Maurizio D'Agostini (1946)

Maurizio D'Agostini (1946) Uranus (the magician), 2009 Painted semire terracotta 67.8 x 41.8 x 42.8 cm Signature: "M D" engraved on base Date: "09" engraved on base Other inscriptions: title ("URANO") and dedication ("A G. HOLST") engraved on base Provenance: Veneto Banca SpA in LCA Bibliography: F. Girardello, The Planets, the cosmic invention of Maurizio D'Agostini, in Catalogue of the exhibition at the G. B. Cima da Conegliano Foundation, 2009 G. Grossato, D'Agostini on the trail of Holst, and the planets become sculptures, in Il Giornale di Vicenza, July 9, 2009 M. Valediano, An argonaut along enigmatic routes, in Il Giornale di Vicenza, Nov. 18, 2009 G. Grossato, The planets of Maurizio D'Agostini, in Artantis, Palermo, July-August 2011 G. Grossato, I pianeti di Maurizio D'Agostini a casa dell'astronomo Piazzi, in Il Giornale di Vicenza," May 11, 2011 Aa. Vv., Encyclopedia Contemporary Artists, Rome, 2013, pp. 128-129 B. Buscaroli and P. Levi, texts by, I pianeti di Maurizio D'Agostini. Homage to Gustav Holst, Costa di Mezzate, 2016, pp. 9, 11, 26-27 (ill.) D. Radini Tedeschi and S. Pieralice, "Atlas of Art," Novara, 2020, sub vocem G. Maritati, The Atlas of Art 2020, in TG1, 11.06.2020 A. Keran, The Planets of Maurizio D'Agostini. The metaphysical key to Matter, in Amedit, autumn 2020 Exhibits: F. Girardello, ed, The Planets. The cosmic invention of Maurizio D'Agostini, Giovanni Battista Cima Foundation, Conegliano, May 1-June 14, 2009 AA. Vv., "The Seven Planets. Homage to Gustav Holst," traveling exhibition in the Veneto Banca offices in Bari (Palazzo Barone Ferrara), Fabriano, Verona, Verbania, 2014 B. Buscaroli and P. Levi, eds, I pianeti di Maurizio D'Agostini. Homage to Gustav Holst, Veneto Banca, 2016 Conservation status. Support: 85% (damaged and plastered parts) Conservation status. Surface: 90% The work is part of a series created by D'Agostini in the early 2000s on the planets, dedicated to Gustav Holst (1874-1934), who had worldwide success with the suite "The Planets." "I became fascinated," says the artist, who had already sketched Man of the Stars in pastel in 1999 (Buscaroli and Levi 2016, p. 11), "with the musical suite of Gustav Holst's 'The Seven Planets' at the home of friends, the Borgato couple. Paola and Luigi Borgato are piano makers. That evening they invited me to dinner. With us was also pianist Igor Roma. It was a beautiful Fall evening in 2001, and after dinner, to conclude that warm and jovial meeting, Igor took a seat at the piano (a Borgato grand piano, of course!), an exceptional instrument as black as night and as shiny as a mirror. And there, with his fingers running furiously over the keyboard, Igor introduced me to Gustav Holst's War-bearing Mars. The impact was immediate, I was literally captivated by those powerful sounds, some of which I already knew from hearing them in some action movie soundtracks. I confess that I did not know Holst, the composer, but his music, a little! I was going through a period of creative crisis, as has always happened to me, on and off. I was in a situation where I was in great need, absolute need of a spark to light the fuse of my creative imagination, and Mars the warbearer was real dynamite! That famous evening, returning home, my soul was wonderfully well. An ambitious, superb project came to my mind: I would make my seven planets based on the music of Gustav Holst. Listening to the divine Holst, my characters were born within seven years. I was intoxicated by those musics. My goal was to materialize those sounds according to my visions, to be able to create sculptures that were able to represent the music I was listening to. It was a feat of which I am very proud, a research and experimentation that took me very far into the exhilarating world of mystery and the unconscious. And thus were born in temporal order Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Mercury and Uranus." (M. D'Agostini, excerpt from Carnet de voyage, in Buscaroli and Levi 2016, p. 11). The allegorical significance of each planet is well summarized by Beatrice Buscaroli in the introduction to the 2016 exhibition (p. 9): "the seduction of Venus, the musical royalty of Jupiter, the imperative absoluteness of Mars, the swirling fluidity of Saturn, the protean and vibratile dimension of Mercury, the mystical gravity of Neptune, the labyrinthine structure of Uranus." The cycle-as it unfolds over the years-allows D'Agostini to recall his own apprenticeship in engraving, embossing and drawing at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vicenza, combining them with the experience of monumental sculpture, and the in-depth study of ceramics, which since 2004 he has begun to paint with oils and acrylics in the manner of the ancients (Buscaroli and Levi 2016, p. 37). Thus was born a way of making sculpture that declares the