Drawing measuring 100 x 72.5 cm created with a mixed technique of pen and ink and watercolor on beige paper; framed in a wooden strip.
Planted on its feet and with wide eyes, the foal refuses to move, frightened by the sight of the equine skull that appears on the left, suddenly stiffening its trembling physicality.
The protagonist's tension is rendered through a nervous and incisive graphic sign, while the broad and deep contours increase the sense of plasticity, making it evident that the artist thinks first and foremost as a sculptor.
Elia Ajolfi (Bergamo 1916-2001) is one of the great bronze sculptors of the Italian 20th century; his animalistic sculptural cycles, starting from the late 1950s, were always preceded by refined drawings like this one, characterized by an incisive, quick-acting plasticity.
Signature and date 1961 at the bottom right.
