Nineteen-nineteen (The veteran)

This painting by Ardengo Soffici introduces the section dedicated to the School of Prato, of which the artist was an undisputed putative father. It marks the new “Tuscan” style of the following decades. Painted between 1929 and 1930, it was as a memorial for the many Italian soldiers who survived the trenches of the First World War.
Almost the entire canvas is occupied by a male figure who appears to be elderly or aging due to time and effort: a veteran of the First World War. A man in profile, wearing a short military cloak and worn-out black trousers, drags barefoot through the streets, symbolising the disorientation that the trench survivors must have experienced. It appears that the ground is an unrealistic shade of blue and the background is a dark red, almost suggesting that the man has been alienated.
In the portrait, the whole is portrayed by a dense and full-bodied painting. This accurately represents the tragedy of war veterans, who, as survivors, bear the burden of pain and discomfort during the reintegration period.
In 1929 and 1930, when the painting dates from, Soffici devoted considerable time to studying the pictorial content of the fresco, taking into consideration Masaccio's murals in the Brancacci Chapel in the church of  Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Florence. From Masaccio seems to derive the stark realism with which Soffici sketches the sore figure of the veteran.