Dithyrambe: an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility…is one of a series of Sphinx
paintings, oil on paper on canvas, 30” x 21.25”, that are iconic in Fini’s
oeuvre.

The vibrant orange backgrounds for Fini’s mythical alter-egos evoke the fire that often surrounds the hybrid creature. Adorned in beautiful Art Nouveau jewelry, the normally frightening demeanor of the Sphinx is transmuted into what could be mistaken for a benign, desirable figure.

A sphinx from this series was my first introduction to Fini’s work. It holds a fascination for me that is inexplicable. Fini was first engaged by the sphinx image in Trieste where she saw a monumental one in stone that sits on a jetty at Miramar, the castle where the Emperor Maximillian III and Carlotta lived before they went to Mexico.

I once gave Leonor a photo-book comprised of many images of sphinx
that I discovered in my travels. She kept it by her bed and mentioned it
almost every time we saw each other. One could say that the sphinx was
the seminal tie between us.