Zoran Mušič(Bukovica near Gorizia, 1909 – Venice, 2005)
The Ferry III (Il traghetto III)
(1949), dry point, paper, P. 166 x 246 mm, L. 215 x 310 mm
Lower left: H.C., Signed lower centre (plate): MUSIC, Signed lower right: Music, Inscribed verso upper left: Kat. No 16
ZD 2016040, The Ljuban, Milada and Vanda Mušič Collection
Mušič produced his series of marine vessels and sailors at the end of the 1940s, alongside his little horse motifs. He made both paintings and prints, especially exploring dry point in small formats.
In them, he depicted rather flat boats transporting cattle to market. Horned bovines are crowded in a tub-like boat, which is propelled forward by two rowers with long oars. The background is marked by characteristic rounded hills and the water’s surface is shown by a few horizontal lines. There is none of the playfulness or freedom marking his series of horses. Here, the landscape rather portrays the hard life the boatmen face, along with the resigned fate of the cattle, trapped in a boat with no means of escape. The motif is strongly reminiscent of Charon’s ferrying of souls across the River Styx.
Those scenes and images that the artist admired before the war when visiting Dalmatia were but an internalized memory during his stay in Venice, tying Mušič to the ancient tradition.
Music, O. I., 2010, Cat. No.: 24