The Coat Of Thessaloniki, By Angelo Pavan

Angelo Pavan, originally from Vicenza, dedicated himself mainly to landscapes, preferring lagoon, Venetian and Chioggia subjects, but also painting paintings that express the interiority of man and that evoke reality from within rather than representing it. Initially Pavan was close to divisionism, he then moved his pictorial technique towards the use of broader and more mellow brushstrokes.

In this oil on panel, in particular, a fisherman is represented wearing the "Thessaloniki Coat", hence the title of the painting, with the Venetian lagoon in the background. This garment is a heavy hooded overcoat worn to cope with the rigors of winter at sea. The shape of this work dress derives directly from the latest uniforms used by the army of the Serenissima. There was a belief among the people of Chioggia linked to this garment and to the patron saint of fishermen, Sant'Andrea, namely that whoever among them entered the dedicated church first on his anniversary, November 30, he would have received a gift of a “capòto de Salonicio” and “na càrega de orae (a basket of sea bream). The aim of the anecdote was perhaps to mock the category of fishermen, considering them to be people of modest culture, as the episode would have ended with a joke, it being inevitable that the first to enter was always the sacristan, to open the door to everyone the others. So much so, however, that this little story highlights how much the Thessaloniki coat identified the figure of the fisherman and how much it was among the goods desired by those who frequented the sea.

Dimensions: 31 x 23 cm without frame, 42 x 50 with frame, frame thickness 3 cm