The victorious Contrada della Selva
A sculptor – goldsmith for the victory of the Contrada della Selva at the Palio of Siena
Paolo Penko, La vittoriosa Contrada della Selva, bas-relief for the victory of the Contrada della Selva at the Palio di Siena on 16 August 2006; work in patinated bronze made by sand casting, worked and chiselled by hand according to the ancient Renaissance tradition, 56×47 cm, Montagna foundry -Campi Bisenzio, Florence-, 2007; donation by the author to the Contrada della Selva, Contrada della Selva Museum, Siena.
Those who were born and live in this happy part of Italy cannot claim not to have had valuable lessons. The masters of Paolo Penko, the Florentine-Sienese artist, have been the order that imbues the Chianti hills with melodious splendour, the colours that the bricks of Siena and the stones of Florence take on when they are touched by the summer sun, the size of the towers, the churches, the farmhouses, the light that descends from the Tuscan sky and makes visible things perfect as if touched by the eye of God. Penko’s teacher was the aura of a region where “making art” and “being art” enter into the blood by osmosis and end up becoming, by ancient plotting and with absolute naturalness, a distinctive character.
Penko’s master was also the craft, the patient craft of the goldsmith who teaches – Benvenuto Cellini, master of all goldsmiths, understood this very well – two fundamental things: the beauty of matter and the necessity of form. The material is always beautiful, whether it is gold, silver or bronze and must be treated with love, respect and without waste. Form is indispensable, because it is its ‘necessity’, its imperious dominance that gives order and meaning to the aesthetic phantom.
And Penko has understood these two elements, never to forget them, ever since he studied at the Istituto d’Arte di Porta Romana in Florence and showed particular attention to the medieval and Renaissance cultural traditions of the city of Siena, knowledge of which was fundamental to his training and artistic growth.
And it is in Siena, as is well known, that such a sublime art as that of the goldsmith has given proof of splendid artefacts that have been able to compete with the so-called major arts. From the very beginning of his art, Penko distinguished himself by re-proposing and renewing the techniques experimented since the 12th and 13th centuries by Florentine and Sienese master goldsmiths.
Then, in the goldsmith-sculptor’s slow and shrewd progress, came the personal assimilation of Tuscan plastic-figurative culture, which in the twentieth century also offered its prestigious signatures for medals: from Mario Moschi to Alberto Sani, from Bino Bini to Bruno Buracchini. However, Penko never lets down his guard, never neglects his awareness of his craft, the pride of his craftsmanship and his Florentine and Sienese roots. The sense of the soul of peoples, at all times, has been revealed in rituals, both sacred and popular, and in the arts; if this is absent in our day in vast territories, Siena jealously preserves and safeguards these noble traditions.
But what is art’s relationship with man? Faith, love and art, in a joint effort, give man a reason: that of his being. The authentic artist is the one who does not evade life, but rather invades it. In fact, art is not an evasion of life, the artist attacks it with his means from every side and creates, in his profound investigations, things that are as alive as life itself.
Art has the task of perpetuating the living moments of perception of things, knowing the secrets to extend them and to extend them to all. In short, art is the possibility of dialogue. The artist is a “seismograph” that feels, that warns in advance. His act is one from which we benefit in spite of everything.
For Penko, it is only natural that his work should become part of people’s lives. We see the artist, in the fullness of his professional maturity as a goldsmith, pay homage to the desire of the contradaioli of the Selva di Siena to celebrate their victory in the Palio dell’Assunta in 2006 (*).
The goldsmith-sculptor, who usually works with gold and silver, giving them characteristics often related to the art of sculpture, designed a monument for La Selva that is true and proper in size and material: a bronze bas-relief with which he manages, without superfluous digressions, not only to celebrate the victory but, above all, to tell the story of the Palio of 16 August 2006.
It is worth noting that Paolo Penko is Florentine, but his mother is Sienese, who is particularly attached to the Contrada della Selva, and therefore the victory of the Palio dell’Assunta is also his: many summers of his childhood and adolescence were spent by the artist in this Contrada, with his grandparents and uncles. He has therefore lived and shared, over the years, the passions, joys, emotions and also the disappointments with all the “People of the Forest”. Therefore, he could not fail to participate in the great triumph of 2006 and did so in his own way, as a goldsmith-sculptor, by donating to “his Contrada”, at the end of a year of celebrations for the victory won on the field, a commemorative sculpture.
How did Penko manage to stay on course, working in his Florentine workshop? How has he managed not to sink amidst the insidious suggestions of quotationism and hyperrealism? The answer lies in a simple tautology. The artist has succeeded in being a sculptor, overcoming the risks and pitfalls, because he was born a goldsmith and a sculptor at the same time, because for him sculpture is a necessity and is, in this case, the only comprehensible and practicable means of expression. It is good to obey a vocation, to be in life and work what you want to be. Paolo Penko, son of a vital and profound tradition such as Tuscany, in the summer of 2007, offers a beautiful demonstration of this.
The artist with the bronze The victorious Contrada della Selva was able to communicate the expression of the ideal and emotional states of the winning contradaioli. How do you get to the depths of man? By telling the story of man. And Penko understood that here lies the deposit of all authentic vitality, the reservoir of every human reserve. This is the invasion into life referred to, this is the discovery of a simple and solemn secret.
The theme is magical and real, as ancient as it is topical, alive in the minds and hearts of the contradaioli of the Selva. This monument to the victory of the Contrada contains the history and traditions of the Contrada, but even more so are the emotions that accompany the Palio in Siena, which is run twice a year but which is experienced, as the Sienese – and with them Penko – well know, every day of life. The entire Contrada della Selva is represented in the bronze sculpture, in the completeness of its history. In the relief, the strong, vibrant hands of the contradaioli rise upwards from the flags in the wind to touch the winning banner, which waves in the centre of the composition. The artist has forged in bronze the Palio painted by Tino Stefanoni, which shows the Torre del Mangia resting on the Balzana, a connecting element between earth and sky, and the Madonna Assunta, to whom the August Palio is dedicated, whose light illuminates and protects Siena and in particular the Contrada della Selva, of which she is the patron. In Penko’s work, the raised hands become a prayer, a highly symbolic gesture of thanksgiving for the long-awaited triumph.
The bronze is moulded into a victorious shout of gestures, of feelings, of acts of love. Penko works the relief without mechanical steps, he scores nervous strokes with his chisel directly on the work. He therefore keeps his intuition fresh, leaving no room for perplexity whatsoever: the sculpture is born from the throb of fire, it seems to compete with monuments placed in large spaces. In this way, the material is stripped of its material weight and becomes breath, warmth and mood.
The relief has a severe character. There is no place for flattery or decorative ornaments. Instead, there is the strength, sacrifice and love that brought the jockey Salasso and the horse Caro Amico to victory. The jockey, whose nickname is emblazoned on a waving flag, and the horse, whose name is engraved on the “terra di Siena”, are portrayed by the sculptor at the moment when “both” realise that they have victory “in their hands”. The images of the two heroes are modulated, here and there, by artistic and heraldic references to the winning Contrada – such as the luxuriant oak leaves in the background and the rhinoceros winking to the left – and to the city of Siena with its cathedral – where the Contrada goes, immediately after the victory, carrying the Palio in triumph to the high altar -, to which reference is made with the refined columns on the right of the work, on which the artist has engraved the date of the victory: “16 August 2006”. And other flags bear the names of Velio Cini and Alessandro Barabino Zondadari, respectively Prior and Captain of the Contrada della Selva.
Paolo Penko has worked with the perennial time of the Palio, with the History of the Selva and of Siena: the world he perceives and communicates to us is in close relation with the elements that populate the world of the Contrada della Selva.
He was able to sink his hands into the perennial material on which art has always leavened: the true feelings of humanity. Almost effortlessly, spontaneously, he is able to communicate to us a wonderfully strong impression of man’s particular and at the same time universal history.
A message of love and pride, that of the Contrada della Selva, for its tradition and to honour the victory to which the sculptor has given voice without anything misleading, but in the context of a bursting strength. The spark of the victorious theme of the Selva animated Penko to combine, in an energetic synthesis, his long expressive experience as a goldsmith with the language of sculpture. In this way he was able to offer a clear testimony of how dialogue is possible between the great history, which is always renewed in Siena, and art, in a progression that has no earthly boundaries.
Contrada della Selva: Coat of arms: a natural rhinoceros passing at the foot of a leafy oak tree with hunting trophies on its trunk; colours: green and orange striped in white; motto: “Prima Selvalta in Campo”.
Critical text by Anita Valentini
