Il lavoratore

The Worker is one of the eleven preparatory studies that Sironi produced for a large-scale mosaic of Corporative Italy commissioned for the Milan Triennial of 1936. The artist had focused on wall painting and refused other kinds of work for a number of years. The subject is a worker raising his arms in homage to the figure of Italy that was to have occupied the centre of the mosaic designed to celebrate the Latin culture. The Fascist regime’s conception of the man as the member of the family whose task it is to work is reflected in the figure and its powerful physique. The profile has been identified as that of Mussolini and the clothing, a mixture of the toga and working dress, reflects the Duce’s two functions as supreme judge and the builder of a new Italy. (Transl. by Paul Metcalfe per Scriptum, Roma)