Whatever art branch you mention, you will easily discover influences by Marche artists. The region Marche gave birth to women and men who were able to have an impact on the history of arts, starting from the ancient times to the modern days. One of those was Pericle Fazzini: an internationally renowned artist, sculptor and painter. One of his most famous works exhibits at the well-known Sala Nervi in the Vatican City, it is one of the most visited sculptures in the world: The Resurrection.
The work
The Resurrection is a bronze sculpture commissioned by Pope Paul VI to Fazzini in 1965, completed by the sculptor in 1975 after five years of work at the Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus in Rome. Fazzini’s work was inaugurated in September 1977 at the presence of Paul VI. The chosen seat for the work was the prestigious Aula Nervi, the spectacular Vatican’s Hall of the Pontifical Audiences used for meetings between the Pope and the faithful: a permanent sign of Marche traditions in an exclusive context. With its width of 20 meters, the sculpture embraces the whole Sala, and amazes everyone with its severity and entanglement. The Resurrection is actually the less common subject among the several Christian subjects chosen across the centuries by painters, sculptors and artists. In this unique piece of extraordinary plasticity and shape, Jesus is radiant, even though you can see on His face the pain for Sacrifice. Jesus rises among figures that remind natural elements, a chaos of roots and branches, an explosion a Big Bang, that is Life in itself. Baroque influences are privileged for Fazzini and you can see them, although matter and plasticity is the main character of the work.
The artist
Described by the eminent Giuseppe Ungaretti “poet of the wind”, Pericle Fazzini was an artist who irretrievably scraped the Twentieth century with his work and his thought. He was born in Grottammare in the region Marche in 1913 and as a boy, he started working at the family carpentry workshop, then moved to Rome to study. What is amazing of his work is the ability to move a step forward, even though he was actually able to respect tradition. Patrons, experts and later the Vatican were convinced by the energy that his works could impart, his genius was one of a kind, so that it was necessary to create a space in history. In his life, he won several prestigious contests and exhibited his sculptures at very important art events such as Venice Biennale. He exhibited also in Japan and entered international circuits until he created the greatest of his works: The Resurrection. After his death in 1987, his art lives again and just like Jesus rises in his sculpture, his works are able to spread the revitalizing power that constantly renovates the human being and his expressions, as Ungaretti would say.
«Jesus rises from a nuclear crater: a terrible explosion, a swirl of violence and energy» (Pericle Fazzini)
Tags: pericle fazzini, sala nervi