GD1993.7.1

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 161; Larghezza: 98,5

olio su tela

Exhibited at the 3rd Quadriennale d'Arte Nazionale in Rome in 1939, the painting presents a stylised portrait of Mussolini whose face, without any particular modifications, recalls the effigy of his sculpture “Dux - Sintesi plastica in acciaio” (Dux - Plastic synthesis in steel), which had been created ten years earlier and presented at the 1930 Venice Biennale and the 1937 Exhibition of Italian Art in Berlin, and which had received great praise from the Duce himself. In the painting, the dictator is depicted as a sort of modern robot: a fearless and invincible helmsman guiding the country towards victory and breaking the chains of sanctions that would like to harness it. The three planes in the air recall the great successes achieved by the Italian air force on the occasion of the famous trans-Atlantic flights made by the flotilla of seaplanes captained by Italo Balbo. The trenches indicate the origins of Fascism, whose ideological germs had developed in the sacrifice of the soldiers engaged on the fronts of the Great War. Oil on canvas depicting a metal-looking humanoid figure holding a rudder with both hands. At the bottom a broken chain and part of the European and African continent are painted. On the right three aeroplanes in flight draw attention to the trench painted on the upper part of the work.

GG2008.2

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 47; Larghezza: 15; Profondità: 11,5

bronzo

In this sculpture, whose iconographic setting was taken up again in Bianca with fan, exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1932, Messina portrayed Bianca Clerici Fochessati, his future companion and inspirational muse, with whom he shared a friendship with Eugenio Montale at that time, two years after their first meeting in 1924. Bianca's slender figure is plastically resolved with a dynamic lightness of Art Nouveau matrix, which, however, already prefigures the classicist approach of Messina's later production. Bronze sculpture depicting Bianca Clerici Fochessati standing, wrapped in a long robe, in the act of placing her hat on the nape of her head.

1900

GX1993.380

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 47; Diametro: 35

maiolica

An identical example of this potiche was presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and is now part of the ceramics collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The vase, marked on the base with the “rooster”, the trademark of the Florentine manufacturer, appeared in the Cantagalli sample album with the following description: “Sicilian Moorish ruby-reflective tile”. Potica decorated with metallic ‘lustre’ (a technique used in Renaissance Indian majolica) on a deep blue background with oriental decorative motifs.