A material that "lends itself to fine interpretations". The status of plaster in Marino Marini's oeuvre

The purpose of my paper is to clarify the use of plaster in Marini’s artistic practice, both when the plaster is a unique piece, and when it is in relation with versions in other materials. Even if Marini often used plaster in a ‘traditional’ way to realize casts suitable for the translations to bronze or other materials, these sculptures are very often considered by the artist not only as translation tools and ‘mediation’ between the idea and the final plastic artwork, or academic exercise, but also as works with a proper autonomy that is able to render them final and definitive.