A material that “lends itself to fine interpretations”. The status of plaster in Marino Marini’s Oeuvre

Abstract

The purpose of this paper aims to clarify the use of plaster in Marini’s artistic practice, both when the plaster is a unique piece, and when it is in relation with other materials. Even if Marini often used plaster in a ‘traditional’ way to make casts suitable for the translations to bronze or other materials, these sculptures are very often considered by the artist not only as translation tools and ‘mediation’ between the idea and the final plastic artwork, or academic exercise. For the artist, sculptures in plaster are also works with a proper autonomy that can render them final and definitive, as is evident from sculptures such as Piccola Pomona or Danzatrice, both made in the 1940s.