Aligi Sassu - Chiron the Centaur

The subject of the equestrian monument, or the man on horseback, has very ancient origins. It dates back to the classical world, the earliest example of which is the "Rampin Knight," and it had a fundamental political importance for Roman art. Generally, these are sculptures in the round, but there are also cases where this subject appears on painted supports. Themes inspired by the man on horseback, the centauromachy, and the equestrian world in general have thus permeated the entire history of art, not only Western art, and have become a focus of research for contemporary artists such as Marino Marini, Arturo Martini, and Aligi Sassu.

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. However, the exaltation of forms, both anatomical and those of the surrounding nature, prevails, almost inflating them. 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. In short, Aligi Sassu's artistic work embodies a strongly classical conception, evident not only in his choice of subjects but also in his plastic exaltation of anatomical beauty, together with a contemporary feeling, in the expressive strength and dynamism of his compositions.

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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