Marino Marini studied painting at the Florence Academy and, although he never abandoned painting, from 1922 he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. His main themes were horse and rider and the female nude. At the age of 28 he became a professor at the Scuola d’Arte di Villa Reale in Monza. He regularly travelled to Paris and had many artist friends there. He received the Grand Prize of the Quadriennale in Rome in 1936. Four years later he left Monza for the chair of sculpture at the prestigious Accademia di Brera in Milan, where he taught until 1970. At the 1948 Venice Biennale a room was dedicated to his works, at the 1952 Biennale he was awarded the Grand Prize for Sculpture. Marini’s sculptures are found in museums all over the world and in public spaces, such as his monumental “Horse and Rider” in The Hague.
