Marino Marini – ‘Fossile équestre’ (1963)

Abstract homage to the equestrian image between tradition and timelessness

With ‘Fossile équestre’ from 1963, Marino Marini creates an impressive collage on cardboard in which his decades-long preoccupation with the equestrian motif is condensed concisely. The work combines collage, tempera, and drawing to create an exciting composition in which abstraction and figuration intermingle. Reduced lines, fragmented surfaces, and the targeted use of formal contrasts lend the picture an almost archaic effect, as if it were a found object from another time.

Horse and rider as symbols

The abstract figure of a horse stands at the centre of the painting, with an equally stylised rider on its back. The upright posture of the animal, indicated by taut lines and broken surfaces, conveys a powerful dynamic. The rider’s outstretched arm, only sketchily depicted, seems to fit into the form of the animal – the two form an indissoluble unity.

This close connection is emblematic of Marini’s attitude to the equestrian image as a cultural symbol, which he repeatedly thematises and deconstructs in his art.

A fossilised mental image – past and memory

The title ‘Fossile équestre’ deliberately plays with the idea of a fossilised relic – a symbol from the past that is not only preserved but also critically questioned. Marini, who has been working with depictions of horses and riders since the 1930s, not only sees these animals as a classic motif in art history but also as a way of reflecting on transience, power, and cultural heritage. The work raises questions: What remains of former ideals when their symbols have become fossilised fragments?

Materiality and modernity – between surface and form

Marini’s use of collage techniques combines the pictorial with the tactile. The textured areas of colour in a muted tempera tone have an almost geological effect, like layers of earth that preserve time. This materiality lends the work an additional spatial depth, going beyond the purely visual. The image carrier becomes a carrier of meaning, and makes ‘Fossile équestre’ an artistic reflection on the tension between duration and decay.