similar repositories of accumulated culture, which they described as
mausoleums. They also called for radical innovation in the arts. Of
particular interest to the Futurists were the speed and dynamism of
modern technology. Marinetti insisted that a racing “automobile
adorned with great pipes like serpents with explosive breath ...is
more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace”(FIG. 5-82, by then rep-
resentative of classicism and the glories of past civilizations).^11 Appro-
priately, Futurist art often focuses on motion in time and space, incor-
porating the Cubist discoveries derived from the analysis of form.
GIACOMO BALLAThe Futurists’ interest in motion and in the
Cubist dissection of form is evident in Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash
(FIG. 35-23) by Giacomo Balla(1871–1958). Here, observers focus
their gaze on a passing dog and its owner, whose skirts the artist placed
just within visual range. Balla achieved the effect of motion by repeat-
ing shapes, as in the dog’s legs and tail and in the swinging line of the
leash. Simultaneity of views, as demonstrated here, was central to the
Futurist program (see “Futurist Manifestos,” above).
UMBERTO BOCCIONI One of the artists who cosigned the
Futurist manifesto was Umberto Boccioni(1882–1916), who pro-
duced what is perhaps the definitive work of Futurist sculpture,
Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (FIG. 35-24). This piece high-
lights the formal and spatial effects of motion rather than their
source, the striding human figure. The figure is so expanded, inter-
rupted, and broken in plane and contour that it almost disappears
behind the blur of its movement. Boccioni’s search for sculptural
means for expressing dynamic action reached majestic expression
here. In its power and sense of vital activity, this sculpture surpasses
similar efforts in Futurist painting to create images symbolic of the
dynamic quality of modern life. To be convinced by it, people need
only reflect on how details of an adjacent landscape appear in their
peripheral vision when they are traveling at great speed on a high-
way or in a low-flying airplane. Although Boccioni’s figure bears a
curious resemblance to the ancient Nike of Samothrace (FIG. 5-82),
even a cursory comparison reveals how far the modern work departs
from the ancient one.Europe, 1900 to 1920 927O
n April 11, 1910, a group of young Italian artists published
Futurist Painting: Technical Manifestoin Milan in an attempt
to apply the writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s views on literature
to the visual arts. Signed jointly by Umberto Boccioni (FIG. 35-24),
Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla (FIG. 35-23), and Gino
Severini (FIG. 34-25), the manifesto also appeared in an English
translation supervised by Marinetti himself. It states in part:
On account of the persistency of an image on the retina, moving
objects constantly multiply themselves [and] their form changes....
Thus a running horse has not four legs, but twenty....
What was true for the painters of yesterday is but a falsehood today....
To paint a human figure you must not paint it; you must render the
whole of its surrounding atmosphere....[T]he vivifying current of
science [must] soon deliver painting from academic tradition....The
shadows which we shall paint shall be more luminous than the high-
lights of our predecessors, and our pictures, next to those of the muse-
ums, will shine like blinding daylight compared with deepest night....
We declare... that all forms of imitation must be despised, all forms
of originality glorified... that all subjects previously used must be
swept aside in order to express our whirling life of steel, of pride, of
fever and of speed... that movement and light destroy the material-
ity of bodies.*Two years later, Boccioni published a Technical Manifesto of
Futurist Sculpture,in which he argued that traditional sculpture was
“a monstrous anachronism” and that modern sculpture should be
a translation, in plaster, bronze, glass, wood or any other material,
of those atmospheric planes which bind and intersect things....
Let’s ...proclaim the absolute and complete abolition of finite lines
and the contained statue. Let’s split open our figures and place the
environment inside them. We declare that the environment must
form part of the plastic whole.†Boccioni’s own work (FIG. 35-24) is the perfect expression of these
principles and goals.
* Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto(Poesia,April 11, 1910). Translated by
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in Umbro Apollonio, ed.,Futurist Manifestos(Boston:
Museum of Fine Arts, 1970), 27–31.
†Translated by Robert Brain, in ibid., 51–65.Futurist Manifestos
ARTISTS ON ART35-24Umberto Boccioni,Unique Forms of Continuity in Space,
1913 (cast 1931). Bronze, 3 77 – 8 2 107 – 8 1 33 – 4 . Museum of
Modern Art, New York (acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest).
Boccioni’s Futurist manifesto for sculpture advocated abolishing the
enclosed statue. This running figure is so expanded and interrupted that
it almost disappears behind the blur of its movement.1 ft.