© Giorgio Morandi / VEGAP

It could well be that lockdowns brought on by the pandemic have given us a better grasp of the metaphysical reflected light that Giorgio Morandi found in the everyday, with the still lifes he painted over the seventy-three years that hardly saw him leave his Bologna apartment (see Arquitectura Viva 66). In his voluntary seclusion he focused his gaze on carefully choreographed containers, making the nature morte, traditionally a minor genre, a primordial reflection. We can see this at close range thanks to the Madrid-based Mapfre Foundation, which until 9 January traces a journey through the oeuvre of the Italian artist, complementing it with contemporary pieces that owe much to the master.