Metastasio was born the 9th of May 1945 in Athens (Greece). He lives in Toscany. He began painting in 1968 and he exposed his works for the first time at "Rotanda" prize in Livorno in 1972. Since then he has been invited at several art events. News on his life and cultural formation are intentionally hidden by the artist that prefers to display his feelings directly within the paintings and his poetic intens as it results from this recent statement:

I work always on wood. First, I prepare it a coat of bole. Then, when it is dry, I put a second coat of the same material. After four hours, I smooth the surface with sandpaper and I cover it with shellac. I let it dry again, and then, I spread the "missione". Again a long pause: about 12 hours and then, I am able to put down the golden leaves on the wood. Later, I polish it with cotton and wax.
When the golden surface is perfectly smooth, I spread another coat of shellac which must dry for eight more hours. After this pause - being absolutely sure that surface is dry - I start to engrave the wood with burin.
When the engraving is completed (usually it takes a long time), I spread a last coat of shellac waiting for about eight hours. Then, I paint on the engraved surface with special kind of coloured inks.

For the central part of my works, I paint with oil the central image from a famous painting for example Rafael, Michaelangel, Alma Tadema, William Godvard, etc. The central part is the exacting job, I realize it in fifteen days, but the time turns on the dimensions if it is large thirty too. I like using a moder media to project something that belongs to the past in our time. In this way I can represent the interaction between past and present; between classical and modern art.

Metastasio

Critical comment

To be captured by the symbols, that appear on what erroneously, might be described as the edge of the painting, an embellishment, or something personal that the artist wants to portray, is the most beautiful sensation that either a collectionist, as well as a critic or simply an observer can feel. The engravings traced with the most punctilious attention on wood and the drawings express a world that reveals the inner conscience of the author. This world is full of novelty that must be discovered and that like the pages of a book should be read. It's an universal message devided in several different details that turn into unusual figures like fish, boats, animals and geometrical drawings that sometimes intersect with accuracy and other times are free to avoid perspective. Metastasio found his disposition and artistic ability in those "frames" that invite us to go through history, follow all the stages of the greatest art masters of the past and their most famous paintings. All this is not to diminish the importance of the central part of the paintings. It is extremely difficult to reproduce the materpieces of Art and Metastasio does this job keeping in mind the historical contest to which the paintings belong to. He does this in a way that might seem to some a bit too 'strong' for the differences of the colours used but it's simply a way to underline the personality of the artist and his consept of art. Due to this creative fusion of different elements his uncommon paintings are at the same time classical and modern.

Guido Signorini