From the Uffizi to Lucca Comics & Games. The Sixteenth-Century ‘Ancestors’ of Ken the Warrior’s Apocalyptic Fighters
A trio of “muscled” drawings created half a millennium ago by master Baccio Bandinelli and his students will open the first exhibition of original works outside Japan by Tetsuo Hara, creator of the legendary manga and TV hero Ken Shiro.
Powerful muscles of mythology wrestlers, drew half a millennium ago made by the great master of arts, Baccio Bandinelli: with works by the legendary artist (author of the famous Laocoön, which has stood at the end of the Third Corridor of the Gallery of Statues and Paintings for centuries), loaned to Lucca Comics & Games, the Uffizi Gallery contributed to the first major exhibition outside Japan of Tetsuo Hara, creator of Ken Shiro, apocalyptic warrior, protagonist of the famous manga and Tv series from the 80’s who became over the decades a true international pop icon. The exhibition, curated by Alessandro Apreda, titled “Tetsuo Hara: Come un fulmine dal Cielo (“Like a bolt of Storm”)” refers to the Italian theme song of the anime, will be held in the former Church of the Servites in Lucca from October 25 to November 2, the final day of Lucca Comics & Games. Opening the exhibition, as happened last year with the celebratory exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, will be presented three Uffizi drawings featuring the massive Renaissance “ancestors” of Ken’s warriors, in which will be dedicated a special introductory space. “Masculine figures”, “Arms study”, “Three masculine figures”, those will be the main work on paper subjects exceptionally loaned by the Gallery: the first two drawn by Bandinelli himself, the third one attributed to his school.
Scuola di Baccio Bandinelli, Tre figure maschili, prima metà sec. XVI, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe, Uffizi. Disegno attribuito alla Scuola del grande artista. La figura al centro è identificabile con Ercole, dato che è appoggiato a un tronco dal quale pende la pelle del leone.
Baccio Bandinelli, Male Figure, first half of the 16th century, Uffizi Prints and Drawings Cabinet. Identifiable as Hercules, given the pose and musculature.
Baccio Bandinelli, Studies of Arms, first half of the 16th century, Uffizi Prints and Drawings Cabinet.
