Fossils, Screams, Warriors and Compositions of elements are among the titles he gave his work when the horse/rider form was finally reduced to an unconnected and fragmentary group, when the two figures became more or less unrecognizable. They recall a drama or a tragedy that has been consumed, leaving dramatic and lifeless forms alone. The surfaces are sharp, the harsh lines cleave into the space and break it up violently so that nothing seems to have survived of the harmonious relationship between man and nature.
Giocoliere e Cavallo shows the mature development of Marini’s style. The geometric forms are sharp, and the simple chromatic composition with large areas of pure color emphasize the energy and violence of the painting. In the foreground we can distinguish two white figures - the jugglers, and perpendicular to them, in the background, a horse is present. The jugglers and horse forms are merging and create a beautiful abstract example of Marini’s oeuvre.
Marini drew on the tradition of Etruscan and northern European sculpture, reinterpreting classical themes such as the female nude, the portrait bust, and the equestrian figure, which he combined with aspects of modernism—in particular exaggerated and elongated forms. Today, Marini's equestrian groups are certainly his best-known subjects. They can be seen as a real symbol, a truly original language that he used to express himself and to interpret reality. He said in fact that “the entire history of humanity and nature could be found in the figure of the horse and rider, whatever the era. It is my way of narrating history. I need this personage to give life to the passions of man (…).”
This motif of the horse and rider is rich in classical association, referencing the great tradition of equestrian statuary in Italian artistic and political culture. Long considered to be the paradigm of imperial authority, the subject is subverted in Marini’s works, often exposing the inability of man to overcome the power of the horse. However he also said that the rider gradually becomes less and less able to control his horse and the animal grows increasingly agitated, getting so stiff that it is no longer able to rear up. Thus the horses and riders become the lacerated and tragic forms of the Miracles, or "expressionists" because, as Marini himself said, it is really the world that has become expressionist. These dissolved and extremely dramatic forms fully express Marini's anxiety, of completely ethical origin, for the human condition.
Vincenzo Sanfo, Turin
Collection Minuti, Rome
Nicola Berardi, Bari
European collection since 1996