The strange head on this album’s cover grabs my attention. It looks like Stravinsky, which makes sense. Sure enough, at the back the artist is mentioned, along with the confirmation that it is really an image of the composer. The artist is an Italian artist called Marino Marini.
I’m intrigued by this weird head. I think it is the way it pops out at you. It looks slightly up, as if it asking for something, like a child. But it is clearly the face of an old man, bald and with large ears. Were there more statues like this? From what I read Marini was mainly famous for equestrian statues, you know, horse and rider. He created them from 1936 onwards. His views on the world can be seen in the fate of the rider: calm and formal slowly becomes anxious. In the end the rider has fallen off the horse, no longer in control.
I’m not an art critic, but there is a connection between the sculptor and Stravinsky: both had a fascination for primitive cultures and classicism. So maybe this image was well chosen. It is mentioned that it is from the collection of the Nijenhuis in Heino, a place that is now part of Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle, Netherlands.