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ANIMALS:
Miracle - Marino Marini
Italian sculptor and painter who held himself aloof from contemporary
groups and movements, but who has been recognized since World
War II as one of the outstanding creative figures in contemporary
sculpture. Marini assimilated the forms of archaic art and combined
their suggestion of the primitive with a dynamic vitality. His
favorite theme was the horse and the rider, which he represented
motionless, but imbued with inner energy. They have been interpreted,
particularly in the post-war years, as carrying a kind of tragic
symbolism, distorted and agonized, perhaps as a result of the
artist's WW II experiences, when he saw the peasants of Lombardy
fleeing on horseback to escape being bombed. "The Miracle",
other versions of which may be found in European and American
collections, carries to the extreme of sculptural possibilty the
dramatic situation of a rider on the point of falling from his
rearing horse. Marino describes his inspiration for the horse
and rider series: "My equestrian figures are symbols of the
anguish I feel when I survey contemporary events. Little by little
my horses become more restless, their riders less and less able
to control them... I am trying to illustrate the last stages of...
the myth of the victorious hero".
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