On May 18th, la Lettura’s Corriere Art Collection unveils a cover that confronts the sacred and the tragic, invoking themes of loss, remembrance, and the weight of collective grief — “Il raccoglitore di anime” by Beppe Sabatino.
In this haunting work, a solitary man is seen with his hands immersed in the sea, caught in a primordial, ritual-like gesture. The scene conjures the act of recovering bodies lost to the Mediterranean, not as a savior, but as a silent witness, a gatherer of forgotten souls.
Palermo-born artist Beppe Sabatino, who lives and works between Milan and Fano, is known for his environmentally engaged practice that moves between painting and sculpture. The cover image, built on absence and what lies just out of sight, carries a solemn, sacred charge; a tribute to those who vanish in the depths, leaving behind only the ghostly imprint of their stories.
The physical issue will be available at newsstands nationwide on Sunday, May 18th. The edition including the digital collectible version of the cover — complete with a blockchain-backed certificate of authenticity — will follow on Tuesday, May 20th.
Beppe Sabatino: Art as Ritual and Memory
Beppe Sabatino, born in Palermo in 1961, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between painting and sculpture, often incorporating ceramics, wood, and iron to evoke presence through material absence. After studying at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo, he taught for over two decades at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, and currently holds a professorship in Contemporary Decoration at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino.
Sabatino’s practice is marked by a strong environmental consciousness and an acute sensitivity to the themes of transience, loss, and sacred ritual. His works often adopt an almost archaeological language: layering organic materials and textures to create forms that feel both unearthed and deliberately constructed. Each composition becomes a silent act of remembrance, a meditation on what remains when life disappears from view.
Whether working on canvas or through sculptural installations, Sabatino consistently pushes the viewer to consider the invisible forces shaping our world, from ecological decay to the unspoken grief of migration. His art functions as both elegy and testimony: spaces in which memory is not only preserved, but reactivated through form.
Defining Absence: Il raccoglitore di anime
In this edition of Corriere Art Collection, Beppe Sabatino presents “Il raccoglitore di anime”, a cover that channels solemnity and silence into a powerful meditation on loss. A solitary man, hands immersed in the sea, performs a primordial, ritual-like gesture: one that inevitably evokes the recovery of the bodies of migrants, submerged and consumed by the Mediterranean.
As Gianluigi Colin, Art Director at Corriere della Sera, explains: "In the Christian world, the fish is the symbol representing Christ, the God who became man. Perhaps for this reason Beppe Sabatino titled the work on our cover 'Il raccoglitore di anime': we see a man with his hands immersed in the sea in a primordial gesture, almost as if it were a ritual act, which inevitably evokes the recovery of the bodies of migrants submerged and devoured by the Mediterranean. That man is no longer a fisher of life, but of lost souls, of forgotten people."
Sabatino’s work is a composition built on absence: on what is not seen, but imagined. The image radiates a tragic, sacred dimension, inviting us to acknowledge it as a visual testimony of collective mourning. In the dark and boundless sea, the artist evokes a simulacrum of invisible bodies and faceless shadows, turning the act of looking into an act of remembrance.The physical issue of this collectible edition will be available at newsstands across Italy starting Sunday, May 18th. The digital edition — featuring the certified cover artwork as a blockchain-backed collectible — will be released on Tuesday, May 20th.