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South facade of Church of Saint Simeon, 5th century CE, Syria. Saint Simeon, born in 390 in the Amanus Mountains, became an extreme ascetic monk whose practices were considered too severe for communal monastic life. Seeking solitude, he lived as a hermit, but his reputation drew many followers. To avoid crowds, he took up residence on top of a pillar, eventually raised to 18 meters, where he preached daily and communicated with the outside world by ladder. His fame reached emperors, who sought his counsel. He died in 459 at around 69 years old, and his remains were taken to Antioch, where his tomb became a major pilgrimage site.

Marino Marini (IT, Pistoia, February 27, 1901 - 1980, Viareggio)

Marini’s studio in Tenero, Switzerland. Photo by Fritz Wotruba, c. 1944. Courtesy Archivio Fotografico of the Fondazione Marino Marini, Pistoia.

Fritz Wotruba in Marino Marini’s atelier in Tenero-Locarno, Switzerland (from left to right: Wotruba, Marini, Marian Wotruba, and Marina Marini), c. 1943. Belvedere Wien, Dauerleihgabe der Fritz Wotruba Privatstiftung © Fritz Wotruba Privatstiftung, Vienna.

Marino Marini and his Swiss-born wife Mercedes Pedrazzini (1913–2008), better known as Marina, took refuge between 1942 and 1945 in Tenero-Locarno, Switzerland, to escape the Allied bombing raids on Milan [stopping briefly in Merate and Blevio, on Lake Como]

There, one of the most important yet little studied periods of his career unfolded, marking a significant turn in his artistic, ideological, and sociopolitical identity...

“A Nordic Mystery”: Insights into Marino Marini’s Sojourn in Switzerland During World War II

Nicol Maria Mocchi [paper author]

Marino Marini, Issue 5, May 2021 [Italian Modern Art Journal]

https://italianmodernart-new.kudos.nyc/journal/issues/marino-marini/

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Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All too human (1878)