Toninelli Arte Moderna, Milan

Armando Scamperle, Rome (acquired by 1970)

Sale: Christie's, London, June 29, 1992, lot 60

Galleria l'Affresco, Montecatini Terme

Landau Fine Arts, Montreal

Acquired from the above

Milan, Toninelli Arte Moderna, Marino Marini, mostra personale di pittura, 1963-64

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Marino Marini als Schilder, 1964, no. 56

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Marino Marini als Schilder, 1965, no. 44

Rome, Palazzo Venezia, Mostra di Marino Marini, 1966, no. 123, illustrated in color in the 🉐catalogue

Verona, Galleria dello Scudo, Marino Marini. Mitografia, sculture e dipinti 1939-1966, 1994-95, nไo. 32, illustrat💃ed in color in the catalogue

Franco Russoli, Marino Marini. Pitture e disegni, Milan, 1963, illustrated pl. 113

Franco Russoli, Marino Marini. Paintings and Drawings, New York & London, 1964, illustrated pl. 64

Franco Russoli, Marino Marini. Bilder und Zeichnungen, Stuttgart, 1965, illustrated pl. 109

Alberto Busignani, Marino Marini, Florence, 1968, p. 89

Abram M. Hammacher, Marino Marini. Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, London, 1970, no. 260, illustrated in color

Patrick Waldberg, Herbert Read & Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Marino Marini, Complete Works, New York, 1970, no. 279, illustrated p. 438

Lorenzo Papi & Erich Steingräber, Marino Marini pittore, Ivrea, 1987, no. 🐻390, illustrated in color p. 207

Original canvas. Some minor craquelure in some of the impasto, notably in the face, and above the horse's neck. No retouching is visible under ultra-violet light. This work is in excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Grande teatro is a stunning and monumental composition in which Marini's favorite subject of horse and rider is combined with a theatrical setting.  His canvases are often populated with circus performers, acrobats and jugglers, characterized by a mixture of playfulness and a sense of tragedy.  Echoing the images of harlequins and circus performers found in Picasso's Rose period paintings, the theme of performance was also associaജted in Marini's mind with ancient celebrations and festivals, rites that linked the present with the beginnings of civilization.

 

Fascinated by the richness of oil painting and the freedom it gave him, the artist himself commented: "Painting is a vision of colour.  Painting means entertaining the poetry of fact; and in the process of its making the fact becomes true.  In colour, I looked for the beginning of each new idea.  Whether one should call it painting or drawing, I do not know" (quoted in S. Hunter, Marino Marini, The Sculpture, New York, 1993, p. 37). &♉nbsp;The joy the𝄹 artist found in the medium of oil painting is evident in the overlapping layers of pigment, resulting in the rich surface texture and a vibrant atmosphere.

 

In the present work, the most densely painted areas are those where the figures overlap, mainly in the center of the composition, from which a radiating energy seems to spread centrifugally across the canvas.  While Marini derived his technique of fragmented forms from the Cubists, the depiction of a dynamic performance and bodies in motion certainly had its inspiration in the work of the Futurist painters.  Carlo Pirovano wrote about Grande teatro:  "Here the coherently pictorial syntax leads to the representation on a flat surface of complex perspective and spatial forms, with a dynamic reference to the shortened profiles.  This is not the result of a hedonistic taste for the arabesque, but reflects the way time is divided on the stage.  In works like this one, the echo of Cubist and Futurist simplifications in the manner of Gino Severini and Alberto Magnelli are more evident" (C. Pirovano in Marino Marini, Mitografia (exhibition catalogue), Galleria😼 dello Scudo, Verona, 1994-95, 💎p. 110).