Born in the province of Santa Fé in Argentina, Ricardo Cinalli has lived for many years in the UK and achieved fame for his monumental paintings and murals. Among his public commissions are his painted frescoes in the Londersborough Room in Alexandra Palace, Vintners Place in the City of London, the main altar at the Chiesa del Redentore in Brixton and the Argentine Embassy itself! Not a mean feat! His work is figurative and he creates impressive and powerful images that linger in your mind. He focusses on the human form and is partial to exploring proportions, such as larger-than-life drawings of figures in groups, as well as in sections, such as massive heads, hands and feet, that by the sheer graphic skill and size, have a mesmerizing impact on the spectators. He has not worked in a video format before, although he certainly relished the opportunity to play the music for the video, being, as he is, a very accomplished pianist and tango player par excellence!
Ricardo Cinalli
Ricardo Cinalli- The Kiss 1989
The original idea for this video ‘Belfonso’ emerged after a contra-temps with an assistant who let Cinalli down just as he needed to complete an important project: -
Cinalli: -
“This idea is a fantasy. I have an assistant who left me in the lurch. It is a while ago now, but he disappeared for six days and it drove me mad… I thought: How can he let me down like this without even phoning to say: ‘Sorry, can’t make it.’ I was stuck in the studio trying to get things moving and he didn’t come and he didn’t come! Then one day, I got up and was doodling and I started to transform him (the assistant) into a dwarf. I gave him a name, drew some more dwarfs and so the film began.”
Cinalli points out how in certain countries like Argentina, in certain (high) social classes, people are repulsed by dwarfs. Yet Cinalli is well aware of the long and sophisticated mythology of dwarfs throughout the ages. He points out that right from the start, they seem to have had the reputation of being particularly well-endowed! They were well respected in Roman times as well as in Ancient Egypt, where the Pharaohs held them in high esteem. Several of the ancient Egyptian gods were portrayed as dwarfs, such Ptah, the Creator of the Universe and Bes the God of Love, Sexuality and Childbirth.
Egyptian God of Love, Sex and Childbirth 'BES'
Seneb (pictured with his wife Senetites and their 2 children) was the head of the Royal Textile works in the Sixth Dynasty and Chief Priest of the Funeral Temples of the Fourth Dynasty Pharaohs (Djedefre & Khufu) who built the Great Pyramid of Giza. When he died, he received a very sumptuous funeral reserved for special personages.
The dwarf Seneb with his wife Senetites and their two children
In Europe, in particular Scandinavian and Teutonic folklore and mythology, dwarfs had long been associated with wisdom, ironmongery, magic swords and mining. It was believed they lived deep inside the mountains or mines where they had a lot of gold. In German heroic legends, ‘Alberich’ is a dwarf who features in the poems of Nibelungenlied and the Old Norse collection of German legends called Thidreksaga (under the name of Alfrikr, meaning Ruler of Supernatural Beings).
Arthur Rackham's illustration of Alberich and the Walkyries- ( now why don't they look like that on stage?)
Richard Wagner delved deep into these legends for his opera cycle of Der Ring Des Nibelungen. In it, ‘Alberich’ is the chief of the race of dwarves and the main protagonist driving events. In Das Rheingold, he obtains the power to forge a ring after renouncing love and stealing gold from the River Rhein. Largely illustrated as an LP (little person or midget) rather than a dwarf, his imagery is more akin to the proportions of a gnome. Even so, it is easy to see where J.R.R.Tolkein got his inspiration, which he then expanded in his own books ‘The Lord of The Rings’. Although traditionally,the dwarves worked iron, in the Lord of the Rings, the dwarfs finally manage to recover, Erebor, the lonely mountain from the dragon Smaug and take his hoard of gold.
Lord of the Rings with the dwarf Gimli in the Two Towers-talking about dwarf women
Dwarfs also had a role in the courts of Europe over the centuries, although largely as jesters and for entertainment, even if Diego Velazquez liked to paint his ' serious' dwarfs looking totally miserable all the time. In Great Britain, the hapless Jeffrey Hudson was introduced to Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria encased in a pie. Later, he tired of the all the mockery. Other famous dwarfs included Charles L.Proteus Stenmetz, who turned out to be mathematical genius. He was close to Edison, Tesla and Einstein. One of the most famous was the most exploited as well, Charles Sherwood Stratton (1838-1883) known as Tom Thumb. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Probably more of a midget than a dwarf, he was only 63cm tall and weighed only 7 kg! He was taken over (and exploited) by Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), of Barnum’s Circus, He included him in his circus acts, using the name General Tom Thumb, obliging him to smoke cigars at seven and drink wine from the age of five. Even his wedding to the attractive dwarf, Lavinia Warren in 1863, created such a sensation that more than 2000 visitors attended, including the elite of New York Society.
Phineas Taylor Barnum with General Tom Thumb
General Tom Thumb and his wife Lavinia Warren on their wedding day.
Despite these famous real-life dwarfs, their mythical connections with legends are powerful and this was not lost on Ricardo Cinalli when he first began this series of drawings. With all these influences in mind, Ricardo Cinalli allowed the character he had created to develop organically: -
Cinalli: -
“Everything is based on the personality of this dwarf (Belfonso) and his reality. But what happened then? I continued with this tale and Sylvia [Libedinsky] was not yet aware of the project [in detail], although I had mentioned it to her. Soon after, this other dwarf emerged that was his girlfriend (Malva). Then I began to foresee the unfolding of the tale and then yet another dwarf appeared, who is called Ricarda and … in truth…she is probably me! Sylvia got involved at this point and she started to write. We had already been collaborating on some works for a book on Argentine Artists in the UK… organized by artist and musician Piero Pierini… who wants to bring together three poets and three artists. These include Libedinksy and I, Mario Flecha, with Oscar Grillo, as well as Miguel Ardiles with Piero himself.
Belfonso, Malva and Ricarda
With every new drawing that I produced of the dwarf and his two lovers; Sylvia added some spectacular words that were enchanting… and so the story unfolded… but these stories, as you know, take you to places that have nothing to do with reality, they are a fantasy… and she arrives with a dagger when she finds the other two cavorting and wham, she kills them and she is taken to prison where she kills herself… in the end, these three dwarfs (Belfonso, his murderous girlfriend Malva and his lover Ricarda) never cease to be totally amoral. It’s a tale of love and betrayal… and that is how we created this video.”
Belfonso and his two lovers face off and turn-on.
His co-creator Sylvia Libedinsky is a multi-discipline artist who has worked in many different fields, from architecture to furniture design to witty political cartoons that border on the Arts of the absurd. Now, she is also gaining a reputation as an excellent poet and has recently published a book: ‘Sobretodo’ (Strictly speaking this word means ‘Overcoat’… but, in the context of her book, it means ‘About Everything’- which it is!)
Syvia Libedinsky in her studio
Mechanical Ballet by Sylvia Libedinsky
Libedinsky is aware that the story arose from Cinalli’s emotional reaction to his assistant’s failure to turn up to work as a way of punishing him. Yet, from that unexpected beginning, they could both see that the project took on a life of its own:
Libedinsky: -
“With the drawings, a tale emerged of passion, tangos, sumptuous interiors and it developed into a complex narrative… a series of 3 paintings narrated by a form of classic poetry, the opposite of another project that we are working on of three illustrated stories by three pairs of Argentine Artists who have lived in London for a long time.”
Malva In Belfonso(2020)
Libedinsky helped to arrange the drawings into a classic drama format, while Cinalli added new drawings to help with the continuity, as she explains, it has: -
“… all the twists and turns, betrayals and cruelty of a drama that grasps the essence of a Greek tragedy set in a climate of tangos and grand salons. These incongruencies are not coincidental, they are a deliberate attempt to break with what is ‘expected’. All this has a tragi-comic effect… if you find it funny that is! Ricardo’s paintings (in pencil and tempera) are explicit and ‘indecent’ as opposed to my narration and audio reading. Some have said that my poetry places the drama in a more subtle, contemporary and accessible context.”
You could say it is lewd versus prude.
Belfono (2020)
The video Belfonso eventually saw the light of day, thanks to the collaboration with Ferdy Carabott, who prepared the ‘presentation’. As Libedinsky states: -
“Ferdy, with his habit of always doing things better and with more logic, subtlety and ability than we had expected, produced this video that is now ‘Belfonso’.”
‘Belfonso’ is a witty and dramatic video. In the carefully sequenced tableau, the tensions between the text and the images create an interesting dichotomy. The characters led by their powerful emotions, take an inevitable trajectory that echoes many a tragedy. With this poetry and these images, these three dwarfs are given the chance to live, to hate, to indulge and then to face the consequences of their passions. Having been often denied these true-life characteristics in literature and even in film, Cinalli and Libedinsky have given them a chance to experience the stuff of life to the full, and they did, in all its complexities!
Due to explicit erotic content, this video comes with a warning.
Credits
Ricardo Cinalli temperas y concepto
Sylvia Libedinsky texto y narración
Production and editing Ferdy Carabott
Music Tracks:
Lo que vendrá Astor Piazzola
El Firulete Mariano More
Palomita Blanca Anselmo Aieta (music)
Piano Ricardo Cinalli
For more information about the artists please see:
Ricardo Cinalli: www.ricardocinalli.com /
https://www.latinolife.co.uk/articles/ricardo-cinalli’s-“-ravishing-muse-–-irreverent-homage-picasso”
Sylvia Libedinsky: www.libedinsky.com / https://www.latinolife.co.uk/articles/above-all / https://www.latinolife.co.uk/articles/sylvia-libedinsky-artist-absurd
