In order to appreciate the influences which shaped Modigliani one must endeavour to forget the Parisian milieu and to concentrate instead on the Italian art of the Cinquecento, this art born of Giotto's naive realism which finally withdrew into the realm of refined fantasy. In Modigliani's subtle, pensive faces we can rediscover that unique element which Botticelli introduced into Italian painting....

Hence we must restrict the influence that Paris had on Modigliani to the effects of its felicitous atmosphere which served to heighten the sensitivity, to fire the enthusiasm and to create a spirit of competition. It is absolutely correct that Modigliani found these elements, which were conducive to his development, in Paris. But that is not everything.

Over time the naturally emotional essence of his character became so dominant that everything within him was taken to the extreme. And the more acute his sensitivity became, the more intense his feelings. For this reason the development of Modigliani's last works did not lead to a change of form or technique; we find here only changes which express a sharper perception of feelings which, now united, suffuse the entire composition, whereas in his earlier works the emotion was often only sporadic and limited to an external feature.

In his last works we can discover a sort of self abandonment or subjection to visual perception, a self-abandonment to the impulsive forms of expression that transcend any preconceived idea and seemingly extend to spiritual facets.

His previously carefully 'elaborated' pictures have now become spontaneous works. Rapid improvisation has supplanted the primitive laboriousness born of reflection, the search for experience, problems and aspirations. The portraits and nude studies are now flung down with rapid strokes as if by reflex, and these brilliant expressive forms of the unconscious are among Modigliani's best work....

The profound sadness of his life and fate is reflected in all his works and endows them with their true meaning. This melancholy covers and pervades the faces of his models like a wafer-thin sheen and bestows on them all an unspeakably pathetic tone. Among his nude studies there is not a single female face that does not betray the shadow of the artist's secret sorrow, and this pained, resigned or apathetic mournfulness gives them an incomparably chaste aura ....

Modigliani's work, which is so deeply pervaded by the sensitivity of his feelings, is a source of delight which we seek in vain among the best of today's painters.

From: Ambrosia Creon, Tout Never pent de Modigliani, p. 12