"David" by Jago in Naples

The monumental entrance hall of the Gallerie d’Italia in Naples regularly hosts works of particular value from both the Intesa Sanpaolo art collections and important Italian and international museums, fostering a relationship of exchange and sharing.

David comes from the Jago Museum, a museum-laboratory located in the Church of Sant’Aspreno ai Crociferi, where the artist creates innovative projects focused on information, entertainment, and inclusion through art, while also enhancing the historical and artistic heritage of the Rione Sanità, a historic neighborhood in Naples. A contemporary artist primarily working in sculpture, Jago bases his research on traditional techniques.

As in other works, here too he draws from classical iconography and the tradition of the great masters, reinterpreting the myth of David and Goliath in a modern way to tell a different story, yet still full of courage and redemption. The iconography is recognizable through the proud posture of the woman (echoing Michelangelo’s famous David), the sling, and the stone (symbol of Jago’s latest masterpieces) ready to be thrown.

The David project began in 2020 with Jago’s handmade creation of the first clay model. From that initial image, a plaster model was developed, which Jago is currently converting into marble using a 4-meter-tall block of Carrara marble.

JAGO is an Italian sculptor who was born in Frosinone in 1987. His artistic research is rooted in traditional techniques, and he establishes a direct relationship with the public using videos and social networks to share the production process.  At the age of 24 he was chosen to participate in the 54^th edition of the Venice Biennale, exhibiting his marble bust of Pope Benedict XVI (2009). The sculpture, created when he was young, was subsequently revisited in 2016 and named Habemus Hominem, becoming one of his most famous works. In 2019, on the occasion of the ESA's Beyond mission, JAGO was the first artist to send a marble sculpture (The First Baby) to the International Space Station. In November 2020 he created the Look Down installation, which was displayed in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples, and then exhibited in the Al Haniyah desert in Fujairah (UAE). On 1 October 2021, JAGO installed his Piety in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, in Piazza del Popolo (Rome), and, on 12 March 2022, he inaugurated the exhibition JAGO – The Exhibition at Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome.  On 20 May 2023, the workshop in the Church of Sant'Aspreno ai Crociferi (Naples) opened to the public as the Jago Museum.