Giuseppe Riccobaldi del Bava - Sidarma Italnavi - 1970s

Splendid advertising poster, a masterpiece of Italian maritime promotional graphics from the postwar period. The work bears the unmistakable signature of Giuseppe Riccobaldi del Bava, one of the masters of 20th-century poster art. The poster advertises the transatlantic routes of the Sidarma Italnavi company, which connected Italy to South America. The powerful visual composition unites symbolic elements of the two worlds: at the top a gaucho on horseback with a lasso (a symbol of the Argentine pampas and South America), in the center the stylized profile of a modern transatlantic liner, and at the bottom the monumental Venetian architecture (the Basilica di San Marco), historic seat of the company.