Belvedere, 1992
GPO-0700
Photographic reproduction on acetate film applied to plexiglas sheet, crystal sphere
Plexiglas sheet 80 x 120 cm, overall dimensions ca. 70 x 120 x 20 cm
Dismantled work
A plexiglas sheet carved along the diagonals – a symbolic allusion to the diagonals of Disegno geometrico (1960, GPO-0001) – features the impression on acetate film of a blower of soap bubbles, associated with a group of astral spheres (the young man is taken from Les bulles de savon, ca. 1734, by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin). Before the sheet arranged in a slightly tilted position is a crystal sphere that further enhances the echo of the planet-rounds.
The work is part of a group of works with the same title, made between 1990 and 1996, whose common denominator is a figure located in either an elevated or a central position – in a "belvedere", as the title suggests – and correlated with one or more astral spheres, understood to be the symbolic model of incomparable perfection (cf. GPO-0665, GPO-0666, GPO-0667, GPO-0679, GPO-0698, GPO-0714, GPO-0715, GPO-0776).
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Les bulles de savon, c. 1734, oil on canvas, 61 x 63.2 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
| 1992 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Giulio Paolini, 28 November - 24 December. |
| • | M. Bouisset, Arte Povera (Paris: Éditions du Regard, 1994), repr. p. 110 (exhibition view Paris 1992). |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 700 p. 714, not repr. |
