Paul Cadmus: Night in Bologna

Night in Bologna: egg tempera on fiberboard. This work of Cadmus was made in 1958. It is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Paul Cadmus said once that he preferred to paint novels rather than short stories. Maybe Night in Bologna is not a novel; it is not a short story either.

It is a black comedy depicting an impossible lust triangle: a young soldier is looking with desire at a worldly woman; unaware of his attentions, she is targeting a presumably rich gentleman; unaware of her attentions, he is looking with visible lust at the soldier.

The setting is an old palazzio with huge arcades; the outcome is out of question; it remains the analysis of the triangle.

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