Marini is particularly famous for his stylised statues and paintings of horses, with or without a rider. Probably the most famous example is "The Angel of the City", in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice which she acquired in Venice in 1948, when Marini had his own room at the Biennale.
He attended the Accademia Di Belle Arti in Florence in 1917. From this time on his work was influenced by Etruscan art and the sculpture of Arturo Martini. Marini succeeded Martini as professor at the Scuola d’Arte di Villa Reale in Monza, near Milan, in 1929, a position he retained until 1940. But before Marini created sculpture, he was a painter, and remained true to this craft all his life. Inspired by the ancient Etruscan art of Tuscany, he reduced the horses and men to elementary shapes, which are featured in his paintings and graphic works just as they are in his sculptures.