Il ponte degli angeli (The Bridge of Angels,1930), work by Scipione (Gino Bonichi)

Scuola romana or Scuola di via Cavour was a 20th century art movement defined by a group of painters within Expressionism and active in Rome between 1928 and 1945, and with a second phase in the mid-1950s.

Birth of the Movement[link]

In November 1927, artists Antonietta Raphaël and Mario Mafai^[1] move to No. 325 of Roman street via Cavour, in a Savoyan palace subsequently demolished in 1930 in order to allow the fascist construction of the New Empire Way (currently the via dei Fori Imperiali). The apartment's larger room is transformed into a studio.

Within a short time, this studio becomes a meeting point for literati such as Enrico Falqui, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Libero de Libero, Leonardo Sinisgalli, as well as young artists Scipione, Renato Marino Mazzacurati,^[2] and Corrado Cagli.

Contraposition to the sensitivity of the Return to Order Movement[link]

From start, this spontaneous confluence of artists at the via Cavour studio does not appear to be led by true and proper programmes or manifestos, but rather by friendship, cultural syntheses and a singular pictorial cohesion. With their firm approach to European expressionism, they formally contrapose the solid and orderly painting of neoclassic character, promoted by the socalled Return to order current of the 1920s, particularly strong in the Italian sensitivity of post-World War II.

The first identification of this artistic group should be attributed to Roberto Longhi, who writes^[3]:

From its very address, I'd call this the Scuola di via Cavour, where Mafai and Raphaël used to work...

and adds:

An eccentric and anarchoid art that could hardly be accepted by us, but it's all the same a notable sign of today's mores.

Longhi uses this definition precisely because he wishes to indicate the special work these artists are performing within the expressionist universe, breaking off from official art movements.^[4]

Carlo Levi in 1947, as a member of the 2nd season Scuola

During those years, painter Corrado Cagli too uses the appellative of Scuola romana.^[5] His critique does not linger on name identification for the "nuovi pittori romani (new Roman painters)" canimating this new movement. Cagli describes a spreading sensitivity and speaks of an Astro di Roma (Roman Star), affirming that is the real poetic basis of the "new Romans" :

In a primordial dawn all has to be reconsidered, and Imagination relives all wonders and trembles for all mysteries.

thus highlighting the complex and articulated Roman situation, as opposed to what Cagli called the imperating Neoclassicism of the Novecento Italiano. The Scuola romana offers a wild painting style, expressive and disorderly, violent and with warm ochre and maroon tones. The formal rigour is replaced by a distinctly expressionist visionariness.^[6]

Scipione, for instance, brings to life a sort of Roman baroque expressionism, where often decadent landscapes appear of Rome's historical baroque centre , populated by priests and cardinals, seen with a vigorously expressive and hallucinated eye. Similar themes will be present in Raffaele Frumenti's paintings in the Second Season of the Scuola, with vivid red hues and soft brush strokes.

Second Season of the Scuola Romana[link]

After 1930, instead of dying out due its major representatives' death (i.e., Scipione, Mafai and wife Antonietta Raphaël), the Scuola Romana continued with various other artists of a "second season", which developed during the 1930s and matured soon after World War II. Among them Roberto Melli, Renato Marino Mazzacurati, Guglielmo Janni, Renzo Vespignani and the socalled tonalists led by Corrado Cagli, Carlo Levi, Emanuele Cavalli and Capogrossi, all gravitating around the activities of the "Galleria della Cometa”.^[7]

Later members include personalities such as Fausto Pirandello (son of Nobel Prize Luigi),^[8] Renato Guttuso, the brothers Afro and Mirko Basaldella,^[9] Leoncillo Leonardi, Raffaele Frumenti, Sante Monachesi, Giovanni Omiccioli and Toti Scialoja.^[10]

Museum of the Scuola Romana[link]

The Villa Torlonia in Rome hosts, in its classic "Casino Nobile", the renowned Museums of Villa Torlonia,^[11] part of the Museum System of the Comune di Roma: on its 2nd floor one can visit the Museum of the Scuola Romana, offering a comprehensive view of this art movement, deemed one of the most interesting and captivating movements in the vital Roman figurative research of the 20th century.

Bibliography[link]

• Maurizio Fagiolo Dell'Arco - Valerio Rivosecchi - Emily Braun, Scuola Romana. Artisti tra le due guerre, Milan, Mazzotta, 1988 ISBN 88-202-0846-6
• Giorgio Castelfranco - Dario Durbe, La Scuola romana dal 1930 al 1945, Rome, De Luca, 1960
• Maurizio Fagiolo Dell'Arco , Maurizio, Scuola Romana: pittura e scultura a Roma dal 1919 al 1943, Rome, De Luca, 1986 ISBN 88-202-0829-6

Notes[link]

1. ^ See also it:Wiki for Antonietta Raphaël and Mario Mafai.
2. ^ On Mazzacurati, see also his biographical (Italian) note at Scuola Romana.it
3. ^ in L'Italia Letteraria (Literary Italy) of 7 April 1929.
4. ^ On the journal L'Italia Letteraria of 14 April 1929, where a concomitance with Marc Chagall is also mentioned.
5. ^ Anticipi sulla Scuola di Roma (Anticipations on the School of Rome) on "Quadrante" (I,1933 n.6)
6. ^ Cf. Renato Barilli, L'arte contemporanea: da Cezanne alle ultime tendenze, Feltrinelli, 2005, p.248: "... a savage and reductive raffiguration dominates, which recalls distant baroque trends, or even closer to the expressionist furores of artists such as Chagall, made viable to them thanks to Antonietta Raphaël, who had known him in Paris."
7. ^ Cf. Galleria della Cometa, history
8. ^ See his painting Awakening (ca. 1948) on Tate Collection. Accessed 24 May 2011
9. ^ Cf. note on Roaring Lion II at Mirko Balsadella and bio on Scuola Romana.it.
10. ^ For these, see also it:Wiki under Sante Monachesi and Toti Scialoja.
11. ^ See Musei Torlonia and the portal Museums of Rome, which include virtual tours.

See also[link]

• Return to order
• Avant-garde
• Expressionism
• Corrente di Vita
• Classicism
• Novecento Italiano
• Baroque architecture
• Baroque painting
• Villa Torlonia (Rome)
• Figurative art
• Representational Art

External links[link]

• (English) Tate Gallery, s.v. entry
• (English) Roman School, art note on the initial 19th century movement. Accessed 24 May 2011
• (Italian) Museum of the Scuola Romana, official site
• (Italian) Museum's excerpts of Scuola. Accessed 24 may 2011
• (Italian) Scuola romana, dedicated website
• (Italian) Glossary entry

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Massimo Rotundo (born 11 April 1955) is an Italian comics artist.

After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in his native city, Rome, he made his debut as comics artist in 1978 in collaboration with Eura Editoriale. Later he worked for other publications, like L'Eternauta, Comic Art, Orient Express, Heavy Metal and Ècho des Savanes. In particular, Rotundo stands out for his erotic comics, with the series Ex Libris Eroticis, which recalls the tradition of illustrated erotic literature from the early 1900s. His growing reputation in the erotic comics genre led him to work in the French market as well, where he is well known and appreciated. He is also widely appreciated for his adaptation of literary masterpieces, like Honoré de Balzac’s novel La peau de Chagrin, Pasolini (based on Jean Dufaux's script) and Luciano De Crescenzo's The Greek Myths.

In Italy his work includes several projects with Sergio Bonelli Editore, starting with his drawings for the comic book Brendon. He also became the official cover artist of Bonelli, starting from the 45th issue of the series. In 2007 he worked as comics and cover artist for the mini-series Volto Nascosto, also published by Bonelli. Furthermore, he collaborated with the writer Giuseppe Ferrandino as comics artist for Nero, Sandokan and Sera Torbara. He also worked with French publisher Delcourt on the comic book Prediction with a script by Pierre Makyo.

Rotundo is one of the founders, as well as a teacher, in the comics Academy “Scuola Romana del Fumetto” in Rome. He works regularly in cinema and theatre: as illustrator, he has collaborated with the costume designer Milena Canonero in several films and plays. As sketch artist he has worked for the films Crusade by Paul Verhoeven, Titus by Julie Taymor, The Wolfman by Joe Johnstone and Gangs of New York by Martin Scorsese. He has also worked as character designer for animation films, like the series Ulysses, produced by Rai (the State-owned Italian National broadcasting company) and “The Animation Band”.

He has several awards to his credit, such as The Yellow Kid (1990), as best Italian comics artist, the Gran Guinigi from Lucca in the same year, and the F. M. di Trani, City of Foiano award (1992).

Sources[link]

• Official website