Niki de Saint Phalle – Vanitas

Vanitas is the title chosen for the project, which features a large-scale mosaic sculpture depicting a skull, created by Niki de Saint Phalle in 1988 using mirrored glass tiles and palladium leaf. In the work on display, Tête de Mort I, Niki de Saint Phalle plays down the drama
of death through the sculpture’s large scale and, ironically, affirms the overcoming of the end through the continuity of life.
The mirrored tiles reflect the image of the observer, forcing a direct confrontation – like a memento mori – with the symbol of the end, whilst at the same time revealing the multiplicity of human identity. Refractions of personality that coalesce into an overall vision. The work, chosen deliberately for Ravenna—the city of mosaics and mausoleums—clearly alludes to the iconography of vanitas and to a theme particularly evocative of the region: the victory of eternal life over death.
The city’s funerary monuments – such as the Mausoleum of Theodoric, that of Galla Placidia, the tombstone of Guidarello Guidarelli and Dante’s Tomb – are examples of how life, culture and historical legacies have prevailed over earthly death. The physical remains thus become both the foundation and the emblem that breathes new life into the intellectual legacy, overturning the liturgical expression ‘Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris’ (Genesis 3:19) and exalting the literary glory of the deceased, hich triumphs over the transience of life: Et in Arcadia Ego. Niki de Saint Phalle engages with the iconography of the skull and draws on the stylistic elements of ancient depictions, choosing not only the mosaic technique but also utilising the reflective power of the mirror – an inevitable reference to Byzantine mosaic art – particularly that of Ravenna – which is characterised first and foremost by the lyricism of light, thanks to the use of glass paste and pure gold tesserae, transcending into an otherworldly dimension (towards the divine), just as Tête de Mort I transcends earthly nature to be transformed into eternal life.

Curated by: Giorgia Salerno