By Dr. Anne Paolucci

I have played a number of roles in the life of artist Constance DelVecchio Maltese?long-time friend, supporter, client, portrait subject?but one that I especially treasure is that of “critic.” Writing or speaking about her work gives me enormous pleasure, always a sense of discovery, as though I’ve come upon her canvases for the first time.

There is indeed much to appreciate and learn each time one looks at a painting by this talented artist. I had followed her career for many years and knew the variety and scope of her paintings when she undertook, in 1988, what was to become the acclaimed, award-winning “Age of Discovery Navigators” series. When I saw the first of those paintings, “The Young Columbus,” I realized that the artist had reached an important turning point in her work. The subject had inspired her to look at portraiture in a new and totally unexpected way. The twelve portraits that followed confirmed me in my initial response.

THE “AGE OF DISCOVERY NAVIGATORS”
In this series, the artist has employed a number of mediums?pastels, oils, pen and ink, and water colors. The effect, on the whole, however, is subdued, reminiscent at times of sepia prints. Too much color in this particular case would have overwhelmed the variety of elements in each painting and distracted from the central figure.

What first draws attention is the expression the artist has given her subject. Each is different; each is powerful; each gives the effect of a living, breathing person. This came about by using living models?acquaintances, colleagues, friends, her own husband (New York State Senator Serphin R. Maltese) for “The Young Columbus” and the “Columbus in Chains,” the first and last of the thirteen paintings, and even the plumber who came to fix her sink. I know some of the people who posed for her. I see them in the features and general shape of the face; but I also see something else, not theirs: an expression that depicts what the subject must have been like, the character animating the face?not the character of the living model but that of the historic figure, as the artist has come to know him. This ingenious combination of real and imagined gives the work unexpected immediacy? very different from the effect produced by so many portraits in corporate offices and university VIP “galleries,” where former presidents and board members stare out at us like frozen masks.

The young Columbus, shown by the artist as he looks out at the world with shrewd determination, his face unlined by cares, anticipation and strength in his gaze, surely reflects what the Genovese-born seaman must have been like before he began to promote the wild notion that he could reach India more directly by sailing west. The difficulties and disappointments he was to experience have not yet left their mark on him. The dramatic change between the early Columbus and the last portrait of the series, “Columbus in Chains,” is powerful. It doesn’t really matter what the historical Columbus looked like; there are no clear descriptions of him, and only a few details have come down to guide us. What matters is what the artist has interpreted in these paintings, the erosion she records between her rendition of the intense visionary, ready to take on the world, and that of the old, rejected, master navigator, whose dreams have been so rudely shattered, within a decade, by misfortune and betrayal.

In all these portraits, the eye is soon drawn to the surrounding images. In “The Young Columbus,” we recognize in the background an ancient map, which includes the area that was to become known as “Italy.” In the lower corners are the Santa Maria and the family coat of arms. Facing one another, on left- and right- center, shown in profile, are Queen Isabella and a native of the new-found land. The border frame is an authentic design of the time.

These “highlights” connected with the life of the subject are not only artistically interesting but also educational. They place the central figure in a historical dimension, a larger context. This aspect of the portraits proved immensely effective in the lectures the artist gave on the “Intrepid” at the time of the quincentenary (where the series was on exhibit for two years) and in her talks to community groups and schools.

One of the most striking examples of this historical dimension is found in the portrait of Marco Polo, who left his native Venice at the age of seventeen and was the first European on record to have set foot in the land of Kubla Khan, where he remained for some time, helping that ruler to ward off the Moslems and acting as his special emissary. His accounts of his trip to China, dictated to a secretary years later, after being captured and thrown in a Genovese jail, first inspired Columbus ?two centuries later?in his pursuit of the unknown. The artist has placed the figure under an elaborately worked arch, turned slightly to one side, his eyes fixed on some inner landscape rather than the world outside. Across the bottom of the portrait, a parade of horsemen, brandishing spears and banners, stretches across the canvas, from right to left.

One of the most impressive things about these historical highlights is the meticulous care taken with even the smallest details. Blown up, any one of them?the icons on the Columbus coat of arms, the horses in the parade of horsemen led by the Kubla Khan?could be a separate painting. They all have the same precision and mastery of execution found in the central figure. They bring to mind the rich detailed backgrounds found in so many Italian Renaissance paintings of Madonna and Child, where a nearby village or a landscape is seen through an arch or from a promenade. This is indeed a collector’s series, a precious acquisition for any museum.

The “Age of Discovery Navigators” series won many awards, including the “Special Recognition in the Arts and Humanities” award of COLUMBUS: COUNTDOWN 1992.

“THE AMERICAN WOMEN” SERIES"
The “Age of Discovery Navigators” was soon followed by a series of colorful oil paintings of women in different walks of life, who?as the artist explains?have made an impact on their profession and their community.

Included in this interesting collection are portraits of Dr. Ellen Shulman Baker, the first woman astronaut; financier Joyce Lim; former New York State Senator Olga Mendez; and “champion runner’ Marie Palmintieri. As it turned out, I too became part of the series, but the big surprise was the artist’s ingenious rendition of the central figure (my “private image”) looking up at a smaller portrait of me (my “public image”) in a rather quirky way, as though to say “Hey, you can’t fool me!” There are a number of highlights in this painting, including a tiny bust of my husband, Henry Paolucci, the other half of a long and productive professional “team.” Unlike most of the other portraits in this series, mine is in subdued dark colors, reminiscent in some ways of a Rembrandt painting. The pose, though casual, has caught something of the self-directed irony which I was sure no one else (except Henry, perhaps) had ever detected in me.

These museum quality portraits deserve wide exposure and greater recognition. Like the Columbus series, they have historical and archival interest as well as artistic merit.

RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION
More recently, the artist has tried her hand at a variety of new approaches. One such approach is a triptych, a country scene mostly in greens. It shows a young woman in a lounge chair, reading and enjoying the fresh air and the calm setting around her. You can almost smell the grass and the trees.

Another painting shows a young “dude” in jeans and undershirt, sprawled in a chair, his legs stretched out in front of him?an interesting study of a young confident “macho” type caught in a characteristic pose. In another of her recent works, the artist has painted the familiar view of the lake across from her Albany home. In still another canvas, she has immortalized a favorite from her personal doll collection, as well as her cat. The cat, the artist explains, had suddenly jumped up into the doll’s lap. Without interrupting her work, she simply included it in the finished canvas. The painting which graces the cover of this exhibition catalogue is of the artist’s granddaughter, Sondra, captured on canvas as she enjoys one of her favorite pastimes, reading.

This artist clearly is comfortable painting both historical and casual subjects, the great figures of the past as well as friends, family, neighbors, and strangers. Her work is striking, whatever the subject or the medium used. She is unquestionably a master of her craft; but what makes her work special, what is ultimately the real test, the full measure of her worth, is the imaginative way in which she transforms the familiar world around us, as well as the distant past, into a vision that speaks to us all. The great personalities of the past seem to breathe the same air we do. Her most humble subjects are made memorable, forcing us to scrutinize what we so often take for granted.

That kind of talent is the guarantee that anyone who sees her work will never be disappointed.

Comm. Anne Paolucci
October 10, 2006