Fernando Botero is know for his rotund and voluminous subjects; you'll immediately recognize these characteristics in his paintings and gigantic bronze sculptures, some of which have been recently exhibited in the Piazza del Duomo, Pietrasanta's giant and delightfully automobile-free main square.
Pietrasanta is a noble village in Northern Tuscany, [map] crammed with art studios and workshops, bronze foundries and marble laboratories, set against the background of the Apuan Alps. Michelangelo got his marble nearby, and artists have followed ever since. You will eat well here, wherever you go, it seems.
Botero divides his time between Pietrasanta, New York, Paris and occasionally his native Columbia. But he doesn't spend much time in Columbia any more, the threat of kidnapping and Columbia's drug-fueled guerrilla war has forced him to limit his time there. At 72, he has broken from the past's corpulent nudes full of whimsy and is currently producing works that depict that brutal conflict.
"Monumental sculpture has a clear struggle with the outside world. It has to exist, impose itself in the place. For that reason, many artists who are great sculptors and who do not have the sense of monumentality fade away when they deal with urban space."
From Conversations With Fernando Botero
I love what I do (Interview with the artist by Ana María Escallón)
View our series of photographs Botero Nudes in Piazza del Duomo - Pietrasanta and see if Botero's nude sculptures have indeed imposed themselves on Pietrasanta's monumental public space.