Aligi Sassu - Peace

The iconography of this sculpture certainly has allegorical meanings and can be defined, in some ways, as symbolist precisely because of its allusion to underlying meanings. It is a type of subject that can be traced back to the artistic language of late nineteenth-century painters such as Moreau and Odilon Redon, who, in addition to complex iconographies, also sought a certain formal abstraction. In this specific case, in his interpretation of Peace, Sassu does not choose the mythological iconography of Eirene (a figure of a woman holding a child in her arms) but creates the image of a winged figure.

In this small bas-relief sculpture, a static element by definition, we can appreciate how Aligi Sassu's research was geared toward the expression of dynamic and uncontrollable forces. The sculpture in question demonstrates the artist's interest in the synthesis of form. The subject undergoes a reduction of its physiognomy, and this operation is conducted in a rigorously expressionist manner. Indeed, the entire process of abstraction is conceived to create a curvilinear and sinuous compositional rhythm, an expression of a strong dynamism inseparable from Sassu's work. The exaltation of forms, both anatomical and draped, also prevails, appearing almost inflated. In conclusion, one can observe how, alongside the formal synthesis, there coexists a certain marked plasticity that results in an enlargement of the subject's proportions. All this gives this sculpture the appearance of an ancient artifact, with an archaic feel, further enhancing the effectiveness of its iconic aspect and symbolic value.

Aligi Sassu, born in Milan in 1912 and died in 2000, was a painter and sculptor. In painting, his efforts were primarily focused on the representation of movement and physical strength, which is why the subject of the horse or man on horseback was always congenial to him. In the late 1970s, he and Bruno Munari drafted the pictorial manifesto "Dynamism and Muscular Reform," which called for a return to anti-naturalistic forms in a dynamic sense. Much of his painting, moreover, is inspired by Delacroix and his battles.

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