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Serial work is central to Lucio Fontana's art. In addition to 'Metalli' and 'Nature', the two egg-shaped works 'Concetto spaziale. La Fine di Dio' or 'The End of God' are also part of the series from the 1960s. The End of God' refers to Friedrich Nietzsche's exclamation "God is dead!" in the book 'The Joyful Science', published in 1882. According to Nietzsche, man's detachment from religion means not only self-empowerment but also disorientation. He wanders aimlessly in an infinite space and runs the risk of losing himself in it.
Under the title 'Fine di Dio', Fontana created 38 egg-shaped canvases, each almost 180 cm high. Painted in different colours - here green and reddish brown - they are covered with buchi, or holes: sometimes large and very rough, sometimes fine and small. There is also glitter, which makes the surface of the red-brown egg shimmer.
The egg shape is central to the interpretation of the series: it is a universal symbol of perfection, creation and life and, in a Christian context, a symbol of resurrection. In every egg there is a new beginning. The egg shape thus stands in unresolved contradiction to Nietzsche's statement about the death of God, quoted in the title of the work. The size of the egg-shaped canvases refers to the human body, the human scale. A reference here could be Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, with its ideal proportions.
Fontana's motivation to develop a new art was essentially the progress of science, especially space exploration, and its impact on society. A milestone for him was undoubtedly the first photograph of the Earth taken from space on 24 October 1946. Inspired by the discovery of hitherto unknown cosmic spaces, Fontana also wanted to open up new spaces with the means of art.