111 - Saglietti Angelo (Cuneo, 1913- Turin, 1979) “Machine Gunners”, 1942. 33 x 24 x 49 cm - 35 x 18 x 45 cm

Saglietti Angelo (Cuneo, 1913- Turin, 1979) “Machine Gunners”, 1942. 33 x 24 x 49 cm - 35 x 18 x 45 cm Pair of bronze-patinated aluminum sculptures depicting two soldiers Italians; one lying down with a rifle, the other kneeling aiming at a machine gun. In the first sculpture, on the edge of the base is engraved: *“G. Saglietti A. XX”* Unique sculptures of remarkable beauty whose substantial “damnatio memoriae” gives it even more charm. As you can see from the photo in the catalogue published in 1942 from the General Staff of the Royal Army these are two figures of the three which made up the work “The machine gunners” presented by the Piedmontese artist at the First Exhibition of Italian Artists in Arms, a work which later went dismembered with the precipitation of war events. The exhibition was inaugurated in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni on 7 June 1942. Only 126 Italian "artist-soldiers" in service exhibited there in the army on the fronts of North Africa, the Balkans, Greece and Russia. Between the autumn of 1942 and the winter of 1943 the exhibition became itinerant. in fascist Europe and was exhibited in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest. Cnf: 1942 – “First Exhibition of Italian Artists in Arms”, catalogue, Rome, Royal Army General Staff, pp. 71, 325.