MASP

In 1938, de Fiori was “probably” (Laudanna 1997, p.191) invited by Capanema to take part in a “program for integrating the arts” of the Ministry of Education and Health – MCS. For this occasion the artist created among other plaster models The Brazilian as well as Seated Man and Reclining Woman. For reasons that have not been clarified, Capanema refused to accept all the works, claiming, according to Laudanna (ibid.) that the work “did not meet the official requirements in force at that time”. The State Art Gallery (Pinacoteca do Estado) exhibition allowed the Masp plaster to be seen together with other versions (some of them cast in bronze), among which the Masp example stands out as having the most classical inspiration and accomplishment, with its slimmer shapes and more relaxed modelling. Here de Fiori is definitely taking up again the form of his Grosser Jüngling II (Large Youth II) in clay, of 1926. It would not be too fanciful to suggest that the shape of the head and the face of the Masp version, showing a more typically northern European physical type, are vaguely reminiscent of the features of the artist himself.

— Unknown authorship, 1998