Context

This painting was recently made, as are all of the artist’s other works. Silvia Idili is a
contemporary artist who was born in Italy, now residing in Milan. One of Idili’s many
inspirations include her home island, Sardinia. She had admired Leonardo da Vinci
and inserted prominent features from the Renaissance period into her own works,
like geometry and the Platonic solids. After taking an interest in metaphysics, she
claimed that the mask was to express the “spiritual, emotional, and psychological
tension of the contemporary man” and the complex reality humans often find
themselves in. Idili is often described as a visionary painter to many.

Form
Silvia Idili's paintings are considered contemporary art. Overall, the artwork consists
of a darker color pallette. Though the artwork has a variety of different colors, blue
can be seen throughout. The skin, for example, is tinted with blue, possibly from the
lighting. Upon a closer look, the sclera of both eyes are a dark blue instead of white,
as they would normally be. The mask is the emphasis of the artwork, as it seemed
out of place with its size, color, and shape. Adhering to Idili's trademark art style, the
shapes extending from the mask is composed of colorful geometric shapes such as
triangles, squares, and rectangles. This directly contrasts the natural lines of the
woman's face and hair and draws attention to the unusual geometric-shaped mask
and strings.
Content
The artist is known to combine both natural and surreal elements; this can be seen
through the realistic style displayed through the painting of the woman’s face, then
the out-of-place addition of the mask’s geometric lines, which extended out of the
mask in an almost spider-like way. Although not much information can be found on
this specific piece, Idili has described the use of masks in many of her works as an
invitation for viewers to look deeper within themselves, representing the mask as
“symbols of infrastructures” imagined by people to hide their true nature.

Process
The artist had used oil on board for this painting. This seems to have made the
process of blending the colors easier and the oil paint achieved the realism of the
shadows on the subject’s face.

Mood
Based on the composition and the color pallette, this artwork conveys a somber
mood. The subject is placed before a completely dark background and blue is a
prominent color throughout the work. Besides that, the artwork also seems to
communicate a mysterious connotation, as demonstrated through the use of the
mask and the shadow over her face. The viewer is made to wonder what the use of
the mask was, and its significance to the painting. Upon a closer look, subtle
features of the painting become unsettling; for example, the whites of the eyes had
been painted blue, which was unnatural by itself, and the woman’s skin is painted a
very pale blue.

SOURCES
https://www.artisticmoods.com/silvia-idili/
https://www.juliet-artmagazine.com/silvia-idili-la-pittura-tra-rinascimento-e-metafisica/