Floriano Bodini - John Paul II

Portraiture is one of the most widespread artistic expressions, especially in painting, but also in sculpture, throughout the ages. Portraiture is, first and foremost, a description of the subject depicted, an attempt to convey their physiognomy and individual characteristics truthfully and naturally. With the progressive evolution of artistic research, the physiognomic description of the subject has also been accompanied by a psychological one. Therefore, over the centuries, portraiture has also become a means of introspective investigation of the subject, their character, and their state of mind. The processes of abstraction brought about by contemporary art have contributed to this type of investigation. In this case, we are faced with a type of celebratory portrait created to commemorate and exalt the figure of Pope John Paul II.

This work is extremely interesting in showing how sculptor Floriano Bodini interpreted the type of commissioned work. Indeed, this bas-relief differs from the Gemonio artist's usual production, characterized by notable expressionistic tensions based on formal deformations. In this celebratory portrait, however, Bodini favors a heavily static form, constructed from an aggregation of monumental and geometric volumes. Indeed, the subject is structured in a highly rational manner, according to a calculated purity of form and line. In this way, the subject's volumes are broken down according to a conception of space that is not univocal, but complex. Furthermore, the composition is further enriched, in its pure aesthetic, by the complex of signs, alphabetic and otherwise, inscribed on the surface, exalting the subject not only in the plastic monumentality of its form but also, symbolically, in the spiritual grandeur of the sitter depicted.

Floriano Bodini was born in 1933 in Gemonio and passed away in 2005 in Milan. He was an important sculptor, engraver, and medallist. He trained in Milan at the Brera Academy. Here, in the mid-1950s, he joined the "Existential Realism" group. His first solo exhibition was in 1952. In 1962, he participated in the Venice Biennale. In 1968, he created the sculpture "Portrait of a Pope," which was exhibited in the Vatican Museums. Bodini's works are present in numerous public and private collections, and the sculptor created a significant number of public works, both nationally and internationally. In 1998, the Floriano Bodini Civic Museum was inaugurated in Gemonio.

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