Estasi di San Sebastiano, 2024
GPO-1174
Ecstasy of Saint Sebastian
Xerox reproduction in plexiglas case, black pencil, gilt frame, collage on passepartout, plexiglas case
Case with reproduction 41 x 41 x 3 cm, frame 30 cm, collage on passepartout 18 x 17.5 cm, case 50 x 50 x 50 cm, overall dimensions 50 x 50 x 50 cm
Collection of the artist
The work can be displayed on a white plinth (90 x 50 x 50 cm) or on another support (table or other piece of furniture). The installation always includes a protective case (50 x 50 x 50 cm).
The circular gilded frame inscribes a reproduction of Lorenzo Costa's Saint Sebastian (1490-95), applied in a staggered position on a white passe-partout. The frame and collage are placed on a plexiglas case, which holds the image of a cosmic nebula. The whole is pierced in the centre by a black pencil.
The key to reading the work lies precisely in the pencil: like the arrows that strike Saint Sebastian, the pencil is for the artist, in an allegorical sense, the instrument of “martyrdom” that induces him to constantly renew his attempt to establish contact with an absolute dimension, which is here represented by the cosmic image. Similarly, the gilded frame – the gold recalls the sublime, the circle represents a perfect form – circumscribes the framing of a painting, that is, it defines the impassable threshold of an imponderable space.
The theme of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian has been delved into by the artist since 1999, on several occasions and in various “self-portraits”, both among his large-format works (GPO-0868, GPO-0978, GPO-1064) and his works on paper (cf. amongst others GPC-0939, GPC-1628, GPC-1630, GPC-1632, GPC-2096, GPC-2154).
Lorenzo Costa, San Sebastiano, 1490-95, tempera on wood, 55 x 49 cm, Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence.
| 2024 | Bologna, Galleria Studio G7, Giulio Paolini. Un posto vuoto, 24 September 2024 - 4 January 2025. |
