This work, titled Bagatto, was painted in 1952 while the Italian artist was in the US. The title in Italian is the name of a card in the traditional Tarot deck and translates to The Magician or The Juggler. Cagli’s interest in cards and the tarot developed from his friendship with the America poet Charles Olson (1910-1970), whom he met in the US after fleeing Italy due to WWII. Despite the fact that Cagli wasn’t able to speak English, the two artist shared an intellectual interest in cards and the human psyche so, between 1946 and 1951, they created a number of paintings and poems dedicated to tarot cards – including this present work.