Changing anatomy

In this oil on canvas from 1958, Leonor Fini constructs a scene without horizon, centered on two bodies whose limits dissolve in favor of an organic continuum.

The composition is organized around two central forms arranged in tension. The silhouettes seem to emerge from an intermediate state between the human figure and undifferentiated organic aggregates, the bodies extended by plant and/or mineral excrescences. The egg motif, recurrent in Leonor Fini’s work since the 1950s, is integrated into the internal architecture like a vital core. It functions as a generator, suggesting gestation. The linear treatment is based on undulating contours that blur the boundary between the subject and its environment. This graphic syntax refers back to an explicit Mannerist filiation, notably Pontormo and Bronzino, whose plastic solutions Leonor Fini was familiar with. The modeling is based on successive glazes, producing gradual transitions towards transparency. The chromatic palette revolves around earthy reds, coppery golds, warm browns and touches of orange, simultaneously evoking embers, charred bark or heated mineral matter. Stylistically, the oil on canvas, dated 1958, corresponds to the phase when the artist intensified his chromatic and decorative research without modifying his symbolic register, following in the footsteps of the “Sphinxes”. The following years were characterized by an increase in saturated tonalities and the multiplication of androgynous or split characters evolving in enclosed environments. Leonor Fini never fully embraced Surrealism – although she did take part in the “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism” exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1936 – even though her work shares some of the movement’s favorite themes. Dreams, the unconscious and hybridization develop within an autonomous symbolic system, nourished by esotericism, personal mythology and feminine eroticism.