I have always been fascinated by round "tondo" paintings from the Renaissance, and after making my copy of Raphael's "Madonna della Seggiola", I felt the need to paint a tondo of my own.
For quite some time I had had an image stuck in my head. It was the vision of a supernatural being guarding and protecting the Earth in his hands with absolute care and self-sacrifice, like a life mission. The round shape of the empty board gave me the inspiration to paint them.
This was initially intended to be a painting with a mythological theme, but something more personal already emerged from the sketch. I also wanted to play with the elements, with the Earth, Sun and Moon, and with a skin-colour inspired by certain sacred beings of Hinduism and Buddhism.
This painting was made on a plywood poplar board, an elastic and thus extremely resistant board over time. I prepared the poplar board with Bologna plaster and glue in the traditional way. The sides are painted in oil like the rest of the painting, so it can also be hung without a frame. It already has a hook that also allows to understand exactly how it should be oriented.
