Girl with braids

In his presentation of the Retrospective in 1984 Fortunato Bellonzi writes “The model with braids from 1957 is of Ingres-like purity. But yet her purism, certain of a revised gothic style that reminds us Ingres’ gothic nudes, is different: it’s engulfed by a restless, sharpened sensibility which harvests the bitter flower of ephemeral beauty and yet it celebrates it in the memory while exalting it in the splendor of real and cherished presence”.