L'ipocrita, l'elisir e la Pietà (2022) Sculpture by Daniele Tonelli

Greetings.
I just wanted to share with you a work I did in white Cesane stone. Place where the aforementioned stone is quarried in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, in Italy, used for the construction of the ducal palace of Federico da Montefeltro.

Description:
Sculpture depicting a man of power who does not care about the death scene taking place next to him. In fact, it is only concerned with keeping its instrument of power in plain sight. Or the syringe. This sculpture intends to denounce all types of abuses perpetrated by politics towards citizens; abuses that have excluded a segment of the population from being able to practice their profession, move around, or benefit from certain types of services. We also want to highlight the climate of hatred of a part of the population that has lashed out against another group of citizens.
In this case in the foreground we find the hypocrite, who hardly looks others in the eye, and in fact his gaze escapes downwards, he has a somewhat flaccid body. He professes to be a Christian and demonstrates it through the crucifix he displays, me which moves away from his heart on its own, as if it had a life of its own due to a sense of repulsion. His legs have tight muscles, like someone experiencing a scene that doesn't make him feel good, that makes him uncomfortable. He has a coin sewn onto his cap, a symbol of his being ultimately a mere mercenary. In fact, in the Renaissance the sudden changes of coat, the ones that happened and still happen today, were quickly represented by wearing one or the other coin specially pierced in 2 or 4 points which allowed it to be sewn to a dress or headdress like this case. This character in his carelessness also elbows the Virgin in the eye who is asking him for help. His cry could in fact be: "My son has just died, won't you help me?". The answer is the one above: the elbow. The Madonna is kneeling, and tries to support her Son: Jesus. In the left background for those who look we notice an architectural glimpse of typically Renaissance fantasy. On the right background, however, we find a small allegory: that is, the pelican defending its 3 (non-random number) young from the snares set for it by a viper on the nest built in a tree.
We come to the so-called frame: we find a Saint George at the top center in the act of having pierced the dragon's mouth from side to side. The latter's head appears to be severed. Behind the head there is a representation of God with 3 circles of Dante's vision.
In the upper curl on the left (again for the viewer) we have a man who sculpts the stone and which indicates that this discipline is slow to complete, but is eternal in time. The character depicted here looks at the viewer as if to ask him: "And what do you do? Why don't you do like me?". In the curl below, however, we have the oxymoron of this figure: a woman falls into the abyss, but does not detach herself from her smartphone. Symbol of the fast, of everything immediately, and of the fact that there will be no trace of this kind of thing in the future.
In the curls on the right side instead we have Dante Alighieri at the top who shows us his most famous book, the Divine Comedy, and which reminds us of our Italian nature. On the book is engraved "time, those who know how to lose are sorry", and he indicates it with the index. In the curl below instead we have an obese person, a warmonger with a Roman-style helmet. In one hand he has a dagger which symbolizes his bellicosity, and a bottle which can be of any alcohol and which symbolizes that he is suffering from addiction, therefore he is not mentally free. He wants to show himself strong by being armed, but war wouldn't be for him given his size. In words he is strong, but if he ran 3 steps he would have a heart attack. Finally thinking of not being seen... with the other hand he picks himself carelessly.
Instead at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock we find 2 examples of life. At 3 o'clock we have the Sacred Heart of Jesus covered in veins and therefore pulsating and alive. Above it we have the 3 nails from which a rose is generated from which a praying man emerges and looks up. At 9 o'clock we find, starting from the back of the coins, from which a fantasy flower is born, from which a carnivorous flower is born from which a final flower is born that swallows an unfortunate person. The allegory symbolizes man swallowed up by fallacious consumerist passions.
Underneath everything, however, we find an infernal face, of any Satanic man who, as is right, has his face pressed to the ground.
Finally, I wanted to add that all the leaves in the curls have a very specific meaning, and that it refers to various allegories based on their type. For those interested I can illustrate elsewhere without going into long botany lessons on site. However the meanings are very curious in my opinion.
In the lower part of the back I have put in the vernacular (because perhaps the Latins did not even know these concepts and therefore there is no equivalent) three words which in my opinion unfortunately often symbolize the dogmas of governments: Precarietas, Disocupatio, Delocalizatio.