Morandi was born in Bologna, where he studied and lived for most of his life. He was briefly involved with the futurist group and, around 1918 painted in a 'metaphysical' style, placing apparently unconnected objects together in enigmatic arrangements. Morandi abandoned the contrived oddity of these works for still lifes featuring simple, ordinary objects, like bottles, jugs and pots. His subject matter and approach hardly changed from the early 1920s until his death. Morandi employed a narrow spectrum of colours - mainly browns, greens, greys and yellows and was influenced in style by the work of Cézanne.
A painting, drawing or photograph depicting inanimate, everyday objects. Although the genre has been in existence since ancient times, it was popularised in Holland after the Renaissance in the sixteenth century and has continued to be explored in contemporary times.