose work bridges the classical and the contemporary through technique, symbolism, and introspection. After graduating from art school, he pursued studies in Archaeology and Art History at La Sapienza University of Rome before devoting several years to music. His path eventually led him back to visual art, where he discovered a deep love for painting and enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, graduating summa cum laude.
Capone is passionate about historical methodologies and revives the traditional techniques of the old masters through what he defines as “experimental archaeology”—a practice of artistic reconstruction that challenges the erasures of 20th-century avant-garde movements. From 2016 to 2018, he trained in the atelier of Giorgio Dante and in 2017 participated in the Symposium of Contemporary Figurative Art led by Dante and Roberto Ferri. That same year, his work was shown in Antico Presente – L’Accademia Disegna at the Museo Gregoriano Profano, and in the group exhibition mutAzioni at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In December, he donated three still life drawings to the Vatican, all created in the exhibition halls of the Vatican Museums.
Capone continued to exhibit across Rome, including Night, a collective exhibition at Temple University’s Gallery of Art (2018), and L’Eco – Roberto Ferri and his students at Crazy March Gallery (2020). From 2019 to 2022, he was a collaborator and assistant to Ferri, supporting five major workshops.
In December 2023, Pietro Capone held his first solo exhibition at the Museums of San Salvatore in Lauro, and in 2024, debuted his second solo exhibition Un Incantesimo Solare at the historic Vittoriale degli Italiani, home of Gabriele D’Annunzio.
Through drawing, painting, and poetry, Capone explores the fragile beauty of memory, identity, and the sacred—inviting viewers into a world where past and present meet in reverent, lyrical tension.
La voce del fuoco
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
120 × 230 cm
2023
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La voce del fuoco explores the tension between the physical body and inner transformation, merging classical figuration with handwritten text to create a dialogue between flesh, memory, and time. The work reflects on the enduring human voice — instinctual, fragile, and powerful — as it moves throu
Danza di ruggine
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal and iron gall ink on blue paper
100 × 70 cm
2023
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Danza di ruggine captures a moment of suspended grace, where the figure seems to turn inward, shaped as much by memory as by movement. The soft luminosity of the body contrasts with the corroded, handwritten layers beneath, suggesting time’s quiet erosion and the beauty that emerges from i
Il più grande male fra gli uomini è l’ignoranza riguardo a Dio
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
105 × 70 cm
2020
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This work reflects on the human condition through the lens of spiritual ignorance, presenting the figure as both vulnerable and contemplative, suspended between knowledge and blindness. By merging classical realism with handwritten text, Capone invites t
Confini del pianto
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
70 × 50 cm
2024
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Confini del pianto explores the fragile threshold between inner sorrow and outward expression, portraying the figure suspended within written reflections that echo emotional confinement. The work meditates on grief as a quiet, intimate space—one that shapes the body as much as the spirit.
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Distanza
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
80 × 60 cm
2022
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Distanza reflects on emotional and psychological separation, presenting the figure turned inward against a surface dense with handwritten thought. The work evokes the tension between presence and absence, where distance becomes both a physical stance and an inner condition.
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Fruscii di parole
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal and iron gall ink on blue paper
29.7 × 42 cm
2022
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Fruscii di parole captures the body in a state of quiet introspection, emerging softly from a field of handwritten text that suggests thoughts murmured rather than spoken aloud. The subdued palette and intimate pose evoke the fragile space where language dissolves into sensation and memo
Richiamo
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
40 × 30 cm
2020
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Richiamo presents the human form caught in a moment of inward pull, as if responding to an unseen call embedded within the body itself. Layered with handwritten text, the work evokes memory, desire, and instinct—suggesting a dialogue between physical presence and the quiet forces that summon us from within.
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Danza di ruggine
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
100 × 70 cm
2023
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Danza di ruggine evokes a quiet choreography between time, memory, and the human figure, rendered with a warmth that feels both tender and weathered. The layered handwritten text and earthy tones suggest emotional oxidation—where beauty emerges through endurance, vulnerability, and the slow passage
Tra le ombre
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal, white lead, and iron gall ink on blue paper
29.7 × 42 cm
2023
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Tra le ombre situates the reclining figure within a hushed, nocturnal atmosphere, where body and shadow merge into a single contemplative presence. The restrained palette and handwritten text evoke intimacy and stillness, inviting the viewer into a space where silence, memory, an
Custode della fragilità
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
50 × 70 cm
2022
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Custode della fragilità presents the human figure as a quiet guardian of vulnerability, balancing strength and exposure through a classically rendered body layered with handwritten text. The work reflects on fragility not as weakness, but as a sacred state that demands awareness, care, and res
Allegoria della notte
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal, white lead, and iron gall ink on blue paper
29.7 × 42 cm
2023
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Allegoria della notte personifies night as a graceful, introspective presence—both sheltering and revelatory—emerging from a field of handwritten reflection. The cool blue ground and delicate figure evoke silence, dreams, and the quiet power of darkness as a space for co
Carezze lontane
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink, charcoal, and white lead on blue paper
2022
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Carezze lontane conveys a sense of yearning and tenderness suspended across distance, as the figure folds inward amid softly written reflections. The restrained tones and intimate posture suggest touch remembered rather than felt, where emotion lingers quietly between absence and desire.
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Rimpianto II
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
70 × 50 cm
2023
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Rimpianto II explores the quiet ache of longing and memory, where the figure appears suspended between movement and reflection. Layers of handwritten text and luminous flesh intertwine, evoking remorse, tenderness, and the enduring imprint of emotion on the body.
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Luogo dell’assenza
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal and iron gall ink on blue paper
42 × 29.7 cm
2023
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Luogo dell’assenza meditates on presence defined by what is missing, capturing a figure suspended in quiet introspection. The soft graphite tones and flowing handwritten text create a fragile emotional landscape, where memory, longing, and silence inhabit the same intimate space.
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Crepuscolo
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
60 × 40 cm
2022
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Crepuscolo dwells in the delicate threshold between day and night, where softness, desire, and introspection quietly converge. The luminous figure, layered with handwritten text, embodies a moment of suspended emotion—intimate, vulnerable, and steeped in the poetry of transition.
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La musa
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
70 × 50 cm
2021
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La musa presents the figure as both source and vessel of creation, poised in a moment of quiet revelation. Draped in light and layered with handwritten verse, the work evokes inspiration as something intimate and elusive—born from stillness, contemplation, and the enduring dialogue between body and spirit.
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Custode della fragilità
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal and iron gall ink on blue paper
29.7 × 42 cm
2022
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Custode della fragilità presents the figure as a quiet guardian of vulnerability, balancing strength and tenderness within a single, suspended moment. The muted blue ground and handwritten text reinforce a sense of introspection, suggesting fragility not as weakness, but as somethi
Ricordo
By Pietro Capone
Oil on linen
110 × 75 cm
2019
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Ricordo explores memory as a quiet, lingering presence—intimate, tender, and slightly out of reach. The figure’s stillness and softened light evoke nostalgia and emotional residue, where remembrance becomes both comfort and ache.
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La morte di Saffo
By Pietro Capone
Charcoal and iron gall ink on blue paper
29.7 × 21 cm
2021
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Inspired by the tragic myth of Sappho, this work captures the quiet gravity of surrender, where poetry, love, and mortality converge in a suspended moment. The softened figure and dissolving text evoke the fragility of voice and the eternal weight of longing.
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Vuoto
By Pietro Capone
Iron gall ink and oil on linen
120 × 90 cm
2023
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A powerful meditation on absence and inner collapse, Vuoto captures the human body suspended between resistance and surrender. The tension of the figure against a field of handwritten text evokes the weight of memory, loss, and the inescapable pull of emotional gravity.
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Critics & Reflections
Pietro Capone’s work bridges classical tradition, poetic introspection, and technical mastery. His drawings, paired with original and ancient texts, invite not only visual admiration but also philosophical contemplation. Below, two of Italy’s leading art historians and critics—Marco Bussagli and Vittorio Maria de Bonis—offer profound insights into the emotional, symbolic, and historical richness of Capone’s work.
Marco Bussagli
Art Historian, Author, and Professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma
Marco Bussagli is one of Italy’s most respected art historians, with over 200 publications to his name. A professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma, he is an expert in art history, anatomy for artists, and iconography, and has authored acclaimed volumes on Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. His scholarship bridges rigorous academic tradition with accessible, insightful interpretation. His voice brings both historical context and scholarly legitimacy to Capone’s practice, positioning it within a lineage of classical mastery and contemporary reinvention.
“Pietro Capone: Fragments of Souls” By Marco Bussagli
Pietro Capone’s painting is precious. In fact, these are works on the verge of virtuosity—carefully crafted and polished, yet not overdone, because there is a thought behind them and a sensitivity built up over the years by an intelligent and cultured artist, even though very young. Pietro did not immediately turn to painting. His path, already oriented toward art, began with other experiences. After high school, he first studied Archaeology and then music. A full-time passion which, however, between one note and another, prompted him to create canvases and pick up brushes. For this reason, attending courses at the Academy of Fine Arts was inevitable. This gave him the opportunity to engage with the techniques of the masters of the past.
But it was not a dry, theoretical study (although theory is inevitable in painting, as in all sciences worthy of the name), rather a lived experience, aimed at recreating ancient gestures and recovering the memory of the great masters. From Charles Le Brun to Ingres, from Cabanel to Boldini, these are the models Pietro looked to, but without copying: rather, inventing. Therefore, figures alone no longer suffice, and now, alongside the splendid bodies—almost always female—there coexist freshly written letters that serve as a backdrop to the pose and, at the same time, add depth to the story of the sole protagonists, revealing all their sensual beauty.
The handwriting is elegant, almost nineteenth-century, sometimes written with black ink—specifically ferrogallic ink, used by medieval scriptoria scribes; other times skillfully mimicked with a brush and oil paint (another demonstration of skill), but always employed to achieve the same effect: amplifying the image’s suggestiveness. These are not fake texts. Some are original compositions by the artist, reflecting passion and torment, as in the case of “Remorse,” where a young woman in a pure satin dress turns back against the background of a letter, which among other things reads:
“I caught you in the thrill of the current that overturns words and leaves them on the softness of your lips, which, like shells, hold the terror and instinct within me that created the desert of a distant God.”
In other cases, they are quotations from important works, as in a canvas like “The soul is hindered by what happens in the body,” where a naked woman is crouched inside a glass dome, while another outside seems to pour black ink onto the transparent ‘cage’ that traps her. Almost as a comment on the scene, as a background, there is a long quote from the Hermetic Corpus of Hermes Trismegistus, which serves as a warning to foolish, distracted, and insipid humanity, as demonstrated by this passage:
“Where are you running, O men, drunk after drinking the doctrine of ignorance like pure wine, which you cannot even endure, and which you are already about to vomit? Stop, and return to yourselves. Lift the eyes of your heart upward, and if not all of you are capable, at least those who can. The evil of ignorance floods the whole earth, corrupts the soul imprisoned in the body, and does not allow it to cast anchor in the port of salvation.”
Finally, sometimes, the words borrowed by the artist are those of the great Sappho, as in the case of the refined charcoal on blue paper depicting the poetess Sappho (The Death of Sappho), while in the background are these verses:
“I truly wish I were dead. / Leaving me crying loudly, / she said to me: ‘When we are given to suffer, / O Sappho: against my will / I must abandon you.’ / Sappho responds: ‘Go away happily, / but remember I was always loving you.’”
These fragments of souls are thus collected by Pietro as notes or, as he calls them, Σημειώσεις, meaning “signs” of life and memory.
—Marco Bussagli
Vittorio Maria de Bonis
Art Critic, Curator, Essayist
Vittorio Maria de Bonis is a respected Italian art critic and curator known for his writing on contemporary art, art theory, and the philosophical dimensions of visual language. His critiques often explore the interplay of image, text, and identity, making his perspective especially attuned to Pietro Capone’s work. His statement below offers a poetic and intellectual reading of Capone’s technique, influences, and unique relationship between the written word and the painted body.
“The White Breathlessness of Our Sail: Ink, Flesh, Color, and Poetry in the Art of Pietro Capone” By
Defended by its almost virginal whiteness, which seems to resist any attempt to force it and to give voice to the Inexpressible— as Stéphane Mallarmé states in his famous 1893 poem Brindisi, composed for a writers' congress of which he was elected president— the blank page that the poet faces, which he associates with the sail of a ship ready to guide his young companions of verse and dreams of art toward the unknown, reappears as an evocative, exemplary image in Pietro Capone’s painting.
And not only— and perhaps simply— due to the evident decadent suggestions of his poetic writing, which provides the graphic backdrop to the evocative epiphanies of the nude bodies of his proud models, but also because of his passionate search for an expressive verb that, with exemplary lightness, unites Bouguereau and Caravaggio, David and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Velázquez and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Hayez and Burne-Jones in an alchemy of references and suggestions. This evocation simultaneously conceals and reveals debts and influences, all in the name of a classical Beauty that aspires to modernity.
The great school of French and Italian academic Nude aligns with the sorrowful yet innovative wisdom of Caravaggism, generating—a sort of short circuit—a suspended physical dimension, not devoid of cinematic suggestiveness, which renews from within what could otherwise be a clever and calligraphic operation of quotation, refined but lacking genuine impact.
The flesh associated with poetry, the color that hides and, by contrast, exalts the writing, come together with unexpected virtuosity in an embrace that lends itself both to being a brilliant backdrop for the image and to commenting or illustrating it. Those bodies and fragments of bodies materialize with absolute and fascinating insistence precisely because they are evoked and generated by poetic utterance.
Writing finds its form, and form distills and sublimates into verse: the highest and most vertiginous aspiration of every authentic creator of ideal Beauty.
—Vittorio Maria de Bonis
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