Mirella Bentivoglio's Feminist Sculpture 'Ovo' Restored in Gubbio

In 1976, Mirella Bentivoglio participated in the Gubbio Biennale, invited by curator Enrico Crispolti, and presented a monumental egg-shaped sculpture made of local stones, standing 230 cm tall, placed outside the medieval city walls near Porta di Sant'Ubaldo. The work, dedicated 'to the adulteress stoned,' had an inscription hidden inside. It is considered the first public feminist sculpture in Italy, intended as 'a peace agreement between man and woman in the sign of equality.' The sculpture, nicknamed 'Ovo' by locals, collapsed in 2004 but was restored and reinstalled on April 3, 2022, in a ceremony led by Mayor Filippo Maria Stirati and Culture Councillor Giovanna Uccellani, attended by hundreds. The restoration was prompted by artist Tony Bellucci for Bentivoglio's centenary, involving the municipality, private companies, the university of Muratori, and the Bentivoglio archive. The egg shape references Bentivoglio's linguistic research on the letter O and Piero della Francesca's 'Brera Madonna' (1472), which features an ostrich egg symbolizing miraculous birth. Bentivoglio herself noted that her eggs represented an alternative, split by a median line, until this one took monumental form in urban space.