Page 36 - Studio International - September 1965

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modest place on the magnificent fac;:ade of this building probably at the same time. on the front of the San Marco
without destroying its purity and grandeur·. Church in Venice? And if the mediocre new bronze
How childlike and honest is the spirit of great artists. doors of Siena Cathedral could be accepted what had
I thought to myself, when contemplating the front he to fear? But artists do not reason like this.
triptych of the Cathedral. Had not a completely Emilio Greco has produced with his doors of Orvieto
insensitive nonentity produced without hesitation in the finest monumental work of his whole career
the 19th century these shameful mosaics above the hitherto. and the Cathedral Chapter and especially its
1 entrance to the Cathedral. as had another nonentity, architect, Signor Torquato Terracina. are to be con-

gratulated and praised for their courage in choosing
Emilio Greco whose affinity to the refined Gothic
spirit in the work of Giovanni Pisano. Tino da Camaino
and Arnolfo di Cambia made him eminently suitable
for this important task. After 65 years of competitions.
at last the doors completed this stately building.
'I often feel unhappy and upset when looking at my
old works. But here it happened for the first time in
my life that a finished work produces in me. whenever
I see it again. the feeling of satisfaction. I have worked
so intensively on it that I found myself with my right
arm practically crippled. For weeks I was unable to
move it at all. Even now* I suffer from an inflammation
of the nerves which renders me unable to sculpt.'
But what drawings. Never before has Greco achieved
such outstanding results. His sensibility. technical
mastery and taste are here at their climax. He has lately
also created other reliefs than those for the Orvieto
doors. for instance that of Ulysses· Homecoming and
the five reliefs depicting Episodes of the Lives of the
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