THE ANNOUNCEMENT - UGO RIVA

DESCRIPTION

The Annunciation is a popular iconography throughout the history of Western art, as well as Byzantine art. It is recurrent in all historical periods from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. The Annunciation is narrated in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Iconographically, there are simple variations featuring only the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and more complex variations depicting the interior of the Madonna's home or even city views. The angel's most recurring iconographic attributes are the lily, a symbol of purity, and the gesture of blessing. The Virgin Mary is usually depicted reading a book, interrupted by the apparition of the angel. Another fundamental iconographic component in the Annunciation is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a white dove. Throughout his career, Ugo Riva's research has been directed at recovering the art of the past and reinterpreting it with a contemporary sensibility. In particular, Riva has always held classical art, whether Greek, Roman, or Renaissance, as a model. In this specific case, we find ourselves faced with a bas-relief that is part of a series that reworks the theme of the Annunciation, evidently inspired by the panels that decorated church portals between the Late Gothic and Renaissance periods. How can we not think, for example, of the celebrated panels created by Lorenzo Ghiberti for the Baptistery in Florence? There is the same desire to organize the scene within the enclosed space of a square, and Ghiberti's use of diagonal lines that cut across the composition, as well as the agitated movement of the draperies, is similar. Everything, however, is recontextualized for our time. Ugo Riva's language, in fact, is contemporary. The form is synthetic, expressionist, and even the conception of space, ambiguous, transcends the laws of perspective and phenomenal reality. Riva also reconfigures his model, applying his own personal poetics of the "unfinished," leaving the sculpture's surfaces as if barely rough-hewn. Ugo Riva, a Bergamo-born sculptor born in 1951, has always focused his artistic career on figurative art. Starting from the study of ancient classicism, he developed a masterful technique in the naturalistic rendering of subjects and anatomical precision. His attention later shifted to contemporary sculptors such as Manzù, Arturo Martini, and Marino Marini, developing a pursuit of expressionist values ​​and a poetics of the "unfinished."

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