Francesco Print

Portrait-marionette Francesco is a character from my collection of marionettes based on Hector Malot's classical book « Sans Famille ». Recently my volunteering in Children's Hospital in Riga led me to think that dis-functional families hadn't changed so much since 19th century's France. My heart hurt, images of unhappy children hunted me till I started to make this collection. Francesco is ta traveling musician and a music teacher who tells Rémi The Harpist all there is to know about life and music. Once in his life he was a famous singer but now all he has left is knowledge. Teacher is a crucial father figure in little Rémi's life, so I chose a very special person to portray. Francesco is a portrait-marionette of Pope Francesco. Francesco is a marionette-manifesto, The evening I made Francesco's final touches while listening the radio new, the ongoing hybrid-war in Ukraine was announced as « War »  by officials and it touched my heart very deeply. Since that evening Francesco became a messenger of peace, he has Ukrainian flag sewn on his chest besides a little prayer in French « Donne-nous la Paix » (Give us Peace). As a music teacher and as the Pope he just couldn't pretend nothing has happened. Marionette Francesco is almost human size, it measures 128x44x26 cm, without strings and control, due to his size and weight he prefers sitting on elaborated antique chairs during the performance. As a marionette he is suitable for speeches and monologues, he is the most charismatic of my marionettes and likes to take over the performance. Francesco is made of a set of golden-orange-greyish-green decorative fabrics. His tonsure is made of white organdie threads, he has expressive eyes , hand-embroidered with different shades of green beads, he also has pearl white teeth. His body is stuffed with different weight materials (sintepon, scraps of fabric, stones) to maintain a natural balance of movements. Her body is jointed in head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, upper torso, hips, knees and ankles. Each joint is hand-sewn together with linen thread and carefully fixed with buttons. Francesco wears a pair of wooden sabots covered with green fabric with pink and golden flower motifs. He has a crucifix embroidery on his chest, made from rose-ashes beads and decorative stones. His figure is elderly, with thin legs and a plump belly, I chose to leave him naked to let his soul shine through more clearly. His face and hands are made from papier-maché. At first they are sculpted as a clay model, then multiple layers of papier-maché are applied to create a harmonious mixture of perfect form and color. To my opinion, hands are as charasteristic as the face to reveal puppet's personality, Francesco wears a hand-watch – a heritage from my granny's handiwork basket, and a turquoise ring on his finger.

Print:Giclee on Photo Paper

Size:8 W x 12 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:13.25 W x 17.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.