Oct 18, 2013 - Sale 2326

Sale 2326 - Lot 110

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000
MARIO ROMANO (DATES UNKNOWN) RICCIONE. 1933.
38 3/4x27 inches, 98 1/2x68 1/2 cm. F.I.A.R., Milan.
Condition B+: repaired tears at edges; skinning in image; minor restoration along horizontal fold and in margins; creases and abrasions in margins and image.
A Northern Italian resort on the Adriatic coast, Riccione is part of the Riviera Romagna, which includes Rimini and Cattolica. Known as the "Green Pearl of the Adriatic," a term which arises from the town's tree-lined streets, parks and gardens, Riccione rose to prominence in the 1930s, when it was chosen by Mussolini as his family's holiday destination. Little is known about the artist, who is only known to have designed one other poster. The langorous aesthetic, focusing on the sun bather's body, is in keeping with "the cult of the body and open air and the leisure state of dopolavoro," (Venice Fragile City 1797-1997, by Margaret Plant. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002, p. 303-4) which was prevalent in Italian poster time during the early 1930s. Adriatico p. 165, Bolaffi p. 188.