File:Artgate Fondazione Cariplo - Cascella, Via San Calimero a Milano.jpg

The work was purchased on the antique market in 1986 together with Portofino.

The large-scale retrospective exhibition held at the Galerie André Weil, Paris, in October 1966 to trace the creative trajectory of Michele Cascella from his debut in 1907 until his recent works arrived at the Galleria Levi, Milan, in the February of the following year. In addition to the 65 paintings presented in Paris, the show in Milan included a number of new works including two views of Milan produced in the summer of 1966, namely Milan, Piazza Fontana (present location unknown) and Milan, Mid-August (private collection). The latter was also included in the major anthological exhibition held at the Palazzo Reale, Milan, in 1981 (as was Via Festa del Perdono).

It is this work in particular that provides a point of reference for the painting examined here, which shows Via San Calimero with the façade of the basilica of the same name on the right. They share the same measurements, the rigorously central perspective with the buildings extending like wings on either side of the large and half-empty space in the middle, and the bright colour of the terracotta façades, remnants of ancient Milan freely combined with modern elements. In these works Cascella captures the image of the city in mid-August with vivacity and immediacy by means of a technique that alternates patches of thick paint applied with a palette knife and more fluid painting with areas of canvas left exposed in constant experimentation with means of expression.

Comparison of these paintings with the Milanese views of the 1920s – including Along the Naviglio Canal and Entrance to the Portello, both in the Cariplo Collection – reveals both Cascella’s transition from naturalistic but strongly evocative painting to a livelier and more clear-cut vision and the continuity and coherence of his approach and its focus on study from life in flat opposition to the avant-garde.