E, 1963

A colour reproduction of Bronzino’s Eleanor of Toledo (ca. 1560) by Alessandro Allori1 is mounted on a masonite support with adhesives on the back so that it protrudes from the stretcher that is just slightly wider. On the verso, an image cut out of a geometric drawing handbook depicts a close-knit grid in which the letter “E” is legible in the central square of the first column to the left.
This work is part of a group of works (from GPO-0028 to GPO-0049) whose common denominator is the presence of an intervention on both the recto and the verso of the painting. Surfaces of various types take turns appearing on the recto (painted paper, graph paper, photographic reproductions, shaped wooden panels), while on the verso (hidden from view) we find the details of images and printed words taken from magazines or from books. The title, when specified, refers to a textual element present on the verso. The artist explains that: “Just as on the surface various elements alternate among themselves, but always remain ‘blind’, in the sense that they tend not to supply an image, but are there for their own sake, occupying that given space, so the title itself is absolutely autonomous with respect to the surface [...], constituted by a fragment of words and, at times, images, following the signature and the date, on a white paper square on the back of the picture” (1972).2
In E, just as in two other works from the same year (GPO-0042, GPO-0043), an image appears in its own right for the first time. The choice of subjects does not follow any logical criterion; the image is first of all involved as such: the "iconography is random, almost involuntary", says the artist; "the image is as though it were the image of the image, almost as if to justify the very existence of the painting".3
Along with the variant of Van Dyck's Portrait of a Lady (GPO-0042), the work is also the first "citation" of an old master painting.

1 For a long time, the authorship of this painting was unclear owing to the soubriquet for Alessandro Allori, who was often referred to as “Bronzino”, like his master, Agnolo di Cosimo, notoriously known as "il Bronzino".
2 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 34 (revised translation, republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant [Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003], p. 122), reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), p. 34. Cf. also the artist's remarks in C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore, 1969), p. 367, reprint (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), p. 280, English edition (Brussels-London: Divided Publishing, 2021), p. 320..
3 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini, op. cit. (New York: 1972), p. 33; republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, op. cit. (Milan: 2003), p. 110 (revised translation).