Aligi Sassu - Ophelia

As is often the case with Aligi Sassu's artistic output, the iconography of this work is mythological and essentially symbolist. In this case, however, the artist sets aside his favorite subject, the horse, to create a scene featuring the female figure. Indeed, another key focus of Sassu's interest is the exaltation of the human body, especially the nude, highlighting its plastic and anatomical qualities. This tapestry is inspired by Shakespeare's Ophelia. Among the main characters in Hamlet, the girl is depicted in the moment before drowning in the river.

The technique employed by Aligi Sassu for the composition of this tapestry takes on a distinct freshness and spontaneous execution. This owes much to the artist's skill, who manages to construct the representation with a rapid and concise touch, using long diagonal strokes, while maintaining narrative clarity and concrete forms. Even in this literary subject, the great dynamism of Aligi Sassu's pictorial style remains unchanged; the entire composition is indeed lively and extremely vibrant. Even the choice of colors takes on decidedly expressionist overtones: the female figure of Ophelia, with her white complexion and pink dress, stands out clearly against the dark vegetation characterized by cool blue and green tones.

Aligi Sassu, born in Milan in 1912 and died in 2000, was a painter and sculptor. His painting focused primarily on the representation of movement and physical strength, which is why the subject of a 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 struggles.

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