Size: 300×400 cm
Materials: Iron, wood, stone, acrylic
Date: 2023

The great battle

“The Great Battle” is a monumental 3-by-4-meter work that immerses the viewer in a battlefield steeped in contradictions and confusion.

Ten characters, sculpted in matter and painted with decisive strokes, move against a surreal backdrop.
The characters depicted are inspired by existing men, connected to the artist personally: relatives, friends, collaborators, figures who have stood by him in his daily challenges. From the accountant to the blacksmith, from his son to his brother, each has taken part in the artist’s professional journey, a truly great battle.
With this work Miglietta emphasizes the importance of their presence and support.

Between spears, axes, and shields, iron and wood overlap, creating a three-dimensionality that amplifies the sense of disorder. In the foreground, the soldiers – heterogeneously attired – do not seem to belong to a single era or culture, as if time itself had been fragmented. Behind them, three horsemen emerge, but their presence disrupts any military pattern and any form of perspective, as if they were distant spectators of an unstoppable battle, suspended by invisible threads. Prominent among the figures is the painter’s self-portrait, which sits within this chaos, making the work a personal reflection on the omnipresence of struggle in everyday life. The characters look like puppets floating between playfulness and seriousness: those who smile and look directly at the viewer, those who fight in anger, and those who contemplate and observe. It all gives the feeling that everyone is driven by an external force, acted upon by the events of life and its complexities.

The work is a stylistic mix that overrides historical coherence: Japanese katanas sit alongside medieval European elements and Renaissance weapons, underscoring the heterogeneity of everyday challenges, and the very struggle to keep track of the flow of life. Despite the presence of a figure slumped on the ground, “The Great Battle” conveys a deep and atavistic energy, a life force that embodies the determination to carry on, to fight despite everything.

An intense work that speaks of chaos, fatigue and endurance, and conveys to the viewer the desire to put oneself out there, oscillating between passion and perseverance.

“The Great Battle” is a reflection on daily toil, but also a tribute to those who have supported the artist along the way. The message is clear: “My working life has been a great battle. I would not be where I am now without you.”

Short story

The family business consisted of a three-room workshop: sewing machines, pajama sets, and seven-piece nightgowns. We never knew who was the perpetrator of the theft. On the night of April 3, in front of the empty rooms, my father had his first heart attack. I was nineteen years old, and what was left of the family business passed into my hands as a professional basketball player.
At that time my team consisted of me (second character on the left), my father, my mother, some seamstresses from the village.
My brother Gianfranco (first on the left holding a spear) appeared a few years later, along with Loris (third subject starting from the right, second row, looking straight into the field) and Lorenzo (two subjects further to the left, holding a bat, gnashing his teeth).
That basketball game soon turned into a real battle. Our team grew, the schemes revolutionized, we wielded weapons and became a small but solid assault battalion. There are many fronts where we fought: in a textile factory, in the restoration of a monumental complex dating from the 15th century, in the creation and management of a reception hall, in the construction of a boutique hotel.
Enterprise life is a protean being. In fifty years it has changed many faces and its needs have transformed, revolutionizing balances, creating mutinies, abandonments, and new alliances. Each individual pictured here has helped to carry on the family’s small, large business. Thanks to these men, collaborators, helpers and friends, my ability to cope with the world endures and the will to take on new challenges has been maintained, intact and alive, for 50 very long years.