De Corsi's biography is emblematic to define the character and understand the painting of this "noble - gypsy". The life lived by the painter until his encounter with Naples is a vagabond life. In this city he finally finds the ideal landing place, the place to put down roots. However Torre del Greco will soon occupy a privileged place. The charm of the place, the festive happiness of the street urchins, the serenity of a town that lived on coral and sea; these are the ingredients that make a provincial town unique in the eyes of De Corsi. In particular, the Torre del Greco-mare symbiosis, so natural, is a magical union for the painter. For those who had always tried to interpenetrate and represent that boundless expanse of water, the city must have looked like a small paradise. When the painter arrives in the coral city, in 1900, he is only 18 years old. He comes there to spend a holiday with his mother. He will return there every year, until 1934, when he finally settles in the city. Being little more than a teenager at the time of his arrival in Naples, he can be considered a painter in progress, whose training takes place almost exclusively in the Neapolitan area. Natural, therefore, that he should turn his gaze to the Posillipo school and elect models by him Casciaro and Dalbono, whose influences are evident in his first production, during which the painter still tries to develop an autonomous language. The brushstroke and the way of rendering the sea are very close to those of Dalbono, and even the representation of the sky, one of his trademarks, has not reached the quality of the mature period. Yet some of the elements that will return in his production are already present; above all the iconographic choice, which makes the seascape the absolute protagonist, while the figures take on the role of outline, of simple supporting characters, participating in the spectacle of nature. The colors, another characterizing element of his art, have not yet reached the brightness that fills his paintings with an intoxicating Mediterranean flavor. Over the years, however, the young artist acquires the "job" necessary to fully express his feelings towards the world and the sea in particular. The fishing boats are lost in the blue of the sky and the sea, offering De Corsi the "raw material" of his compositions. These simple scenes of life, whispered and not screamed, fully reflect the character of the artist who, renouncing easy income by producing for merchants, becomes the sole master of his inspiration. However, De Corsi does not stop with the first flattering results. He wants to enter nature, understand and tame it. In the mid-twenties, the cycle dedicated to Venice opens up new possibilities for the painter who, upon his return, with the series of nocturnes dedicated to the feast of the Four Altars, offers the viewer a vision of incomparable charm. The glimpses of light in the dark of the evening, sudden flashes of vitality, burst with arrogance in the composition, which fully captures the festive atmosphere, demonstrating the maturation that has taken place in recent years. De Corsi is no longer the boy who intends to penetrate the soul of a city, Torre del Greco, to steal the secret that binds it to the sea; he himself became an integral part of that reality, he became the "poet of color and warmth" of Torre del Greco. In his works he externalizes his own inner world. The colors of his palette are the colors of his adopted city. It has finally become an integral part of the city, to the point that Silvano Villani in speaking of the master states "... and whoever moves him from there (Torre del Greco), attentive to his life. He is over seventy years old, and is one with the landscape, with the people, with the soul of Torre. " And so De Corsi will continue until his death. With his palette and brushes together with the fishermen. Although the palette has lost some of its liveliness after the war. The paintings become more thoughtful, more reflective. It almost seems that in the choice of colors there is an awareness of the inexorably approaching twilight. And yet it is not possible to stop painting. It has become the only reason for living, together with the sea. It is said that people do not die, but are enchanted. If that's true, De Corsi must have turned his last glance to the sea. At the age of seventy-four, in 1956, he died in Torre del Greco.
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