"Woman Among Jars" Oil on Canvas by Lucio Ranucci

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This painting represents the female figure as an object positioned like a ceramic tile on a shelf. This arrangement suggests … Read more This painting represents the female figure as an object positioned like a ceramic tile on a shelf. This arrangement suggests themes of fragmentation, isolation, compartmentalization, and objectification. Surrounding her are various other objects, predominantly vases, further emphasizing her role within the tableau. Is she reduced to the state of an artifact? Or, like a chameleon, has she infiltrated herself until she takes on the color and shape of what surrounds it to analyze a situation that is specific to her discreetly? Her expression, particularly her look, devoid of apparent legible emotion but alluding to other depths, submission, guilt, sadness, and perhaps repressed rebellion, adds numerous questions.

With her static posture and her arms resembling the handles of a vase, she exudes a feeling of calm and confinement. Despite her silence, she observes us observing her. It is there, in front of us, acting like a mirror from the central position of the composition.


Lucio Ranucci is an Italian-born painter best known for his depictions of figures in space using tubular forms and rich colors in a style similar to the Cubist Fernand Léger. Ranucci’s figures often have hollow eyes like Amedeo Modigliani’s portraits, giving them a forlorn or alien look even in the midst of a cheerful scene. Born in 1925 in Perledeo, Italy, Ranucci initially worked as a journalist after serving in World War II. He began painting at the age of 22, shortly after his father past away. Later on, his career in journalism would bring him to South America in 1947. During the following 16 years the artist traveled to multiple countries in South America painting scenes of abject poverty and oppression. He also became acquainted with and interviewed Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Ranucci returned to Europe in 1963, settling in Saint-Paul de Vence, France where he continues to live and work. See less