Pola Serra-Zanetti (Budrio,1886- Bologna,1963). “Virile portrait”, oil on canvas.

Paola Serra-Zanetti (Budrio,1886-Bologna,1963). “Virile portrait”, oil on canvas. Signed lower left. Dimensions: height 42,5 cm., width 35,5 cm. Frame missing.

She studied at the Bolognese Academy, a disciple of Domenico Ferri. Subsequently, he attended the school of the nude and, in Munich, the Kunstlerinnverein, with master Feldbauer. Specializing in portraiture, she did not disdain the practice of still life, both in oil and pastel techniques. She made her debut in Bologna, at the Promoter “Francesco Francia”, exhibiting three portraits. In 1911 a painting of hers, entitled “Innocenza”, was purchased by the same Fine Arts Society “Tisi da Garofalo” of Ferrara which had curated the exhibition. during the First World War, she was a Red Cross nurse. After the war, she participated in the Female Portrait Exhibition held in Monza in 1924. In the following years, she participated in the First Decorative Art Exhibition and in the exhibitions of the Artistic Family of Milan. At the same time, you held personal exhibitions in Milan and Rome.

The painting is accompanied by a scroll (to which a photo is attached) which certifies that the work was purchased at the "Casa d'Arte Bragaglia" in Rome, during a solo show that the artist held in February 1924.

A painter still to be discovered and evaluated, in my very modest opinion her canvases represent a high dialectical moment between the Austrian and German art of the early 900th century and the great tradition of Po Valley figuration.