Mario Donizetti - The Good Pope

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. The work in question features an effigy of John XXIII, born Angelo Roncalli (1881-1963), nicknamed the Good Pope. He was appointed pontiff in 1958, beatified in 2000, and canonized in 2014 by Pope Francis.

The aesthetic of Bergamo-born Mario Donizetti draws on a classical conception of artistic creation, characterized by a naturalistic rendering of the subject, marked by a strong idealization. Donizetti, in fact, turns his gaze to the formal principles of ancient art and the Renaissance, which had reworked and embraced those principles. For this reason, this artist's works are distinguished by their highly naturalistic depiction of the subject and an overall compositional harmony imbued with a serene and calm idealizing aura. In this portrait of John XXIII, Donizetti chooses a profile shot, drawing, again with a philological revival of classicism, from portraits on ancient coins. Indeed, the sculpture's circular shape also confirms this stylistic choice. As for the execution, the perfect naturalistic rendering that characterizes Donizetti's works remains, with an added touch, in this case, of realism in the depiction of the face and clothing. The form is, therefore, less idealized, even in the sculpture's undulating surface which makes the subject more intense and vibrant.

Mario Donizetti was born in Bergamo in 1932. He is considered one of the most important exponents of realist art, internationally renowned for the spirit of his artistic production, which draws on models and techniques of the past and contextualizes them in the present. Many famous people have posed for his works, including Marta Abba, Jean Louis Barrault, Valentina Cortese, Rossella Falk, Giorgio Albertazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Marcel Marceau, Rudolph Nureyev, and Gianandrea Gavazzeni. In 1983, the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan honored him with a retrospective exhibition. His frescoes are in the Abbey of Pontida, and a Crucifixion is housed in the Museum of the Treasury of St. Peter's in the Vatican. Several of his portraits have been published in Time magazine.

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