Marini is best known for his stylized statues and paintings of horses, with or without a rider. Probably the most famous work is L'angelo della Cittá, which stands in front of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice on the Grand Canal.
In 1917 Marini studied at the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Florence. It was then that he saw Etruscan art for the first time, which had a lasting influence on his work. Another influence were the sculptures by Arturo Martini. In 1929 Marini became Martini's successor as a professor at the Scuola d’Arte di Villa Reale in Monza, near Milan, where he taught until 1940.
Marini saw the relationship between horse and man as a symbol of the state of mankind, especially after the Second World War. While the early sculptures often depict the rider and horse as a relaxed unity, the depictions of the horses become more and more restless until they finally throw the rider off, as in the sculpture "Miracolo" in front of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Marini saw the different versions as an expression of unity, helplessness and imbalance and showed the dependence and vulnerability of humans.
