A hundred years after the death of Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920), the time has come to re-examine the artist’s controversial place in Modernist art history. By examining a select group of outstanding originals, this recent study celebrates his best work through advances in our understanding of the painter’s techniques.

This focused analysis of the artist, which centers on his maturity as a sculptor and painter, includes characteristic examples across Modigliani’s major genres, especially portraiture and female nudes. It is argued that Modigliani was the last great Italian Old Master, moving as he did between Renaissance and Modernism. In his self-chosen path of being an outsider among his contemporaries, his unique sculptures and paintings explored the depth of beauty fused with melancholy and suffering.