Page 37 - Studio International - September 1965

Emilio Greco

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Patron Saints of the towns crossed by the Autostrada prisoners, but also his friend and sculptor Giacomo
del Sol and commissioned for a new church in Florence. Manzu (the creator of another contemporary bronze
He has also continued to do portraiture, for instance door. the Door of Death for St. Peter's, Rome), the art
Pamela II. a fine example of his recent art. He has also historian Fortunato Bellonzi, himself and his wife Anna,
completed the sixth version of the Grande Bagnante his daughter Antonella. and even his dog Bubby.
Series. When finished it will comprise twelve over­ When the doors were finished they were exhibited in
life-size figures. But it is in the Orvieto doors that he the Cathedral. The artist was praised by Pope Paul VI
has built for himself a timeless monument. who himself went to Orvieto to see them. Shortly after

For more than a year Greco has been 'news' for all that, the Pope gave Emilio Greco another proof of his
papers in Italy. A fierce controversy flared up between sympathy. After previously having commissioned from
those who are in principle against the idea that historic him a design for a series of postage stamps for the
buildings should be provided with works of or 'finished' Vatican commemorating the centenary of the founding
by modern artists, and those who defend the age-old of the Red Cross ('Samaritanus Misericordia Matus
and established principle that good modern works are Est'), he asked him to produce the over-life-size
compatible with good old buildings, that it often took monument in bronze for the Good Pope, Pope John
centuries to build a Cathedral, and that-as is the case XXI 11. This is the work which occupies the mind of
even in Orvieto-one style succeeded the other in Emilio Greco at present. In his large studio at the
shaping great examples of a unified spiritual will and Viale Cortina d'Ampezzo, where he also has his
determination. The ardent supporters of our artist are residence, sketch after sketch is produced for this most
numerous and influential both in Italy and abroad. ambitious figure of his and the maquette has been
1 I studied the ponderous portfolio of documents which finally cast. But in between, as if to relax, he will draw
Door for Orvieto Cathedral
Bronze is kept in the Archives of the Cathedral. The case of the one or another of these engaging female faces or
doors for the Orvieto Cathedral has become a cause bodies for which he is renowned, competing in charm
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Two panels from the Central door ce/ebre. a touch stone of artistic taste and policy with Modigliani and Raphael. And some of them he
of Orvieto Cathedral comparable to those of the Renaissance. will draw with a chisel on to a zinc plate to be printed
Clothing the naked
Visiting the imprisoned In saying that with the doors Greco has created a by himself on one of his own printing presses, in
personal monument to himself, I mean this literally. various colours. to spread serenity and beauty and
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Bronze handles for one of the With the humour of the great artists of the past, he has grace in the world, the sense of the meaningfulness of
side doors of Orvieto Cathedral
1961 /64 portrayed in his opus not only Pope John XXIII visiting being, of genuine Joie de vivre! ■
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