The Family United in Peace, Love, Work and Saving

Created for the main hall of the Cariplo Conference Centre between January and October 1970, this monumental bronze relief represents the various ages of man in relation to material subsistence. Four scenes are set against a background described in terms of a gust of wind: a mother playing with her child, a young person whose clothing is sent flying through the air alongside a dove, a veiled woman picking up a moneybox from the ground, and a father leaning on his spade in a break from work. The composition suggests a conception of society based on the family and cultivation of the soil. The sculptor returns here to the iconography of the Peace lunette of the Door of War and Peace in the church of Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam (1964–1968). The two preparatory studies for this work (1965, Manzù Collection, Ardea; 1968, private collection) constitute the initial formulations of the subject matter of the relief in Milan. The same theme was also used in the 1970s for medals, drawings and sculptures now in the Manzù Collection, including Peace (1976). The roots of the work lie not only in the stiacciato (low relief) technique of Renaissance sculpture, but also in the more recent Lombard and French tradition. In 1936, at the time of his association with the Corrente movement, Giacomo Manzù saw the works of Aristide Maillol and Auguste Rodin during a trip to Paris. The religious subjects he dealt with both during and after World War II are evidence of his spiritual torment. Great importance attaches in this connection to the creation of the bronze Door of Death for Saint Peter’s in Rome (1947–1964).