Purple Magazine
— F/W 2010 issue 14
Elogium Mentulae
ELOGIUM MENTULAE by PIERO FORNASETTI
The Italian artist and designer Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) is best known for his classically oriented, engraving-like style. During his long career he designed thousands upon thousands of examples of clothing, ceramics, and furniture, and produced paintings, sculptures, and engravings, each with an anthropomorphic twist. One notable series, of over five hundred images and objects, was inspired by the image of the face of the 19th-century opera singer Lina Cavalieri which he saw in a magazine dating from her time.
While Fornasetti was a war exile in Switzerland in 1945, he planned a limited-edition erotic book he called Elogium Mentulae, comprised of 69 pencil and ink drawings based on the penis, each one accompanied by a text of modern or ancient authors. In a style reminiscent of the Renaissance artist Arcimboldo, Fornasetti turned phalluses into noses, snakes, bulls, and fruit stands, and transformed grapes into breasts and testicles. But a publisher was never found for the project and Fornasetti put it aside. In 1973 he redrew the plates that had been lost and sought to release the book with his friend, the publisher Vanni Scheiwiller. This attempt also failed, and Elogium Mentulae — a work by one of the modern age’s most prolific artists and creators — remains unpublished to this day.
Fornasetti’s legacy remains strong, however, and his tradition lives on in the work of his son, Barnaba Fornasetti.
Selva Barni
