Marino Marini

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in the 1950s

Patrick Waldberg, Herbert Read & Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, Marino Marini, Complete Works, New York, 1970, no. 251a, illustration of the bronze version p. 360
Giovanni Carandente, Marino Marini, Catalogue raisonné of the sculptures, Milan, 1998, illustration of the unpainted ceramic p. 229

The work is glued to a composite wooden base. There are repaired breaks to each of the four feet and a few further possible restored breaks to the base which probably all occurred during the artist's process and appear to be beneath the original glaze. This work is in overall good condition.
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Cavaliere is an excellent example of Marini's most celebrated theme, that of the horse and rider and is an extremely rare example of Marini working in ceramic. In choosing the subject of horse and rider, Marini draws on a long established tradition of equestrian painting and sculpture that had its prominent place in more or less every period throughout the history of Western art; from small-scale votive renderings of early civilisations, to the grand, triumphant statues of modern-day rulers and military leaders. While firmly grounding his art in this tradition, in contrast to the often bombastic and politically motivated sculptures created by his predecessors, Marini's horses and riders acquire a more spiritual, even mystical character and become a timeless symbol of humanity.

As the artist himself commented: 'For many centuries, the image of the rider has maintained an epic character. Its object was to pay homage to a conqueror, as, for example, Marcus Aurelius whose statue on the Capitol, inspired the majority of the equestrian statues of the Italian Renaissance, as well as that of Louis XIV, which ornaments the Place des Victoires in Paris. However, the nature of the relations which have existed for so long between men and horses...has been greatly changed during the last half century: the horse has been replaced in its economic and military functions by the machine... It has quickly become a sign of luxury. It can even be said that, for the majority of our contemporaries, the horse has acquired a mythical character. With Odilon Redon, Picasso and Chirico, the horse has been transformed into a kind of dream, into a fabulous animal' (quoted in Herbert Read, Patrick Waldberg & Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, op. cit., p. 491).