Corona Aurea

With Corona Aurea, Giorgio Bartocci pays homage to the funerary crown kept in the C’ERA Museum — Centro Espositivo Riparbella Antica: a piece of the very finest jewellery, found in the Belora excavations, which for the artist counts as a relic of civilisation.

In Riparbella, Bartocci found a place to draw inspiration from, through dialogue with the local community, the history of the area and its relationship with the nature of the Etruscan Coast. For him, painting a work of public art means engaging with the whole history of art, and in particular with the Renaissance.

Hence the openly declared reference: the work takes up the desire to celebrate humanity and the swirling composition of the Last Judgement painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. That circular movement binds humanity together in a universal, global way, and the Etruscans go before us, opening the way. Its sacred quality, emphasised by the use of gold, is enriched by the setting too: the wall stands opposite the town church.

Just as the crown is made up of many small laurel and olive petals and flowers, so the composition is made up of a mass of brushstrokes in which the energy of the gesture and the force of the colour push the work towards installation. With the “fresco” painted in the space beneath the terrace, the mural takes on a third dimension as well. The use of metals, in homage to the crown, makes the surface precious and changeable: it shifts with the light of the day, always creating something new for whoever looks at it, in an almost Impressionist way.

The work was created thanks to the proceeds of the tourist tax and to a contribution from Società Parco Eolico Riparbella.