"My wish was to create an echo of the theater inside the restaurant."

I was commissioned in 2025 by architecture agency Shirvani  & Oesterle in Munich to design a wall fresco for an Italian restaurant, called Belforte.

 

In the heart of the city of Munich, in front of the "Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz" Theatre, I imagined this fresco that I named "Italian play". I wanted to depict an Italian theatre scene, in a Mediterranean atmosphere inspired by Munich and the fantasy of a play. Always looking into the history of Art, I thought of Giorgio De Chirico, who arranged his objects and architectural elements in a very theatrical way. By coincidence, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts of Munich too. 

By placing on the stage references to Italy such as parasol trees, a bust, citrus fruit and artichokes, the artwork extends and amplifies the experience of Italian culture on the walls. By painting my story in a very stylized and composed manner, as De Chirico did, I wanted to arrange the different elements like a theater scene, "to bring the theatre into the restaurant". Munich is represented through the arches and the facade of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Theatre building, on the left and right sides, and has been Italianized in a De Chirico way.

The art of operetta can be guessed through the presence of the Psyché and Cupid couple as well as through the representation of Orpheus.
These characters, referring respectively to the "Cupidon's song" and the "Orpheus in the Underworld" play by Jacques Offenbach, bring to the artwork a romantic and timeless feel. The Lyre, as well as the horn and the violin, express the musicality of operettas as well as the quality of violinist Offenbach.

 

Photos by Massimo Pessina (1,2,3) and Oliver Jaist ( 4,5)
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All Artworks Copyrighted  ©Florence Bamberger.