Hand of Peace sculpture and mosaic detail of a choir from the of Saint Francis of the Guns sculpture

Beniamino Bufano and the Themes of Peace

With St. Francis and the Madonna of his childhood watching over him, Bufano’s art began to focus on themes of peace, especially the human hand as a peace symbol. This preoccupation seems to have started after Bufano lost his finger in 1917 and perhaps was stimulated by the accident and the constant reminder of his loss. Indeed, the incident initiated a mystique that surrounded the artist for the rest of his life and that surrounds him still: Bufano wove the symbol of the hand into much of his art and it played an increasingly important role in his ideology.
In “The Hand is the Father of the Brain” he wrote: 

Blessed be the hand, the co-symbol of the mind’s eye. The hand is  the symbol illuminating the heart…. It is my prayer, my hope, and  my will that the hand is man’s will to peace, reaching out and  calling to man to abandon man’s inhumanity to man and to abandon  the cruelties of war. Such is the hand, the divine symbol of  oneness, the spiritual tears and song of peace reaching out to the  family of man.

The open hand, known to Buddhists as Abhaya Mudra, is an internationally recognized sign of peace. As a young man living and traveling throughout Asia, Bufano visited many of the ancient Buddhist monuments and became very familiar with Abhaya Mudra.

During the course of his career, Bufano produced many small and big versions of a sculpture he entitled Hand of Peace. Bufano often decorated the palms of his sculpted hands, recalling the Buddhist art he had seen in Asia.

Photos from left to right:

– Hand of Peace sculpture located at Walnut Creek Civic Park
– Detail from St.Francis of the Guns sculpture located in front of the entrance to the Science building of the City College of San Francisco

 

peace

Peace, mosaic.
Gift of Mr. Lloyd Crenna.
Museo Italo Americano Permanent Collection

A hand sculpted from bronze and enamel, placed upon a wooden base. Each of the fingers are straight and together, touching one another. Within the open palm is a circle which contains four young children; two in the foreground, sitting unclothed with their knees close to their chest upon green ground, mirroring one another, and two in the background, facing one another. The hand itself is bronze in color, while within the circle is a background with a sky of red, purple, and orange rings.

Hand of Peace, bronze sculpture and enamel on wood base.
Gift of Ms. Sheila Wishek.
Museo Italo Americano Permanent Collection

 

A pastel drawing on wove paper depicting a rainbow-shaped form with a hand of peace in the center. The hand, solely an outline, emerges from the rainbow, with shading on each side. Within the center of the palm is a small star, outlined in black. The colors range from green, to dark blue, to black, to red, to yellow, to red, to orange, all blended in the shape of a rainbow.

Hand of Peace, pastel drawing on wove paper, ca.1960.
Gift of Ms. Joan Low.
Museo Italo Americano
Permanent Collection

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Beniamino Bufano – So Be It in Peace – His SaintUncategorized
Beniamino Bufano – So Be It in Peace – His SpiritUncategorized