Stanza del Liocorno, 1986
GPO-0584
Room of the Unicorn
Oil-painted canvas, stage costume, plexiglas case
Plexiglas case 65 x 52 x 52 cm
Private collection
The plexiglas case holds a painted canvas representing the background of Raphael's Dama dell'Unicorno (1505-07). It is half-hidden by an antique women's costume – folded and wrapped, with several parts of it emerging from the case – which "replaces" the presence of the lady, omitted from the painted canvas.
The mise-en-scène of a potential painting, the Stanza del Liocorno offers the scenic scaffolding that is needed to imagine the subject that is announced.
The work is part of a group of three variants made between 1986 and 1987 (GPO-0583, GPO-0584, GPO-0590), followed in 2005 by a fourth version (GPO-0907). The work are distinguished by the different object that each time is related to the framing of the sixteenth-century arcade.
Raffaello Sanzio, Dama con Liocorno, 1505-07, canvas mounted on wood, 67 x 56 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome.
| 1990 | Bologna, Galleria Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Villa delle Rose, Giulio Paolini. Hotel de l’Univers, 27 May - 29 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works no. 28 p. 17, repr. p. 99. |
| 1990-91 | Brussels, Centre Albert Borchette, Entretien. Quatres générations d’artistes italiens, 17 September - 15 December, touring to: Toronto, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Italian Cultural Institute, 18 January - 21 February 1991, col. repr. p. 85, referred to in the introduction by P.G. Castagnoli n. pag. |
| 1991 | Milan, Galleria Christian Stein, Anselmo, Bianchi, Kounellis, Merz, Paolini, Salvadori, from 1 July. |
| • | La collection Christian Stein. Un regard sur l’art italien (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée and Art Édition, 1992), col. repr. p. 195, catalogue entry p. 295. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), col. repr. p. 292 (erroneously dated “1990”). |
| • | M. Disch. Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 2 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 584 p. 599, col. repr. |
| • | Tragicomica. Prospettive sull’arte italiana dal secondo Novecento a oggi, exhibition catalogue, Rome, MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo (Rome and Venice: Maxxi and Marsilio Arte, 2026), erroneously cited as exhibited work p. 524, col. repr. p. 267. |
