The Sala dei Fauni hosts a group of fourteen works by sculptor Arturo Martini, as part of the Vitality of Time project, dedicated to promoting Intesa Sanpaolo's modern and contemporary art collections.
The works come from several collections which have converged into the Group's artistic heritage over the years..
The main features of the display, conceived by associate curator of the collections, Luca Massimo Barbero, are the two splendid sculptures portraying La Pisana, one of the most fascinating figures created by Arturo Martini. Dedicated to the main female character in Ippolito Nievo's novel Confessioni di un italiano (Confessions of an Italian), following an interest in the Italian writer shared with a circle of friends, La Pisana portrays a type, that of the reclining figure, which Martini interpreted in several of his works between the 1920s and 1930s, qualifying it with a natural and truthful style. The fluidity of its forms and the sensuality of the pose make it one of his most accomplished works, characterised by metaphysical beauty. Two versions of the sculpture are presented, one made of gypsum, created by Martini in around 1930, originating from the Banco Ambrosiano Veneto collection, and one of the six examples (the first of the six to be precise) in bronze, cast posthumously with the authorisation of the sculptor’s heirs, from the Luigi and Peppino Agrati Collection - an encyclopaedic collection of contemporary art built up between the 1960s and the 1980s and brought together, thanks to the legacy of Cavalier Luigi Agrati, in the historical-artistic heritage protected and exhibited by the Bank.
The exhibition is completed by a terracotta high relief, from the UBI Banca Group, featuring a still life and the bronze sculpture portraying the Lion of
Monterosso – Chimera, which belongs to Fideuram.
