Don Giovanni nel deserto, 1992
GPO-0697
Don Giovanni in the Desert
Collage of photographic reproductions, plexiglas sheet, clip-on spotlights
Two plexiglas sheets 47 x 45.5 cm each, overall dimensions 47 x 63 x 27 cm
Dismantled work
A photographic reproduction of Saint John the Baptist in the Desert (1445-48) by Domenico Veneziano is held in between two plexiglas sheets by way of two clip-on spotlights clamped to the sides (the one to the left is before the image while the one to the right is behind the image). The image is also surrounded by four reproductions of lit spotlights turned in the direction of the saint, as well as by a further photographic reflector inserted in the area corresponding to the cloth he lays down with his left hand. This fifteenth-century scene thus finds itself surrounded by a series of reflectors, some of which real, others virtual, turned towards the figure of the saint as if to illuminate the moment of a revelation.
The same theme was developed in a variant made that same year (GPO-0699) and also corresponds to a first formulation conceived in 1990 (GPO-0664).
Domenico Veneziano, San Giovanni Battista nel deserto, 1445-50, oil on wood, 28.4 × 31.8 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
| 1992-93 | Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, Giulio Paolini, 27 October 1992 - 24 February 1993. |
| • | Inside Out – Museo Città Eventi, exhibition catalogue, Prato, Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci (Milan: Edizioni Charta, 1993), col. repr. p. 53 (exhibition view Milan 1992). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 697 p. 712, col. repr. (exhibition view Milan 1992). |
