Giacomo Porzano’s Stairway is a lithograph of an iconic Italian scene. The nature of the artistic style and sepia paper allude to other Old Master Italian artists, as does the scene. The scene is one of a regular afternoon in an Italian city. Common people are captured in a moment on the escalating steps, which remind the viewer of a Roman amphitheatre. The figures may not have memorable facial details, or even have facial details at all. However, each figure is depicted with such significance in relation to the shared experience of sitting on the steps, so that individual details are irrelevant. The composition is of the stairway and all that it is home to.
~ Lucy Siegel, Student at Bowdoin College, Bachelor of Arts in Art History and Government and Legal Studies, Center for Art Law Summer 2020 Intern.