The equestrian zanardi in cesena
The structure had been built to temporarily protect, during restoration work, the fountain made by Domenico di Montevecchio between 1586 and 1590, to a design by Francesco Masini, which adorns the center of Piazza del Popolo and is one of the symbols of the city. To soften the visual impact of the structure, architect Sauro Turroni proposed decorating its outer sides, involving teachers and students from the Bologna comics course. Three of the four outer walls of the structure were thus painted with enamels and spray paints by Ugo Bertotti, Giorgio Carpinteri and Andrea Pazienza, turning the structure into an open-air urban art gallery.
When the restoration was over, the structure was dismantled with a crowbar and sent to the dump. Only the providential intervention of young Cesena local Riccardo Pieri – who, together with other kids, had taken part in making the work, helping Andrea lay down the large flat areas of color – managed to save part of the painting from destruction, rescuing it from the street. At first it seemed impossible that the work could come back to life: the chipboard was crumbling, many fragments were lost, and everything seemed irreparably damaged. Yet, with patience and passion, the young man managed to put that enormous puzzle back together and consolidate the remaining pieces.
Pieri recalls: “I glued the remaining pieces onto plywood panels, and with my dad I took them to the carpenter Banin in Diegaro, to put them under the hot press for a night. To fill the cracks full of splinters we took the panels to the restorer Gattei in Savignano, who filled them with white putty and touched up the color here and there. In the end the Horse – we always called it that, perhaps because little was left of the rider – was mutilated, but saved.”
So today we can still enjoy this living and precious testimony of Andrea’s art.
