LEONOR BOTTERI - A menina
 Medium: Oil on canvas | Dimensions: 85,5 x 71,5 cm | Year: 1960

ARTWORK FORMAL DESCRIPTION
A female front portrait in the center of the canvas; she has her right arm folded under the left arm, which extends down along the body. The clothing is white. In the background, an architectonic construction seems abandoned; the colors are predominantly gray and blue.

THE ARTWORK
The work presents subtle outlines and shades of gray and blue, a feature of Botteri’s paintings. All of her works carry a significant expression of one’s introspection, loneliness, and melancholy. The words of the art critic Fernando Bini define “The girl”: “On the painting […] there is the frequent dark blue, the cold lightning as the moonlight’s, the environment is metaphysical and the painting shows a posed image, the fixed gaze, the gaze that looks at oneself, inner and meditative glance, of spiral thought; one that can reinterpret itself, endlessly.

TECHNIQUE – OIL ON CANVAS

The oil painting technique is the most traditional, dating back to the mid-15th century, during the Renaissance period. One can have it on different mediums, such as wood, cloth, fabric, wood; however, the surface needs preparation (painted with white paint composed of white lead and linseed oil, for example). Oil paint requires dissolution with linseed solvents and other thinners. To have it applied on canvas, various instruments such as spatulas and brushes are possible. As it takes many hours to dry, it becomes easier to make corrections on the painting, as well as layers can be created (medievalimago.org). The dissemination of the technique was due to its practicality and the innovative character it carried. Theories about the origin of oil painting are varied. While some authors consider the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck the precursors of oil painting, others suggest it was an innovation experimented by a mysterious monk called Theophilus or Rogkerus. The Van Eyck brothers, in this version, were the ones who only improved the technique.