By Anne Leader
Sculptor, painter, draughtsman and printmaker Marino Marini was born on 27 February in 1901 in Pistoia. Trained at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Marini opened his own studio there in 1924. Both abstract and historicist, Marini’s works drew inspiration from Roman, Etruscan, early Renaissance and contemporary art. Marini spent time in Paris in the 1920s where he came to know members of the avant-garde, including Picasso and Braque. He traveled widely in Europe and America over the next decades, coming to know the major players of modernism. Marini was especially interested in the equestrian figure, which he revisited many times over his career.
Reference: Silvia Lucchesi. “Marini, Marino.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
Horseman, 1947, Norton Simon Art Foundation, M.1968.08.2.S, © 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SIAE, Rome
The Pilgrim (Il pellegrino), bronze, 1939, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Miracolo, 1959/60, Neue Pinakothek, Munich
The Angel of the City (L’angelo della città), 1948, bronze, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice 76.2553 PG 183 © Marino Marini, by SIAE 2008