Gabriele Lamberti – Conosci te stesso

Museum of Diocletian Baths, from the convent of San Gregorio on the Via Appia in Rome, depicting a human skeleton, perhaps lying on a banquet bed, indicating the motto of the oracle of Delphi “GNOTHI SAUTÒN”, “KNOW YOURSELF”. Gabriele Lamberti puts in this image a sort of alter-ego, represented by a Trickster, Rascaldivine character called the Black Rabbit who, like a shadow, mirrors the posture of the portrayed person. The Memento mori represented by the original work, like the Larvae conviviales placed by the ancient Romans on the tables laid as warnings to remind the diners of the transience of life, is thus re-proposed in a transcendent key that opens up to new dimensions beyond the terms of life same. Another interpretation of the Black Rabbit, in fact, is that of the psychopomp or soul guide in the Hereafter, after death. The mosaic was created by Alice Zanelli and Roberto Bovelli during the training internship of the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna, at Marco Santi’s Gruppo Mosaicisti Ravenna.