Analyzing Pino's Youthful Pleasures

After touring the Key West Galleries last September I came upon an exhibition for the artist Pino Daeni (1939-2010) with his beautiful and eloquent assemblage of oil paintings. The piece that stood out to me most, which made me stop to examine and study, he aptly named Youthful Pleasures (See Fig. 1.) After speaking with the local curator about Pino and his work coupled with my continued analysis, I hope to be able to understand the warmth and closeness he felt while painting this exquisite piece and the love between mothers and their children.
Pino created Youthful Pleasures to show us the celebration known as love, specifically the love between mother and child together with the warmth and closeness that it brings. If he would have accomplished nothing else, I believe his best wish would be for us to understand the emotion of love. His purpose for
creating these pieces of art would not have been far from this, he has told us "My paintings elicit feelings of warmth" (Key West Galleries), which one can only help but feel after they understand the love and nostalgia he so accurately portrays in his paintings. Pino is able to tell us a romantic’s point of view, without ever saying a word.
It has been said that Pino followed the work of and was heavily influenced by the groups know as Pre-Raphaelites and Macchiaioli (J Watson). Both these groups believed that art should not be bound to conventional art forms or the public norm, which artists should be allowed to depict their feelings and ideas without judgment of the theme but judgment on their ability. If Pino had adopted these principles the implications and consequences could have led him to scrutiny and eventually separation from the art world for not conforming to the practiced standard.
Having been raised primarily with his mother, aunts and cousins while growing up, Pino 's style comes from the societal condition that causes all the men from his family to be gone working and providing for the family. He was also born during the war that ravaged Europe leaving Pino to be cared for by his extended relatives, as the men were transported away to fight. This leads all the women in his family to fill the maternal role, often times leaving him to feel isolated because of the gender difference between them. You can see this separation in the position of the boy in the background, also throughout his other paintings whenever a woman is depicted she always holds or seems closest to the younger girl while the boy is in the shadows. My initial interpretation of this fantastic painting had me thinking of the realism captured in the face of the woman as well as the attitudes of the children so precisely detailed.
After further study and research I am now able to see the tenderness felt between the subjects, how Pino was loved as a child with his own special explanation of that feeling. His artistic ability is undeniable, his story worth repeating and his point well made. Many have admired his ability to capture in great detail the emotions his subjects were expressing.
Many others have celebrated his work, some saying he was the biggest figurative artist of our time. His talents have been noted on the ability to so brightly capture the emotion and realism of a person while weaving it perfectly into the softness of the landscape and surroundings. His technique was as impressive as his projection and interpretation of beauty. The styling used between foreground and subject are a distinct sign of work from Pino, he would use a broad sweeping stroke to lay out the surroundings then proceed with fine strokes and clear precision for the
subject.
I could not agree more with Pino and his ideas of love and warmth. If you look closely at more of his work you can see the true talent and skills used by him, sometimes leading me to think he cared more his abilities than he did the actual message of the painting. His core values of integrity and perfection drove him to constantly improve his techniques, always striving to better himself. I can reflect on these values because I know that we are never done learning or improving ourselves, that no matter what we can always be better.
Pino Daeni 's artwork already holds great value around the world. He is an artist lucky enough to reap the rewards and praise for his works during his lifetime and leave us with a legacy. His message of love will last for generations to come and his art will continue to be praised and coveted. Pino has earned and deserves to be placed in the category "Giant of the Arts".

Works Cited
"AskART - Pino Biography." AskArt, 2013. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. .
“Pinoart.com.” Classical Publications Inc., 2013. Web. 13 Oct. 2013. .
"Pino Daeni Art." Art by Pino Daeni. J Watson Fine Art, 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. .
“Pino-Italian Artist.” Key West Galleries, 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. .