Ofelia

The work is finished with meticulous attention to surface texture.
The fabric of the robe, with its obvious texture, stands out against the smooth background of the plinth, while the polished but unpolished face holds a light and suffused penumbra, and finally the hands and feet, polished perhaps with talcum powder, are the chromatic and luminous – as well as expressive – acme to which the evocation of the maiden’s compassionate fate is entrusted. It is worth noting Martini’s strong intention to establish a dialogue with classical sculpture, made evident in the choice of the oval for the base, the perfect bed for the figure’s childishly cowering pose that conveys the idea of a life interrupted before its full unfolding.

The flowers accompanying the Shakespearean maiden in Millais’s painting, a very sad sign of the missed wedding, are here reduced within the texture of the cushion, itself most effective in conveying the idea of the gravity of the dead body. This accent to the material weight of the sculpture is all the more expressive precisely because the work is made of a material instead relatively light as plaster, not as perennial as stone and not as durable as bronze.
The precious plaster cast, which has so long remained in the shadows, is on display in the Brera Art Gallery’s section dedicated to the Italian Novecento, opposite the other version of the Ofelia – a gift from the Maria and Emilio Jesi collection -, dated 1933: a comparison of two different interpretations of the character of Ophelia, the Shakespearean maiden who, rejected by Hamlet, throws herself into the icy waters of a stream.

The purchase by the Pinacoteca di Brera in 2007 of this masterpiece provided an opportunity to talk again, in Milan, about this great master of the twentieth century. Those who have studied the Treviso artist’s work most thoroughly and longest have found themselves discussing this early work, which in some ways seems to definitively dismiss his relationship with contemporary art movements, especially with “Valori Plastici,” the result of Martini’s complex relations with the Lombard capital.