FD199400001000_000000_001.jpg, 0000/00/00撮影, Public Domain

Mercury Passing in front of the Sun (Study)

TitleMercury Passing in front of the Sun (Study)
Artistジャーコモ・バッラ Giacomo BALLA
Date1914
Mediumgouache on paper
Dimensions65.5×50.0
ClassificationWatercolors and Drawings
Accession NumberFD199400001000
SummaryBalla held himself a bit apart from the Italian Futurist movement active in the first half of the 1910s, while also sharing their interest in the expression of dynamic movement. In the early 1910s works which depicted analytical renditions of movement showed repeated images of the legs and arms of moving humans or animals. However the 1913 series depicting fast-moving cars eliminated the specific movement of the car and became abstract expressions of the energy and speed of the vehicle shown through powerful arching and radiating lines. Balla witnessed the eclipse of the sun by Mercury in November 1914 and “Mercury Passing in front of the Sun” is one of a series of 10 works he created over the next several months. In this series Balla took his expression of movement to the cosmic scale.

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