Michele Paternuosto’s encaustic

Italian Romantic poet Giacomo Leopardi’s knowledge of the ancient world went far beyond that which he read  in his father’s library: for he knew “not by reason, but by an inborn feeling” that he was ancient too.

As a child, Michele Paternuosto saw the encaustic paintings in Pompeii with his father, and not by reason, but by inborn self-sacrifice, he has persisted for decades in trying to explain the mystery of that lost technique.

He tried to experiment with it, and ended up practicing it - with the stubbornness, care, and the genius for crafts he had as a child and still has as an ancient man.

Prof. Vittorio Sermonti