Palio, Siena, 2017
Further images
During Tantra's fellowship at The British School at Rome, she was selected to design the Drappellone for the 2017 Palio di Siena, a twice-yearly tradition stretching back 600 years. Since 1970, it is a convention that an international artist is chosen to design the flag. Tantra united her contemporary design and colour palette with the compulsory elements: the Madonna of the Assumption, the City insignia (Terzi), and the symbols of each Contrada participating in the race), as well as that year's commemoration for Giovanni Dupre.
Tantra says, "For an abstract geometric artist, the biggest challenge was having to include figurative elements. For the Madonna, I represented the figure as a linear drawing based on an early renaissance painting I found by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. The sculpture of Sappho by Giovanni Dupre on the other hand was based on drawing illustrations by Andy Warhol from the 1950s- I wanted to add a layer of 'pop art' and 1950s nostalgia into the work".
During Tantra's fellowship at The British School at Rome, she was selected to design the Drappellone for the 2017 Palio di Siena, a twice-yearly tradition stretching back 600 years. Since 1970, it is a convention that an international artist is chosen to design the flag. Tantra united her contemporary design and colour palette with the compulsory elements: the Madonna of the Assumption, the City insignia (Terzi), and the symbols of each Contrada participating in the race), as well as that year's commemoration for Giovanni Dupre.
Tantra says, "For an abstract geometric artist, the biggest challenge was having to include figurative elements. For the Madonna, I represented the figure as a linear drawing based on an early renaissance painting I found by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. The sculpture of Sappho by Giovanni Dupre on the other hand was based on drawing illustrations by Andy Warhol from the 1950s- I wanted to add a layer of 'pop art' and 1950s nostalgia into the work".