Pomona

The Pomona exhibited here is one of the large series of voluptuous female figuresrepresenting the Roman goddess of fruit and gardens, one of the Tuscan sculptor’sfavourite subjects, first addressed in 1938 at the start of his career and developedwith several compositional variants. The form here is condensed and complete initself so as to constitute a unified structure. Crucial importance attaches to Marini’sdiscovery of Etruscan art at the Museo Archeologico in Florence, where he unquestionablycame into contact also with Egyptian art, the museum’s rich collectionbeing second in Italy only to that of the Museo Egizio in Turin. Marini’s art isrooted in this Early Italian classicism, which gives form to its Mediterranean –if not indeed Etruscan or Tuscan – essence. As he stated, “No, I am not inspired [byEtruscan art], I am Etruscan.” (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)