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Endimione dormiente, 1980

GPO-0431

Sleeping Endymion

Primed canvases, torn photo print

Five canvases 60 x 90 cm each, photo print 67 x 72 cm, overall dimensions 90 x 115 cm

Galleria Ugo Ferranti, Rome

From 1985 to 2005 on loan at GNAM Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome

A photograph of Endimione dormiente (1819-22) by Antonio Canova reclines over five canvases propped up against the wall in a vertical or horizontal position – four of them have been reversed, and one is viewed from the recto – while some of the torn fragments from the same photograph, torn along the lower edge, are inserted in the stretchers of the first two canvases.
The same theme can be found in two other variants, made in 1981 (GPO-0449) and in 1990 (GPO-0660), respectively.

Antonio Canova, Endimione dormiente, 1819-22, marble, 93 x 185 cm, Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House, Bakewell.

1980 Rome, Galleria Ugo Ferranti, Giulio Paolini. Ritratto dell’artista come modello, from 18 November.
Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag.
Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 640 (flipped horizontally).
M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 431 p. 442, col. repr.
Entry by Maddalena Disch, 11/05/2026