The Sicilian Carretto, born as a means of transport of goods and people, is the best known and characteristic object of Sicilian popular art.
These joyful "masterpieces" of folklore appear to the eye of the observer as a phantasmagorical riot of colour. On the sides, on the wheels, on the case, in which yellow, red, and green predominate, there are the colours of passion, of the Sicilian sun, of sulphur, of oranges and lemons, of the sky and sea, of the lava which erupts from the Etna and of the ardent character of the Sicilians.
Initially the choice of subjects depicted fell on sacred topics, providing protection for the wagon.
With the passing of the time, new topics were added, due to the influence of minstrels that wandered across Sicily telling of knights and sweethearts.
The Saints were replaced (without ever disappearing at all from the Carretto) by tales of knights and, above all, from the scenes of "Rusticana Cavalry", the novel that Giovanni Verga had dedicated to the noble figure of the Carretto-makers. Representative practitioner of this ancient art is, in Aci S. Antonio, Mr. Di Mauro (called “Minicu u pitturi”) who had the pleasure to receive in 1962 the Nobel Prize Salvatore Quasimodo and, in the following years, the film-director Pier Paolo Pasolini and many other illustrious celebrities. He was invited to represent Sicily in the "Tourisme ET Travail" event, in 1982, when its creation was exposed in the most prestigious Etno-museum of the world: the "Musée de l’Homme" of Paris (where it can be seen today).
A Carretto adorned with paintings showing the life of the President John F. Kennedy was sent to the White House.
Today Domenico Di Mauro is 92 years old and… he still paints in his “Carretto-laboratory” in Aci S. Antonio.