Giancarlo Cori, "Buonconte da Montefeltro," signed, 1984
Author: Giancarlo Cori
Title: "Buonconte da Montefeltro"
Year: 1984
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated "CORI 84" lower right; signed and titled on the back of the canvas.
This imposing canvas from 1984 represents a pinnacle of Giancarlo Cori's poetics, here engaged in a refined reworking of Dante's theme. The work illustrates the tragic epilogue of Buonconte da Montefeltro (Purgatory, Canto V), who fell in the Battle of Campaldino and whose body was dragged by the waters of the Archiano River.
The composition is dominated by a suspended and visionary atmosphere, typical of Ferrarese metaphysics. In a desolate and barren landscape, marked by skeletal trunks emerging like claws from the arid soil, lies the sprawling, horizontal figure of Buonconte. Above him, on the left, rises a spectral figure, an ethereal, diaphanous entity in the form of a shroud, observing the scene, a personification of the conflict between angel and demon for possession of the warrior's soul.
