Arturo Ricci, Italian
“You Folks Are In Luck. My Manager’s Authorized Me To Give You a Sweet Deal on This Baby, Because We’ve Got To Make Room on the Lot for the 1889s,” Date Unknown
Oil on canvas
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
Info, or links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here (archived if necessary), here, here, and here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page.
/// His apprentice was honored and thrilled
when Arturo said, “You’re far more skilled
than I ever shall be…
so I’ll claim it’s by me.”
Ricci then had the poor painter killed.
/// In the Studio fancy decor
hid this story of murder and gore.
Mesmerized by that frame,
no one noticed the name
scrawled in blood on the studio floor.
/// The apprentice provided a clue:
He had fingered the murderer who
slit his innocent throat.
Before dying he wrote
with his finger in blood what he knew.
/// A story that’s sadly consistent:
The “artist” who cheats his assistant.
It may not always lead
to a murderous deed,
but the boss who’s a thief is persistent.
/// With his victim’s work now his to claim,
Ricci went on to much greater fame.
And that blot on the floor
scares Arturo no more.
That’s the way he’s now signing his name.
(Apologies to the great painter Arturo Ricci for libeling him as a murderer. My fantasy was a result of the blood red signature at the lower right corner.)