• 0772 • Fiori Oscuri
1977
Painting, 41 x 33 cm, 60 x 46 x 9 cm with frame.
Materials: matt lacquer on canvas, framed in Renaissance Italian 16th century oak
Collection: Axel and May Vervoordt Foundation.
Fiori Oscuri. In Italian that means ‘dark flowers’.
The title reveals that we are looking at a floral
still life. This is no accurate depiction of dark
red roses, but instead just the idea of them, the
colour. The Renaissance frame is like a window.
A window on an infinite field of colour. Flowers
– and by extension our own existence – are
ephemeral. In his notes Verheyen wrote that in
this work ‘the dark flowers are as dark as blood.
The blood of dark flowers.’
