The New Pinocchio

Carlo Collodi's universally acknowledged masterpiece of children's literature The Adventures of Pinocchio was first published in 1883. This fairy-tale, at once modern and timeless, has been the object of innumerable literary, theatrical, choreographic, film, television and comic strip adaptations, as well as being translated into hundreds of languages and being put to music. The adventures and the figure of Pinocchio himself have also inspired a number of plastic artists, who have illustrated both Collodi's original Pinocchio and the many adaptations. Christine Nostlinger's The New Pinocchio, illustrated by Antonio Saura, is known to be one of the most delightful of these. Antonio Saura devoted the majority of his time from 1990 to 1992 to studying Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio and its various adaptations and analysing the illustrations made by other artists. Profoundly shaken by the death of his second daughter Ana and struck by the beauty and simplicity of the tale as told by Christine Nostlinger, he decided to provide the illustrations to The New Pinocchio.
He quickly developed an entirely original Pinocchio, which stands out distinctively from all the other figures in his repertoire. The energy of life overcoming the pain of mourning, he dedicated this illustrated work to his grandson Pablo, who was two years old at the time. The work became an immediate success on publication and was quickly sold out, winning the prize for the Best Art Book published in Spain.