Cassandra Crying by Francesco Vezzoli: between Sacred and Profane

Cambi Auction House’s appointment dedicated to Photography returns, scheduled for July 6, 2023, in which shots that tell the History, not only of Photography but also of international society and culture, will be presented.

Fig. 1 – Francesco Vezzoli (1971), Cassandra Crying, 2016, Inkjet print on canvas with handmade metal embroidery cm 67×54 (image cm 40×28) unique specimen work in frame. The work comes with certificate of authenticity issued by the artist. Provenance: private collection. Euro 70,000 – 90,000

The auction catalog declines in works by progenitors and experimenters, starting from the late 1800s, moving through iconic photographs of the 1900s, to works by contemporary artists and traversing history and major international events.

Among the top lots in the auction is Cassandra Crying (see fig. 1), a work by Francesco Vezzoli, an authentic masterpiece and unique work created ad hoc for Vanity Fair magazine and used as the cover of a special 2016 issue (see fig. 3)

“If you have never cried, your eyes cannot be beautiful.” Sophia Loren

Fig. 2 – Detail Work

Cassandra Crying is one of the fundamental works of Francesco Vezzoli’s artistic journey and fully represents the soul of his quest between sacred and profane, austere and frivolous, ancient and modern. Inspired by a 1971 shot by Francesco Scavullo that immortalizes Sophia Loren, an iconic character of the collective imagination, Vezzoli twists its essential characters by reinventing an aesthetic of tears and glamour. Indeed, it is in the process of reclaiming craft and using different techniques that the artist’s work unfolds. Cassandra Crying/Sophia Loren in her being at once Diva, film character, Scavullo’s shot, weeping canvas print embroidered golden tears, activates in the eyes of the beholder countless visual and intellectual stimuli, creating a totally new art form.

Fig. 3 – Vanity Fair, No. 9 weekly | March 2016, published on the cover and page 116.

Come afferma Stefano Tronchi, parlando della collaborazione tra i due Francesco: “Queste immagini non sono semplici fotografie, nemmeno per un attimo, ma una contaminazione tra cinema, moda e arte, l’una che si fonde nell’altra, nell’inevitabile equazione di tutti i lavori di Vezzoli” (Cristiana Perrella, a cura di, Francesco Vezzoli, Rizzoli editore, Milano, 2016, pg. 77).

Vezzoli richiama la memoria personale e comune partendo da una fotografia dalla forte potenza evocativa, cui conferisce nuova vita servendosi di strumenti espressivi, a tratti dicotomici, che rendono labili i confini tra media, fotografia e arti applicate.