Cassandra

The horse however is not made in the same naturalistic idealised style of the rest of the sculpture but is rather more contemporary and abstract in its execution. The contraposition of styles is meant to signify the conflict between classical and modern/contemporary art. Cassandra (representing the type of naturalistic sculpture of the Greco-Roman and Renaissance tradition) is threatened by the horse (representing the abstraction and flatness of the modern and contemporary tradition). Cassandra indeed will be destroyed by the horse, as her civilisation was by the Achaeans, and yet, both Greek civilisation and contemporary art are but a continuation of their origins. The relationship oscillates between homage and hostility

    The sculpture features one further element of contemporary iconography: a graffiti style inscription upon the base. The bust appears to have been vandalised by someone who etched a phrase upon it. However, this sentence is also classical in origin: Timeo danaos et dona ferentes, a line that Virgil gives to Laocoon in the Aeneid: ‘I fear the Greeks even when they bear gifts.’

    Because of its conception as an allegory of the relationship between classical and contemporary art, the sculpture echoes the space where it is exhibited: the Palazzo Boncompagni in Bologna, a historical building that now houses contemporary art such as this sculpture and some works by Pistoletto, alongside some remarkable treasures of the past.