NapoLeonCentAurOntano by Luigi Ontani

GAM is happy to welcome Luigi Ontani's work, NapoLeonCentAurOntano on loan to its collections. Created in 2003 on the occasion of a solo exhibition at the Napoleonic Museum in Rome. This work is one of the many reinterpretations that the artist has made of the iconographic theme of the centaur, a hybrid and metamorphic creature that Ontani associates with Sagittarius, his zodiac sign.

According to classical mythology, the centaur is half rational and half passionate creature, an ambiguous character that fits well with the figure of Napoleon, who in equal measure spurred and betrayed the spirit of Enlightenment and Romanticism. And it is well suited to the artist who never disdains to intertwine the expression of intelligence with that of desire in his own personal form of a witty outburst of art and life. Thus Napoleon, the universal measure of every possible mania for greatness, offers an ironic mirror to the narcissism of the artist who, once again, lends his face to the creation of the polychrome ceramic sculpture, one of the most significant examples of his re-creation.

The ‘hybridol’ (hybrid + idol) will be exhibited in the atrium of the first floor of the GAM and will have a task that is fitting for its nature as Napoleonic and hybrid contemporaneity: that of ideally linking the itinerary of the twentieth-century collections with the space dedicated to the “Nineteenth century" exhibition, currently in progress, and "Hayez", scheduled for October.

Caption:

Luigi Ontani, NapoLeonCentAurOntano, 2003
polychrome ceramic, pure gold, Bottega Gatti, Faenza
Courtesy the artist, on loan in GAM