Mike Bernard
Further images
Description
Ravello, The Amalfi Coast frames a view out towards two domed church towers, seen between dark stone walls that rise up either side of the composition. An umbrella pine arches across the upper edge, its branches and foliage in deep purple and blue set against a clear blue sky, with gulls marked in white across the open space. Below, the twin domes of the Chiesa dell'Annunziata stand at the centre, one dome raised on the church body with its orange pitched roof, the other set on a taller bell tower with an arched opening, each topped by a cross. Worked in Bernard's mixed media technique, layered paper is built into the flanking walls, where torn edges and overlapping fragments carry the texture of the stonework, while the domes, roof and paving are applied thickly in acrylic.
The scene is the best known view in Ravello, taken from the garden belvedere of the Villa Rufolo, a villa in the historic centre of the town whose terraces look out over the coast. The twin domes belong to the Chiesa dell'Annunziata, which sits on the hillside below the villa, and the overhanging pine is the umbrella pine that appears in the most photographed view of the domes from Villa Rufolo. Ravello stands high above the Gulf of Salerno in the province of Salerno, southern Italy, a hill town long associated with artists, writers and musicians.