He graduates as Drawing Teacher and gets married to Griselda Gambaro. In December they both travel to Italy for the first time. He becomes interested in Etruscan art, especially in the Sarcophagus for Husband and Wife, modelled in terracotta, which he studies at the museum of Villa Giulia. Another important discovery are the paintings of Masaccio. He observes them from up close when he manages to clandestinely climb on the scaffolding where some restorers are working on the artist’s frescos. Years later he would say:

“Masaccio is one of my enduring loves; from the moment I discovered Quattrocento painting, he was the one I liked most. Because of his stance, because he had his feet on the ground. To me he is the first to paint the human being. [...] Initially I discovered his paintings in books and then saw them when I went to Italy. [...] He is one of the greatest geniuses in painting of all times. I feel, and this is a personal opinion, that there is a humanist tradition going from Masaccio to Rembrandt, from Rembrandt to Goya and, I’d say, from Goya to Lucien Freud – and he is an impressive painter for our times.”

Other artists who dazzle him are Giotto and Piero Della Francesca. He stays three months in Italy, during which he visits relatives in Genoa. He stays for a whole month in Rome, travels in Tuscany and the south, where he visits Pompeii.