“La gloria di Dio è di celare le cose, la gloria dei re è di investigarle”, 1969

Archive number

GPO-0186

English title

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings to investigate them”

Technique

Ink on paper

Collection

Dismantled work

Description

At the top of a sheet of letter paper Paolini wrote by hand the maxim from the Book of Proverbs (Proverbs 25,2) contained in the title.
The work was reproduced, with a different quotation, in a variant from the same year (GPO-0176) and in a print edition produced in 1970 (GPE-0005).

Sources

Quotation from the Holy Bible, Proverbs (25,2).

Exhibitions

1970	Turin, Galleria Notizie, Giulio Paolini. Vedo, 18 February - 20 March, cited in the checklist of exhibited works, not repr.

Bibliography

•	T. Trini, “Giulio Paolini, un decennio. Parte prima: Il vero e il visibile”, in Data 3, no. 7-8, (Milan), Summer, 1973, p. 61, not repr.; republished in Tommaso Trini. Mezzo secolo di arte intera. Scritti 1964-2014, edited by L. Cerizza (Milan: Johan & Levi Editore, 2016), p. 105, not repr.).
•	M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 186 p. 200, not repr.

Entry by Maddalena Disch, 29/01/2026