Béla BIRKAS (1929-1973). Giotto's Last Judgment in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. Watercolor on paper pasted on cardboard. Height 21.5 cm - Width 17 cm Also included: Three watercolors on paper (one glued to the corners of a cardboard sheet) depicting two saints, the Lamentation and a stained-glass church window. Height 13 to 25 cm - Width: 10.5 to 21 cm Provenance: Artist's studio Note: In 1962, Béla Birkàs left the United States to settle in Paris with his wife, in order to live more deeply his painting, which he knew to be "European". A fervent lover and connoisseur of the Italian Renaissance, he drew inspiration for his art from his travels in Italy. It was in the presence of the great masters such as Giotto, Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca that the artist was introduced to watercolor. Nourished by classical subjects, Béla Birkàs definitively emancipated himself from figuration and took the first step in his transition to figurative abstraction.