Etching and aquatint in colour impressed on Velin Rives paper, mm 1215x800. Engraving mm 966x675. Signed lower right MARINO in pencil. Numbered lower left in pencil 69/75. Very good specimen with slightly browned margins. Marini's knights are men of virtue, silent and ancient figures, representatives of a proud and honest humanity. In the last years of his activity, Marino Marini's favourite themes, in particular that of the 'Knight' underwent a maturation and a new artistic language was derived from this. The representation of the figures of the man and the horse is reduced to completely schematic sketch lines and reduced to the essential, which in part are white and as if hollowed out by a black background, in part are black and rest on light-coloured backgrounds. This possibility of enlivening black and white etchings by means of aquatint superimpositions of simple geometric forms emerges forcefully in this work entitled 'Grand Knight' of 1978 where the part reserved for colours dominates. It is no coincidence that the master chose to use all primary colours, starting with the blinding red of the background and continuing with the blue of the horse and the complementary green of the knight, which almost completely make the etching line disappear and leave all the importance of the composition to the great pictorial richness. There are 75 examples of this work signed and numbered from 1/75 to 75/75, 50 examples signed and numbered from I/L to L/L and 20 artist's proofs. Guastalla, Marino Marini. Catalogo ragionato dell'Opera grafica (Engravings and Lithographs) 1919-1980, Nr. A 220.