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1932 Innsbruck/Tyrol – 2011 Vienna
- Title
- „Farnesina Dixie“
- Time
- 2006
- signed
- and dated lower right "Prachensky 06", verso titled and dated
- Technique
- acrylic on canvas
- Measurements
- 67 × 59 ¼ in
Markus Prachensky’s dynamic series Farnesina Dixie is inspired by the swinging rhythms of Dixieland music and the impressive ancient frescoes of the Villa Iulia. The Roman villa, also known as the Casa della Farnesina, was presumably built around 20 BC for Iulia, the daughter of Emperor Augustus. During the regulation of the Tiber River in 1878, the ancient structure was discovered beneath the gardens of the Renaissance palace Villa Farnesina. The precious frescoes from the early Augustan period were salvaged and are now housed in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme of the National Roman Museum, where Markus Prachensky admired them during his travels to Rome. The gray background found in some of the ancient wall paintings prompted Prachensky to choose a smoky background color.
The series Farnesina Dixie was created in 2006 and, together with the series Senatus Populusque Romanus (2004) and Senatus Consultum (2005), forms the Imperium Romanum cycle. This body of work is based on Prachensky’s experiences during his many journeys to Rome and his intensive engagement with Roman history and architecture.
Using expressive, gestural emotional notations in his “life color,” red, Prachensky translated the impressions of his stays in the Eternal City into his distinctive, expressively spontaneous visual language. “The motifs shown in the paintings emerged from my way of seeing Roman real and imagined structures, as well as from the symbolism of the Roman pantheon, which—although I am an agnostic—appears to me very vivid, multifaceted, and even humorous.”