Memento mori, 2022
GPO-1135
Fragments of plaster casts, xerox reproduction, plexiglas sheet, plexiglas cases, white plinth
Xerox reproduction 28.5 x 28.5 cm, sheet 40 x 40 cm, two cases: 50 x 50 x 50 cm, 40 x 40 x 40 cm, plinth 90 x 65 x 65 cm, overall dimensions 140 x 65 x 65 cm
Private collection
The larger case includes another smaller one that contains the plaster casts of anatomical parts, arranged one above the other, while at the very top of the case, and turned so that it is askew, is the reproduction of a detail of the painting Saint Januarius Emerges Unscathed from the Furnace (1646) by Jusepe de Ribera. The detail is held down by a plexiglas sheet with the fragment of a plaster cast of a male head on top of it.
“The various elements allude to a vanitas, evoked by the title of the work”, the artist says. “In particular, the pictorial image, featuring the face of a young man screaming in the foreground, underscores and heightens the dramatic nature of the scene that is nearing an end”.1
1 G. Paolini in conversation with M. Disch, 10 April 2022.
Photographic reproduction: Jusepe de Ribera, San Gennaro esce illeso dalla fornace, 1646, oil on copper, Duomo, Cappella del tesoro di San Gennaro, Naples.
| 2022 | Florence, Museo Novecento, Giulio Paolini. Quando è il presente?, 18 March - 7 September, col. repr. no. 3 p. 6, repr. p. 40, col. repr. pp. 129, 130, 132-133 (exhibition views), entry by B. Della Casa and M. Disch p. 112, referred to in the texts by S. Risaliti p. 48, B. Della Casa p. 60. |
