작품 상세

The paintings belong to a frieze which Aristide Sartorio painted in 1902/03 for an exhibition hall, the "Sala del Lazio", in Venice. The aim of the exhibition was to present the current fine and applied arts as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk. Sartorio himself was a painter, sculptor, engraver, illustrator and writer, a friend of D'Annunzio's and Nietzsche's and between 1896-99 teacher at the academy in Weimar. As one of the most influential Italian artists Sartorio was, after his return from Germany, able tocontribute his own ideas for the exhibition without restriction. The ideological idea of his art was to create a new Italian style out of the Renaissance tradition. In the case of this frieze of 1903 he clearly refers to the work of Mantegna and Michelangelo's „Ignudi". Some parts of the frieze arrived later in the Casa del Popolo, Rome, and were donated by the wealthy socialist Guido Celesia for the workers and unions. The house no longer exists. Among his masterpieces is the monumental frieze in the meeting room of the parliament building in Rome depicting the glorification of the Risorgimento (120 m long, 3.8 m high).