Eugenio Vazzano

Focu niuru

Name: Focu niuru
SKU: 5318
Price: 850.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

Tapestries Cotton with acrylics

Single artwork

€850,00

Description by the artist

Focu niuru (Sicilian for “black fire” ) is the title of this work. Etna, a muntagna di focu (Sicilian for “The mountain of fire”) as it is known in Sicilian, has always influenced the life of us Sicilians. You see it first if you arrive in Sicily and it is the last thing you see when you leave. It gives us wealth and fertility but it has always been a source of terror and worry due to its destructive power. This makes it worthy of deep respect, almost equal to a god. Passion, heat and energy, like an erupting volcano, distinguishes us Sicilians in the world. Made of cotton canvas with acrylics. Unique pieces.

Details and dimensions

Materials: Cotton with acrylics

Dimensions (cm): Height 174, Width 142

Handcrafted in Sicily

The artwork in the Sicilian culture

By the Governance of Sicilian Artisan Foundation

Etna, the highest volcano in Europe (3300 meters above sea level), imperiously dominates the eastern part of Sicily, but it is so huge that it can be seen up to hundreds of kilometers away. Men of all ages have climbed to the top starting with the philosopher Empedocle from Agrigento (V B.C.) who, according to legend, ended his life by throwing himself into it. The toponym (Aitna) seems to derive from some word whose etymology, leads back to the meaning “I burn”. For the Arabs of Sicily (IX-XI century) it was a mountain twice as high and they called it Mons (mount) Gebel (mountain), twice a mountain; and until the recent past (but also today) the Sicilians called it Mongibello. But its Sicilian name par excellence is: “a muntagna”. It has given work to the nivalori (that they collected the snow, they preserved it in the caves of the volcano and then they sold it in the villages), to the coalmen, to the gatherers of the Ginestra (excellent for the bakers).

(photo) The city of Catania and Mount Etna before 1840, Sicily