Marino Marini ^©  

(1901 - 1980)

Cecchi-Risaliti Collection, Ripa in Versilia;

Galleria Dello Scudo, Verona, as per label on the reverse;

Galleria Annunciata, Milan, as per label on the reverse;

Private collection, Florence

Literature:

Marino Marini, painter, Erich Steingraber, Lorenzo Papi, Priuli & Verlucca editors, Ivrea, 1987, p. 33, no. 63;

Marino Marini, paintings and drawings, edited by Franco Russoli, Toninelli Editore, Milan, 1963, p. 60;

Marino, painter, edited by Mario De Micheli, Carlo Pirovano, Electa, Milan, 1988, p. 57, no. 37;

Marino Marini. Paintings and Drawings, curated by Franco Russoli, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York; Thames and Hudson, London, 1964, plate 9;

Marino Marini. Bilder und Zeichnungen, curated by Franco Russoli, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart, 1965, no. 23;

Marino Marini. Loeuvre complet, curated by Patrick Waldberg, G. Di San Lazzaro, Herbert Read, Société Internationale d’Art XXe Siècle, Paris, 1970, p. 394, no. 27;

Masters of our time, Galleria Cadario, Varese, 1973;

Modern and contemporary art. Selected anthology 2017, catalogue of the exhibition Tornabuoni Arte, Florence, 2016, p. 173;

Modern and contemporary art. Selected anthology 2024, catalogue of the exhibition Tornabuoni Arte, Florence, 2023, p. 150

Marino Marini, Toninelli Arte Moderna, Milan, November 1963 - January 1964 (no. 23);

Marino Marini as a Painter. Gemalde und Zeichnungen, Gunther Franke, Munich, April - May 1964. (no. 1);

Marino Marini as a Painter, Museum Boymans van Beumingen, Rotterdam, November - December 1964. (no. 2);

Marino Marini as a Painter, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, February - April 1965. (no. 2);

Marino Marini. Graphics and Related Works, Museum of Art, Philadelphia, December 1965 - January 1966. (no. 6);

Marino Marini as a Painter and Graphiker, Kunsthalle, Darmstadt, May - July 1966;

Frankische Galerie am Marientor, Nuremberg, September - October 1966; Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern in Verbindung mit der Vereinigung Pfalzer Kunstfreunde, Kaiserslautern, October - November 1966. (n. 6);

Marino Marini. Mythography, Galleria Dello Scudo, Verona

Photograph of the work authenticated by Marina Marini, wife of the artist, dated 15 March 1985

In contrast to the horror of war, the exploration of the female nude becomes for Marini a recurring theme to which he devotes himself intensively between 1935 and 1950. Starting from the figure of "Pomona", ancient goddess of abundance and symbol of fertility both at the Etruscans and at the Romans, the artist produces numerous variations of this subject, either drawn and painted, or sculpted. A perfect example of this is the mixed paper technique applied on wood from 1942. In the artist’s imagination, Pomona is Mother Nature, a mythical and archetypal figure that perfectly embodies an ideal of a serene and idyllic rural world. With this series, Marini finds the ideal figure for the expression of his poetics, aimed at recovering a deep relationship with the Mediterranean classicism, especially Italian and Tuscan.

«My Pomone live of a solar world, of a solar poetry, of a full humanity, of an abundance, of a great sensuality. They represent a happy season, which breaks with the tragic time of war. In all these images femininity is enriched with all its remotest, more immanent, more mysterious meanings: a kind of inescapable need, of unmovable stateness, of primitive and unconscious fertility»

 (Marino Marini in De Micheli 1999, cit. in M. Tamassia, in "Memorie dell'antico nell'arte del Novecento", 2009).