“Oblò” (Portholes) is the title of Monica De Mattei’s début collection from 2006. In this work, the marine world (much loved by the artist) is seen as though from an interior, within a circumscribed measure. The depicted subaqueous panorama appears on the other side of a glass, or a protection. The world portrayed is similar to reality, however it is lived through an artistic filter. A ship porthole is the stratagem devised by Monica.The porthole is the equivalent of a photographic lens, it is the instrument used by the artist to frame, focus and bear light on what is being depicted. Unlike successive works, entitled according to an acronym denoting the series, accompanied by a number indicating chronology of execution, these portholes are entitled according to the actual name of respective depicted subjects.A conceptual simplification of subjects, both in the creation of a more stylised drawing, and in clear colour coatings as well as in prospective and compositional rigour, will become a keystone in the work of Monica De Mattei: her successive works lead her far away from the reality of these portholes, onto a fablelike, poetic, magic dimension, with naïf features.