Besides the extraordinary, very modern female portraits, made by Curcio in the last years of his career, we find two ancient themes such as that of cows belonging to the animal tradition flourishing from the seventeenth century and that of mythological subjects dating back to classical antiquity.
It is interesting to observe our painter’s behavior towards these themes.
As for animalistic, Curcio produced various studies dedicated to animals, aware of the fact that in our South this theme had deep roots in the work executed in the nineteenth century by the Palizzi brothers, who on the basis of the Barbizon School, had renovated the genre combining it to landscaping.
The other theme, the mythological one, is influenced by the recovery of tradition by many of his peers, including Giorgio De Chirico.
