The passage of Capri
When the painter arrived in Capri in 1900, surrounded by unspoilt nature, he dedicated himself to a symbolist painting and landscape, expression of his soul in a secret and encrypted writing, with strong symbolic connotation. The island, with its nature permeated by a strong cosmic sense, with its rocks and its mysterious caves, symbolic expression of the maternal womb, place of metamorphosis and regeneration, was the main source of inspiration for the artist. On the island, Diefenbach finds the dreary Eden, the most intimate inspiration, facing that terrible and beautiful sea and those rugged cliffs he adored. In the paintings made on Capri during the last period of his life, he portrayed the landscape of the island from the most panoramic views, discovered during his frequent walks: Marina Piccola, Monte Solaro, Castiglione and Pizzolungo. Preferred and recurring motifs were, therefore, the coasts of the island, its caves, the Faraglioni and the Natural Arch, painted in an extremely faithful way to nature, that same nature that Diefenbach considered divine. The choice of dark, gloomy, cindrial tones and the particular use of light is very impressive: a “uranic” luminosity overcomes the shadows, creating a surreal atmosphere suspended in time, with glare and dark zones in unreal landscapes, sea storms that envelop the coasts with foaming waves, nymphs games from the sea and the spectacle offered to man inert and passive of a dominant and superb nature. © MINISTERO DELLA CULTURA

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