Tempera on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/mario-sironi-1947" aria-label="More by Mario Sironi" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Mario Sironi</a>
Five Figures
Presented by Mr and Mrs Eric Estorick 1952
abstract concepts
abstraction
actions: postures and motions
adults
figure
figure
from recognisable sources
group
groups
justice - standing figure
law - standing figure
people
power - standing figure
society
standing
symbols and personifications
painting tempera canvas
Five Figures
support: 451 × 603 mm
Presented by Mr and Mrs Eric Estorick 1952
<strong>Mario Sironi</strong> 1885-1961
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<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sironi-five-figures-n06041" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06041</span></a> <strong>Five Figures</strong> <em>c</em>.1936
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Inscribed 'SIRONI' b.r.<br/>
Tempera on canvas, 17 3/4 x 23 3/4 (44 x 59)<br/>
Presented by Mr and Mrs Eric Estorick 1952<br/>
<em>Prov:</em> Mr and Mrs Eric Estorick, London (purchased from the artist)<br/>
<em>Exh:</em> <em>First Exhibition in England of Works by the Italian Master Mario Sironi</em>, St George's Gallery, London, October-November 1948 (34, repr.) as 'Cinque Figure'<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Agnoldomenico Pica, <em>Mario Sironi</em> (Milan 1955), p.53
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According to a letter from the Galleria Il Milione in May 1953 (apparently written after showing a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> to the artist), this picture was executed in 1937-8 and is a study for a mural in the Ca'Foscari in Venice. Its relationship to this mural <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, which is in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/fresco" title="Glossary definition for 'Fresco'"><span>fresco</span></a>, is however somewhat remote. Although the mural also has five figures, they are differently arranged: one is seated and another shown in a rhetorical posture with the legs apart and carrying a shield.
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The artist's widow Signora M.A. Costa-Sironi has since made the much more convincing suggestion that it is instead an early sketch for the mosaic of 'Law between Justice and Power' made in 1936 for the Court of Assizes in the Law Courts (Palazzo di Giustizia) in Milan. The figures are arranged in a very similar way and in much the same attitudes; the one on the left even has his head and shoulders silhouetted against what could be a doorway. On the other hand, the figure second from the left has been omitted and replaced by an eagle on a column and a Roman standard. The three figures on the right are respectively, from left to right, Power, Law and Truth (Justice); the man on the left, who is stripped to the waist, appears to be a carpenter or mason.
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<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.689-90, reproduced p.689
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstract concepts abstraction actions: postures and motions adults figure figure from recognisable sources group groups justice - standing figure law - standing figure people power - standing figure society standing symbols and personifications