Jean Cocteau - Francesco Messina - 1959

Jean Cocteau wrote an important critical monograph dedicated to the Italian sculptor Francesco Messina, published in 1959 by the art publishing house Amilcare Pizzi. The volume explores the art and poetics of the Sicilian master (but Milanese by adoption), exalt­ing his plastic purity, the rediscovery of the human figure, and the deep connection with a classicism understood not as academia, but as an eternal and modern value at the same time. Messina's work was widely appreciated by major European intellectuals of the twentieth century precisely for its ability to remain faithful to nature and to figurative humanism. Further insights into this bond and the works can be found at the Francesco Messina Foundation and the Studio Museum Francesco Messina in Milan.