Delfo (II), 1968

“The painting involves the same dimensions and the same technique as Delfo [GPO-0085]. It reproduces my image no longer at the same level as the stretcher, but in a close-up, whole: I am wearing a long white tunic and holding Averroè [GPO-0138] in my right hand, and the face from Saffo [GPO-0144] in my left. The face overlaps and does away with my gaze, the same way that in Delfo my gaze could not be perceived because it was covered by the intersecting stretcher bars. Behind me, acting as a background, is one of my works, also dated to 1965, a white staircase whose perspective is in an infinite point [A J.L.B., GPO-0087]”.1
Like the first version of Delfo, the second one as well – to be followed by Delfo (III) in 1978 (GPO-0372) and Delfo (IV) in 1997 (GPO-0787) – is a paradigmatic self-portrait, almost a declaration of intent. Wearing modern clothing and barefoot, topped by an ancient tunic, Paolini presents himself as a philosopher (Averroes's flags) and a poet (Sappho's mask), against a background whose perspective is turned towards infinity (evoked by a tribute to Borges). In the allegorical mise-en-scène, the artist adds his own identity to the vanishing line of an elective "dynasty": “The problem – wrote Paolini at the time – is subtracting my identity from its role and instead assuming it to fill an elective, historical, and hypothetical role”.2

1 G. Paolini in C. Lonzi, Autoritratto (Bari: De Donato Editore, 1969), pp. 23-24, reprint (Milan: Et al./Edizioni, 2010), p. 17, English edition (Brussels-London: Divided Publishing, 2021), p. 28. The photograph was taken by Anna Piva in the artist's studio.
2 G. Paolini in G. Celant, Giulio Paolini (New York: Sonnabend Press, 1972), p. 75 (revised translation, republished in Giulio Paolini 1960-1972, edited by G. Celant [Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2003], p. 234), reprint (Cinisello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale, 2019), p. 75.