Assenza di dramma

The final panel closes the journey of THEOPHANIA by turning our gaze back to Francis. Where in the first work the face was crossed by searching and questioning, here it appears more relaxed, aware, inwardly at peace.

This is not the representation of a definitive goal, but the sign of a transformation matured along the way.

In the background appears a fragment of jute belonging to the research of Alberto Burri. The poor, essential, wounded material recalls art’s capacity to transform what seems fragile into a place of meaning. The simplicity of the fabric converses naturally with the Franciscan experience of poverty, understood not as deprivation but as freedom.

Closing the entire cycle there appears a reference to the most celebrated iconography of Francis: the encounter with the wolf of Gubbio. Giorgio Lupattelli, however, replaces the wolf with the silhouette of his own dog, Mac.

This choice introduces a deeply personal dimension. The artist does not repeat an image from tradition; he enters into relation with it, leaving in the work a discreet sign of his own story. Mac becomes a kind of signature, an affectionate seal that closes the journey without interrupting its universal meaning.

The gesture thus takes on a wider symbolic value. The wolf represented otherness, that which inspired fear and called for reconciliation. The dog, by contrast, recalls everyday relationship, faithfulness and friendship. It does not replace the Franciscan story, but translates it into an intimate and contemporary language.

The title Assenza di dramma does not suggest a life free of difficulty. It expresses, rather, a condition in which conflict no longer dominates one’s gaze. Having passed through the cosmos, time, the body, matter, knowledge and symbol, Francis returns to the human face. Everything that has been encountered now finds a form of inner unity.

THEOPHANIA thus ends where it began: before a person. The circle closes without closing the path. The last image offers no definitive conclusion; it invites visitors to continue for themselves the search the work has begun.