Cesare Brandi theorized the formulation of the image and the constitution of the object—two crucial elements in understanding an artist’s work and creative process. The gap between these two aspects represents the key to interpreting both art and the artist.
When we observe Benetti’s works, it is as if we are transported into the very heart of this great alchemical workshop that is the artist’s mind. When Dürer engraved Melencolia I, he captured the profound relationship between art, the artist, the philosopher, the demiurge, and the alchemical process of transmuting elements. Similarly, Zola described the artist as a sentiment that interprets reality. By combining these insights, we come to understand the arduous and complex nature of the artistic endeavor, and how often, clumsily, we attempt to define art itself.
Benetti’s works are a remarkable synthesis of alchemy, movement, interpretative skill, and, above all, that much sought-after contemporary oblique cut, which today stands as the fundamental tool for artistic definition. His works narrate the essential elements of the universe—earth, air, water, and fire—each charged with its own energy, vigor, and force. Benetti gathers them, crystallizes them within his art, and transforms their very essence, initiating a new classical order shaped by art and movement, where the human figure is conspicuously absent, as its presence would disrupt the cosmic breath of things.