Vertigo, 2024

The plaster cast of Antonio Canova's Hebe (1796) – headless and armless, arranged on a white plinth and turned so that it looks towards the corner of the display – is associated with a long drape that falls to the floor, as if to extend the presence of the robe the female figure is adorned with. The fabric features the image of a daytime sky animated by clouds, and on it lies a Genesa Crystal containing an amethyst stone.
Paolini appropriates the image of the goddess Hebe – cupbearer of the Gods and symbol of eternal beauty – by virtue of her light step, a dancer's, in a reverent and silent attitude. “Canova's Hebe escapes and subtracts herself from our gaze: even the sky seems to surround her body as well, making way for an imminent, dizzying disappearance", the artist remarks. Indeed, the title Vertigo – taken from a work from 2020 – alludes to the figure's position: viewed from behind in a corner of the room, she is on the edge of a threshold, in the act of entering an unknown dimension, hovering between earthly contingency and ineffable Beauty. The ideal sphere of the Absolute is represented by the Genesa – the symbol of perfect geometry – and the amethyst stone, connoted by an ancient meaning of purity and spirituality.