Parnaso, 1979
GPO-0416
Parnassus
Pencil and nails on primed canvas, pencil on wall, artificial flowers
Central canvas 80 x 120 cm, overall dimensions on wall 240 x 360 cm
Private collection
The vanishing point simulated by the two trapezoidal canvases converges in the central canvas, topped by the drawing of a figure wearing an antique costume and holding a laurel wreath in his raised hand, and a flower in the other. The perspectival simulation is corroborated by the nails and the thickness outlined in pencil along one vertical side of the trapezoidal canvases. Before the wall the artificial white flowers, strewn about on the ground as though they were spoiled, serve as a counterpoint, on this side of the ideal space of the representation, to the one held by the drawn figure.
The title refers to the name of the mountain that in Greek mythology was consecrated to the worship of the god Apollo and was inhabited by the nine Muses. Figuratively, the citation locates the space of the representation (evoked by way of the perspectival construction) as belonging to the classical dimension of Art.
This work is the last in the group of six variants on the same theme, developed between 1977 and 1979 (cf. GPO-0375, GPO-0384, GPO-0394, GPO-0395, GPO-0404).
Figure from Thomas Hope, Costumes of the Greeks and Romans (New York: Dover Publications, 1962), plate 285 (“Roman dresses”).
| 1979 | Milan, Studio Marconi, Giulio Paolini. Atto unico in tre quadri, 18 October - 25 November, repr. pp. 40-41, referred to in the texts by C. Bertelli pp. 7-9, G. Vattimo, pp. 15-16. |
| 1980 | Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Giulio Paolini, 10 April - 26 May, touring to: Oxford, The Museum of Modern Art, 8 June - 20 July, cited in the checklist of exhibited works and repr. p. 58. |
| • | “Il sublime e l’insignificante. Il mito dei due amanti o l’idea del sublime di Giulio Paolini”, in Gran Bazaar 4 (Milan), September-October, 1979, repr. pp. 154-155. |
| • | D.A. Williams, “The eye of power. The works of Giulio Paolini”, in ZG 1 (London), 1980, n. pag., repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Werke und Schriften 1960-1980 (Lucerne: Kunstmuseum Luzern, 1981), repr. n. pag. (exhibition view Amsterdam 1980). |
| • | C. Ferrari, “Giulio Paolini”, in Luoghi del silenzio imparziale, exhibition catalogue [In labirinto], Milan, Palazzo della Permanente (Milan: Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore, 1981), p. 111, not repr. |
| • | Identité Italienne. L’art en Italie depuis 1959, edited by G. Celant (Paris-Florence: Centre Georges Pompidou and Centro Di, 1981), repr. p. 607. |
| • | S. Isler, Del bello intelligibile. Semiotische Analyse zu sechs Werken von Giulio Paolini, PhD dissertation (Zurich: Philosophische Fakultät I der Universität Zürich, 1983), pp. 189-190, 193-194, 199-213, not repr. |
| • | Giulio Paolini, vol. Images/Index (Villeurbanne: Le Nouveau Musée, 1984), repr. p. 138. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. De l’atelier à l’exposition, exhibition catalogue, Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 1987, repr. p. 59. |
| • | F. Poli, Giulio Paolini (Turin: Lindau, 1990), repr. no. 92. |
| • | M. Disch, “Giulio Paolini. Hors-d’oeuvre”, in Giulio Paolini. La voce del pittore – Scritti e interviste 1965-1995, edited by Id. (Lugano: ADV Publishing House, 1995), pp. 80-82, 88, 92, 109, repr. no. 9. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. Von heute bis gestern / Da oggi a ieri, exhibition catalogue, Graz, Neue Galerie im Landesmuseum Joanneum (Ostfildern-Ruit: Cantz Verlag, 1998), repr. p. 27. |
| • | G. Di Genova, Storia dell’Arte Italiana del ‘900 per generazioni. Generazione Anni Quaranta, vol. 6.1 (Bologna: Edizioni Bora, 2007), p. 13, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 416 p. 424, repr. |
| • | L’arte moderna in Intesa Sanpaolo. L’ultimo novecento, edited by C. Pirovano and F. Tedeschi (Milan: Intesa Sanpaolo and Mondadori Electa, 2013), pp. 221-222 (referred to in the catalogue entry by F. Tedeschi related to the cycle of the Studi per "Parnaso"), repr. p. 222. |
| • | J. Lageira, “Giulio Paolini. Ut pictura poesis”, in Id., Regard oblique. Essais sur la perception (Brussels: La Lettre volée, 2013), pp. 93, 97-100, 103, repr. p. 94. |
| • | Giulio Paolini. A come Accademia, exhibition catalogue, Rome, Accademia Nazionale di San Luca (Rome: Gangemi Editore, 2023), repr. p. 163 (exhibition view Milan 1979). |
