Giorgio Morandi: The Art of Silence

Giorgio Morandi: The Art of S·lence Janet Abramowicz

Yale Un iversity Press New Haven and London

Co p Tight © 2004 by Ja net Abral11owi cz .

. If rig hts rese rved.

'1his boo k may not be reproduced, in whole or in

pan, includ ing illu stration s, in any form (beyond

rJ at opying pcrmitted by Sections 107 and 108

orthe U.S. Copyright Law an d e. cept by reviewers

for the pu blic press), without written permi ss io n

fro lll the publis hers.

Set in Quadraat and The Sans Type by Amy Storm

Prin ted in Ch in a th roug h ""a rid Print

Library o f Congress Catalog ing- in-Publi cation Data

Abra lllowicz, Ja ner.

Giorgio Mora ndi: the art of s ilence I Janet Abra mowicz .

. em. I n d ude~

bibliographical re e rences and index.

I 1\, 0-300-1 0036-1 (cloth : alk. paper) l.

lorandi Giorgio, 1890- 1964. 2. Arti sts- ltal},­

"c)gr;lphy. I. Title: Art of sil ence. 1I. Morandi, G iorgio, 1890-1964. III. Title.

Chapte r fron ti s pi eces: Chapter

N Q23.M6A842004

I:

Seventeenth-century engraving of

Bologna. Photogra ph courtesy ofCo rinnJ Giudi ci; Chapter 2: Great Hall of th e Acca demia di Belle Ani, Bologna, 199\). Pho to graph courtesy of Al ex

..\ ca talog ue record for thi s book is available from

Abra mowi cz; Chap ters 3- 9, 11: ,\>lora ndi 's room

the Bri tis h LibrJry.

a nd s tudio . Pi ctured in Cha pter 5 fronti spiece arc

Til l' pa per in this book meets the guid elines for

an Ottonbn miniature and two etchings by .\!1 or.lndi.

pe rma nence JIld du ra bility of th e Committee

Photo gra ph s courtesy of the a uthor ; Cha pter 10:

on Prod uction Guidelines for Book Longevity of

Mora ndi 's studio. PhotOgraph courtesy of Bruno

the

Lamberti.

10

ou neil on Lihrary Reso urces . 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

2

I

To my mother and for my children, Alex and Ann

g of na Giudici;

diBellc .y of Alex 's room

.piece are ')' Morandi. Ipter 10: of Bruno

The art of poetry is amply distinguished from the manufacture of verse ... posed in a form

that it not only expresses the matter in hand

but adds to the stock of available reality.

-

R. P. Blackmur

Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvi

A World Within a Studio: Arte

Povera

I

2

Bologna: The Stagnant Marsh and the Weight of Tradition 23

3

Morandi

4

Pittura Metafisica: The Enigma of the Common Object

5

The End of

6

Morandi and the Novecento: Recognition from a Wider Audience 91

7

Unlikely Friendships: The Selvaggi and Strapaese 117

8

Mala Tempora Currunt: Bad Times Are Coming

9

A Decade of Delusions and the Road to War: Guerra,

10

The End of an Era: The Debacle of Fascism, 1945 167

11

The Casting of the Myth: The Last Years 193

Futurista: Education Before Verdun, 1914

Valori Plastici: The March on Rome, 1922

Notes 232

Selected Bibliography 254

Index 261

37

51

79

135

Guer-ra, Guer--ra

155

Marcello: Ah , I see you have a sp lendid Mo randi.

Steiner: Yes, I love it ve ry much. The objects seem to be bathed in the light of memory yet th ey're pai nted wit h such solidity and real feeling that you can almost touch them­ one might say that art has left nothing to chance. There is a calm that weighs on me. It is peace that makes me afraid .... Perhaps because I distrust it above everything. I feel that it's on ly an a ppearance, that it hides a danger.... They say that the world of the future

• ? It needs only the gesture of a madman to wi ll be wonderful. But what does th at mean destroy everything. -

Federico Fellini, La Dolce Vita , 1960

Preface When I was a student at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna in the 1950s, Morandi was known as the Mago dell'Accademia (the Magician of the Academy). At the end of a typical day one would see the v ry tall a nd very thin white-haired figure of Morandi working in his large classroom that was dimly lit by a single bulb. He would be wearing a gray busi­ ness sllit as always and holding a fl aming torch that he flickered back and forth, depositing an even layer of soot to blacken the metaJ etching plates that he was preparing for his studen . Morandi lent us many of his

OW11

tools; he made our etching need les and pur­

chased large pieces of sheet metal, which he cut for us into plates and covered with the grounds that he had made from bees wax that he had brought from home. After I gradu­ ated, Morandi asked me to become his teaching assistant, which turned out to be a unique opportunity to work clo sely with him. I visited his house almost daily and was able to watch his wo rk evolve . Long after Morandi died, his three sisters and I continued our friendship , which was also extended to my daughter, Anni , who later studied at the university in Bologna. Mora ndi met with his students every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to teach the only thing that he bel ieved could be taught-technique - in this case, the tec hnique of etching. There were no m asses of students rus hi ng to enroll in Morandi's class. My classmates were an interesting mix , and Moran di dealt with each of us as indi­ viduals. There were four women from Bologna, one of whom was a daughter of a jewelry shopkeeper (Moran di called her la porcina, the little piggy); a priest from Reggio Emilia (Morandi had grave doubts about his artistic ability); a young man who was the son of a

Spanish Communist who had fled from Franco's regime, and, in contrast to him, another student whose father had been a general in Franco's army; and Luciano de Vita, who at age thirteen had volunteered to fight with Mussolini 's army of the Republic ofSalo (Repubblica Sociale Italiana). At that time I knew no Italian, but a young student from Alexandria, Egypt, who spoke both English and Italian helped me through my first months at school. Neither my fellow students nor I had any idea of Morandi's grandeur as an

,

artist. We knew him primarily as a kind, patient, and polite teacher with an ironic sense of humor. I was not familiar with his work, nor was, as far as I know, anyone else in class, for although he had become well known in 1948, the year he was awarded an important first prize at the Venice Biennale, Morandi was no longer interested in exhibiting his works in Italy. It was almost impossible to see examples of them in public exhibitions. I was still a student in 1953 when Pompilio Mandelli , my painting teacher at the Accademia, took me to see Morandi's paintings in private collections in Bologna and Milan. I had come to Italy from the United States to join my husband, Artur, who was living in Bologna to study medicine at the university there . Born in Warsaw, he had served in the Second Polish Corps of the British Eighth Army during World War II and was with the first group that entered Bologna to liberate the city from the Fascists and the Nazi occupation. At the end of World War II he chose to live in Italy rather than return to Poland, and we stayed in Bologna for many years. I met some of my husband's univer­ sity professors who had been active in the Italian Resistance, and through Morandi I met men and women who were part of the cu'l tural and political milieu of postwar Italy. At the same time, I became aware ofthe complex and uneasy relationship that existed between Morandi and the Bolognese. For many years 'I had thought of Morandi as apolitical, isolated, and unscathed by the wreckage of Fascism, when, in fact, as I learned only much later, the Fascist years before World War II were active and rewarding ones for him. Only the book by the Ita]jan scholar Francesco Arcangeli (handpicked by Morandi to write about his life) was the exception to the published meager biographical details about Morandi. Arcangeli's book was the first to site Morandi in the context of his times and explored his connections to the Selvaggi and Strapaese groups, while, at the same time, excusing his relationship to Fascism. In 1994, the publication by Mandelli of,t he details of the brouhaha surrounding Morandi's refusal in 1961 to allow the publication of Arcangeli's important critical biog­ raphy suggested to me that there were many more stories that might be fur more inter­ esting than those of the official biographies that had been edited by the artist himself. Morandi, who was often at the center ofvicious polemics about his work, admitted to Arcangeli three years before he died about how much he needed "peace and tranquility, for in my whole life, I have had too little of either." Since Morandi valued his privacy in a country where that word does not even exist in the native tongue, the accounts of his life, so often based only on information that he provided, were meant to reflect the simplicity

xii

Ihim, another

and purity of his art-which is just what we wanted to see. Yet, the ac tual story of his life

Vita, who

turned out to be much like his art-a tale of silence.

tblic of Sal

a

tdent from

r first months

After Morandi's death in I964, his family continued to nurture his pure image. I knew this becaus e, when! expressed my concern to Morandi's sister Maria Teresa regarding letters I had written to the artist that were to be among the papers the family was donating to the Morandi Archives, she assured me that the family had screened a nd dis­

,deur as an

posed of much personal correspondence that they decided might not be relevant. Thus,

:onic sense of

his personal archives, now in the Morandi Museum and much ofwhich I ha~e read, possibly

~ lse

tell us only what his sisters wanted us to know about their brother'S life.

in class,

an important

•

By I928, the Morandi mythmakers had already created the legend of Morandi

hibiting his

th e hermit, one whose world was circumscribed by the three tables on which he created

exhibitions. I

his sti lllifes in a simple room in Bologna. I knew that Morandi was by no means the iso­

~e

lated and reclusive a rtist that so many writers seemed to enjoy describing-someone

Accademia,

Iilan.

who rarely left Bologna and who had little life beyond his studio. I believed that I could

Tur, who was

dispel some of the silly and inaccurate statements made about his life, such as the sim­

!w, he had

ple impression of him as a misanthrope, remote and colorless, and instead show him to

Var II and was

be the complex , cultured, and energetic person that he was-someone who also liked

,ts and the

to have fun. How could Morandi be described as a recluse when he taught almost a ll his

han return to

life in th e state's education system, participated in admini strative meetings that often

nd's univer­

took him to cities all over Italy, and served on committees of the Venice Biennale from I948

-\orandi I met

to 1959? I know that he had personal connections with many significant personalities

var Italy. At

of his day-actors, economists, politicians, scientists, and those in the art world- for I

sted between

met many of them at his house . The provincialism ofItalian life that Morandi tried so hard and successfully to escape hom is well portrayed in the early films of Fellini (both men

nd unscathed

were born in the Emilia-Romagna region). Feilini spoke to m e with affection and admi­

ascist years

ration about "il nostro amato Morandi [our beloved Morandi]." I, too, loved Morandi, for

by the Italian

he was a kind , generous, and fascinating friend and teacher.

ife) was the

Although Morandi constructed a wall of silence about his activities during the

mgeli's book

Fascist ventennio, he, like many who lived in Italy during those years, rarely spoke about

nnections

his associations with the Regime. As ifto confirm his "autonomous beginnings," Morandi

'lationship to

also shied away from discussing his participation in the small but thriving avant-garde

Jrrounding

that existed in Italy around the time of World War I. Some of the most noted art historians

critical biog­

-who were also Morandi's friends-refus ed to acknowledge the importance ofFuturism

more inter­

and Cubism to his wod, or his connections to the world of Dada. Morandi never men­

rtist himself.

tioned what had once been his close ties to the artists and writers associated with

Idmitted to

pittura metajisica, and ifhe did, he did not speak well of them-Carlo Carra, Giorgio de

"Jnquility, for

Chirico, and Mario Broglio, whose avant-garde magaz ine Valori Plastici (I9I8-22) ceased

rivacy in a

publication the same year that Mussolini became Italy's first Fascist prime minister. He

1tS of his life,

did talk about the artists and writers, such as Leo Longanesi and Mino Maccari (editors,

he simplicity

respectively, of the Fascist publications II Selvaggio and r:ltaliano), who were instrumental

Preface

xiii

in creating th myth of Morandi. BlIt by 1929 his fi'iendship with them had earned Morandi the sco rn of rigbt-wing £lctions within the Fas ci st part)' as well as the wrath of th ose who ran Bologna 's Acca demia di Belle Ani, where the followin g year he h ped to obtain a teaching position. Unlike Nazi Germany, Mussolini' s Italy did include libera l faction s witllin the Fascist pa rty that foug ht for freedom of expression in the visual arts." uring Fascism, " as Giorgio Bassani (author of The Ga rden of the Finzi-Co ntinis) explai ned to me in a 1989 inter­ view i.n Rome, "Morand i,s tilllifes held a moral lesson [or some )roung people of 111y generation, for in a period full of lie. and rhetoric, he was the least rhetO rical of anyone; his work was a lesso n for lI S in artistic integri ty." Bassani, who became acquainted with Morandi in 19 "6 wh ile studyi ng art history under Robe rto Lo nghi at the University of Bologna, added: "While Mussolini gave new meaning to the word rhetoric, Morandi's work was characterized by its abso lute absence." As new material aoout Morandi's life and studies of Fascist cu lture appeared , so tOo evolved the story of "another Morandi." Moranc]j 's engagement with the cultural and political events th:lt rocked Italy in the first halfof the twentieth century belies

~ome

of the myths that have long distorted our understanding of his work: tJ1at he was a self­ created artist and an antimodernist who worked outside the mainstream of contemporary European art. Another legend , created after World War ll , is Morandi the :mti-Fascist who, during the intetw
the image of Morandi the recluse that he (and others) had tried to project, but also his claim that no one had bothered him during the fascist ventennio, because, as he sa id, he "was consid ered little mare than a simple provincial professo r of etching who sought no recognition." While [would certainly have preferred to believe that Morandi had no sym pathy with Fascism, a sympathy that, at first, I chose to ignore, [ discovered that bis life mir­ rored the baffl ing contradictions tbelt existed in [tall' during those years of the ventcnnio. I needed to understand why so many gifted intellectuals and talented artists like LVlorandi

were able to place their faith in Fascism. As an artist myself, I wa surpri sed but intrigued to dis cove r how much Fascist laws and the Fascist unions had helped painters like Mor~1l1di,

as well as composers and poets fi:olU Malipiero

to

Quasimodo. Mora ndi was a

ben eficiary of Fa scism 's new cultural policies: he obtained better jobs, and the new state's patro nage provided him opportunitie: to exhi bi t and sell his work. [n this way Morandi could bypass tlle conservative artistic circles of Bologna that had always ignored

xiv

·ned Morandi

him. Morandi, who had never been part of the official academic art cstablishment, was

:h of those

finally given a piece of the "official " pie.

ped to obtain

The experience of examining Morandi's intellectual itinerary within the cultural and political milieu of Italy during th at country's 1110St tempestuolls years since the

within the

JS

I Fascism," I

a 1989 imer­

Dple of my

Risorgimento has been like diving into a tangled web of paradoxes and silences. To recall George Orwell 's words about the "nightmare world oftotalitarianisl11 ," if the existence of an event was ignored, it never happened, and "one could control not only the future but [also] the past."

·al ofanyone; uainted with

IdentifYing numbers included with each work refer to the catalogue raisonne by Lamberto

iversity of

Vitali, Morandi : Catalogo General,

Irandi 's work

scholars have challenged Vitali's dates, nevertheless I have used this system-indispensable

2

vol s., Milan, 1977 (revised 1983). Although some

for any reference to Morandi's works-to avoid as much confusion as possible (Morandi ure appeared ,

almost never used titles for his works other than Flowers, Landscape, or Still Life).

he cultural belies some was a selr~ Dntemporary Iti-Fasci st Ing into soli­ During 111)' his registrello , ,and eontlets \ began in ted not only

l its

also his he said, he

I 0

sought

no sympathy lis life mir­ e ventennio. re Morandi lit

intrigued

lters like orandi was a , the new In this way iVays ignored

Preface

XV

Acknowledgments

My first article on Nlorandi was published in the catalogue for a small Morandi exhibition organized in 1968 at the Busch-Reisinger Museum in Cambridge by three graduate stu­ dents at Harvard University. Parts of the last chapter appeared in that publication. Some portions ofChapter I have appeared in "A World Within a Studio," in The Vanguard (1977), published by The Vancouver Art Gallery; "The Artist'S Artist," in Arts Canada (1979); and "The Liberation of the Object," in Art in America (1983) . Text on Morandi's etchings has also appeared in "Vision and Technique," an article for the Print Collectors Newsletter (1981), and in "La Ternica incisoria di Giorgio Morandi," which was published in a 1990 catalogue for an exhibition curated by Michele Cordaro for Rome's Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica. Some of the text th:1t discusses Morandi's last few years appeared in my article "Un altro Morandi. Una nota a pie di pagina a Pompilio Mandelli," Accademia Clementina-Atti e

Memorie, no. 35/36 (1995-96): 171-73. I would like to express my appreciation for support I received from the Rocke­ feller Bellagio Foundation. For financial support I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Commission, and especially the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. My research

011

Morandi would not have been possible without the assis­

tance and encouragement of Morandi's sister, Maria Teresa Morandi, who waived copy­ right and gave me so many of her photographs for this book; Andrea Emiliani, Sovrinten­ dente di Beni Artistici of Bologna; Ferrara, Forli, and Ravenna; and Pompilio Mandelli of the Accademia di Bellc Arti Bologna. From friends and colleagues in Bologna I received help of m:my different kinds, especially from Silvia Evangelisti of the Acc::tdemia di Belle

Arti di Bologna; Serena Pescatore; Pupetta, Bruno, and Claudio Lamberti; and Laura and Francesco Pirera. In Milan I was helped by Professor Enrico Vitali and his father, Lam­ berto. It was Lamberto Vitali, author of the Morandi catalogue raisonne, to whom we are all indebted for numbering Morandi's etchings and pajntings. It is no easy task to write about works that have no real titles , so Vitali's system is essential. Without the reference points provided by his numberi.ng-V.

I,

V.

2,

V. 3, etc. (the "V" standing for Vitali)-it

would be almost impossible to discuss Morandi's etchings, still lifes, flower paintings, and landscapes. I thank Simona Tosini Pizzetti of Parma, curator of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, who took me down into the bank vaults in Reggio Emilia to s"ee Magnani's collection of Ivlorandi paintings before the Foundation's museum had opened. For insights into Fascism a nd the Italian Resistance, I thank Morandi's friend Guido Horn d'Arturo, Anna Foa Yona, Pompilio Mandelli, Nazario Sauro Onofri, and Eduardo Volterra. I thank Suzanne Boorsch and Emily Braun, who offered their expertise and constant encourage­ ment. My text benefited from editing by Lesley Baier and by Jeffrey Schier of Yale University Press, whose persistent queries spurred me on to try to make sense out ofthose inconsis­ tencies and paradoxes inherent in modern Italian history that kept turning up in my text. Many colleagues and friends provided me with access to collections, key information, and libraries and extended other cOllrtesies and hospitality that greatly facili­ tated my research, and I fear that there are many whom I have neglected to cite. How­

andi exhibition

ever, a partial list follows : in Italy, Bianca Rosa Arcangeli; Giorgio Bassani; Valeria Bassani;

graduate stu­

Georges di Caino; Cristina Huemer and Pina Pasquantonio of The American Academy

Dlication. Some

in Rome; Gian- Piero Cammarota, Daniele Bertocci, Corinna Giudici, and Anna Selleri of

languard (1977),

the Pinacoteca di Bologna; Lorenza Selleri and Marilena Pasquali of the Centro Studi

ada (1979); and

Morandi; Barbara Tomassi of Rome's Museum of Modern Art; Lorenza Trucchi of Rome's

etchings has

Quadriennale; Paolo Baldacci; Maria Cristina Bandera of Accademia di Belle Arti di

'Jewsletter (1981),

Venezia; Pier Luigi Castagnoli, Director of the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contem­

190

catalogue

poranea, Turin ; Ester Coen; Massimo di Carlo; Laura Lorenzoni of the Galleria dello

e per la Grafica.

Scude Verona; the late iVlichele Cordaro; Fabio Fiorani and Luigi Ficacci of the Istjtuto

ide "Un altro

Nazionale della Grafica, Rome; Mina Gregori, President of the Fondazione Longhi,

lentina-Atti e

Florence; Prof. Augusto Giovanardi; Laura Mattioli; Gianni Rossi; Lidia Puglioli-Mandelli; Achille and Ida Maremotti ; Beatriz Plaza; Stefano Roffi; Luigi Sansoni; Dario Trento

iom the Rocke­

of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera; and Pia Vivarelli. A special thanks to Francoise

ican Council of

Grossen, Scott Bauer, and Rick Stafford for their assistance with the photographs; Allan

Guggenheim

Appel; Robert Badia; \"lalter and Lila Croen; Suzannah J. Fabing, Director, Smith College

Dut the assis­

Art Museum; Manuela Filiaci; Deborah Gans; Heather Lechtman; Gail Persky, Rebecca

o waived copy­

Tucker, and Richard Watts of the New School University Library; Ton y Roscillo; and

mi, Sovrinten­

Marcia E. Vetrocq.

lio Mandelli of

I could never have finished my book without the intellectual, moral, and

.na I received

technical support from my daughter, Anni, and from my friend Carol Lewine, who read

ademia di Belle

my entire manuscript more than once and left no sentence unmarked.

Acknowledgments

xv ii

The past is an Awful God, though he gives life to almost the whole of its haunting beauty. I believe ... [that some] can scarcely conceive the hold on which the past has on us of the Old World -the continuity of life, the weight of tradition, the great eternal procession of youth and age and death. -

Bertrand Russell,

1902

Traditional ideas are often attractive simply because they are traditional; accepted as eternally true, they remove the need for independent thought and adjustment to novelty, which is frequently frightening. -

William Bouwsma, Venice and the Defense of Republican Liberty

A World Within a Studio: Arte Povera No artist of the twentieth century captured as much drama in the undramatic as Giorgio Morandi did in his small paintings of flowers, landscapes, and stilllifes (Morandi's largest painting is thirty-one by twenty-five inches). Morandi insisted that he "always worked from nature," but in reality he was a master builder who reconstructed nature to suit his vision. For almost fifty years Morandi occupied and worked in the same cennlries-old house in Bologna on the Via Fondazza, where he resided with his three sisters in a com­ fortable and cosmopolitan middle-class family. The artist possessed a certain style to his appearance, even though he always seemed to be wearing the same type of gray busi­ ness suit with white shirt and black tie with a false knot so that he did not need to waste time tying it. Morandi had many friends among the wealthy and well known, who wel­ comed his visits to their homes because he was charming and Iliked to chat and gossip, and even to flirt. Few photographs have accurately captured Morandi's incredibly radiant smile, and rarely is it noted that Morandi was fun to be with because he had a marvelous, ironic wit and enjoyed being in the company of those who challenged it. When I first met the painter, the household consisted of him, his three sisters (Annetta, Dina, and Maria Teresa), and their live-in maid, Alma (fig. I.l). Immediately upon entering the Morandi household, one sensed the calm and order that existed within it, yet this environment was not suffocating because it allowed independence for each member of the family. Although the Morandis' mother must have been unusually protec­ tive of each child's individuality, the family lived harmoniously because of the strong

1

bond ofaffection and respect that was evident among the siblings. Despite the Morandis' contentment with their living arrangement, many outsiders thought it odd and made derogatory remarks about three unmarried sisters and their bachelor brother all living together-even though it wasn't particularly unusual in Bologna for unmarried adults to reside in the same household. Morandi and his sisters were utterly devoted to one another and , as far as I could observe, enjoyed their family life, which had a charming vitality. When Dina died of cancer in 1977, Maria Teresa wrote to me: "Tu sai qua nto armonia regnasse fra di noi" (You know how much harmony reigned among us). Dina and Maria Teresa, who were fluent in French, decided early on that they wanted to live abroad. For many years they lived and taught in Italian schools in Tunisia and Egypt, where they received higher salaries than they would have earned teaching in Italy. During their travels abroad they visited the pyramids near Cairo and its museums, and they also made several trips to the Acropolis and the museums of Athens. In addition to their travels Maria Teresa and Dina were well read, keeping up not only witb modern Italian authors, but with little-known twelfth-century Japanese women novelists as well. They passed those books on to me. Dina tutored the neighbors' children, and at the end of a day I would often encounter these young students running in and out of the Morandi apartment. Although Dina had retired from teaching by then, she (and Maria Teresa) worked at the city's board of education. Unlike his sisters, the artist was not a world traveler, tbough he did know most of Italy quite well-certainly more than the Morandi mythmakers would want to acknowledge. I often wondered how he was so well acquainted with the southern cities ofNap'les and Bari until one of his sisters mentioned to me that he almost always accom­ panied them

to

these ports from which the shjps would leave to take them back to Africa.

l. I

Mora ndi with his sister Din a and the Photograph courtesy of the author.

2

~uthor,

196J.

the Morandis'

Although Morandi did not travel often, there were few exhibitions in Italy, whether by

Id and made

contemporary artists or old masters, that he did not visit. He was an energetic and inex­

her all Iivi ng

haustible traveler and gallery visitor, and consequently he was familiar with most of

mied adults to

Italy's museums.

to one another

The Morandis' father, Andrea, born in 1858, would eventually become part of

.n ing vitality.

an affluent new middle class that resulted after the unification ofItaly in 1861. Under papal

anto armonia

rule Bologna's importance had been considerably diminished, and only when Bologna

.

became part of a unified Italy did the city begin

to

regain some of its fom;er prominence.

·Iy on that they

The coming of the railroad in 1870 increased Bologna's capacity to trade with the rest

Is in Tunisia

of Italy and Europe, especially with England and France. New capital came into the city as

~d

teaching in

a result of the increased commerce, and the urban middle class prospered as jobs were

ts museUl11S,

created to administer this international trade. When he reached the age of twenty-one,

:ns. In addition

Andrea, who was orphaned when he was three or four years old, received income from

with modern

the remnants ofa once considerable inheritance offarmland in Emilia, one of the richest

r elists as well. ~d at the end

agricultural provinces in Italy. Had this large property not been so badly administered by the man appointed to look after it, Andrea Morandi would have been quite a wealthy

Jfthe Morandi

man. Faced with having to earn his living, Andrea Morandi learned accounting and pro­

iaria Teresa)

cured a position with a well-established French import-export firm, Patault, which dealt in hemp and hemp products. Maria Teresa told me that, in addition to keeping accounts

he did know

and records, Andrea Morandi handled the firm's correspondence in French and Italian,

Nould want to

but before he could accept tbe position he had

Juthern cities

In 1889 he became an associate partner and married Maria Maccaferri, who at nineteen

always aCCOl11­

was twelve years his junior. Giorgio was born in June r890, the first of five children. His

back to Africa.

sisters remembered that Giorgio and their mother were often taken for brother and sister,

to

promise to learn English, which he did.

as there was just a twenty-year age difference between them. The family lived well in a villa at 57 Via Lame on the outskirts of Bologna. After Andrea Morandi's death In 1909, his thirty-nine-year-old widow was left with four children: Giorgio (nineteen), Anna (whom they called Annetta) (fourteen), Dina (nine), and Maria Teresa (three) (a fifth child, Giuseppe, had died in 1902 at age eleven) (fig. 1.2). Although their financial situation changed abruptly after the father'S death, the Morandis could still afford a live-in maid and to spend part of each summer in the country. How­ ever, they were no longer able to maintain the villa on Via Lame, so in T910 the family moved nearer to the center of Bologna, where the schools would be more accessible for the young girls. They took an apartment on the Via Fondazza, where Morandi worked until his death in 1964. At first the family occupied an apartment facing the street on the second floor of the building; in the mid-I930S they moved into a quieter apartment across the hall, which included the use of a large garden (fig. 1.3). Morandi's mother, who had always understood the importance of her son becoming a painter, insisted that he remain in school after his father'S death and not leave early to find work and help support the family. Just as admirable was her imperative that

A World Within a Studio

1.2

Morandi (standing at rear center) at age twelve with his moth er, Maria, father, AndreJ, sisters Dina and Annette, and a younger brother, Giuseppe, who died in 1902, the year this photograph was taken. Photograph courtesy of the author.

[.3

The Gard en in the Via Fonda zza (lookin g down fro m Morandi's room), [924. Etching, 4 x 6 in. (10.9 x IS· I em). Private Co llectio n. [V.2S1

her three daughters also receive an education so they 'would have a profcssion to ensure their independence should the)' decide not to many. (Dina never learned how to cook, and Maria Teresa didn't learn until she was well over sixty; Annetta, the eldest, learned to cook after she retired from teaching.) By 1921 Dina, along with a friend, had left for Tunis to teach in an Italian elementary school; Maria Tercsa followed two years later. They later resettled in Alexandria, Egypt, where they remained until Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935. It was remarkable in that era for these two young unmarried women, ages eighteen

,

and twenty-two, to leave home and work abroad. In 1925, when Mussolini encouraged women to stay at home, breed, and mend socks, all three of Morandi's sisters continued to work outside the home. As a result of their travels, Dina and Maria Teresa brought back with them from Africa an international cuisine, including a taste for curries and exotic fish and vegetables. This was quite different from the usual Bolognese cuisine, which at the time was mainly meat and pasta. When I knew them the sisters always exhibited a sense of up-to-date elegance in their choice of clothing. Unlike their brother (Morandi once told me that he went to church mostly to please his sisters), the sisters were religious. Maria Teresa, who had bright red hair when I knew her in the mid-1950S , was tough and fearless , and she had a good understanding of her brother's work lance told her how annoyed I was when criti.cs claimed that Andre Derain had influenced Morandi's early work, because I believed that he had little or no impact on Morandi's art. Maria Teresa replied, "Well, we didn't think so either, but 'they' think we don't know anything." While most collectors kept their Morandis in bank vaults, Maria Teresa hung many of her brother's most beautiful works on the walls of their home . She maintained that the only place for a Morandi museum was in the city'S centro starim, and she made it clear that she would donate her collection of her brother'S works only if the museum was located there . This plan encountered fierce resistance, for many in Bologna wanted to incorporate the lvlorandi Museum in the city's already established museum of modern art, which was far fi'om the center of the cit)'. Those who opposed Maria Teresa's plan wanted Morandi to be viewed as part of modern art history and not isolated from it. Almost thirty years after his death, debates over the location of this museum placed Morandi at the center of controversy once again (indeed, arguments over whether the museum should even exist at all continue to this day). Morandi worked almost every day, beginning in the afternoon; ifhe wasn't working regularly he became either bored or unhappy. He would draw far into the night, after the family had gone to bed, and then he would sleep until around 9:30 the next morning. Twice each day he would walk to the center of the city, wherc the finest stores were located. He would shop for the best coffee, some fresh fish such as sturgeon, and odler delicacies. Morandi was

110

ascetic; like all Bolognese he liked to eat well and to drink

good wines. Although he believed that the best coffee was to be found in Naples (which, om) , 1924.

he said, had the best water), he searched out Bologna's best coffee bar, for he was as much addicted to coffee as he was to cigarettes.

A World Within a Studio

1.4

Landscape, 1916.

Oil all canvas, IS x 21 in. (39 x 54 cm). Leandra Maccari collection, Rome. [\I. 30)

The Morandis' second-floor apartment was barel)' large enough to contain the f;lmily, though the kitchen was enormous and full of shining copper pots. The dining room had the distinct feeling of the ottocento. Among the amvork hung on the walls were three small fragments fi'om the Bolognese school (by an artist known as Jacopino di Francesco, active between 1350 and 1380) depicting a Christ on the Cross and details of the Virgin and an angel from an annunciation; a painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi; two etchings by Rembrandt: Christ at Emmaus (1634) and "Negresse" Lying Down (1658); and an lngres etching from 1816 (a portrait of Monseigneur Courtois d e Presign)'; the etching plate had been left at the Calcografia Nazionale, and prints continued to be pulled fi'om it until the late 1950S). There were also Tanagra figurines, antique Roman oil lamps, ceramic Attic pots , and a fossil mounted on a plaque. Some of these objects appear in 1\10randi's work, though they are unrecognizably transformed, such as in an early landscape oft:wo trees from 1916 (V. 30) and a still life of 1930 (V. 157) (figs. 1.4, 1.5). After viewing Morandi's most recent paintings we would move to the dining room and sit around the table and look

6

1.5

Sti ll Life. 1930. Oil on e:lI1vas, [7 x 24 in. (44 x 62 em). Museo di Arte ContcI11poranea c ModernJ di Trento e Rovercro. GiovJl1ardi Collection. [V, 157J

the family, room had

at art books , discuss political events, or simply gossip. Overhead a large, rather gaudy cut-ctystal chandelier cast a strange light. It was the kind oflight, Morandi acknowl­

were three

edged , that did more harm than good. "It's always been here ," Morandi said of this odd

di Francesco,

light fixture.

the Virgin

Morandi drew and painted in his bedroom (fig. 1.6). To get there, one had to

o etchings by

pass through the bedroom shared by Dina and Maria Teresa, in which were hung original

lngres etching

drawings by Georges Seurat and Henri Rousseau . (At one point Morandi rented a large

te kId been

studio in Via Mazzini , but he soon realized that he preferred

until the late

was illuminated by a single window that overlooked the back garden and by a single

c Attic pots,

light fixture with one bulb that hung from the ceiling. Given the unique luminosity in

work, though

Morandi's paintings, it is significa nt that they were painted in a room that often seemed

trees fro 111

to have barely any light in it. He painted by natural light only and so he worked in the

to

work at home.) His room

randi 's most

afternoon because, be said, "that's when the light is best. " His room contained three tables

Ie and look

ofvarying heights (two of them he built himself) : one was at his eye level, one was lower,

A World Within a Studio

7

1.6

Morandi 's roo m , s howing bottl es and two oftbe three tables of different heig hts next to hi s bed, over which are ban gin g still li fe compositions. Photograph courtesy of the author.

and a third above his eye level (fig. 1. 7). Morandi, who was tall-about six feet, four inches (1.82 meters) in height-would set LIp several still life compositions on each table so that he could observe them even ifhe was not actually painting them. If Morandi's stilllifes at times seem to float in an a bstract space without hori­ zon lines, it is be caLIse he constructed his own spa ce around them . On the top of one table (that Morandi had CLlt in half), he used wooden blocks hidden under plain brown paper to raise the surface and eliminate any transition to the background space (fig. 1.8). He had constructed a tall screen fi'om unbleached linen that was the same neutral color as the brown paper that he used to cover the tabletop . He placed this screen as close to the table as possible so that the horizon of the tabletop could disappear into the background. The Morandis' maid was never permitted to touch this half of his room, which was occupied by the bottles and other objects that huddled together on the floor und er the ta bles . Consequently, dust gathered there undisturbed over the years , while the terra-cotta tiles on the rest of the floor were spotless and shining from their daily cleaning. Morandi's bottles and canisters had become indistinguishable from their background.

8

It was in this room that the real arte povera began. Morandi did not treat his objects like the subjects in conventional stiIllifes, in which the artist lets the viewer know exactly where he or she is in relation to the picture, and where the objects are, what they are made of, what they feel like. In a Morandi still life, bottles become architectural facades or melt into the background, and shadows become substance. The more you look, the less certain you are that what you actually see is really there. Morandi's bottles, boxes, can­ isters , jugs, and vases all were castoffs, chosen from what Carlo Ragghianti has called

" nor any purpose, ... but ar the oppressed, "an accumulation of things that have no value

7

the disinherited, the rejected. "I If, as the critic Michael Baxandall tells us , Chardin could make a story out of the contents ofa shopping bag, then what can we say about Morandi 's stiJI lifes?2 His table is not set with objects that belonged to his daily life in the family dining room, so they do not invite one to sit down and anticipate a meal. Mario Broglio, editor and publisher ofValori Plastici and Morandi's first dealer, wrote in 1919: "Nature is no longer the model for this painter. ... He not only chooses his models, he builds them .... It is nature that must bend to art and not art to nature. "l Before beginning a new still life painting, Morandi would arrange the objects, many ofwhich he had already transformed by coveri'ng them with paint. He would some­ times paint copper water pitchers a matte , terra-cotta color; daub white paint over the bottom of copper pots darkened with the patina of age; empty canisters (his favorites were tins of the chocolate drink Ovaltine) and paint them with shapes that recalled the arcades

ix feet, four on each table

without hori­

'top of one plain brown

ace (fig. 1.8). eutral color

IS

close to the

background. was occupied

the tables.

ra-cotta tiles Morandi 's

1.7

The underside of one of the tables th at Morandi built. Photograph courtesy of the author.

A World Within a Studio

around the city. He poured colored pigments into transparent glass bottles, which then became opaque, elongated shapes that could just as well have been church spires. Only b)' studying a series of works containing the same objects does his extraordinary range of tonal variation become evident. The same white bottle or yellow Persian bottles, for exam­ ple, appear in many different canvases, but they are never painted exactly the same shade ofwhi te or the same shade of yellow. Morandi's use of serial imagery was crucial to his modernism: it functioned

,

like the reflective persistence of a Proust, a Monet, a

J\'1~ndrian.

His modern approach to

what appeared to be an academic use of the still life actually defied traditional time and space relationships. Morandi had a great impact on mainstream American artists in ti1e sixties such as Jim Dine, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and the conceptual artist Robert Irwin. Artists like Irwin were captivated by his lise ofserial imagery and the ambiguities in his

1.8

Table with blocks under plain brown paper. Photograph courtesy of the author.

10

, which then

work. "Morandi 's work," Irwin said, "had a subject rnatter in the most classical sense ... those same bottles and jars that he painted continuousl)! yet they lost their identification

ry range of ~s,

for exam-

as bottles ." 4 In his studio Morandi could set up his objects and control and manipulate light

e same shade

and shadows. from his three tables he could draft new viewpoints, magnifY or reduce

t fu nctioned

memory," as Fellini suggested, a remembered light rather than the light of the moment.

n approach to

His kind oflight was distilled from years of observing his subject matter at different times ,

his images, and easily adjust his vision, capturing light that was more often a "light of

al time and

and how light wrapped around forms in natme, and then he transposed it to record a

artists in the

particular moment in his work. When photographs of Morandi's still life objects are com­

: Robert Irwin.

pared with his paintings of them, it becomes clear how far this seemingly academic and

uities in his

traditional painter worked toward abstraction. For Morandi , tradition meant not repetition of the past, but rather the philosophical tradition ofGalileo, a commitment to the daily experience of observing nature, what Giorgio de Santillana called "Galileo's ordeal of experience."s This was the nature of Morandi's art. Morandi departed most surely from realism in his use oflight. A careful look at his stilllifes or landscapes reveals that the represented shadows are not at all those that would be nahlrally cast by the actual objects. Morandi played with shadows, using them to invent new, independent forms by radically changing common perceptions of form and space. Ln a traditional still life work, the light normally falls from a single direction and is most often used to define the objects; as in a photograph, the shadows and mod­ eling in this kind of still life reveal a logical structure of light and dark. Morandi's light, however, appears to be autonomOllS. Whether in a still life or a landscape, each object or specific area may receive light from a different source. Even in his early works Morandi gave as much importance to light and shadow as he did to the material obj ects he depicted. For example, the rich glow of light in a still life of 1924 seems to emanate from the painted objects themselves rather than from an outside source (V.

100;

see fig. 6 . II); Morandi's

light is complex , and much of its subtlety is unfortunately lost in reproduction. Like an architect, Morandi built up a repertoire ofvisual imagery using a vocab­ ulary of basic forms. Although this repertoire remained unchanged during more than fifty years of painting, Morandi's rendering of these same objects would change radically. At times their identities are barely discernible. As early as 1914, for example, Morandi began to include a round, portable nineteenth-century clock mounted to a wooden case - its ambiguons shape recalled a Cycladic violin figure-which could also, at times, resemble a cupola. He owned two clocks that had this violin shape (fig. 1.9) . In some still lifes Morandi would squeeze one of the clocks between other objects so that the clock itselfalmost disappeared, but its painted shadow would cast a menacing presence. Morandi typically did not depict the face of the clock, preferring instead to paint its back. He first used the clock in an almost square still life from 1914, and it continu ed to appear in his work on and off until 1961. In the 1914 still life (V. 13), painted in a Cubist-Futurist vein,

A World Within a Studio

II

Morandi shows us only the back of the clock (see fi g. 3.5). In a long, vertical stiJllife in the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (V. IS), also dated 1914, the clock's profile, difficult to make out at first glance, is the slanting object on the right side of the painting (see fig. 3.6). He painted the clock from a frontal view in another work Of1914, now in Rome's Galleria del Arte Moderna (V. 19); and in a painting from the following year (V. 23) one clock is painted so its face is visible, and the other object is the case of another clock (fig. l.Io). This is one of the rare times in which both clock and case are easily identifiable. Mor~lndi

alsd often used a small, rectangular metal box in his stilllifes (he

continued to depict the object as late as Ig6J). Rarely is th~ box ever painted the way it actu­ ally appears. This is particularly evident in paintings from his Metaphysical years, for example in a Still Life (coffee pot, pitcher, gray metal box, and two bottles) from 1916 (V. 27), now in New York's Museum of Modern Art (fig. I.II). In this painting Morandi painted the box a silver-gray, then added a wide white stripe, dividing it into three parts. Here the stripe resemble. the side of a triangle and forms part of the backdrop of the painting. In three 1915 stilllifes the box appears on its side: V. 36 (Parma), V. 40 (Brera Museum), and V. 42 (private collection, Milan). Morandi also used it in several works completed in 1951 (V. 781, for example). In 1924, two years before Morandi became involved with the Strapaese group, he painted a pair of yellow bottles whose shapes seem to recall the facades of Italian thirteenth-century Romanesque churches (V. roo). These Persian bottles were photo­ graphed in Morandi's studio (fig.

1.12).

Almost thirty-five years later, he bega.n a new

series of stilllifes with the same pair of bottles.

[n

these images they have nearly lost their

identity either as bottles or as the church facades they once resembled . At times Morandi chose to portray the bottles as identical, even though they are not. A watercolor from

1.9

Clocks froIll Morandi 's s tudio ; their 31l1biguous shape reca ll Cycladic violin tigures. Photograph courtesy of th e author.

12

:al still life

1950 portrays a striped vase that has turned into a column peering out betvveen the sides

·ofile, difficult

of the ba rel}' recognizable Persian bottles (fig. I.I3). Here, the inside space, the space

tinting (see

"in between," is as important as the objects that enclose it. In two stilllifes from 1963, V.

lOW

1298 (see fig. II.n) and V. 1301 (see fig . 11.22), painted one year before Morandi died ,

in Rome's

Ir (v. 23) one

the same striped vase has been moved toward the back, away from the spectator. In both

her clock (fig.

paintings it fills the space between the necks of the bottles as the stripes peek over the

.dentifiable.

yellow shapes-like the antennae of an insect crawling to touch the horizon. The dark

tilllifes (he

stripes of the vase in each work separate the two yellow forms that attempt to invade

he way it actu­

all the space of this setting. Morandi drained his still life objects of scale;' only when we

I years, for

compare his paintings of them "vith the actual objects in his studio can we recogni ze how

from 1916 (V.

he used his still life objects as a point of departure to explore abstraction.

g Morandi :0

three parts.

:drop of the , V. 40 (Brera veral works

aese group, he of Italian were photo­ gan a new arly lost their mes Morandi :olor from

LID

Still Life, 1915. Oil on canvas,

29

x 21 in. (74 x 53 em). Guggenheim Museum , Venice.

Laura Mattioli Collection. [v.23l

A World Within a Studio

13

Bolognese buildings of the trecento and quattrocento are exa mples of an austere archi­ tecture without frills, survivors of Bologna's past as a thriving medieval commune; they continue to be used as dwellings and shops. Bologna's historic center is built mainly of red brick-"just like the Kremlin," as Morandi once wryly pointed out to me. He was proud that the most important cathedral in Moscow, the Dormition, had been rebuilt in 1475 by the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti, who died in 1486 in a Moscow prison. Most Bolognese monuments are unfamiliar to foreigners because, with the exception of its restaurants, Bol~gna does not attract many tourists . It is a closed city with a harsh climate, it has none of the immediate charm of Venice, and it does not offer the major Renaissance and Baroque monuments of Rom e and Florence. Indeed, much of

loll

Still Life, 1916. Oil on e8nVJS. F x 22 in. (82 X57 em). The Museum ClfModern Art. New York. Acquired through the l.illi e P. flliss Bequest. [V. 27)

Istere archi­ mune; they ainl)1 of red Ie was proud uilt in 1475 :cow prison. ie, with the -sed ci ty with It offer the (I,

much of

1.J2

Two l'ersi3n bottles from Morandi' s studio.

Photog raph courtesy of the author.

Ll3

Still Life , 1958. Watercolor on paper, 10 x 22 in. (25 x 35 em). Private Collection.

Art. New York.

Bologna's Baroque architecture served only as a reminder of the city's long years of oppres­ sion as a papal state and was consequently allowed to crumble after the Bolognese freed themselves from papal rule in r860. The hero and heroine of Madame de Stael's L'italie des italiens flee Bologna and head toward Tuscany in search of the real, beautiful Ital)1 and the Mediterranean luminosity and warmth of the "true South." Nor did Flaubert's friend Louise Colet spare what she thought was Bologna's "poverty of historic monuments and artistic attractions." When the railroads began to change the face of Europe in the r860s and turned Bologna into the hub of a wheel connecting North and South, Colet wrote that "although it ... would be an optimum capital site"for the new united nation . .. few of the passengers who pass through (Bologna) on their way down (to Florence and Rome) get off the train there." 6

I.I4

Arcades on the Via Fondazza in Bologna.

Photograph courtesy of the author.

16

ears ofoppres­

The Morandi apartmem was located one block from the Porta Maggiore, a

lognese heed

brick and stone structure thar was one of the principal gates of the city since the time of the

:ael's L'italic des

Roman Empire. It was from this gate that travelers journeyed southward to Florence

fu! Italy and

and Rome until a series of railroad li.nes came to Bologna in 1864, some twenty-six

laubert's friend

years before Morandi was born. The arches in the medieval arcades for which Bologna

'numems and

f.1mous n1l1 along one side of Bologna's streets, offering shelter from the intense sum­

pe in the 1860s

mer sun and harsh winter rains and winds while allowing little light to filter in to the

Coletwrote nation ... few

!lce and Rome)

i~

pedestrian (fig. 1.14). Bologna is built mainly of red brick, just like the cathedral of the Kremlin; Morandi was proud that its architect, Aristotele Fioravanti, was from Bologna. Bolognese buildings of the trecento and quattrocento, survivors of Bologna's past as a thriving medieval commune, are without frills and continue to be used for dwellings and shops. The city's emblem-t\o\lo towers that were completed in lII9 and that are recorded in Dante's Divina Commedia-are no longer perpendicular to the ground; so, too, are the slanting columns that sustain the medieval porticos and church interiors, such as that of the eight11-century church of Santo Stefano. A photograph of an engraving from the seventeenth century illustrates that at one time Bologna had more than

t\o\lO

hundred tow­

ers, making it the kind of medieval city that Louis Mumford called "an urban pincushion" (fig. LIS). Today only a few of those towers remain standing. In 1889, a year before Morandi's birth, plans were approved for urban redevelopment around the recently con­ structed railroad station (built to resemble a medieval palace). These plans bypassed the Piazza Maggiore, which had been the heart of the city since medieval times. Enlarged streets eliminated many of the narrow medieval ones, while the new construction exposed ancient Roman ruins, and the city was extended beyond the ancient historic center. Public transportation had first appeared in 1880 in the form of horse-drawn trolley cars, and by r904 electric trams moved people rapidly around the city to the new station. In 1914, Morandi 's first exhibition would be held in this new "downtown" section of Bologna. Bologna offers a magical, Metaphysical presence to the pedestrian, who is free to pause and slowly shift the focus of his or her eye. Morandi was a walker oftremen­ dous endurance; he had from childhood been accustomed to covering most of his city on foot, and he knew every inch of it well. In his daily walks, Morandi carefully observed how light modified the forms of the old buildings and arcaded streets, and he visualized how these common elements could be transformed into subjects for his paintings. Some of Iv\orandi's early etchings are views of new urban spaces that he discovered while on his walks , and he transformed these places into Metaphysical landscapes . City architecture has affected few modern artists as much as the urban land­ scape of Bologna influenced Morandi, and it became subject matter to be transformed into his stililifes. Although his professional activities took place elsewhere in Italy­ Rome, Milan , and Venice-he lived and painted all his life in a house within Bologna's medieval centro storica, the historic center. Bolognese architecture of the trecento and

A World Within a Studio

'7

quattrocento in particular fascinated Morandi, and he transposed its architecture into his still life creations on the tops of the three tables in his bedroom studio. Architecture would be a bridge that enabled him to link the art ofItaly's past with his own contempo­ raneity. "After all," Morandi once said to me, "even a still life is architecture." Morandi chose to paint bottles, clocks, jugs, and vases not because they had sentimental value, but because of what they could represent. His objects are not to be looked at as bottles or vases but as things with new meanings that transcend their functional use as they became part of an architectural world within his studio. Indeed, Morandi considered architecture the greatest ofall art forms although he said it was the one that took the most time to understand. Giotto the architect fas­ cinated Morandi as much as Giotto the painter of architecture. Morandi also admired the paintings of architecture by tile seventeenth-century Dutch painter Saenredam, and he appreciated the excellence of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the

18

1950S

Wright was commissioned

.\P",.",!."

(

/.."'u~,

•.'1 "II••

',', J

..

.' . .1", ' UIU

.

JI" "",

'r

( •

.,' n",~·.I.·I(j'. I'/, l!nl l.lIlI

, }/;.·I.',i.,

ecture into Architecture contem po­ re." Morandi .ental value , ras bottles or they became TIS

although

'hitect fas­ admired tile 9m, and he lmmissioned

L[S

View of Bo logna, th e "u rban pincushion " with its man)' towers, seco nd half of seven teenth century. Engravin g. 6 x [4 in. ([5 x 37 cm). F. B. Wern er. Photograp h co urtesy of Corinna Giudici.

, P",.nl..,

{.I.,/j",

" .".,., .. II .".•." 'r

I

; ~. ;l:I:~.:;;~~~ J~' 1~1/.I. It!t " lle!.·".1 11­

ecture into Architecture contempo­

~e." Morandi len tal value ,

: as bottles or they became ms although :hitect fas­

, admired the am, and he ~l11l11issioned

View of Bologna, dle " urba n pincu s hion"

with its ma ny rowers , seco nd ha lf of seventecnth century.

Engrav in g, 6 x 14 in. (15 x 37 cm).

F. B. Werner. Photograph co urtesy of Corinna Giudici.

1.I6

Piaua della Montagna/a , 1932 .

Etching , 8 x 12 in. (21.1 x 32.7 em). Private Coll ection. [v. 931

1.17

Various Objects on a Round Tab/e, 1931.

Etching, 8 x 6 in. (19-4 x 17.5 em). Private Co ll ection. Photogra ph by Rick Stafford. [V. 87]

by a Venetian, Count Cini, to build a house in memory ofa son (who died, I was told, in an accident on the way to visit Wright in America). Wright completed his drawings for this new palazzo, which was to be constructed on a corner site of the Grand Canal, and Morandi was part of the committee that was created to vote on whether to approve the proj­ ect. Although protests against a contemporary structure designed by an American in historic Venice doomed the project, Morandi was one of the few who believed that it would not destroy the stylistic homogeneity of the site. He objected more to the construction of new hotels in the false style of the Venetian cinquecento. Among the Bolognese sites that Morandi represented was the Piazza della MontagnoLa, which he depicted in an etching of I932 (v. 93; fig. u6). The piazza is an esplanade that StendahL described as being "as broad as the gardens of the Tuileries, tastefully planted by Napoleon ... elevated some thirty feet above that far-stretching plane, which rolls from the very foot of the new park."7 One day each week the piazza turns into a vast market, when many vendors converge on Bologna, capital of the rich province of Emilia. In this etching Morandi chose to depict the wall behind which all the frenzied activity takes place, re-creating the silence of a Metaphysical landscape. The tennis courts in the public gardens, the Giardini Margherita, planned in I875, also provided Morandi with subject matter, but it was not the players or their movement that interested him. Like a Seurat drawing in black and white, this image wove weblike forms that Morandi transformed from the structures that surrounded the courts (v.

20,

I923).

Charles Sterling wrote that, in antiquity, still lifes were called "slices oflife."s It is difficult to imagine a more accurate description of Morandi's works, for he was able to infuse inanimate objects with a strong sense oflife. When interviewed in 1955 for the Voice of America, Morandi said that "to express what exists in natlLre, I mean the

mondo visible-the visible world-is what the visual arts aspired to achieve in our time . What I want to do is to communicate those images and feelings that the visual world awakens in

US."9

What a treat it was tor me in the early 1960s to see a group of seven or eight recent Morandi paintings tacked up on the wall over his bed, variations on themes of form and color, light and shade, like pieces in a storyboard marking his day-to-day work. His stilllifes are not academic studies, but architectural presences that continue to intrigue artists as well as architects. 'o Like some of Morandi's bottles, Bologna's tew surviving medieval towers seem twisted and warped. Her arcades (portici) reappear in Morandi's stilllifes , transformed into the ovals painted on canisters. So, too, do the col­ ors and forms of the brick, stone, and plaster walls that reflect passing time, changing seasons , the warmth of gentle summer light, or the uniform grays of the fog from the Po Valley that envelops the entire city during the long, cold, damp winters. All of this Morandi brought to life as he transformed those images into still lite paintings. Walking through the city today at dusk, one cannot be certain if the scene is tlle Bolognese cityscape or a Morandi still life (fig. 1.17).

A World Wifhin a Studio

21

To our foreign eyes, the greatest fascination Italy has for us is that she is so backward. -

Georges 8atai/le to Filippo Tomaso Marinetti

Especially for us ,Italians, everything modern is synonymous with ugliness.... To a Venetian, Florentine, or Roman, the modern movement is an aberration that must be fled from after first ridiculing or condemning it .... It is precisely this constant, disgraceful antagonism between past and present that is responsible for our political, social and artistic weakness. -

Umberto Boccioni

Bologna: The Stagnant Marsh and the Weight of Tradition Morandi began his serious toil toward becoming an artist in 1907, the year Picasso painted

Les Demoiselles d'Auignon (fig. 2.1). He enrolled in a preparatory program at the Accademia di Belle Ani, a school in which no one had yet heard ofpicasso, and in which there was no escaping the teachers' admiration for traditional nineteenth-cenrury Italian neoclassical an. Those who passed through the Accademia's large, wrought iron gates would imme­ diately find themselves under the watchful eyes of Olympic-sized cold white plaster casts of gods and goddesses- Roman copies of ancient Greek statues. Clothed or unclothed, these statues were emblematic ofBologna's suffocating provincialism. No dealer or gallery in Bologna showed modern art during Morandi's student days. Gian Carlo Cavalli described the city as one "which jealously guarded academic truths and was deaf to every modern movement." Morandi's closest friend, Giuseppe Raimondi, observed: "It was like growing up in a swamp, when I think back to those times, what Italy was like then, I have the sensation that it was one big tub full of stagnant water where people and feelings were stuck like statues into this dense marsh unable to move. One could serenely die in the agony of such sad ignorance; [reading] poetry was our only escape-and our salvation." I Another of Morandi's contemporaries, the painter and critic Raffaele Giolli, confirmed that Italian artists fought ongoing battles to make their country take modern art seriously: "Italian modern art is full of great dignity and is something that will never fade away. But its needs, its affinities, its hopes, will never be allotted understanding or given any support in the cultural life of the nation: instead it onlly receives obstacles placed in its way and it is scorned. Anything that has managed to survive today, has been an uphill

2

b:lttle, proof that in spite of the establishment, [modern art] has survived, if only to provoke it. ",­ The Accademia's curriculum continued the four-hundred-year-old tradition of the Carracci. The institution was neither curious about nor interested in discllssing any of the modernist trends coming out of Paris. Pride of place in the hierarchy of genres was reserved for history painting, and students were accordingly concerned primarily with the human figure. Teachers passed on to their students the admiration [or those artists who illustrated heroic deed~ from mythology or the glorious past of a new nation not quite fifty years old. Morandi's professors valued a style that imitated JS closely as possible the paintings of Botticelli or Michelangelo-in other words, the figurative tradition from the golden age ofItalian art. Only two decades later, many would consider that same figura­ tive tradition the only one worthy of illustrating Italy'S nationalistic culture. In tllC Italy of Fascism, the still life was oftell considered to be "a foreign import" (even though Morandi and others exhibited examples of this genre in state-sponsored exhibitions). Many, like tile conservative critic Italo Cinti, believed that this form had little to do with Italy's great humanistic tradition and that r-aseism had elevated the art of painting the human figure back to the place it deserved. At the Accademia di Belle Arti, the still life was not consid­ ered a high priority among the choice ofgenrcs-and Morandi's insistent preference for it would often be ridiculed in the years to come. In a

19II

article in the magazine La

Voce titled "Della natura morta," artist and writer Ardengo Soffici felt the need to defend it, writing: "It is through the still life that one can establish the true essence of what painting is all about. To deny this , is to admit YOll know notlling at all about painting.") Instruction at the Accademia began with a Corso Preparatorio (a onc-year prepara­ tory program [or teaching) , followed by the three-year Corso Comune, which was concerned with building fundamental technical skills. it covered teoria delle ombre (theory of Light and shade), architettura (a diploma was given in architectural drawing, not certification as an architect), ornata (descriptive drawing), plastica ornamental (ornamental modeling and decoration), and storia (history). For three years Morandi was the Accademia's star pupil. Because of his high grades in the preparatory program his teachers placed him directly into the second year of the Corso Comune. (His preparatOry program grades were perfect­ 100

percent- for almost all of his courses: tlleOlY of light and shade, architecture, per­

spective drawing, figure drawing, tluee dimensional plastica ornamentale and arnato, and he received a grade of 70 percent [or history.) In his first year in the Corso Comune he received the highest marks in almost all his subjects, and he was cited for honors and awarded a medal for ornato: the craft of descriptive drawing of objects-chairs, table, details from plaster copies of antique statues, architecntral elements-such as that illustrated in an early drawing (fig. 2.2). Perhaps more surprising-Morandi would be attacked through­ 2.1

,'v\orandi, age 17, s tudent identifica tion photograph for the Accademia di Belle Arti, 1907. Archives of the author.

if only to

out much of his adult life by critics who sai d he was unable to draw the human figure -he wa s qu ite accomplished at figure drawing. The course included anatomy, with

d tradition of

occa s ional lectures alongs ide a dissected human body placed on a table at the university

;cussing an)'

hospital's morgue.

of genres wa s

In describing his first years a t the Accademia, Morandi said: "Yo u worked

marily with

for seven hours a day, and two themes a year were enough . . . we learned how to render

'e artists who

shadows, light and shade, and how to va ry all of this to give objects a plastic feeling."

n not quite

By the autumn of 1910 he had success full y completed the Corso Cornune and had signed up

; possible the

for the two-year Co rso Speciale, a program s ubdivided into classes specializing in figure

ition from

study, sculpture, ornato (which included fresco painting). stage design (scenograjia), and

. same figura­

architecture. Morandi chose the program in which he learned how to render the figure

In the Italy of

in the round, interpreting from the mod el the effects of chiaroscuro, learning about cast

Igh Morandi ). Many, like taly's great llIman figure .s not consid­ preference magazin e La :ed to defend Ice of wh at t painting." 3 year prepara­

Iconcerned rof light and ication as IOdeling and s star pupil. im directl y ore perfect­ =cture, per­

ornato, and e he received tlawarded details from ated in an :ed through­ 2.2

Descrip tive drawi ng from the course orornato, 19[0- 1911 . Oil OIl canVJs. 9 x 7 in. (24 x 18 cm) . Archives of th e Accacl emia eli Belle Arti

di Bologna . Pho tograp h courtesy of Pompilio Mand elli. [not in Vitali]

Bologna

25

shadows, and continuing to draw. Once he had mastered the basic techniques, however, Morandi lost interest in the rigid, academic, out-of-date curriculum. Although he was pro­ moted at the end of his first year, his grades had dropped considerably. By 1912 he was close to failing. Nevertheless, Morandi was determined to stay on for an extra year, because a change in the law guaranteed that students would be ranked in a higher category when applying for teaching positions if they completed a third year of the Corso Speciale. This was of central concern to Morandi, who by then worried about helping his family. Morandi's last year at the Accademia, proved to be a bitter ordeal, however. As his dissatisfaction with his teachers grew, he

increasi~gly objected to their changes to

and corrections of his drawings and watercolors. (When he became a teacher himself, he never touched a student's artwork.) Skipping classes, he worked at home, and the paintings that he prepared for his final reviews in 1913 generated such antagonism that he received the lowest grades ever given to a sUldent at the Accademia. He barely managed to graduate with the requisite certificate enabling him to teach in the elementary school system, where Morandi would teach for thirteen years. The Accademia's professors represented authority, privilege, and power. Many were colleagues of Adolfo De Carolis and admirers of Aristide Sartorio, representatives ofa reactionary milieu that dominated Italy's major art exhibition, the Venice Biennale, and obtained most of the artistic commissions funded by local governments. Both Sartorio and De Carolis, Morandi's bete noires, belonged to a Rome-based club called In Arte Veri­ tas, whose members were brought together by their shared rage against modern art, and they declared themselves "sworn enemies ofImpressionism." Perpetuating their faith in classical form and myth, they longed for a return to the true Italian tradition. De Carolis, at that time Bologna's most illustrious graduate of the Accademia di Belle Ani, was a talented imitator of high Renaissance styles and had collaborated many times with his country's most zealous foe of modern art, the dazzling poet Gabriele D'Annullz io. It would be decades before Morandi's work would receive the same recognition as that of De Carolis in Bologna. A competition tbat was organized in 1907 by the Society of Francesco Francia in Bologna demonstrates contemporary taste and De earolis's artistic standing. (This influential association of conservative artists was named for the Bolognese painter Francesco Fr~1l1cia [1450-1517). Morandi never joined this society). De Carolis won the competition and was awarded the largest public commission that Bologna had awarded to an artist since 1512, when the city commissioned Michelangelo's only bronze statue, that of Pope Julius II (Morandi later gleefully reminded his students that the bronze had been melted down in its own day by the anti-papal citizenry). De Carol is began work on his important new commission in 1910, the same year that the Futurists launched their first Manifesto. U'ing traditional fresco-like techniques he promised "to illustrate the glo­ rious deeds of a heroic people," and so he set out to redecorate the walls of the large main salon in one of the most beautiful buildings in Bologna's main square, the Piazza Maggiore. This building was the thirteenth-century Palazzo del Podesta (Governor's

however,

Palace), and De Carolis covered the salon's walls with grandiose paintings ofsuch legendary

:h he was pro­

events as "The Founding ofAncient Bologna," "The Triumph ofChristianity," and "Bologna

1912 he was

Seated on a Throne between Her Virile Virtues." Into these monumental themes he

year, because

included huge grotesque nudes. Leo Longanesi would later mock the murals, proclaiming

~gory

that "one drawing of Morandi's is worth all the work of De Carol is, ' .. whose cavorting

when

iiale, This was

neo-michelangelesque nudes contained such outrageous distortions" that he referred to

'Iy.

him as "that wholesale butcher of thighs. "4

however. As

The shadow of those artists from the official establishment hovered over

changes to

Morandi from the day he first enrolled at the Accademia, and he despised them the rest of

~r

his life. In a 1963 letter to writer and painter Mino Maccari, Morandi wrote that he still

himself, he

-the paintings

"feared the resurrection of [a conservative critic) Ojetti, [and the painters) Ettore Tito and

he received

Sartorio." 5 Yet in his youth it had taken much courage to oppose the traditional clique

J to grad ltate

of architects , art historians, engineers, and the few painters who were on the managing

'ystem, where

board of the Accademia. Alienating them meant he could no longer count on their rec­ ommendations for employment, their support in finding patrons, even their advice on

power. Many

where to exhibit and perhaps sell work . Morandi found himself caught between conflicting

Iresentatives

concerns that would plague him all his life: the burden of centuries of artistic tradition

Biennale, and

and the artists who embodied it, and the need to be concerned with those visual issues

Jth Sanoria

that made art modern.

I In Arte Veri­

Jdem art,

Ardengo Soffici's essays in a new magazine, La Voce, on Impressionism, Picasso, Cubism,

ng their f,1ith

and Henri Rousseau first opened the new world of modern art to Morandi and helped

I.

De Carolis ,

to deliver him from the stagnant marsh that was Bologna-and much of Italy. Soffici,

lrti, was a

whose writings brilliantly displayed the cosmopolitanism that existed among the Euro­

nes with his

pean avant-garde before World War I, was a Florentine painter who had spent seven years

nUllzio. It

in Paris, where Picasso and the douanier Rousseau were among his friends.

1S

that of De

La Voce was published in Florence from 1909 to 1914. Founded in 1908 by

o Francesco

Giuseppe Prezzo'lini and Giovanni Papini, it continued to be published until the end of

tic standing.

1916, but in December 1914 the editorial policy changed under Giuseppe De Robenis

ese p3inter

to more traditional literary criticism. The magazine had a unique platform and format and

Jlis won the

catered to a self-described "elite minority" (la cultura di minoranza). The scope of La

d awarded

Voce's influence far exceeded its circulation, for even though one issue reached as many

'ollze statue,

as five thousand readers, the magazine rarely sold more than two thousand copies of

lronze had

a single issue and never had more than one thousand paid subscribers. In a country where

?an work on

one conservative Italian would describe rhetoric undoubtedly as a national vice, La Voce's

rlched their

aim was "to counter Italian rhetoric." The inaugural issue announced that it would

trate the glo­

"battle against the mediocrity and decadence in politics, art, and literature, for ... our

the large

nation seems to have sunk to the lowest level ... all that we h3ve in this beautiful ItJly

, the Piazz.a

... is not worthy of our past, and above all, it is inferior to that (culture) which is found

;overnar's

beyond the Alps and overseas.,,6 All of the magazine's writers agreed that they were free

Bologna

27

to

engage in lively criticism and dissent, but the publication was among the early casu­

alties of World \-Var l. After the war, the young journalist and future prime minister Benito Mussolini declared: "What the country now needed was not more criticism but disci­ pline. "7 Most of La Vo ce's writers were young, born between 1880 and 1890, and Morandi proudly referred

to

them as "men of my generation." In addition to Soffiei, among the

artistic and literary vociani (a name give n to those connected with the magazine) who would later become closely connected with iV\orandi were Riccardo Bacchelli , Carlo Carra, Piero Jahier, Roberto Longili , Clemente Rebora, and Scipio Slataper. Their names would appear in his personal account book, his regisrrcllo, when, almost fifteen years later, in 1927, he began keeping track of those who owned his work. Perhaps because ofSoffici 's subsequent political convictions-he was an early supporter of Mussolini and, by 1931, outspokenly anti-Semitic and anti-French­

many critics have downplayed the magnitude ofSoffici's influence on a young Morandi. Morandi and Soffici did not actually meet until the late 1920S, but Soffici mentioned Morandi in a 1920 article, citing him as one of the painters to be included among "la peinture italienne d'aujourd'hui . ,,8 Soffici continued to be extremely helpful and useful to Morandi, particularly through the mid-1930S. Soffici's influence on the artist can be traced back to Morandi's student days at the Accademia, where his dissatisfaction with his teachers was sparked by Soffici's writings about modern art. Although Soffici was only eleven years his senior, Morandi always spoke of him as a "revered father." Soffici's articles, full ofemotion and intensity, appealed to a twenty-year-old student eager to hear about the new art from Paris. Who but Soffici (in a 1910 article in La Voce) had the imagination

to

compare the douanier

Rousseau to Paolo Uccello, an artist who (like Giotto) was ignored by Morandi 's teachers at the Accademia? Perhaps Soffici's mention of Uccello encouraged Morandi

to

visit

Florence in the summer of 1910. Comparing the subject matter of the artists championed by the official estab­ lishment to the Impressionists, Soffici explained that "modern painting is not about telling stories" and, discussing the work ofCezanne and Degas, described how the French artists looked for the minute variations in nature-the "perpetual transformations that were flexible, like life itself. "Q Morandi would adopt this Galilean-like concept of daily observation of nature as the essence of his art. Nothing could have been further from the Accademia 's teachings than Soffici's insistence that the modern art ofCezanne, Monet, and Degas was as important as the art of the Renaissance and that "there was nothing more urgent than to bring to the heart ofItaly, examples that would show a new way of seeing nature and enrich art. ,,10 As a way of beginning that very process, Soffici organ­ ized an exhibition of "impressionism francese" in Florence that opened in February 1910. Electricity must not have been commonplace, for it was advertised as "illuminazione elettrica ... for two evenings a week the exhibition would remain open until ten p.m." An announce­ ment in the December 1909 issue of La Voce would have certainly caught Morandi's eye:

e early casu­

the exhibition would include six works each by Degas and Renoir, fi ve by Cezanne, four

.inister Benito

by Monet, three each by Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Forain, and one each by van

~l

Gogh, Gauguin, and Matisse. Although Morandi undoubtedly would have seen a 1908

but disci­

and Morandi

book on Impressionism by Vittorio Pica, its mediocre reproductions were printed only in

, among the

black and white. 11 But at Soffici's exhibition Morandi could see the colors and textures

Ie) who would

of the original works by the Impressionists, and his delight was "en ormous " (his favorite

o Carra, Piero

word used to express something pleasantly extraordinary). In the summer of that sam e

Ines would

year he also took the opportunity to study other artists ignored by the Accademia as he

later, in 1927,

visited churches and museums to see works by Giotto, Masaccio, and what little remained

,

on the walls ofUccello's frescoes. he was an

~ti-French­

In contrast, conservative artists such a s sculptors Leonardo Bistolfi and Paul Troubetskoy were featured at the 1910 Venice Biennale. The space in the great hall was

~ng Morandi .

given to Sartorio, and the most importa nt place in its Salone Centrale, which always

lentioned

reflected the current taste, was given to Italy's "beloved" Ettore Tito (1859-1941). The 1910

1I11Ong "la

Biennal e's catalogue praised him as having "reached the height of his career ... w ith

11 and useful

his ingenious expression of the anecdotal." The catalogue heralded Tito as a "maestro del nudo [master of the nude] . . . [who] illustrated myths ofclassical antiquity-the episodes

student days

of human life. " What could Morandi have seen in the Biennale that he might have liked ,

Jy Soffici's

other than the few intense and well-structured landscapes ofCourbet? Thirty-seven paint­

ior, Morandi

ings by Renoir were ex hibited, but Morandi was never a great admirer of Renoir; rather,

and intensity,

he preferred the qualities in light and form that he saw in Cezanne and Monet. He would

Paris. Who

later say that he saw more interesting works in Soffici's exhibition than he h ad seen in

e douanier

any previous Ve nice Biennale. Soffici's Impressionist exhibition taught Morandi more about

ldi's teachers

art-but it also did more to generate conflict between the young painter and his teachers

ldi to visit

who were part of the "official milieu." Morandi 's impulse to see more of modern art may have prompted his first

)fficial estab­

trip to Rome in 19II

ro view the work of Matisse, Monet, Munch, and Renoir in an inter­

not about

nation a l exhibition celebrating Italy's fifty years of unification. The precariousness of

)w the French

Italian unity is a recurrent theme in Italy'S modern history. Civic pride, even today, con­

lations that

tinues to be directed toward being Florentine, Venetian , or Bolognese. Until the 1930s,

lCept of daily

Italian arti s ts in major exhibitions in Italy continued to be grouped according to their

ther from

regional divisions. One of Fascism's aspirations was to finall), unif)1 the Italians. Camillo

anne, Monet,

PeJlizzi, a writer, friend, and one of Morandi's future collectors, reminded his colleagues

as nothing

that "it was the artis ts and the intellectuals who, fo r centuries, were the only ones to have

new way of

given a nation, lackin g political unity, at leas t a cultural unity."J2

ffici organ­

ebruary 1910.

zione elettrica

III

announce­

randi's eye:

At the time, Morandi' s train ride fro m Bologna to Rome, a distance o f a bout one hundred fifty miles, took fourteen hours. Mo ra ndi was amazed on his arrival to see h erds of cows being walked from one pasture to another through the very center of th e city. Rome in 19II seemed to him more a provincial agricultural center than the ca pital of an aspiring industrial nation . In fact, nothing illustrates the abyss that existed between

Bologna

29

the conservative art of the official milieu in Rome and modern art better than two artil tic events that took place in April ofthat year. In Rome, a grandiose marble monument I size of a city block was unveiled in honor of unification, while in Milan at the end of the month Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, and Luigi Russolo launched a Futurist exhibitio of their paintings at the Padiglione Ricordi. Rome's monument was a conservative tribut to the past. At its unveiling, mayors Secondo Frola of Turin (the former capital) and Ernesto Nathan of Rome (the new capital) stood together on the platform symbolizin. the unity of Italy's past with her present. This was to be a revival of the illustrious Roma past, the eternal city. Designed to imitate ImpeDial Roman statuary and architecture, the monument was commissioned as the Altare della Patria (altar of the nation) and was ded· icated to Vittorio Emmanuele II, Italy's first king to reign over a united Italy. (Ironically, the king's marble monument has lasted much longer than the Italian monarchy. The memorial survived five wars and still stands, intact, in the center of Rome. The monarchy lasted only until 1946, however, when a plebiscite resulted in the king's exile, along with his family, for their role in supporting Fascism.) The huge monument, twenty-seven years in the making, was topped with four bronze quadrigae, each carrying a winged Victory. It was the antithesis of what Morandi, no less than the Futurists, believed art to be. At the time, Carra complained: "The Altare

della Patria was a monstrous apotheosis to bad taste by a milieu that consisted of ... ltalian mummies-imitators of the past and dead for generations."I3 Such contrasts were inescapable in a country where most ridiculed modern art. Meanwhile, in Milan, with complete faith in his fellow Futurist artists, Boccioni was not being arrogant when he stated that the Futurist exhibition was the most impor­ tant display of Italian art since Michelangelo. Although Morandi did not see this 19II exhi­ bition, a review titled "Esposizione libera," appearing in Bologna's /I Giornale del Mattina, alerted him to this group of artists who are "trying too hard to free themselves from the old and sad subjects that dull and sterilize the imagination, [and] are looking for new 'spices' to flavor the same old life ... whatever they do is at least is always interesting."I4 The titles of the works in the Futurist exhibition reflected themes drawn not fi·om the past, but from the contemporary world around them; examples included La risata (Laughter), lfunerali dell'anarchiro Galli (fhe Funeral of the Anarchist Galli), and Treno in corso nella notte (A Train Running Through the Night). Morandi, who had but a few friends in Bologna who sbared his distaste for Italy's fascination with the styles and techniques of its glorious past, would be greatly heartened by the examples of the Italian Futurist painters, whose revolutionary manifesto included a wish to abolish painting the nude for ten years because it was so boring. In a 1910 review of his Florence exhibition of French Impressionists, Soffici did not miss an opportunity to blast the current taste of his countrymen , and wrote in a lead article on the front page of the May

12

issue of La Voce: "Full of prejudice, accepting only

classicism and idealism, the cultivated ltalian continues to think the same way he did

than two artis­

half century ago. That a painting, a sculpture, a drawing-ifit doesn't aspire to traits of

~

'the grandiose' of style, ... ofform-it's not art. No matter how much things have

monument the

:he end of the

changed, our painters and sculptors, our critics and our nation, along with the public have

lIrist exhibition

remained like ostriches buried with those old colossi . . . Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael,

;ervative tribute

Titian, etc. The Italian doesn't want to know it [modern art], he is not f.1miliar with it;

r capital) and

and it is our great shame that in the fifty years that we have been a modern nation, we still

'm s)'mbolizing

haven't understood what modern art is all about."

lIstrious Roman

That same year, Soffici revie",ed the Venice Biennale, and his advice to the

rlitecture, the

readers of La Voce was blunt: "If this is what a nation can take for art, the best thing to do

~)

is to stay at home alone, and, if you can, work."ls

and was ded­

aly. Hronically,

In two years Morandi would do just that. In 1912 he stopped going to classes,

marchy. The

and , free from the watchful eyes of his teachers, he embarked on a radically new course.

The monarchy

While working at home he taught himself the technique of etching, which was then not

exile, along

part of the school's curriculum, and painted a group of works that he would submit for his final review. These new paintings did not show his command of draughtmanship and

>pped with four

"clarity offonn" for which his teachers had once praised him ; instead they incorporated

,hat Morandi,

rough brushstrokes and layers ofcoarse impasto. Among the works Morandi presented to

ed: "The Altare

the review committee was a limpid and solidly constructed landscape (V. 2, 19u) and a

sisted of . ..

juicy, thickly painted portrait of his twelve-year-old sister Dina wearing a black felt hat that

1

contrasts were

belonged to her brother (V. 3, 1912; figs. 2.3, 2-4). To his teachers the portrait appeared crude and lumpy, but Morandi had portrayed, without any rhetoric or sentimentality, the

mists, Boccioni

freshness of an adolescent as he captured the essence of Dina 's strong and determined

most impor­

personality. [t is already a mature statement showing great understanding by a painter who

e this 1911 exhi­

was then only twenty-two years old. Morandi also presented a still life (V. 4) painted in

ale del Mattino,

1912, which appears to be a frantic combination of Cubism and Futurism: the six or seven

selves from the

objects on the canvas seem to be mixed together by an eggbeater. In this still life the

,king for new

calm and contemplative style that one might expect of Morandi is nowhere to be found. He

; interesting."'4

also produced several la ndscapes from 1913 consisting mainly of green tonalities and

not from the

with fierce diagonal slashing brushstrokes-a technique that no one at the Accademia had

iisata (Laughter),

taught him -such as V. 8, now at the Pinacoteca di Brera , Milan, and a poetic winter

)rso nella notte

landscape Nevicata (The Snowfall,

n Bologna who

exhibition in Rome. There is also a summer landscape of trees (V. II, 1913, formerly in

v.

ro, 1913), which he would send to the 1914 Secessione

)fits gloriolls

the lucker collection , Milan), which was unlike anything he had ever painted (fig. 2.5). [n

'ainters, whose

this work Nlorandi used a saturated yellowish-chrome green for the foliage, which fills

~n

the whole canvas and makes the tree into some large jungle bird about to take flight.

years beca use

Some writers believe that Morandi's early work reveals remnants of the "nat­

lists, Soffici did

uralism" found in three nineteenth-centUlY artists: Silvestro Lega (1826- 1895), Luigi

vrote in a lead

Bertelli (1832-1916), and Alessandro Scorzoni (1858-1933), who in 1884 painted an ele­

accepting on.!y e way he did

gant portrait of Morandi 's mother at age fourteen (fig. 2.6). (Many years later Pompi'lio Mandelli discovered a group ofsmal'llandscapes by Scorzoni, which have much in common

Bologna

31

2·3

landscape, 191I.

Oil on canvas ,

14

x 21 in. (37 x 52 cm). Pinacoteca di Brera. Milan.

Bequest of Lamberto Vitali. Photograph by Luca Carra . [Y. 2)

with Morandi's early works.) Morandi contended that those artists "didn't count" and implied that they h3d not influenced him . He adamantly denied being influenced by these or any of the Macchiaioli group a nd sa id that their concerns did not interest him; he often said th3t despite the frequent comparisons of their works to those of the French Impressionists, "They certainly were very gifted, but they had not set for themselves tl1e same goals as the Impressionists . [Moreover,] they were prevented from developing and maturing as artists because tbe society in which they lived was not prepared to encourage any truly great art."r6 Morandi ultimately graduated from the Accademia, but it was no simple matter. In 1978, Pompiho MandeJli, who then W3S director of the Accademia, discovered Morandi's 3cademic records, which revealed that he had failed his final examination in June 1913. Morandi's file, however, also included the note "exams postponed" and the determination that he would be allowed to take them again during the fall session. Morandi did retake his final test, which was a weeklong project drawing from a live model; his grade also was

2.4

Portrait of Dina, 19[2.

Oil on canvas, 17 x [5 in. (44 x 37 em). Morandi Museum, Bologna. [V. 3)

Bologna

33

2·5

Landscape, 1913. Oil

011

canvas, [7 x 26 in . (44 x 66 em). Pinacoteea di Brera, Mibn.

Bequest ofRieeardo and Magda lueker. [Y. I1J

Ian.

2.6

Pastel portrait of Iv\orandi 's motil er, Ma.ria Maccaferri , in 1884, at age fourteen. The work, begun by;1 Count l'assavert (3 friend of Maria Maccaferri' . bro thers), was later cO ll1pleted by the Bolognese painter lessa ndro Scorzoni (1858- 1933) .

to reflect work completed during the past year. He had to take two adler exams, art his­ tory and anatomical drawing (the latter given by one ofthe professors from the university's medical school). His highest mark was 80 percent, which he received for his study of the live model. He earned 60 percent in anatomy and 60 percent in art history, and so eight professors met on November 28 to discuss whether he should be allowed to pass. They reached a compromise: Morandi was given his certificate based on the grades he had received the previous year. Fifty years later, Morandi still remembered his humiUation and the scorn that his teachers heaped on his works. This denunciation Likely echoed that of the conser­ vative critic Enrico Thovez, who described the Impressionists and Cezanne as "no better Wan scribblers with twigs" and dismissed dleir paintings as "scabby incrustations .. . works by children ... and of the most disgusting and tasteless vulgarity." Indeed, until the Futurists came to Bologna in 1914, and with the exception of a few schoolmates, few individuals were interested in or appreciated Morandi's work. He even burned some of his early paintings; perhaps because they were so different from the current taste he assumed that they would have no artistic merit. In a brief autobiographical statement written a few days before Christmas of 1927 and published almost twenty years to the day after he had enrolled in Bologna's Accademia di Belle Arti, Morandi looked back on his Accademia days without any feelings of satisfaction or accomplis hment. He wrote: "I must admit that whatever the teachers taught me made my life profoundly painful. . .. From the moment that I began taking courses, I listened with interest and enthusiasm to those rev­ olutionary words proclaimed by dle Futurists because the direction Italian art had taken then was dull and suffocating ... [7 It dlerefore came as no surprise that upon the Accademia's grudging presentation of his diploma in November 1913, Morandi left the school with no doubt that he would never return.

Bologna

35

To the young artists of Italy: For those in other countries Italy is still a land of the dead, an immense Pompeii. ...

But Italy is being reborn an d in the wake of her political resurgence an intellectual

renewal is taking place . . . in th e land of the dolce far niente innumerable factories are now

roaring fu ll tilt ... one is struck today by a new elan . . . . Destroy [Italy's] obsession with

its past ••• exalt the everyday life which has been transformed by the victory of science ...

Bury the dead .. . clear out the mummies ... and open up the way for the future ... It is

tim e for the young, the passionate, and the fearless!

- Manifesto of the Futurist Painters Soldati: / SI sta come / d'a utunno / sugli alberi / Ie foglie. (Soldiers : / They are / like leaves/on autumn's trees.)

- Giuseppe Ungaretti

Morandi Futurista: Education Before Verdun, 1914

Thc htturist painters grumbled the loudest, and the most provocatively, about Italy's

embalmed Jrtistic milieu: a milieu that believed nothing modern could cvcr be considered

bcautiful. Theirs was a movement that could have arisen only in a country with a g lori­

ous rast and ~l fanatic veneration of its antiquities and traditions. Battling Italy's deeply

entrenched suspicion of the new, the Futurists 3spired to invade every branch oflife­

cultural, social , and politic:ll - and fostcr an attitude more in tune with a developing

modern industrial nation.

News of the Futurist demonstrations and their published manifestos captiv:ltcd

the rebellious you ng Morandi. As Mario Bacchelli, a close friend from sntdent days, later

conormcd in 1947, little else was go ing on in Italy to attract young painters disgus ted with

the rigidity of the a rti s ti c establishment, which opposed anything new. Bologna may

have been at the forefront of sc ientific and medical adv:mces when Guglielmo Marconi ,

whose rcsearch on s hortwa ve wireless communication paved the way for the invention

of the radio , won tile Nobe l prize for physics in 1909, but the city remained a wasteland

for modcrn artists . In thc months following Morandi's gr3duation, during which time

the painter Umberto Boccioni and the poet Filippo Tommaso lVlarinetti showed consider­

able interest in the very paintings that Morandi's teachers had condcmned, the young

painter would en thusiastically align himself with thc Futurists.

The "N\anifesto of the Futmist Painters," drafted in Mibn in 1910 by Boccioni

in collabora tion with Marinctti and signed by Giacomo Balla, Boccioni, Carlo Carra,

Luigi Russolo, and Gino Severini, was dedicated to Italy's young artists; with the exception

3

of Balla, all were under thirty.! With this document the Futurists launched a clamorous attack on the state-supported systems-schools, academies, conservatories, museums, and universities-whose traditional practices they accused of "rotting" the arts in Italy. In his complex and important essay "Parlato su Giotto" (written in 1915 and published in La Voce a year later), Carra ironically confirmed that his countrymen had no interest in

anything modern, calling Italians "bigots with a capital B ... who after centuries and cen­ turies ofglory, believed, that except for the red wine produced in Chianti and that drooping ruddy-faced tenor Caruso, modern Italy has produced nothing worth passing on to the rest of the world. ,,2 In public demonstrations, no less than in their art, the Futurists celebrated the novelty and vitality of modern life. They took much of their inspiration from the scientific and technological inventions that were part of a rapidly changing industrial age, and Italy's Futurist artists and composers were trying to be part of that new age. With few deposits ofcoal or oil, Italy generated hydroelectric power to make use of the new energy. Marinetti exulted in the importance of electricity, proclaiming, "Let's kill the moon­ light. " And in 1910, he bombarded Venice with eight hundred thousand leaflets dropped from the top of the Clock Tower, similarly announcing that the time had come to "wel­ come the Age of. .. Electricity" and to liberate the city from the moon's romantic g100m. 3 Inspired by sllch exhortations, Balla, who taught painting to Severini and Boccioni, that same year painted a canvas entirely given over to a simple electric street lamp. 4 Just as Soffici's importance to Morandi has been downplayed, so too has the influence of the Futurists on the artist been denied or minimized. Wrongly asserting that Morandi was detached from the Futurist milieu-perhaps because ofthe shadow cast by Marinetti's eady Fascist sympathies-scholars have fed the myth of the painter's total isolation from his times. In actuality, it was the Futurists' agenda, as much as their paint­ ings, that first drew Morandi to them. Much of their agenda was spelled out in articles for such journals as the Florentine Lamba (meaning to prick or sting), which contained innovative examples ofexperimental typography to attract attention, even before MaUarme's poem "Un coup de des jamais n'abolira Ie hazard" was published posthumously in 1914. The goals of the Futurists were proclaimed in the seemingly endless stream of manifestos and flyers announcing Futurist performances in theaters, where they could express their exasperation with the power of the establishment to smother new ideas. Noting in partic­ ular t1ut the Futurists were against the officially recognized academic painters the Titos and the Sartorios, Morandi himself stated that "it was in my generation that the Futurists roused Italy from this state of decay, and our art again began to enjoy some prestige in the eyes of the world."5 Indeed , itvvas Morandi's contemporaries who maintained that he had proudly allied himself with the Futurists. In the first contextual article about Morandi, published in the Milanese newspaper L'AlI1brosiano in 1925, Carlo Carra-who first Illet Morandi in 1919-wrote: "I knew him, .. . and like all young men ... from 19II to 1914 Morandi

clamorous

was certainly swept up by the Futurist storm that was blowing over Italy ... and no one

s, museums ,

can deny that it brought some good." Mario Bacchelli (brother of the writer Riccardo

arts in Italy.

Bacchelli) remembered that Morandi, like other young people, "would be wildl)' enthu­

. published in

siastic against the anti-scholastic and anti-bourgeois proclamation as the Futurists

interest in

declared: 'Flood the libraries and burn the museums!' Morandi wouldn't have burnt any

Iries and cen­

museums . . . but perhaps would have been willing to burn the professors of the dusty

that drooping

and shabby Academy ofBologna.,,6

g on to the

In February 1912, a major Futurist exhibition opened at the well-known Parisian gallery of Bernheim-Jeune and traveled under its auspices to London, Berlin, Brussels,

.elebrated the

The Hague, and Amsterdam. By July, Soffici -who had at first vehemently criticized the

I~he scien tific

Futurists as outdated in comparison with the French Cubists-had himself joined the

Iage, and

movement. At the end of 1912 he wrote in La Voce that Futurism was the only movement

ge. With few

"full oflife," as did Giovanni Papini, who commented that same year in La Voce that "there

new energy.

was no avant-garde more courageous and worthy to stand with than the Futurists." In Jan­

the moon­

uary Of1913 the two founded Lacerba , which "for two years was the most vital and

flets dropped

intelligent voice of Futurism," with readers in France, Germany, Poland, and Russia.?

~

l1e

to "wel­

Soffici's change of heart must have helped draw Morandi into the Futurist

antic gloom. '

movement. In November 1913, the very month that he graduated from the Accademia,

:occioni, that

Lamba organized a memorable exhibition of Futurist works in Florence. Boccioni showed

lp.4

eleven paintings, including the triptych The City Rises (1910- II) and Dynamism of a Cyclist

a too has the

(1913). Among the fourteen that Carra exhibited were Galleria di Milano (1912) and The

asserting

Objects' Rhythms (1912-13). Russolo exhibited two paintings, Balla four, Severini ten, and

, shadow cast

Soffici eighteen. Severini would describe the exhibition as the best of their group shows,

)ainter's total

and in December Morandi made a trip to Florence to see it. 8

their paint-

The previous spring, Morandi and Osvaldo Licini, a fellow student at the

in articles for

Accademia, had traveled to Modena, about half an hour north of Bologna by train, to see a

contained

Futurist performance in which Marinetti and Russolo took part. But it was the exhibi­

re Mallarme's

tion in Florence that opened Morandi's eyes to the full impact of Futurist painting. There

sl)' in 1914.

he saw the works' bright, vivid colors and the freedom with which they depicted ideas

)f manifestos

of"simultaneitY"-multiple aspects of time and space. The Futurists' fascination with

'press their

subject matter from modern life must have helped to define for Morandi the importance

ing in partic­

of avoiding the creation of art that looked back on the past and that used overworked

's the Titos

themes. In the remaining months before the outbreak of World War I, he was inspired to

the Fu turists

see and hear more of the works of the Futurists. 9

prestige in

While in Florence in December 1913, Morandi attended his second Futurist performance "Serate" (Evenings), at the Teatro Verde. And on January 19,1914, he was in

, had proudly

the audience with the Bacchelli brothers and Licini as the Futurists stormed into Bologna,

, published

staging a tumultuous production ofMarinetti's Elettricita in the Teatro del Corso. Boister­

'tMorandi in

ous affairs with a political bent, the Futurist "Serate"-not unlike the later "Happen­

14 Morandi

ings" of the 196os-ridiculed the establishment and welcomed as much noisy audience

Morandi Futurista

'

participation as possible. (J\udienccs did not dis:1p point thcm, as thcy pngJed keys, whistled, and shouted to compete with the sounds of the production, or threw vegetables and tomatoes.) Many of these performances took place in the cafes where artists and writers gathered, but most of them were done in thea ters . Often th e pcrfonn:1nee opened with a Futurist symphony and closeJ with the prcsent:1tion of pai ntings on stage. Debates werc encouraged , and they not inti·equentl)' ended in phvsieal confrontations with the spectators. Indeed, provocation W,lS the operative word in Futurist demonstrations. Among the events that took place in association with the staging of I::ll'ttricita in Bologna was the "occupation," led by Marinetti, of a lecture hall in one of the university's buildings. The February I issue ofLacerba described the attack: "With bayonets [the FUnIrists] invaded the 'sacros,1l1ct' University ... dem:mJing a crusade ag3.inst traditional culture and ag1inst the very professors teachin g in the lecture halls when Marinetti had broken in. Th e Uni­ versity's Chanccllor [II Magnifico Rettore] threaten ed to have every student in attendance expelled from the University and evicted if they didn't immediately withdraw.... Except for the young people, Bologna is just like everywhere ei:;c- 'pa ssatismo' [those who loved only the past] seems to reign and th ere is tenacious resistance to the movement."l0 Carra had spent the day ofthe performance walking up :llld down the main street in th e center of the city, handing out Futurist manifestos and reading from th em and from his poeuy. He and lvlarinetti were in the audience that night, along with Boccioni and Francesco Salilb Pratella, a good friend of IVlorandi who was already well known for his Futurist music of disharmoniolI s so unds. Pratella had met Marinetti in 1910 after he had earned his degree in cbssic:ll musi ca l composition fi·om an :lcademic conser­ vatolY headed by Pietro l\ 'lascagni, the composer of th e opera Caualleria Rlisticana. During a performance in Bologna of his Futurist mnsic, a member of the audience yelled out that the Futurists had ruined Pratella. It was Pr:ttella who introduced three young painters, Morandi, Mario BaechcIli, and Licini, to Boceioni and Marinetti, who promised to send them Futurist publications. lvlorandi met ['rateHa (1880-1953) in 1910 at the Accademia di Belle Arti through his classmate Giacomo Vespignani, who, like Pratelb, w:ts hom Lugo , a small town near Ravenna, about thirty miles southeast of Bologna. Pratclla's house in Lugo became the ce mer for the Futuri sts in the Emilia-Rol11Jgna area . II SlIbsequentl), Morandi, th e Bacchclli brothers, the painter Mario, and the writer Riccardo lVere invited to Pratella's home in Lugo for a private performance of the latter's now famous mu sical composition rauiatore Dro, me/ociraml11ajilturista (The Aviator Dro, Futurist Melodrama). The airplane, ofcourse, was ~llllong the Illost celebrated of modern 1ll8chines , admired by the hlturists as mueh for the be:lUty of its form as for its function.

l\~orandi

kept in his studio a I9q photograph of a Bleriot monoplane tha t

was being refu eled with the same type of large pitchers tlwt he used in his still life paintings (fig. 3.1) . Invigorated by the older artists' encouragement, and amazingl)' undaunted by th ei r city 's hostility towa rd modern art, Morandi and four friends organized :tn exhi­

ngled keys ,

bition of their own work in March 1914 in the basement of one of Bologna's most ele­

rew vegetables

gantand centrally located hotels , the Grand Hotel Baglioni. Since the Bacchellis' father

lartists and

was the mayor, he may have helped the young artists procure this space for their exhi­

ina nce opened

bition. It was an audacious move for so young a group , for there were no conventional

itage. Debates

galleries where they could have exhibited their works . Three of the exhibiting artists

Ins with the

were still enrolled at the Accademia: Licini, who was nineteen; Severo Pozzati, eighteen;

ations. Among

and Giacomo Vespignani , twenty-two . The self-taught Bacchelli was twenty, and Morandi,

,gna was the

the oldest, was t.venty-three. Of the fifty works exhibited, thirteen were by Morandi.

uildings. The

There was no catalogue or checklist, and years later Morandi said he wasn't certain exactly

:sl invaded the

which works he exhibited, but he remembered that many were among those paintings

Illd against

that he had submitted for his final review at the Accademia. There was , most notably, the

~

in. The Uni­

portrait of Dina, 1912 (V. 3; see fig. 2.4), a Cubist-Futurist still life, 1912 (V. 4), and sev­

attendance

erallandscapes: V. 6, v. 8, and V. II (see fig. 2.5). He also hung two landscapes dated 1914:

I

iW' ... Except

/I bosco (The Woods) (V.I7) and A Doorway (V. 16; often mistakenly referred

ose who loved ment. "ID

Judging from the full foliage in these two landscapes, he may have begun them out­

to

as The Bridge).

of-doors in the summer of 1913 and completed them in the studio the following year.

,wn the main g from them

with Boccioni veIl known :i in 19ro after mic conser­ tirana. During e yelled out

JUng painters, ised to send Ie Accademia ,was from atella's house 0,

and the

mance of the n (The Aviator

Jrated of

m as for IOplane that s still life undaunted ized an exhi­

3. 1

Bleriot monoplane being refueled with the same type ofbrge pitchers that Morandi depicted in his still life paintings, 1913. Archives of the author.

Morandi Futur;sta

41

The exhibition was up only for twenty-four hours, on March

20-21,

but

there was no lack of a response. On the contrary, the Bolognese, accustomed to the con­ servative yearly exhibitions mounted by the powerful Francesco Francia Association of artists, concluded that the works had been painted by madmen. As Morandi proudly told me years later, "Many of those who had come to see our art were so enraged at the works we had hung on the walls, they tried to beat us up." For decades Morandi used the episode as an excuse never to exhibit in Bologna. Some acknowledgments in the press did rec­ ognize the exhibitioh as a serious endeavor. Morandi's hometown newspaper, the Resto

del Carlino, carried two announcements and two reviews of this "exhibition of pure painting by young avant-garde artists," referring to it variously as "un'esposizione di pit­ tura e scultura - I secessionisti di Bologna" (an exhibition of painting and sculpture -the secessionists of Bologna), "Due feste d'arte" (two festivals of art exhibitions), and "La mosH·a dei 'secessionisti' al Baglioni" (the exhibition of the secessionists at the Baglioni). The Bolognese Giornale del Mattino titled its article "Pittori d'avanguardia" (Avant­ Garde Painters). The public, however, branded the young artists as "Futurists," probably because they were totally unfamiliar with any other form of avant-garde art. Reviewing the exhibition in the Resto del Carlino Asciano Forti wrote: "Three-quarters of the city have seen the fifty works exhibited yesterday in the basement of the (Hotel) Baglioni .. . . It's a Futurist exhibition . . . even more likely it's an exhibition ofyoung artists who aren ' t even afraid of being Futurist. ,,[2 One Morandi still life (v. 4,

1912)

was briefly mentioned,

but none of his works sold. The public's vehement reaction did not dampen the artists' self-confidence or their enthusiasm for exhibiting their work. Indeed, Morandi continued to exhibit any­ where he could, except in Bologna, until after World War II, by which time his fame was assured; years later he would advise his students to do the same. He told us in class: "When you are young you must exhibit as much as you can." Within weeks of tile exhibi­ tion at Bologna's Hotel Baglioni, another opportunity arose when he , Bacchelli, and Licini were invited to participate in the upcoming Esposizione FutuTista Internazionale at the Sprovieri's Galleria Permanente Futurista in Rome in April

1914.

This international

exhibition included work of two Russians, Alexander Archipenko and Olga Rozanova. The invitation came from Pratella, and without delay the three sent a letter, dated M:1rch 31, to Boccioni, asking for specific information about the exhibitioll. In particular they wanted to know ifPrateLla's invitation alone sufficed, or if they had to submit their works to a selection jury. Time was short, for the exhibition was to open on April almost immediate. On April sent a letter

to

2,

14,

but the reply was

writing in Marinetti's name as well, Boccioni and Russolo

Pratella from Rome asserting that "we have enough faith in your magni­

ficent I;uturist ability. Go into the studios of those young painters ... and choose with your gut, and choose courageously.... Don't hold back, choose the most far out work, the most dynamic, the most daring, distorted, and most tumultuous [sconquassate), the most grotesque and the most violent works." 13

~0-2I,

ed

to

but

the con­

Morandi and Bacchelli each sent one painting to Rome (Licini ultimately did not participate). Morandi sent a still life that he later destroyed, but, according to Vitali,

sociation of

it was similar to the one he exhibited at the Baglioni (V. 4). After the show opened, Marinetti

Ii proudly told

wrote to Pratella: "You chose really well ... please write to Morandi and Bacchelli and

at the works

telI them that their paintings have been given a good place in the gallery. Yesterday, I

ed the episode

opened the Esposizione Libera Futurista with a lecture and also spoke about the works of

ress did rec­

Morandi and Bacchelli."14 Marinetti was thus the first writer to speak publicly about

lper, the Resto

Morandi's work, and Morandi was mentioned in a review of the exhibition in the June I

m of pure

issue of Lamba.

sizione di pit­

t! sculpture ibitions), and .ists at the brdia" (Avant­

A few months earlier, Morandi had his eye on another exhibition, for among his friends he alone had submitted an entry form (due on January 10, 1914) to the Seces­ sione Romana. According to its regolamento generale (general rules), the Secessione was a rather democratic organization that "aspired to bring together many styles and in every medium ... as long as they are 'noble and worthy' .... Above all the Secessione Romana

," probably

would particularly like to encourage every artistic persuasion, especially the young, even

Reviewing the

the most audacious, as long as [the work] is original and new. "I'; The exhibition was open

e city have

to artists from Italy and abroad (Bernheim-Jeune sent thirteen watercolors by Cezanne

lioni.... It's

as well as works by Matisse), and it provided an ideal venue for less conservative Italian

who aren't

artists who might not have received invitations

il' mentioned,

was that submitted paintings could not have been exhibited previously. Morandi sent the

to

the Venice Biennale. One requirement

spare winter landscape of 1913 (V. 10) that he had included in his final review at the

confidence or

Accademia. There were no Futurist works in this exhibition; it is doubtful if any of the

~xhibit any­

Fururists thought about participating in the Secessione Romana. They would have had

his fame was

to send their work by February

IS in class:

through June, thus conflicting with plans for their own exhibitions that were already

10

for an exhibition that opened in mid-April and lasted

of the exhibi­

underway in Rome. The April-May exhibition in which Morandi and Bacchelli participated,

helli, and

the Esposizione Libera Futurista lnternazionale, Pittori e Scultori, ltaliani, Russi, lnglesi, 8elgi,

Izionale at the

Nordamericani, at Giuseppe Sprovieri's roman Galleria Permanente Futurista, followed the

:,mational

gallery's inaugural exhibition of the sculpture ofBoccioni in December 1913. And the

nanova. The

Futurists had another exhibition opening in March at the Dore Galleries in London.

i March 31,

In April Morandi traveled to Rome to see both the Futurist exhibition already

rthey wanted

on view at Sprovieri's and the opening of the Secessione Romana on the thirteenth. At

works

the former, he once again met the Florentine painter Ottone Rosai, to whom he had been

to

a

the reply was

introduced a few months earlier at Lacerba's Futurist exhibition in Florence (November

I and

1913-)anuary 1914). And at the Secessione Romana opening, he may have met the painter

Russolo

ur magni­

Jse with your

Edita Walterowna von Zur-Muehlen, who exhibited in both the 1913 and 19[4 Secessione. Edita von Zur-Muehlen's paintings were among the most unusnal in the

twork, the

Secessione, and Morandi was drawn to their highly original , poetic, and Kandinsky-like

Ite], the most

expressionism. Her almost childlike primitive style may have influenced some of Morandi's painting such as the Red Vase (V. 20; fig. 3.2). Jnst before he was drafted into the army

Morandi Futurista

43

3.2

Red Vase, 1913-1915. Oil on canvas, 29 x 18 in. (75 x 45 em). Location unknown. Courtesy of Pompilio Mandelli. [y.20J

in 1915, Morandi completed an expressionistic painrlng of a bunch of wildflowers in a pitcher that he began in 1913 but completed al1d dated July 7,1915 (not quite two months after Italy entered the war). The same bright, fiery red paint covers the figure and ground in this work, evidence that Morandi was rejecting the fractured space of the Cubists. In a similar vein were three Jandscapes that Morandi painted between 1916 and 1917: Landscape, 1916 (V. 25; fig. 3.3), which was reproduced in Valori Plastici; Landscape with Two Trees, 1916 (V. 30), in which the space is so compressed that the trees seem to be ironed into the hillside (see fig. 1.4) ; and Landscape, 1917 (V. 32; fig. 3.4), which was exhibited , only once, in 1973, nine years after Morandi died , and has rarely been seen since. This unusual land­ scape appeared on the cover of the catalogue of the 1973 retrospective at Rome's Museum of Modern Art. It once belonged to Raimondi a nd was painted with the freedom oran early Kandinsky but in pale fresco-like colors. By the end of the decade, his contact with bOtll von Zur-Muehlen a nd Rosa i would bear considerable fruit. Von Zur-Muehlen rcmai.llcd a Efelong admirer of Morandi's work. (And in 1918, with her future husband, Mario Broglio, and Roberto MelLi -an organizer and juror of the Secessione-she would be instrumental in launching the first issue ofValori Plastici.) A warm friendship devel­ oped betvveen Rosai and Morandi in 1919, when the younger Rosai tried to facilitate a col­ lector friend's purchase of a painting by Morandi. The two became closely involved with the production of the magazines of the Florentine Selvaggio group in the early 1920S and of the Bolognese L'ltaliano after 1926, and they often exhibited together. Among the three Cubist-Futurist works tbat Morandi painted between 1914 and [9[5 were the almost square 1914 painting Still LU'e with Pitcher and Portable Clock, 1914 (V. 13), which once belonged to Leo Longanesi (fig. 3.5). This painting has sometimes been identified as one that Morandi sent to the Futurist exhibition, but this is not possible because a date oOuly 14, 1914, was found under the stretchers at the back of the canvas. In Still Life, 1914 (V. 18; fig. 3.6), now in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, ly!orandi elongated the thrce objects to conform to a vertical format and focused attention on a single object, a water pitcher, which was in daily Lise in every Bolognese household. His last painting using the Cubist-Futurist iconography was the Mattioli Still Life, 1915 (V. 23; see fig. I.lO), in which the painter focused on two main objects, the Cycladic-like por­ table clock and the ubiquitous water pitcher. This type of pitcher (like the one in Morandi's 1913 photograph of the Bleriot monoplane) is the same as that which Morandi began to use in his stilllifes fi'om 1914. These works from the years 1913-14, using slashing and dynamic brushstrokes that deform a.lld fragment their subjects, illustrate the close con­ tacts that Morandi had already made with members of the Futurist movement. We don't know whether Morandi destroyed other works from his Cubist-Futurist period, but as of now these are the only known paintings from his experiments in this idiom. Morandi undertook studies of the nude figure in a group of three paintings that he completed bet\Neen 1914 and the beginning of 1915: V. [5 (1914), and V. 21 and V. 22 (botb from 1915). The 1914 work, titled Fragment, leads one to believe that it once was

Morandi Futuristo

45

3· 3

Landscape, 1916. Oil on canvas, 16 x 22 in . (40 x 55 em). Pinacoteca di Brera, N'il:tn. Bequest of Em ilio and Maria Jesi. [y.25]

3-4

Landscape, 1916.

Oil on canvas, 24 x IS in. (60 x 47 em). Private Co llection. Photograph by Marco Balda sa ri. [V. 32J

3.5

Still Life with Pitcher and Portab le Clock, 1914. Oil on canvas, 29 x 25 in . (73 x 64 cm). Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto. Giovanardi Collection. [V. 13)

3.6

Sti ll Life, 1914. Oil on ca nvas, 40 x 16 in.

(102

x 40 cm).

Centre Geo rges Pompidou, Paris. Photog raph by Antonio Masotti. (V. IS]

part of a larger painting, but I C,1l1l10 ( oay for sure bccause lvlorandi never discussed this work with mc (fig. 3.7). Although not as large as thc PompiJou Still Life, it has the ~ :. lTl1e vcrtical format. The paint is built lip in such thick layers the nude resembles a bas-relief and has a certain affinity to the frescoes of ancicnt lvlinoan art. Nevertheless, we know that ivlorandi was influenced more by an ink drawing by Picasso than by the work of Ce~anne ,

with who111 those figure paintings are often coupled (fig. 3.8). Mor:l11di had seen

the November 1912 i~.sLle ofLa Voce, in which was reproduced this illustration of a 1909 ink drawing that Picasso had given to Soffici. 10 In the summer of 1915 Morandi painted

tl'VO works offrolieking nude bathcrs (Y. 21 and V. 22). The year 1914 thus began auspiciously fix the unknown but ambitious twcnty­ three-year-old painter. By April, Morandi's work had appeared ill three exhibitions in two cities, and his affiliation with Italy'S most av::rnt-garde association of artists seemed to promise additional Jchievements in thc months ahead. Few in Europe could have foreseen that, in June, an unsolved murder in S:najevo would precipitate the Gre::rt War and, with it, the end of the libcr::rl, cosmopolitan era that Nlorandi cherished. The war changed the lives, politics, and art of Morandi's generation, the members of which had grown up on a continent that seemingly had no borders. More than a year later, the j\uglIst ~),

1914, issue ofLacerba deemed the conflict "perhaps the most decisive momcnt in

~uropean

history, surpassing even the fall of the Roman Empire." It was "a war not only

of guns and ships but of culture and civilization-to save and defend everything that is most Italian in this world-even ifit did not originate [l'om our own land." By September, Russia , Germany, France, Rclgium, and Rritain eagcrly went to war; and in Italy a small, disparate but well-financed and well-organized coalition of democrats, nationalists, con­ servatives, revolutionary socialists, industrialists, and syndicalists-buoyed by an articu­ late and inflammatory press-was bullying the government to follow suit. Politicians focused on territorial greed, since France ~l!1d England were promising to "restore" italy's dominion over territories controlled by Austria. Poets and writers seemed intent on inflating a national cultural consciousness. All mastercd the Jrt of rhetoric. "Neutrality is for the castrated," announced the syndicalist poet ' :ilippo Corridoni. The young jour­ nalist and editor of the newly established II Popolo d'Italia, Benito lvlussolini, asserted that the moment had come for Italy "to show the world she was capable ofa really great war."I7 Tile Futurists rededicated

Laarba to the calIse of "awakening, encouraging, and

shaking up public opinion against neutrality." By March 1915 the word VERGOGNA (SHAME) in huge capital letters, occupied most of its front page. "Marciare non Marcire," (Ma rch, don't rot) was Marinetti's slogan as he organized demonstrations in favor of intervention. Courted by both sides, Italy chose to ally herself with france and I.ngl3nd and declared war against Austria, Germany, and Hungary on May 24, ]915, a date that some historians believe marked the birth of Fascism. Staunchly embracing the position of neutrality, opposed to Italian intervention in the war, Morandi began to distance himsclffrom the Futurists as their interventionist

. discussed thi s has the same lies a bas-rel ief ess, we know y the work of

3.8

'r;Jndi had seen

Pablo Picasso. Composition, 1909. Ink on paper, 12 x I2 in. (30 x 30 em).

ion ofa I909

Gift of Picasso

to

Soffiei.

orandi painted Ibitious twenty­ :hibition s in artists seemed

: could have

:he Great War ned. The war ; ofwhich had ter, the August moment in

~

'a war not only vthing that is By September, atalya small, :ionalists. con­

Iby an anicu­

lit. Politici ans 'estore" Italy'S ·d intent on " Neut~ality

ryoung

3·7

Fragment, 19 14. Oil on canvas, 26 x 12 in. (66 x 30 em) . Guggenheim ,\iluseum, Venice.

is

LaurJ Mattioli Collection. [V. IS)

Jour­

, asserted that

rhetoric beca me more strident. And al though we know that he painted many works during

~

the war years, we also know that he did not spare his Cubist-Fururist paintings when he

great war. "'7

ouraging, and RGOGNA

destroyed many of his ea rliest works. The few paintings of this type that remained were rare ly exhibited until after his death. And yet, forty-seven years after it was painted, a

non Marcire,"

very large and decidedly Cubist-Futurist still life ofI9I4 (V. 18) that had never been exhib­

in favor of

ited remained on the wall of Morandi's room (see fig. 3.6). (He parted with it only three

and England

years before his death , when he allowed the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris to purchase

, a date that

it.) With its complex fusion of impetuous Futurist ideas and Cubi sm's fractured space, the painting served not only as a reminder of his contact with Boccioni and Marinetti , but

n intervention

also as a memorial to those cosmopolitan prewar years that Morandi wistfully described

erventionist

to me as "a Europe without pass ports."

Morandi Futur;sta

49

Gentlemen, Climb Aboard! . .. We are the explorers ready for a new voyage. We are the new Vespucci, the new Columbuses, ... about to take off for faraway expeditions, carrying with us all the sadness, along with the hopes and expectations ... of explorers and navigators, poets of the unknown . - Giorgio de Chirico, 1918

Pittura Metajisica: The Enigma of the Common Object World War I dealt a grievous blow to the cosmopolitan European avant-garde. Yet wartime displacements occasionally resulted in chance encounters that advanced the avant-garde in unexpected ways. So it was that, by 1917, the Italian army had deposited two artists­ Carlo Carra and Giorgio de Chirico-in the province of Emilia within a half hour's travel time ofGiorgio Morandi. Although these men had not met previously (and Morandi would not make the acquaintance ofCana and de Chirico until 1919), the stage was set for the appearance of pittura metajisica (Metaphysical painting), a glorious but brief interlude in the history ofItalian art between Futurism and the Novecento exhibitions. The artists associated with pittura metafisica denied that they were ever a school or a formal movement. According to Edita Broglio, who knew them weU, they were never a cohesive group because each artist was pursuing distinctly different goals. I Indeed, Morandi's earliest Metaphysical paintings were executed in 1916, months before he had seen Metaphysical works by Carra and de Chirico or had even heard the vague label pittura metajisica , an elastic term coined by those two artists. These works include Still Life (coffee pot, pitcher, gray metal box , and two bottles) (v. 27, Museum of Modern Art, New York; see fig. LU), Metaphysical Still Life with Three Objects (v. 28; fig. 4.1), and Still Life with Four Objects (V. 29, Frua De Angeli). A year later he painted Vase with Asters (V. 26, formerly Longanesi). Morandi painted only three landscapes during his Metaphysical years: V. 25 (1916), reproduced in a 1921 edition ofValori Plastici ; Two Trees, 1916 (V. 30), which belonged to Mino Maccari; and V. 32 (1917). And although both Carra and de Chirico were generous toward Morandi when they met him in 1919, th eir own wartime friendship

4

r-~l

- • -' :

.... ~. -. ~_"'

_ _- " - _

4.[

~ L

Metaphysical Still Life with Three Objects. [916. Oil on canvas, 24 x 21 in. (60 x 54 cm). Guggenheim Museum, Venice. Laura Mattioli Collection. [V. 2 8 )

. . I-­

,.

had by then fallen victim to jealous rivalry. A few months before La Racco/ta's first issue went to press, Raimondi published a booklet titled Carlo Carra with an essay, titled "Con­ tributo ad una nuova arte metafisica," by the artist. To de Chirico's chagrin, Raimondi in his booklet named Carra as the father of "Metaphysical" painting, commenting only toward the end of his introduction that "perhaps we should insert the name of Giorgio De Chirico who has doubtless influenced the latest works ofour painter." In a letter to De Pisis, de Chirico noted that Raimondi's booklet had conceded him "three centimeters of glory.,,2 All three artists, however, shared a similar loathing for the aca,demic art estab­ lishment. As they sought to define the new direction in their art, they emphasized above all its liberation from the traditional. Morandi's Metaphysical period was closely linked with Mario Broglio's mag­ azine Valori Plastici, first published on November IS, 1918, four days after Germany had signed the armistice agreement. The magazine's importance was so far-reaching that, even today, art historians still refer to the years 1918-22 as "the season of the Valori Plastici."

V. P., as Morandi called it, was Italy'S most international magazine, and Broglio, its editor, was devoted to the avant-garde. Although Valori Plastici is often described as the official

voice of pittura metafisica, that was not the magazine's only purpose. Broglio also pub­ lished the best of the European avant-garde: essays by critics and poets as diverse as Louis Aragon, Clive Bell, Gilbert Clavel, Theodor Daubler, Wassily Kandinsky, Andre Salmon, and Theo Van Doesburg, and poems by Pierre Albert-Birot, Andre Breton, Blaise Cendrars, Max Jacob, and Jean Cocteau; as well as interminable philosophical discLls­ sions by Carra, de Cbirico, Alberto Savinio (the pseudonym of de Chirico's brother, Andrea), and Filippo De Pisis. It was sold in bookstores throughout Europe and as far away as Japan (Edita Broglio remembered an order in 1918 for fifty copies from Maruzen, a Tokyo bookstore). Valori Plastici brought international exposure to Morandi, whose paintings were reproduced and discussed in several issues. In 1920, in the last issue of Valori Plastici, Savinio offered a highly irreverent but authentic-sounding explanation of what had kept the Valori Plastici group (among them Edita Broglio, Carra, de Chirico, Morandi, and the sculptor Arturo Martin) together. He talked about their antipathy for the artists of the aca­ demic establishment, such as Ettore Tito, Adolfo De Carolis, and Aristide Sartorios­ "the native mobs," Savinio called them, "vain imbeciles, would-be artists who looked upon [the Valori Plastici group) with envy and wanted to discredit them." In Savinio's article the artists of the official establishment were like "savages in the jungle," while the Valori Plastici artists were comparable to "those white colonialists who, in the country of savages [in paesi dei selvaggi) ... bad to unite so they could defend themselves .. . not because the Valori Plastici artists had any reciprocal sympathy for each other, but they ... differed from the natives (gli indigeni) because of their race, their color, and their practices. United, the Valori Plastici artists strengthened each other'S validity." 3 "The group of Valori Plastici [which included Morandi, de Chirico and Carra] was made up of the most dis-

Pittura Meta sica

parate personalities, I might add even with the most diametrically opposing ideas.... But, what kept them together was a shared respect for and faith in art. ... They stuck together, forming a consortium ... like white colonialists in the bush-not because they liked each other, but justifiably, because what separated them from the native population was their differences in color and customs. Each artist from Valori Plastici ... was different from, as well as indifferent to, the others and to each other's works . . . they minded their own business, but together they strengthened each other's validity. " 4 The group described their efforts to strip painting down to its bare essentials; , they said theirs was a new art, modern and revolutionary, and Carra called it "painting without adjectives. " 5 De Chirico urged artists "to see the ordinalY in an extraordinary way," and he proclaimed dramatically: "We are the new Vespllcci, the new Columbuses ... about to take off for [;1raway expeditions , carrying with us all the sadness, along with the hopes and expectations .. . of explorers and navigators, poets of the unknown." 6 Morandi characteristically avoided making even a modest public statement. But certainly the Metaphysical (as defined by John Locke as the essence ofan idea of a thing beyond its attributes) is a key to understanding Morandi. It was in his so-called Metaphysical paintings Of1916-20 that he first found his voice, for the metafisica was the birthplace of Morandi's poetryJ Broglio, Carra, and de Chirico played pivotal roles in establishing Morandi's nascent career. His art prospered during his association with these artists and writers of Valori Plastici, for at that crucial moment they gave him tangible support, rescuing him from depression and from the obscurity of Bologna 's artistic milieu. His Metaphysical paintings are fuLl of paradoxical diversity, Dadaesque irrational surprises, and combinations of simplicity and complexity, irony and humor, and austere, subtle tonal­ ities and dramatic sensuality. They are so carefully constructed and include such a range of highly innovative imagery that even ifhe had not painted anything after 1920 Morandi would stiLl be considered a great master of the still life. Indeed , m'I11Y of the ideas about scale and subject matter that inspired these works seem to have influenced pop artists in the 1960s and 1970s. Yet Morandi later rarely acknowledged the importance of the Valori Plastici group to his career. Even before Fascist critics began to ask for a more overtly nationalist art, pittura metafisica was beginning to be condemned in Italy as reactionary and anti-hLlman. Morandi's significant ties to the modernist art movements of his own day became obscured and were replaced by the myth of Morandi as the isolated artist. Morandi's connection to the artists of pittura metafisica began early in January 1917. The former Futurist painter Carlo Carra had been sent by the Italian army to Pieve di Cento, a small agricultural center halfWay between Bologna and Ferrara. Bored and iso­ lated, he took the advice of Ardengo Soffici, who suggested he pay a visit to a younger artist, Giorgio de Chirico, who was stationed close by in Ferrara. Unlike Carra, who was by then quite well known in Italy, de Chirico was virtually unknown in his own country. He was, however, already familiar to avant-garde artists and dealers in Paris, where he had lived for several years. While in Paris, de Chirico had come to the attention of Picasso,

54

ideas.... But,

who had pointed out the young artist to his friend Guillaume Apollinaire as a "painter

tuck together,

of railroad stations ." 8

they liked each

When World War I broke out, the t:\-vo de Chirico brothers returned to Italy and

on was their

enlisted in the army, and by the end ofJanuary 1917 de Chirico and Savinio were stationed

ferent from, as

in Ferrara. Ferrara was no Paris, a city that de Chirico likened to Athens ill the age of

led their own

Pericles, but the web of important Italian connections that de Chirico began to establish

lare essentials;

Morandi: the Bolognese writer Giuseppe Raimondi , then only eighteen, and the even

I it "painting

younger Filippo De Pisis. 9 The latter would become a self-appointed "public relations

ordinary way,"

man" for pittura metafisica. 1O

from Ferrara is impressive. Among his new acquaintances were t:\-vo that he shared with

mbuses . . .

,

Both Raimondi and De Pisis , as well as Savinio and Prampolini, were listed as

along with the

editors on the cover of the first issue (November 26 , 1916) of the Dadaist magazine

lown." 6

Avanscoperta, published in Rom e . (Others who contributed

statement. But

de Chirico, Robert Longhj , Francesco Meria no, and Corrado Pavolini.) Raimondi and

ea ofa thing

De Pisis maintained a circle of international connections that included Apollinaire, Cen­

to

the magazine were Giorgio

'd Metaphysical

drars, and Tristan Tzara , Dada founder who was then living in Zurich. It was an enthusi­

he birthplace

astic De Pisis who sent Morandi's address to Tzara in 1916 and urged him to publish

1 establishing

Morandi's paintings in his new magazine. In May 1918 Tzara wrote Raimondi more than

hese artists

once to request photographs of Morandi's work, but we have no record of an)' response

gible support,

from Morandi. 1o Weakened by!:\-vo near-fatal bouts Wit11 thefebbre spa9nolo (the Spanish

: milieu. Hi s

influenza epidemic that killed some haLf-million people-almost as many as the war

surprises, and

itself), Morandi likely would have been almost entirely occupied with regaining his health.

subtle tonal­

The war was still on, and neutral Zurich must have seemed as far away as Mars. Although

such a range

Morandi later told Arcangeli that he completed only!:\-vo paintings in 1917, in fact he

~

)20

Morandi

COlll­

pleted four: a chubby and intense self-portrait that Raimondi owned at one time and which

Ie ideas about

Morandi later destroyed (V. 33); a luxuriously erotic interpretation of flowers in a vase

I pop artists

(V. 31; fig. 4.2); the extraordinary Kandinsky-like landscape that was never exhibited until

ce ofthe Valori

almost ten years after Morandi's death (V. 32; see fig. 3.4); and a watercolor ofa cactus

TIore overtly

plant (V. 34).

~actionary

and

Morandi's friendship with Giusep pe Raimondi would prove far more conse­

; own day

quential than hi s friendship with De Pisis, for Raimondi was the first editor to publish

I artist.

one of Morandi's works, and it was Raimondi who introduced Morandi to Mario Broglio

Irly in January

in the summer of 1919. Raimondi and Morandi would remain close friends for more

'my to Pieve

than thirty years. After World War II, however, they had a terrible falling out, and because

~ored

of this unfortunate episode too little has been reported about Raimondi's important

I

and iso-

a younger

role in Morandi's early career; nevertheless, it was Raimondi who helped Morandi make

Irra . who was

valuable contacts and important personal associations with the !talian intellectual com­

)wn country.

munity and in the art world outside Bologna. II

where he had of Picasso,

Diagnosed with depression in early March 1917, Carra was sent to a military hospital , the Villa Seminario, in Ferrara, where de Chirico was already a patient. The

Pittura Metafisica

55

4. 2

Flo wers, 191 7. Oil on

c~ nva s . 2 1

Laura M~ttioli

x 20 in. (58 x SO em). Guggenheim Mu seum . Venice.

Coll ec tion. [V. 31)

director (a cousin of De Pisis), did all he could to make life easy fc.)r the two artists. Given adjoining rooms, they painted intensely for fOUf months, viewing each other's works daily, sharing experiences, and becoming close friends. Can'a's chance encounter with de Chirico could not have come at a better time for the older artist, who, since 1915 , had been searching for a way to leave Futurism behind. Some ofCarra's work from J916, such as La carrozza [The Cab) and II gentiluomo briaco (The Drunken Gentleman, repainted in J9(7), surprised Soffici as to him they seemed archaic, crude, and primitive. In a letter to Carra he wrote: "What happened to all those beautiful paintings? I don't even recogni ze wh:1t you're doing any more .. . . Just because your objective is to break away from Impres­ sionism and Futurism, don't be so quick to tie yourself to archaism and the Academy."

56

Soffici suggested that Carra go to Ferrara, "and when you see the work of de Chirico you'll understand what I mean by modern art that rises to the majesty of the Antique [risale alla maesta de!l'antico].,,12 De Chirico's paintings-original, complex, and ingenious -must have astonished Carra. One could say that they were just the kind of paintings he was looking for as confirmation of his own ideas. Among the drawings and paintings that Carra completed during the four short months at the Villa Seminario were The Drunken Gentleman (begun in Ig16), The Metaphysical Muse, and The Hermaphrodite God, which was published in the first issue ofLa Raccolta in" March 1915. As much as Carra ~ried to develop an accord between the old and the new, there is something awkward, tentative, and unresolved in these paintings of 1917- IS. But two works painted only a few years later, Lot's

Daughters and The Pine by the Sea, show that Carra had digested his "Metaphysical" encounter with de Chirico, whose unexpected pairings of Greek mythology with the modern urban landscape created a dreamlike, melancholic world of hidden meanings that woulld provide inspiration for many of the European Surrealists, among them Andre Breton, Dall, Max Ernst, Georg Grosz, Rene Magritte, and Yves Tanguy. Morandi's military experience was far briefer and had no such salutary results as did de Chirico and Carra's productive stay at the Villa Seminario. Morandi was drafted in May Ig15 and assigned to the 22nd Infantry, a special regiment. He did not, however, share the enthusiasm for warfare expressed by many of the Futurists. Unwilling even to squash an insect in his garden, Morandi wanted no part of the Great War; and as a shy man who valued his privacy, he was temperamentally ill suited to communal army life, which never allowed him a moment alone. The army first sent Morandi to Parma. There, after less than a month and a half, he was hospitalized for severe depression and physical exhaustion. Nevertheless, while stationed in Parma, Morandi must have seen the works of the twelfth century Romanesque sculptor Antelami. (Arcangeli was the first critic to suggest a similarity of intention with Antelami.) We can infer that Antelami's work did as much to inspire and influence Morandi's Ig16 Metaphysical paintings as did works by such artists as Paolo Uccello and Henri Rousseau, who are often cited as major influences on those Metaphys­ ical works. According to army physicians, Morandi had suffered a nervous breakdown, artists. Given

and after serving less than two months he was given a medical discharge and sent back

or's works

to Bologna. Once back home he was nursed back to health by his mother and eldest sister,

lunter with de

Annetta (who had been engaged to marry a veterinarian, but he was killed at the front the

19I5, had

m Ig16, such

night before the armistice was signed). Despite his precarious health, Morandi continued to paint. By mid-summer of

ed ill 1917),

Igr6, he had completed a Still Life (V. 2S; see fig. 4.1) , which Francesco Arcangeli described

otter to Carra

as the highest achievement of pittura metafisica. It contains a compote dish, an obelisk­

~gnize

like form, and a large and voluptuous bell-shaped carafe. Rejecting the monochromatic

what

m Impres­

tonalities and fractured spaces of his earlier Futurist and Cubist compositions, Morandi

eAcademy."

experimented with a chalky pastel palette in this work; as a result, all three still life

Pittura Meta sica

7

objects seem to glow with an inner opalescence. The painting is neither geometrical nor symmetrical: the obelisk form-which just misses bisecting the composition-divides the left side ofthe painting into three unequal parts, while the right side is broken up into six areas of varying widths. Raffaello Franchi wrote two inspired articles about Morandi , the first of which appeared in Raimondi 's La Raccolta in December 1918. In Franchi's view, Morandi's works were timeless symbols-paintings of stillness , calm reflections on objects whose beauty has remained throughout an eternity ofserene contemplation. The following year, writing in the April-May issue ofValori Plastici, Franchi beautifully described one of Mora ndi 's paintings (V. 42,1918; see fig. 4.10) as having "all the enchantment of a dream, for everydling is composed widl such subdety that the knowledge used to achieve this harmony is hidden." Franchi, who had been badly wounded on the front lines, undersrood very well that these "serene and peacefi.!l works," painted during one of Europe's bloodiest con­ flicts, tried to evade the grim reality of World War I. Many years later Dali, who had seen illustrations of Morandi's paintings in Valori Plastici, acknowledged the ambiguity of these paintings, whose serenity is threatened.'l Beginning with the stilllifes of 1916 and 1917, Morandi established the reper­ toire ofobjects Wat he would continue to paint for almost fifty years: a gray metal box; a white compote dish; occasionally an orange amphora; t\>\'o wooden cases, resembling Cycladic figures, that were designed to hold portable clocks; a large white bell-bottomed carafe; and a copper water pitcher that Morandi covered with matte terra-cotta paint, to name just a few. In the background of Morandi's Still Life (coffee pot, pitcher, gray metal box, and two bottles) 1916 (V. 27, MoMA; see fig . I.1I), a gray metal box is divided into three parts by a wide, white stripe that Morandi had painted on all four sides of the object. As can be seen from a photograph of the actual object, Morandi never changed its format, but he changed its positioning. He laid it flat as in the MoMA still life, or in the Still Life,

1918 (V. 36; fig. 4.3), or in the Still Life, 1918 (V. 42), which was illustrated in Franchi's 1919 essay in Valori Plartici. The box is rarely painted in the same white or gray. In another group begun more than twenty-five years later, he stood the box on its side (such as V.

418-422). In these paintings the box seems to have become a ribbonlike form composed of those rectangular shapes. Throughout his life Morandi kept his work wholly connected to what he called "il mondo visible" (the perceivable world) . In a 1955 interview for the Voice of America the American painter Peppino Mangravite, who taught at Columbia University, asked, "I believe wat your ideas concerning painting are clear, simple, and serene. How did you

come to that conclusion?" Morandi answered that his art was always based on his responses to the visual world. 14 Morandi's goal was to liberate the objects he painted from their everyday reality:

he was uninterested in imitating nature or in describing the object per se. A contempo­

58

:eometrical nor

rary statement by de Chirico helps to explain this approach: "The purpose of perfecting

on-divides

technique is not for getting closer to the representation of the object, but, to the con­

broken up into

trary to detach it as far as possible to make of it-its own object-a tJling unto itself." 15 Perhaps because Broglio had begun his career as a painter he was a mong the first to

~

understand that Morandi had no wish to imitate nature. Morandi cre3ted his stililifes of

first ofwhich

the mind. As Broglio noted, Morandi doesn't paint nature , he creates it. Rejecting clas­

6 ndi's works

sical space and Renaissance-style perspective in his Metaphysical p3intings , Mor3ndi

whose beauty

gyear, writing

enclosed his still life objects in "magic" transparent boxes (paintings within paintings) or

~

arranged them on surfaces that seem to float in space. His stilllifes became strange ,

of Morandi 's

enigmatic puzzles . It wasn't only that Morandi chose to paint objects that were used

dream, for ~

this harmony

erstood very bloodiest con­ .vho had seen iguity ofthese

hed the reper­ met31 box; a ;, resembling II-bottomed 'otta paint, to ay metal box,

ainto three :he object. As d its format, ~

the Still Life,

n Franchi 's l)'.

In another

(such as V. rm composed >,hat he called ~

of Americ3

5ity, asked, "I did you on his ~ryda)' reality:

4·3

StiliLife,!9!8. Oil on canvas, 2! x 14 in. (54 x 35 cm). Fondazione Magnani-Rocca.

contempo-

Mamiano di Traversetolo, Parma. Photograph by Luca Carra. [V. 36)

Pittura Metafisica

59

ambiguousl)', but also that he used them in intriguing and ironic ways. Morandi's bottl es and containers are not to be seen or understood as bottles and containers, but as objects that have been given new meanings that transcend their primary or explicit functional use. Arcangeli compared these works to Calder's mobiles, and indeed in these Metaphysical works Morandi's objects suggest an implied motion. ,6 They often seem to have halted momentarily as they sail across the painting's surface like trapezes moving through a concrete space of existence and nonexistence, reality and fantasy. A superqaturallight began to play an important part in these works as wel l. In traditional stilllifes , the light always falls from one direction, modeling form and casting shadows that reveal a logical three-dimensional structure. After H)16, Morandi's light was natural but autonomous : a "remembered" light, distilled from his observation of its effect at different times, perhaps from dreams , rather than from observation of the light of a particular moment. He played with shadows, inventing new and independent forms with them as he radically changed his viewers' perception of form and space. At every juncture, his works defied rational explanation. Iv\orandi's stilllifes were so appealing and inventive that no wonder Tzara wanted to publish them in his magazine, Dada. '7 As war continued to rage across Europe, four young men tried va.liantly, if unsuccessfully, to combat the unorthodoxy of Bologna's cultural establishment by starting two small

avant-garde magazines . It was a tremendous challenge to oppose the legacy left by the influential nineteenth-century poets Carducci and Pascoli, each ofwhom at different times occupied the chair in literature at the University of Bologna. These men were worshipped by Bologna's official literary and artistic clique, who continued to keep their memories alive. Perhaps not surprisingly, each magazine had a short life: La Brigata (The Brigade) lasted from June 1916 to October 1917, and La Raccalta (The Harvest) , which began in March 1918, closed in February 1919. Unlike Valori Plastici and La Ronda, the Bolognese magazines are rarely mentioned today in books about Italian literature for they are remem­ bered less for the authors they published than as the first to publish illustrations of the new Metaphysical art ofCarra and de Chirico. Indeed , it was in La Brigata and Raimondi's La Raccalta that Morandi first saw their works. Raimondi's magazine would later be the first to publish Morandi 's works-a Futurist etching from 1915 (V. 3; see fig. 4-4) and a 1918 Metaphysical painting (V. 37) now in a Moscow museum. Two poets founded La Brigata-Bino Binazzi and Francesco Meriano. Binaz zi, from a small town in Tuscany, was a writer for the Futurist journal La cerba; he would later write for II Selvaggio. Meriano, who was born in Turin , also wrote for Lacerba; he later wrote for L'Assalto. Both were then living and working in Bologna. Raimondi founded La Raccalta, which began in March 1918 and printed its last edition in February 1919 with th e help of Riccardo Bacchelli (who had written for La Voce and Rome's fledgling news­ paper II Tempo), Carra , Soffici, and Giuseppe Ungaretti, all of whom were among the early supporters of La Raccalta.

60

randi's bottles

These men would become the first links in a long chain that ultimately con­

'ut as objects

nected a lonely young Morandi, unappreciated in the artistic circles in Bologna, to a

"unctional use.

more sophisticated and supportive artistic milieu that included de Chirico, Carra, Broglio,

vletaphysical

and Franchi. When Morandi first met Binazzi, the poet was employed as a copy editor at

to have halted

the Bolognese freemason 's newspaper, the Giornale del Mattina. At th e same time, Mario

g through a

Broglio, working as a freelance journalist, contributed articles on contemporary art to the Giornale del Mattino and also wrote for II Telllpo. Rounding out this interesting group was

'Ofks as well.

the Giol'nale's editor, Pietro Nenni, who remained there until the publication shut down

: form and

in August 1919 . (This occurred almost a month after the general strike that Morandi men­

16, Morandi 's

tioned in a July 22, 1919, letter to Raimondi.) Nenni, who would be arrested and impris­

• observation

oned by Mussolini in 1923, would later escape to France. Interestingly, Mussolini and

rvation of the

Nenni at different times owned paintings by Morandi., 8

ndependent

Both Binazzi and Meriano had strong ties with the avant-garde magazines

nd space. At

Dada, Cabaret Voltaire, and Auanscoperta. Their magazine La Brigata published such items as

'e so appealing

excerpts ofSavinio's Hermaphrodite, a composition by Stravinsky, and a "calligramme"

e, Dada.'?

by Apollinaire. It would also publish drawings by de Chirico and Carra. (It was Carra who put de Chirico and Savinio in touch with the editors of this and other Italian magazines,

IOsuccessfulIy,

including La Diana, Noi, and Allanscoperta.) The editors were already well acquainted with

~

Carra from their previous connections to Lacerba, and it was only natural that, at Carra's

two small

:y left by the

request, they publish one of his drawings in the December 1916 issue of La Brigata. While

:lifferent times

stationed in Ferrara in 1917, Carra brought Binazzi and Merlano a different kind of

'e worshipped

drawing based on what he calJed his new "Metaphysical" art, asking them to publish it

ir memories

immediately. Later, Carra would introduce de Chirico to La Brigata's editors, who in the

(The Brigade)

following months also published his drawings, including Hector and Andromache.

ch began in

Raimondi's La Raccolta had an even briefer existence than La Brigata. While an

he Bolognese

editor of Auanscoperta, Raimondi had established many contacts among artists and writers

yare remem­

who, as the war drew to a close, were eager to recruit others to help this new magazine.

tions of the

Among those who contributed to the publication were Apollinaire, Vincenzo Cardarelli

:I Raimondi's

(Morandi would illusu'ate his book II sole a pico in 1929), Blaise Cendrars, De Pisis , Franchi,

ld later be

Carlo Linati, Lorenzo Montano, Savinio, Ungaretti, Riccardo Bacchelli, and Carra. Many

iee fig. 4.4)

of these men were veterans not only of the war, but of writing for the periodicals La Voce and Lamba; when La Raccolta folded, many would move on to write for Valori Plastici and

ano. Binazzi,

La Ronda. Carra, in a letter dated April 17, 1918, urged Raimondi "to send complementary

he would

copies to Margherita Sarfatti in Milan so that she can mention La Raccolta in the news­

Imba; he later

paper [Mussolini's II Popolo d'rtalial for which she writes about the arts." Raimondi wrote

Ii founded La

optimistically to Tzara that "La Raccolta ... is highly regarded in Italy, and is about to

, 1919 with

take the place ofLa Voce in modern Italian literature. " '9

gling news­

m011g the

As a daily visitor to Raimondi's father'S shop, where La Raccolta was prepared, Morandi most likely saw photographs and perhaps the originals of the latest works by de Chirico and Carra. At the very least, the reproductions of Carra's Hermaphrodite God and

Pittura Metafisica

6I

de Chirico 's Evan,gelical Still Life, with their arbitrJIY cropping, their extraordinary use of nonclassical perspective, and their juxtaposition of nonsensical and unrelated objects, must have convinced Morandi that his own ideas were timely. It was in the second issue of La Raccolta, dated April 1918, that, for the first time, an etching by Morandi was published. Rather than illustrate a recent work, Raimondi had chosen a small, almost square etching from 1915, the last of Morandi's Cubist-Futurist endeavors, and asked Carra's opinion of it (V. 3; fig . 4-4). Carra, who was evidently unaware that Morandi, too, had left Futurism and had gone on to other kinds of work, remarked, "Send me the cliche, but just by looking at it, it seems to me, full of exasper­ ating individuali s m," a pejorative often used to describe Futurism after 1915. "It's rather like the kind of fragmented compositions that I used to do, but it's been a couple of years since I've done that sort of thing ... [nevertheless] he seems to be a talented young man.',20 Only a few weeks earlier, on March 29, 1918, a long article devoted to Morandi by Riccardo Bacchelli was published in the Roman newspaper 11 Tempo on the terza pa,gina (page three, which printed news of cultural events). This was important, because, as Bacchelli stated, he set out to "introduce this unknown artist to [Rome's] public." Trying to build Morandi's reputation, Bacchelli suggested that he worked in the tradition of such great masters as Chardin and Giotto. Yet just as Raimondi would choose to illus­ trate La Raccolta with a work that Morandi had completed years earlier, so too did Bacchelli ignore Morandi 's more recent work; instead, he eloquently praised two landscapes of 1913 (V. II) and 1914 (V. 13), noting that "there are few landscapes in modern painting that

equal Morandi's use of color and style-he doesn't rely

4-4

Cubist-ruturist Still Life, 1915.

Etching, 6 x 5 in. (15-4 x 12.5 em). Private CollectioIl. [Y. 3)

011

geometric perspective to

ordinary use of

achieve depth, in f:1ct he has abandoned it. He manages in this landscape [V. lIJ to use only

~d objects,

one color, and there seem to be no gradations or shading.... In fact the great name of

must

Giotto comes to mind." Although Bacchelli thought highly of Morandi's stilllifes, and br the first time,

praised him for the variety of his subject matter-flower pieces, nudes, portraits, land­

rk, Raimondi

scapes-he went on to make his well-known but inaccurate prediction about Morandi:

; Cubist-Futurist

"He probably won't be painting any more stilllifes." The only mention of pittura metafisica

vas evidently

occurred when Bacchelli tried to quarantine him from "that unhealthy and mediocre

kinds ofwork,

'metafisica' that goes under the name of Cubism," as if Cubism and the metafisica were

lIll ofexasper­

some obnoxious contagious disease. In this comment Bacchelli showed that he under­

915. "It's rather

stood as little about pittura metafisica as he did about Cubism. But at least he was up-to­

a couple of

date in persecuting Cubism, for there was a growing animosity toward the avant-garde

be a talented

after World War I.

Ited to Morandi

assessment of his work. In the November-December 1918 issue ofLa Raccolta, Raimondi

Morandi would have to wait until the end of the year for a more favorable on the terza

published Franchi's first article on Morandi, which complimented him as one of those

)rtant, because,

who had severed all ties to Italy'S official art, for, as Franchi wrote, "Italy was just recov­

e'sJ public."

ering from a period worse than decadence." He told his readers not to expect any stories

in the tradition

in Morandi 's work, and to understand that its essence did not immediately reveal itself to

lOose to illus­ 00

did Bacchelli

the observer. Franchi gave advice to the spectator seeing a Morandi for the first time: "Free yourself from any preconceived ideas about what a still life should be about .. . for

andscapes of

his work is nothing like a Cezanne, or a Rousseau, or a Giotto ... . You must look beyond the objects

rn painting that

represented . . . and not judge each work by what it appears to be on the suljace. ,, 21 He also noted

erspective to

that Morandi 's stilllifes were not composed of the sentimentality typically associated with tllis kind of painting. One of Morandi's paintings that Franchi must have been acquainted with bears the date June 9, 1918, on tile reverse. In this large work a few roses are placed in a nineteenth-century Venetian ceramic vase, with several petals fallen at its feet, nearly creating an image ofa tripod on a tabletop (V. 41; fig. 4.5). The work is thickly painted with layer upon layer of pigment so that it almost resembles a bas-relief The painting has a clarity and majesty not often seen in paintings of flowers. Arcangeli detected in these flowers an animalesque cruelty that reminded him of the works of the modern English painter Graham Sutherland. 22 Unlike many later critics, Franchi understood the unconventional and highly innovative nature of Morandi's stilllifes. Morandi began to use the tabletop as a stage on which to set out his stilllifes , creating new characters-a door stop, milliner dummies, carpenter tools, tennis balls, and one of the portable clock cases shaped like Cycladic figures . In addition, he continually adjusted his focus, as in two stiJllifes constructed within transparent boxes: V. 38 (1918), a still life in which Morandi seems to zoom in on the two round forms dangling on either side of a stick (a work once owned by Franchi); and V. 39 (1918) , a still life with a doorstop in which he steps back from the composition (figs. 4.6, 4.7). it could not have been easy for Franchi to write about a painting of two

Pittura Metafi,ico

63

4·5

Flowers in a Ceramic Vase, 1918. Oil on canvas, 46 x p_ in. (82 x 66 em). Pinoteca di Srera, Milan. Bequest of La 111 berto Vita li . Photograph by Luca Carra.

[Y.

41J

spheres and a stick cnclosed in a transparent box, for he had probably never before seen objects like these employed in a still life composition. Ambiguous shadows often have no connection with the objects portrayed. A new monument;dity entered Morandi's com­ positions of those years: there is a shifting of scale as the artist enlarges or reduces objects, changing tlleir size to accommodate a tightly constructed site. In V. 39 (1918), which includes a strange long umber shape that is actually a doorstop serving to anchor a door, Morandi paradoxically shows the doorstop floating in space. In V. 44 (1919), tlle face ofa portable clock is turned to the wall, and a thin stick, broken ,It an angle, appears to signal some unseen action taking place behind a scrcen that Morandi has used to push tlle still life objects from tlle background into tlle foreground space (ng. 4 .8). Morandi may have borrowed this device from the Presepio del Greccio, Giotto's fresco in the church of Saint frances at Assisi. Yet despite such works that Franchi dcscribed has having an austere simplicity - a "primitive candor"-he assured his readers that Morandi "senz'essere ne poco ne punto pittura metafisica" (had absolutely nothing to do with pitrura metafisica). 23 Franchi, who was also a painter, was, however, the first critic to understand that one shouldn't approach Morandi's stililifes as one would a still life painting by cezanne. Franchi's astute comment contrasts with the conventional wisdom that the only artists Morandi looked at besides the Italian old masters were Chardin and cezanne. Bacchelli, in his 1918 article in II Tempo, saw Morandi as one who had "rediscovered classical values." Franchi, along with Raimondi, Di Pis is, and Edita and Mario Broglio, were among Morandi's contemporaries astute enough to see more Dada irony than either classicism or Cezanne in his Metaphysical works. Edita Broglio, for example, wrote that "Morandi's works ... have nothing to do witll any specific aCQ!3.1 reality [rea Ita naturale] ... for unlike the classical painter, he always wants to change the character oftlle 'things' he represents.,,2 4 Yet most critics followed Bacchelli's lead in paying what was, at the time, the highest possible compliment to Morandi's work: that it aspired to the classical. Ironi­ cally, Morandi, whose modernism had made him a pariah among Bologna's neoclassical conservatives in the art world, was about to be inducted by contemporary critics into the neoclassical and tlle "new classical age.,,2 5 However, it is important to note Arcangeli's interesting comment that Morandi's background reflected the Romanesque, the Gothic, the Baroque-everything but tlle classical. When I was a student at the Accademia, the Friday afternoon classes would often end in conversation with Morandi and his assistant. It was during one of these impromptu conversations that llearned of his equal dislike for tlle Caraccis and for most oftlle works ofGuido Reni, whom many believe represented the high point of "classical values" in Bolognese painting; Morandi instead preferred Bologna's painters of the trecento, just as he preferred Piero della Francesca to Raphael and Michelangelo, and an architect like Brunelleschi to Palladio. But although Franchi's analysis of Morandi's work differed from that ofBacchelli, franchi too was wary of the metafisica; in his I9I8 article he hoped tllat his readers could find comfort in knowing tllat

Pittura Metafisica

65

Morandi's sensibilities were those of a painter, not "those of a metajisico." But, in fact, throughout a lifetime of painting, and despite mllch negative criticism of his Metaphysical works, Morandi proved to be both a metafisico and a painter. Italy was still at war with Austria and Germany when the exhibition Mostra d'Arte Indepen­

dente (Exhibition of Independent Art), a benefit for the Italian Red Cross, opened in Rome in May 1918. Carra and de Chirico exhibited their Metaphysical paintings for the first time and had high expectations that they would be well received. Instead, however, the critics

•

met their work with incomprehension. Roberto Melli described the exhibition as "a dis­ turbing anthology ofvulgarity. ,,26 It took place in a garage-de Chirico described it as a rather ugly space; neither he nor Carra felt that their works were seen to their best advantage.'7 The sponsor was the Roman publication L'Epoca, whose editor, Mario Recchi (together with the Futurist painter Enrico Prampolini), had organized the exhibition.

4.6

Still Life, 1918. Oil on canvas,

26

x 22 in. (65 x 55 em) .

Galleri a Nazionale d 'Arte Moderna, Rome. [1'.38)

66

Although Morandi may not have seen the exhibition, nor the articles that Carra

But, in fact, is Metaphysical

and de Chirico published about it in Roman and FerraI'ese newspapers, he could not have missed Recchi's review of the Nlostra d'Arte Independente in the July 1918 issue ofLa Racwlta. Defending the art of Carra and de Chirico, and quoting from the articles that they them­

~

d'Arte Indepen­

selves had already written, Recchi asserted that their new works were not what people

d in Rome ill

who were familiar with Futurism and Cubism expected modern art to be. Recchi's article

'l the first time

explained that pittura metafisica "brought the true face of mod ernity to the surbce,

,r, the critics

replacing the outworn forms ofFuturisl11', and that rather than returning to the traditional

on as "a dis­

or the classical, it [pittura metafisical served as a bridge of transition, the 'next step' in

lescribed it

the transition from Cubism and hlturism but a t the same time equally dista nt from the

to their best

senility of the Academy." He described pittura metafisica "as an Independent Art ­

Mario Recchi

new, modern and revolutionary. ,,28 Reflecting a resurgent postwar nationalis m , de

exhibition.

Chirico boasted that he and Carra had taken nothing from French art. 29 Morandi knew that he was interested in some of those same issues , but in his own way.

4.7

Still Life, 1918. Oil on canvas, 31 x 26 ill. (80 x 65 em). Ga lleria Naziona le d'Arte Moderna, Rome. [Y. 39]

Pittura Metafisica

67

Person:d attacks on (he

~lrtists

and pittLll'a mctafisica went into some of the

critical reviews about the exhibition and the overall movement. One of the most famous negative comments on pittura metafisica was Roberto Longhi's vitriolic review of de Chirico's 1918 exhibition at the avant-garde gallery, the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia. (Some writers said that Carra was behind this attack.)3 0 Longhi's article, published in the February 1919 issue of II Tempo and titled "AI dio ortopedico" (To the Orthopedic God), is still held up today as an example of an especially savage review (una stroncatura) using acrimo­ nious language. Thereview denigrates de Chirico's work as an example of bad painting, "literature about nightmares ... symbols of bad taste" illustrating "a society horribly mutilated ... statues with decapitated heads that have been disinherited by the ancient Greeks ... all shown under a murky stream of emerald sky that he [de Chirico] pretends is of Mediterranean origin. "3' Alberto Neppi spoke about "painters lacking in humanity," while Adriano Ravennani accused de Chirico of "congenital impotence"; Renzo Buscaroli (a Marxist critic who taught art history at the Bolognese Accademia di Belle Arti after World War II) lumped pittura metafisica with Cubism and Futurism as he accused the movement of being one of the "prime vehicles traveling along the same route as Cubism and Futurism that led only to decadence." The avant-garde was no longer a title of praise but rather one connoting "folly, evil, immorality and degeneracy. "3 2 More than fifty years later (in 1977), Lamberto Vitali reiterated that "it will never be said often enough that Morandi's Metaphysical paintings have nothing in common with those [Metaphysical works] of de Chirico or Carra," and he disregarded Morandi's contacts with Carra and de Chirico. Vitali questioned the importance ofMorandi's Metaphysical works, writing, "While we often hear that Morandi's metaphysical 'moment' marks the high point ofMorandi's 'adventurous route,' wasn ' t it merely just an episode, which ifit did le:lVe some fruitful traces, didn't it at the same time risk suffocating the true nature of Morandi's art?"33 Morandi's Metaphysical works would also receive scathing criticism by the well-known Italian critic Franco Solmi, then the director of Bologna's Museum of Modern Art. He rejected Franchi's praise of Morandi 's works as "an eternity of serene contemplation." Writing in 1985, he argued that eternity is a "Humanistic dimension oftime, " but any attempt at Humanism is "totally missing" from Morandi's Metaphysical paintings . H Newspaper reviews written by CarrJ and de Chirico, which appeared a month before Recchi's article, gave the painters an opportunity to launch pittura metafisica in the press. Carra's 1918 article in II Popolo d'italia stated that "one of the spiritual benefits that the war has brought us is that artists have begun to look back on their past," a need felt by most European avant-garde artists after World War I. But Carra immediately added that the past need not mean Italy's Renaissance art alone, but also artists like Giotto­ an artist who, if the public looked at him at all, was considered little more than an awk­ ward illustrator of religious tales. In his 1916 article "Parlato suI Giotto," published in La Voce, Carra sought to bring a contemporary meaning to Giotto's art, urging people to look at the "ossatura cubista" (Cubist structure) in his work. For Carra (like Morandi

68

~

some of the

and others) had begun to search for a new aesthetic--=-with some connection that would

most famous

link a contemporary art with their artistic heritage.

'view of de

De Chirico opened his review of the Mostra d'Arte Independente with a bang: "We

(Some writers

can finally say that we have new artists who are not monkeys ... like those artists who

e February

blindly copy modern French painting. I have no intention ofdiscrediting Futurism but even

is still held

j),

French cubism is definitely passe, overtaken by our new Italian art."35 He described his

ling acrimo­

own paintings as lyrical and enigmatic constructions with intriguing titles. Morandi never

bad painting,

gave enigmatic titles to his works, always preferring to caJ! them simply "landscapes,"

ety horribly

or "stilllifes." De Chirico, however, made use of tongue-in-cheek depictions of classical

iYthe ancient

statues juxtaposed with ordinary objects such as rubber gloves, bunches of bananas,

Hco] pretends

cookies, and mannequins. Morandi, who also used the bust of a mannequin in his works

hhumanity,"

(V. 35, I918 [Jesi]; V. 36, I9I8 [Parma]; V. 37, 19I8 [Leningrad]; V. 40,1918 [Jucker]; and

nzo Buscaroli

V. 43, I9I9 [Brera]), insisted that he saw a mannequin for the first time in 19I3 while

:e Ani after

visiting Grizzana, a village in the Apennines near Bologna, where the Morandi family often

, accused the

summered. Yet mannequins appear in his work only in I9I8, after he had seen illustrations

te as Cubism

of works by de Chirico and Carra in La Raccolta.

title of praise

'e than fifty

Although the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 19I9 officially ended World War I,

~n

Italy would not recover easily from a war that it had entered divided and ill-prepared.

enough that

letaphysical

1

Carra and de

Raimondi noted that the problems of peace became more overwhelming than the prob­ lems of war. Unemployment and inflation was high. Food was still being rationed in

\'fiting, "While

I9I9, and food riots began in Emilia and spread throughout the country. A general strike

JfMorandi's

on July 20, I919, shut down all ofItaly, and Morandi-whose record of comments on

some fruitful

political events is sparse-wrote to Raimondi two days later, asking, "Have you heard any­

ii's art?" 13

thing about the outcome of the strikes? Bologna seemed deserted, like an ancient city."3 6

~

well-known

The slimmer Of1919 marked a crucial turning point in Morandi's life. Rai­

Art. He

mondi's La Racwlta had closed down earlier that year, perhaps because there was no room

tempiation. " , but any

for both it and Mario Broglio's Valori Plastici. Raimondi had left Bologna for an editorial job in Rome at Vincenzo Cardarelli's magazine La Ronda (19I9-I923), which focused more

lintings. 34

on literary issues than on art. Within months, Raimondi was well established among a

~rn

ared a month

circle of artists and writers that included Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Broglio, Carra, Emilio

:afisica in the

Cecchi, de Chirico, and Cipriano Efisio Oppo, a classmate ofBrogJio's at Rome's Accade­

II benefits

mia di Belle Arti. (Oppo would become better known for positions he held in Mussolini's

ast," a need

government than as an artist.) Eager to share this new world with Morandi, Raimondi

Ediately added

invited him to Rome in early August. From Morandi's letters to Raimondi during the sum­

~e

mer of I919 we know that the artist was extremely bored in Bologna and couldn't wait to

Giotto­

than an awk­

leave for Rome. Although his stay in the capital was brief-lasting little more than two

ublishedin

weeks-it proved momentollsY By the end of the year he would become an integral part

ing people to

of a broad network of artists and writers who made up Italy's cultural elite.

<e IVlorandi

Morandi, who often said that he felt more at home among the artists of Rome

Pittura Metafisica

69

than he did in Bologna, jumped full tilt into the new avant-garde cafe life of the capital, mostly at the famous Cafe Aragno, where he made many acquaintances who would become close friends. All of Rome was bursting with new galleries and case d'arte (a concept introduced by Robert Melli, meaning a place where avant-garde artists could meet, exhibit, and show films and sponsor lectures about contemporary culture), including those of the Bragaglia brothers (Anton Giulio and Car,lo Ludovico), Melli, Recchi, and Prampolini. Rome had suddenly become a center for modern art. This new growth coincided with the appearances 9f new magazines Noi, L'Epoca, Arys, and La Ronda, and with the 1917 visit to Rome of Picasso with Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. Morandi and Raimondi made plans to visit Rome's museums, which had only recently reopened after being closed because ofthe war. They were also impatient to hunt for Caravaggios, as the recently discovered Bacchus in a storeroom in Florence's Uffizi Gallery had whetted their appetites to see more ofCaravaggio's work while they were in Rome.3 8 Tirelessly Morandi pulled Raimondi from museum to museum, and from church to church. In Rome they visited the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, San Luigi dei Francesi, Santa Maria del Popolo, Sant'Agostino, and the Galleria Borghese. At the Galleria Borghese Raimondi introduced Morandi to de Chirico, who was copying a painting by Lorenzo Lotto. (Morandi twice copied old master paintings, a Lorenzo Costa and a Raphael.) De Chirico invited Morandi and Raimondi to meet him at the Galleria Giosi , where he currently was exhibiting his paintings. Unexpectedly, he suggested that Morandi also have an exhibition there. De Chirico even went so far as to offer to arrange for the exhibition himself. The Galleria previously was a garage and was centrally located on the Via Sistina, where Giosi, primarily a framer, had his workshop. Despite Morandi's ironic comments in a letter to Raimondi, calling de Chirico "il mio 10" (Mr. Ego) , de Chirico was very generous and encouraging to Morandi during the Valori Plastici years. In the autumn of 1919 he sent Morandi's address to Soffici and suggested that he seek out Morandi in Bologna. De Chirico (onlly two years older than Morandi) urged Soffici to help "a really talented painter, that Morandi from Bologna, [he is] young, honest, and intelligent-it would be worthwhile even to do a monograph about him, at any rate , do something to help him."39 Morandi had few opportunities to exhibit during the war, and a Rome exhibit would be his first significant venue since his disastrous debut in Bologna five years earlier. He hesitated nevertheless because he didn't have the money needed for framing and ship­ ping the paintings, though, as he explained to Raimondi, he didn't want de Chirico to interpret as arrogance his failure to send any paintings to the gallery. It took more than a month of urging by de Chirico before Morandi finally accepted his gracious offer. Kai­ mondi was invaluable during this time, as he became Morandi's link between Rome and Bologna. Morandi entrusted him with the hanging of the five paintings that he sent to Giosi's on October 4. He urged Raimondi to make sure that they were exhibited in the part of the space that had been wired for electriciry.4 0 Among the paintings that Morandi

70

)f the capital,

sent to Giosi was the regal still life V. 40, Ig18 (fig. 4.9). It depicts a mysterious conglom­

would become

eration of objects that include a cut loaf of bread , an open book with no text, and an

~

opaque white bottle placed on the corner of the striped gray box , which elevates it almost

(a concept

. meet, exhibit,

to the sa me height as a second bottle that is dark green and black . The bottles stand

:ing those of

guard on either side of the other still life objects, which include a mannequin anchored to

Id Prampolini.

a floating, round tabletop. The painting has an overall somber, golden burnt umber glow

:ncided with

with a subtle range of tonal variations.

Ih the Ig17 visit

The exhibition at Giosi's crefted a stir among a small group of artists and writers in Rome. But only one painting sold, and it was purchased by tJ;!e critic Giorgio

IVhich had only

Castelfranco, a close friend of de ChiricoY On the bas is of this exhibition Carra decided

ltient to hunt

that he wanted to see more of Morandi 's work. Accompanied by Raimondi 's father, Carra

ence's Uffizi

paid his first visit to Morandi on August 20, Iglg, stopping off in Bologna on his way

Ie they were in a from church

home to Milan. He was enthusiastic over Morandi 's new works. A tew weeks after Carra's visit, Morandi wrote to Ra imondi that Carra had asked Riccardo Bacchelli for photo­

ra ncesi , Santa

graphs of paintings by Mora ndi beca use he was planning to write "something about me

ia Borghese

for a Milanese magazine." This wouldn't actually happen untillg25, six years laterY

~orenzo

Lotto.

EVen more significantly, Morandi's small exhibition made an extraordinary

lel.)

impression on Mario Broglio. He, too, traveled to Bologna to see more of Morandi's

;alleria Giosi,

paintings, and by the time he returned to Rome forty-eight hours later he had practically

j

that Morandi

emptied out the artist's studio, taking with him fifteen paintings and five watercolors.

'ange for the

Morandi also consigned to Broglio the four paintings that had not sold at Giosi's. In addi­

located on the

tion, Broglio asked for and was given the exclusive rights to exhibit, publi sh, and sell

mdi's ironic

Morandi 's works.43 A month later, on December 26, Broglio drew up a contract with

je Chirico wa s

Morandi after establishing better prices (350 ,4°0, 45°, and 850 lire) than Morandi had been

the autumn

lit Morandi in

able to charge. For example, four months earlier Morandi had sold a comparable work

lelp "a really

for 160 lire-and in a letter to Raimondi, Morandi complained that the buyer insisted that the price include the frame. 44 Broglio also promised to pay Morandi a stipend of 2,400

ltelligent-it

lire a year; at that time the average annual income in Italy was 3,000 lire, and Morandi was

omething to

earning 300 lire a month for teaching in a local elementary school.

Rome exhibit

Franchi on Morandi's work, of which parts were recycled from Franchi's earlier essay in

, years earlier.

La Raccolta. The Valori rlastici piece also included an illustration of one of Morandi's IgI8

In the April-May Iglg issue ofValori Plastici Broglio published the article by

ling and ship­

majestic stilllifes, V. 42, (fig. 4.10). In this painting four objects are placed on a rectan­

e Chirico to

gular wooden tray tha t sits on a tabletop : a dark-green tran spare nt bottle, a shorter

<more than a

opaque white bottle, and a round tennis baJl-like toy resting on the edge of the ubiquitous

soffer. Rai­

gray metal box. Cast shadows are an essential part of the composition, but these shadows

~n

have nothing to do with any definable light source. Oddly square-shaped prisms hanging

Rome and

It he sent to

on the wall capture strange marble-like reflections in subtle variations ofwhite and violet.

ed in the part

Next to it is a fragment of a hexagonal tile whose right side has been cut off. This compo­

It Morandi

sition is so tightly constructed that we realize how important each part is to the whole only

4.8

Still Life, 1919.

Oil on ca nva s, 2. 2 x 18 in. (56 x 47 cm). Pil1 Jco teca Naz ionale di Brem , Milan. Bequest of Emilio and Maria Jesi. Photograph by Luca Carra . (V. 441

4.9

Still Life, 19 18. Oil on ca nvas, 18 x 23 in. (47 x 58 cm) . Padigli one Arte Co ntemporanea, Mila n. Bequest of Rirca rd o and Magda Ju cker. [V. 40)

when some part of it has been cropped from a photo reproduction . There is no signature on the work, only the date "1918" in small numbers at the bottom of the painting. For Italian artists eager to see and read about what was taking place elsewhere in Europe, Broglio's Valori Plastici was the most important and most cosmopolitan mag­ azine published in Italy. Before writing the cultural column for II Tempo, Broglio had attended art school in Rome. By 1918, when he started Valori Plastici, he was already well acquainted with almost all of Rome's artists and writers. 45 Material that Georges de Canino made availab1e to me after Edita Broglio's death , perhaps might lead us to conclude that Broglio's internationalist outlook was inspired by his close companion and future wire, the Lithuanian-Russian painter Edita Walternowna von Zur Muehlen (1866- 1977).4 6 A week after the first issue ofValori Plastici appeared, E. Giovannetti, writing in Bologna's newspaper /I Resto del Carlino, hailed it under the heading "Case d 'a rte." He wrote: "Rome is beginning to fiU LIp with case d'arte. [In particular] is the promotion of the publication of a revolutionary new magazine, caUed Valori Plastici, which is solely about modern art. . . . It is full of the tumultuous ideas ofyoung people aged twenty to thirty-five [Broglio was twenty-seven, Morandi twenty-eight, de Chirico thirty, and Carra, the oldest, tllirty­ seven]. They are in love with everything about art and are all fi'om the avant-garde. "47 Broglio was often criticized for not presenting a uniform point of view in his magazine, but that was not his goal. Intent on filling a void by serving as an international platform for "things modern," Broglio committed his magazine to a diversity of ideas and images. He was one ofthe first to take advantage ora new technology, not available until after World War I, that made it possible to print high-quality photographs ofworks of art and thus gave his magazine a special cast. He published reproductions of a vast range orart, including arte negl'e sculpture, so-called primitive art, a fragment of Egyptian art placed next to an Archipenko sculpture, and works by Lipschitz, Picasso, and Zadkine. In addition, as official Italian distributor of the magazine LEsprit Nouveau-founded in 1919 by the architect Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), the painter Amedee Ozenfam, and the poet Paul Derme- Broglio made frequent trips to Paris. He sent Morandi copies of this magazine , which he had requested, as well as the latest books and magazines published by what still remained of the international avant-garde. (In France, copies of Valori Plastici were often included with LEsprit Nouveau). The first issue of this magazine was dedicated to Seurat and included eight reproductions of his work. Seurat's influence is evident in Morandi's paintings, but it is even more pronounced in his etchings Campo di tennis ai giardini margherita a Bologna ([ennis Courts in the Margherita Public Gardens in Bologna), 1921 (V. II), and Natura marta con pane e limone (Still Life with Bread and Lemon), 1921 (V. 13) (figs. 4.If, 4.12), and in the later works of the 1930s. After World War II Morandi was able to purchase from Gino Ghiringhelli (Morandi's dealer at the GaUeria del Milione) sev­ eral Seurat drawings that supposedly had previously belonged to Soffici,4 8 which he hung in the bedroom of his sisters Dina and Maria Teresa, a room that he had to pass through to get to his own. Unlike Broglio's Valori Plastici, LEsprit Nouveau received government

74

s no signature inting. ace elsewhere )politan mag­ Broglio had

s to conclude and future

866- 1977).4 6 in Bologna's wrote: "Rome publication It modern art. ;l ve [Broglio Jldest, thirty­ t-garde. "47 ofview in his nternational y of idea s and ailable until )f works ofart

r vast range ;gyptian art Id Zadkine. In :1ded in 1919 dee Ozenfam, xandi copies maga zi nes ace, copies of is magazin e 4.10

. t's influence lings Ca mpo inS

in Bologna),

, 192I (V. 13)

orandi was Mi/ione) sev­ ich he hung )ass through vernm ent

Still Life, 1918 .

Oil on ca nvas , 20 x 18 in.

(5 0

x 47 em). Private Co ll ectio n. [V. 42)

4.11 Campo di Tennis af Giardini Margherita a Bologna

(Tennis Courts in the Margherita Public Gardens in Bologna), 1921.

Etching, 5 x 4 ill. (13·7 x 11.3 cm). Private Co llection .

Photograph by Rick Stafford. [V. II]

4.12

Natura morta con pane e limone (Still Life with Bread and Lemon), 19 :1.1.

Etch ing, 1.5 x 3 in. (35 x 72 mm). Private Co llection .

Photograph by Rick Stafford. [v. 13)

support until

1925.

Both magazines had a international cultural outlook rarely found in

either countty's publications following the end of Wodd War 1. By

1921

Morandi and his work had finally extended beyond Bologna. Because

ofnew friendships and new associations with artists and publications of pittura metafisica -as well as serendipity-the artist was gaining exposure throughout Italy as well as internationally. Far from being a hermit, Morandi had now established connections to almost everyone who would be involved in Italy's cultural life. These same names would surface over and over again throughout his lifetime.

Pittura MetafisiCQ

77

All this calm, all this peace, this sober equilibrium that underlies the works of Giorgio Morandi and found in [works of] Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico masks the uneasiness that something threatening is about to explode. -

Salvador Dali

The End of Valor; Plastici: The March on Rome, 1922 Almost entirely at his own expense, Broglio organized an important exhibition in Berlin of works by his Valori Plastid artists, including the stiIl virtually unknown Morandi. The artist would never be unknown again. Pilaced in an international setting, his paintings would be valued and recognized. The exhibition Das junge Italien (The Young Italians) opened in March 1921 . Theodor Daubler, a weIJ-known poet and critic, was instrumental in arranging the exhibition at Berlin's Nationalgalerie fur Moderne Kunst, in the Kronprinzenpalais, a new wing that had become the most popular of Berlin's museums .' Born in Trieste, Daubler, an Austrian citizen fluent in both Italian and German, was a frequent contributor to Broglio's magazine , which was well known among German artists. In 1920 Daubler had published a major article titled "Neueste Kunst in Italien" (The Newest Art in Italy) in the well-known German magazine Dfr Cicfrone, suggesting that rather than seeing only the reproductions ofthese young Italian artists , it would be better to see the original works. To that end, Daubler proposed an exhibition to National­ galerie director Ludwig Justi (who, when the Nazis assumed power in 1933 , was forced to resign and then fled to Russia). Justi became the exhibition's official sponsor and allotted

it five large rooms in a new wing of the museum. No trace ofany exhibition catalogue remains, but, after the exhibition closed, Broglio inserted a two-sheet flyer into a regular issue ofValori Plastici to inform an Italian audience of the success that the Valori Plastici artists had received in Germany. It reported that eighty-nine paintings, eight sculptures, and one hundred and twenty drawings, including important works by Edita Broglio, Carra, de Chirico, Riccardo Francalancia,

5

Melli, Morandi, and Zadkine, had been on view fix more than a month. Morandi exhib­ ited nineteen works,2 de Chirico twenty-nine, Edita Broglio twenty-five. Broglio wrote that he wanted to gather together a nucleus of the most lively significant activities in the figurative arts-meaning the Valori Plastici artists-and organize exhibitions in Italy as well as abroad, and he reprinted some of the reviews that appeared in more than eighty German newspapers and magazines. Germany's avant-gardc artists and writers had first been introduced to de Chirico, Carra, M ~ randi, and pittura metafisica in the April-May 1919 issue of Valori Plastici, and in the aftermath of the war they were ea'ger to reestabljsh cultural exchanges and see more of modern Italian an. Thc current politicaL situation was complex; a letter from Morandi to Broglio on May 24, 1921, reflected the change that many in Italy felt about their former enemy: "I think this is a good moment (to be exhibiting there) given the 'simpatia' that Germany now has for Italy." 3 Perhaps Morandi was reflecting that, in the aftermath of tile war, Germany and Italy, once enemies, had begun to see each other as partners in defeat. The postwar divi­ sion of spoils promised to Italy by France, Great Britain, and the United States had been marked by major arguments that fueled lasting resentments between Italy and her for­ m er allies. Many Italians, convinced that her allies had not recognized Italy's important role in helping to win the war, fett betrayed by the Treaty of Versailles, which some went so far as to call a "French peace." The ever-inflammatory D'Annunzio cleverly declared in a 1918 newspaper article that the peace process had resulted in "a mutilated victory," a phrase that quickly caught on.4 Territorial disputes regarding land given to the new country of Yugoslavia and which nation would eventually control the essentially Italian city ofFiume (it was later given over to Yugoslavia) were cleverly exploited by D'Annunzio and Mussolini. In 1919 D'Annunzio raised an army to take Fiume and, ready to overthrow the legitimate Italian government, threatened Rome as well. That same spring Mussolini, capitalizing on the civil unrest, launched a movement that two years later became the Fascist party. It included outraged groups of nationalists, anti-socialists, and patriotic ex­ servicemen who believed the WJr was fought in vain. A climate of reciprocal sympathy developed between the Italians who believed they had lost the peace and the Germans who had lost the war-thus sustaining the rapprochement that characterized Italian -German relations before 1922. BrogLio's exhibition generated such excitement in th e German press that he was immediately offered an additional venue in Hannover at the Kerstner-Gesellschaft, for whi ch was created an eight-page catalogue. I;or Morandj , who was exhibiting his work for the first time in a major foreign museum, it would be an extraordinary moment. Diiubler's sensitive review in Paul Westheim's important magazine Das Kunstblat described Morandi's works as "having little to do with what one actually 'seemed' to see ... (for) his subjects are the most simple, and one had to look beyond what was represented since his subjects are cylinders that rotate, squares that are neatly placed onto tl1e surface."

80

vlorandi exhib­

Daubler further mentioned Morandi's use oflight, describing it as a sensible BUmatura (sen­

3roglio wrote

sitive shading), and went on to say that "su rprisingly and mysteriousl y ... he is able to

activities in the

join the current idea of the classical with the most rigorous demands ofcontemporalY art,"

ions in Italy as

as in the still life V. 43,1919 (fig. 5.1).5

ore than eighty

Despite the exhibition's critical acclaim , it was not a commercial success. Nevertheless , the glowing reviews and the enthusiastic reception from the German press

'oduced to de

generated new interest in Italy among critics and writers , some of whom traveled to

;ue of Valori

Germany specifically to see the works of these Metaphysical artists. One of these writers,

ral exchanges

Margherita Sarfatti-who first became aware of Morandi's work at this exhibition­

)mplex; a letter

reviewed the show in Mussolini 's newspaper, II Popolo d'ltalia. Italian critics and writers

I

in Italy felt

19 there) given

who had previously ignored Broglio's group would, in the following year, have the opportunity to look again at the artists of the Valori Plastici. The group 's sudden success in Germany so impressed the writer Sem Benelli that he invited them to participate in

1',

Germany and

the 1922 Primauerile Fiorentina, an exhibition that he was organizing in Florence. Benelli

postwar divi­

anticipated that his exhibition would equal the importance of the Venice Bienna!e but,

;tates had been

unlike that international exhibition, it would be an opportunity to present Italian artists

y and her for­

and Italian traditions only. Such an event would mark the first time that the Valori Plastici

Ily's important

artists would exhibit as a group in Italy. Certainly Morandi's participation in the Primauerile

lich some went

Fiorentina was Morandi's most prestigious hour to that point. He met artists with whom

verly declared

he had exhibited at the 1914 Roman Secessione and cultivated new friendships-Melli

ated victory," a

(who was

n to the new

on the commission that in 1928 would extend to Morandi his first invitation to partici­

tially Italian city

pate in the Biennale-and Carlo Alberto Petrucci, future head of the Fascist Printmaker's

DO

longer part of the Valori Plastici group), Oppo, Arturo Tosi-who later served

D'Annunzio

Union and the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome and, almost ten years later, promoter of

jy to overthrow

exhibitions and sales of Morandi's etchings.

ring Mussolini, became the

The exhibition'S catalogue, printed by Broglio, bore his imprint of Valori Plastici, Rome, and included

112

black-and-white illustrations . The entries on individual

nd patriotic ex­

artists ranged from just a few lines to more than five pages. Approximately 292 artists

cal sympathy

exhibited. The catalogue entries on the Valori Plastici artists were written by various mem­

Germans who

bers of the magazine's circle. Savinio presented Edita Walternowna 2ur Muehlen (who

alian-German

would marry Broglio in 1927) and also wrote a short essay on Oppo. Mario Tinti wrote ten of the entries. De Chirico wrote an affectionate and poignant introduction to Morandi's

I

press that he

work (see below). Broglio himself wrote the entries for Carra and de Chirjco. According

Gesellschaft,

to a photograph of the installation, three of the paintings that Morandi exhibited can

biting his work

be identified-Amphora (still life with round table), 1920 (V. 51; fig. 5.2) , Still Life with Four

Iry moment.

Objects, 1916 (V. 29), and Little Vase with Roses, 1920 (V. 56; fig. 5.3). Unidentifiable works

siblat described

listed in the catalogue were a landscape and twelve other stilllifes (probably works that

) see . .. (for)

Broglio owned), and a selection of watercolors and drawings . Unlike the other entries

Jresented since

the Valori Plastici artists eliminated any biographical information, identi/)ring themselves

he surface."

only as from the "Gruppo Valori Plastici. " Each artist had one work illustrated in the cata-

The End of Valo,i Plastic;

81

5.1

Stil l LiJe, 1919. Oil on canvas, 23 x 24 in. (59 x 60 em). Pi naeoreca di Brera, MiiJn. Beq uest of Emi li o and Maria )esi. lV. 431

).2

Amphora,

1920.

Oil on e3llVas. 24 x 26 in. (60 x 66 em). l'inaeoteea di Bre ra . Bequestofl';lJ11berto Vitali. [V. 51]

5.3

little Vase with Roses,

1920.

Oil on callvas, 18 x 15 in. (46 x 39 cm). Private Collection. [V. 56]

)·4

Still Life, 19 19. Oil on canvas , 19 x 23 in. (45 x S9 cm) . Private Collection . Photograph by Antonio Masotti . [V. 48]

logue. In Morandi's case it was a Still L[fe with Compote Dish and Drape, 1919 (V. 47), similar to the simpler yet elegant and exquisitely constructed Still Life, 1919 (V. 48, formerly in the Plaza collection; fig. 5-4), and illustrated in an issue ofValori Plastid the same year the painting was completed. Margherita Sarfatti praised it in an issue ofMussolini's II Popolo d'ltalia as "sensuous, juicy, and fanciful ," while another reviewer, Fernando Paolieri, recognized that Morandi 's art was "purely abstract.,,6 The catalogue began with a Sem Benelli essay exp laining the choice of the exhibition's title: Primaverile, meaning springlike, chosen to suggest the optimistic spirit of renewal after the armistice, and Fiorentina to invoke Florence-the Renaissance capita l of the arts. Unable to obtai n financial help from the government (it was a time of polit­ ical chaos and crisis), Benelli nevertheless found private sponsors to complete the restora­ tion of an old palace in the Parco di San Gallo, where the exhibition was held, and declared , "Despite all the turmoil between bankers and politicians the true mission of ltaly . .. resides in the [support of] the arts. "7 More than fifty years later Edita BrogJio's recollection of the occasion conveys the joy and optimism that t11e Valori Plastici artists felt at fina lly being recognized in their own country:

The End of Valori Plastici

85

It was just after the war, we all felt it was a new Primavera; Florence seemed the appropriate place where this new Primavera should be born. We, who were from the Valori Plastici, were making our first appearance as a group. We were a surprise

to everyone since we were all unknown except for Carra who had just left the battle of Futurism but had started allover again, from the beginning. Our group's work was placed in the basement. It was so damp, we had to cover tile floor with salt to absorb the humidity. The night of the opening every­ one was there, even all the "official artist s." Their work was on the ground floor, and the Sartorios and Bistolfis had the most important rooms of the entire exhibition. At a certain moment Sem Benelli came downstairs to the basement and said to us: "All your [the Valori Plastici group] works are the best-you are the real winners." ~

The Valori Plastici artists earned positive reviews from many critics, who commented on their "liveliness" and "originality." Oppo's inteUigent review in the Roman newspaper L'ldea

Nazionale compared the artists of pittura metafisica with Italy's other painters and found the latter distinctly lacking: "How much better it is to be close to Carra and de Chirico rather than Ettore Tito, Sartorio or the other thousands of awful Italian painters .... Because today, too often, one forgets how much confilsion there was and the low level that existed in our painting before the appearance of the various revolutions of the avant­ garde and ofFuturism."g Soffici, who praised the Valori Plastici artists in an article about the Primaverile Fiorentina published in Bologna's daily newspaper, II Resto del Carlino, wrote: "Their works contain the highest level of intensity and energy ... undoubtedly they are the most interesting oftbe living painters and sculptors of the whole show. Above all, one finds in their work, not only a 'noble' and profound concept, way above the general level that ordinarily is found in their colleagues ... but they have an objective appreciation for the beautiful ... and are trying to expand their poetic vision. Especially Carra, de Chirico, Morandi, and the sculptor [Martini] . ... In each of their works, nothing is left to chance improvisations, nothing is overlooked that could possibly disturb the construction of their compositions."ID Soffici did not see Morandi's work until the

1922

Primaverile Fiorentina, but,

having heard positive comments about it from de Chirico and Carra, in May

1920

he

described Morandi as an up-and-coming artist in La Vraie Ita lie, a Florentine magazine pub­ lished in French by Vallecchi and whose editor-in-chiefwas Giovanni Papini. Soffici's article about Hla peinture italienne d'aujourd'hui " asserted "that among those painters who are about to make a name for themselves, remember to include the name of Giorgio Morandi from Bologna."" De Chirico's beautiful essay tor the Primaverile Fiorentina cata­ logue contrasts Morandi's work with the sorry state of most European painting seen all over Italy:

86

seemed the

There is such enormous confusion [in the arts], that It thoroughly oppresses any

were from the

real artist: t h e amount of bad painting that has spread over the continent with its

~re

a surprise

t left the battle

torrents of greasy and oily colors is so bad that it's difficult to describe it because so much of it is dull , stupid, common, and if you 'look for any spirituality, you'd be looking in vain . .. but when someone like Giorgio Morandi appears, after watching

IP, we had to

him grow, develop and mature, we can f inally take comfort that there are artists

opening every­

like him who search and create by himself.... He looks at a group of objects on a

~

table with the same kind of feeling that shook the heart of one traveling though

ground floor,

[the entire

ancient Greece and spied the woods, valleys, and knolls reputed to be the places

[t he basement

where the amazing and beautiful deities lived. He has taken part in the latest

est-you are

great European art: the metafisica of the most common objects. Objects which have become so familiar to us in our everyday use, that when we look at them, it is with eyes that look but do not see. He is poor, for patrons of art have neglected

mmented on

him up to now."

ewspaper L'ldea

'sand found

Morandi could proudly set himselfapart from some of his Bolognese peers-artists of the

nd de Chirico

academic establishm ent-who had also exhibited in the Primaverile, many of whose

inters....

presentations had been written by the Bolognese Accademia's director, Giuseppe Lipparini.

, low level that

That de Chirico had unfavorably compared their kinds of work to Morandi's could hardly

' the avant·

have sat well with these artists, some of whom had been Morandi's classmates at the Accademia , while others, who held powerful positions, would not be eager to have him

:he Primaverile "Their works

e the most

return there to teach. Yet the successful reception ofBrolio's group in Florence came too late to be fully savored by Morandi and the other artists of the Valori Plastici. It had been t\.yo years

I, one finds in

since any of them had painted a Metaphysical painting, and their individual interests had

I level that

already turned to other formal issu es . De Chirico noted that "the belated recognition by

:iation for the

Italian critics and chatterboxes who gossip about art [chiaccheroni d'arte] is like the last act

de Chirico,

ofan operetta-the gendarmes finally arrive just after the crooks have made their getaway

left to chance

-and the curtain falls."'J T he magazine Valori Plastici published its final issue in April

truction of

1922, although Broglio continued to publish books about art-though not on contempo­

rary art. The best known are Carra's book on Giotto (1924), Roberto Longhi 's Piero della orentina, but,

\ay 1920 he

Francesca (1927) , and Pierre Courthion's Courbet (1931). Morandi 's newfound renown from his exhibitions with the Valori Plastici group

lagazine pub­

did not translate into financial success. Many letters from Morandi to Broglio after 1922

li . Soffici 's

ask him for money that he believed was owed him for his paintings, and they are painnll

painters who

to read. His salary for teaching in an elementary school was pitiful, and Mora ndi wa s in

of Giorgio

appalling financial straits. Nevertheles s he seemed to be indifferent to the underlying

oren tina cata­

reasons (such as the 1929 worldwide financial crisi s) why there was no market for those

Iting seen

works which he had consigned to Broglio to sell. Morandi remained a ngry and bitter

The End of Valo,; Plastici

87

over Broglio's inability to meet the terms of his contract, which had stipulated monthly payments and the promise of exhibitions. The first paragraph of Morandi 's contract stated that Broglio "assumes the responsibility to organize, under the auspices of his mag­ azine Valori Plastici, exhibitions in Italy as well as abroad, with the purpose of making known the works of some Italian artists ." '4 Until 1928 Broglio still retained the exclusive rights over Morandi's works. An unpublished 1928 letter from the Broglio archives in Rome contains a sad comment from Morandi. "Dear Broglio ," Morandi wrote, "I need money. Can you imagine, I don't even have the money ,to travel to accompany my sisters to the boat" (that took them back to Alexandria, Egypt, where they were then Living). BrogJio had a considerable inventory of Morandi's Metaphysical works from 1916-20 (more than forty-one paintings and many uncatalogued drawings and water­ colors). Until 1939 few Italian collectors were interested in buying them, and even fewer private galleries were interested in exhibiting the art of the metajisica. Because these works had no apparent market in Italy (although collectors in Paris bought de Chirico's works) , one ofBroglio's three partners, Mario Girardon , gathered together many of the Meta­ physical paintings and emigrated to the United States, where he tried to sell some of them at an exhibition at New York's Passadoit Gallery. Five works by de Chirico were exhib­ ited in 1936 in New York's MoMA in the exhibition Fantastic Art Dada Surrealism; they were listed as belonging to Mario Broglio, but they were actually lent by Girardon. Girardon's attempts to sell the works were largely unsuccessful; just before the outbreak of World War 1I he returned the pail1tings to Italy. '5 The participants of pittura metafisica had come upon the scene during Italy'S most politically and culturally tumultuous decade since the Risorgimento. hI tempi eroici" (heroic times), de Chirico called them. The same month that Valori Plastici appeared, De Pisis warned Tzara in a letter that times were rapidly changing: "Italy, dear Tzara, is very hostile to modern things, especially at this moment in time, and has absolutely no interest in them.",6 Such hostility toward the avant-garde went hand in hand with growing xenophobia. In the first issue of Valori Plastici, Broglio published a letter trom his and Morandi's old friend the Futurist composer BaliUa Pratella. The letter was written in September, the war was almost over-but it illustrated an opposing viewpoint to Broglio's aspiration to create an international magazine. Pratella's letter reRected a position that evidently would appeal to an ever-increasing chauvinistic public: "Yes, Italy needed a mag­ azine that presents to the world absolutely new values [valori assolutamente nuovi], for it is as necessary for us toda)f as is our daily bread. Especially after having gone through the terrible ordeal of the war, we are now living through a period of trying to find out who we are. Let'S establish our (new) values-and not ridicule them-ror we are making new discoveries .... In an Italian magazine of today, I don't want to see foreigners rep­ resented. Just us are enough. We appreciate roreigners ... but let's stop bei.ng their ser­ vants. We'll lose the tips, but in exchange we'll gain some self-respect and the respect of the others .... A new magazine yes, but a magazine that is only about Italian art."!7

88

,ulated monthly

An answer to Pratella's letter was published in an endnote on page twenty-t\vo

ndi's contract

in the same issue of Valori Plastici that appeared the day the armistice was signed. BrogLio

)ices of his mag­

editorialized: "Evidently our dear Pratella doesn't find himselfin agreement with us." But

se of making

BrogJio and his colleagues of the Valori Plastici were in the minority. The use of symbols,

led the exclusive

which is the essence of pittura metafisica, undoubtedly led to its condemnation by some

io archives in

critics. A year later the young poet, playwright, and editor Corrado PavoJini warned, "We

i wrote, "I need

will always be against symbols in place of the real thing, against the Metaphysical. ,,[8 It

pan)' my sisters

confirmed that the great reactionary wav~ against the Metaphysical had just begun.

then living).

Despite Valori Plastici's close contacts with Dada's Kurt Schwitters, De Stijl's Theo

lcal works from

Van Doesburg, and Le Corbusier's L'Esprit Nouveau, the magazine was often accused of

.gs and water­

being reactionary. An American scholar, writing in the catalogue of the Morandi exhibi­

, and even fewer

tion held at New York's Guggenheim Museum in 1981, maintained that although Valori

se these works

Plastici's editorial voice "was an influential one in Rome in the post-war and it must be said

hirico'S works),

that its voice was reactionary." 19 Vitali, in his 1964 Morandi monograph, had come to

"of the Meta­ ,II some of them

art of those years ... if only for the abundance of information about what was going on

J

,vere exhib­

the same conclusion regarding Broglio's magazine: "It was the only lively periodical of in France, in Germany, in Holland, in England ... it became the mouth-piece of the most

Ilism; they were

contradictory tendencies which ended up being ... of a decided reactionary flavor [un

In. Girardon's

gusto veramente reazionario] -it was so, from its very beginnings."2o (Even in Bologna,

break of World

an article in /I Resto del Carlino, written a few days after Valori Plastici appeared in the book­ shops, described it as "revolutionary." How could a magazine that had ties to Dada, the

Ie during Italy'S

European Surrealists, and the Bauhaus-all part of a vast European cultural movement

I tempi eroici"

that was the vanguard of art-be reactionary?) It would seem, as Arcangeli thoughtfulIy

i appeared, De

contested, a rather unjust and reckless judgment of its history. Whether Morandi

11"

Tzara. is very

acknowledged that pittura metafisica ever did or did not represent the essence of his art,

ltely no interest

however, he did keep a remi.nder of the period, a still life dated July 1916, in his studio

th growing

for nearly thirty-three years until he permitted New York's Museum of Modern Art to

r from his and

acquire it in 1948. There was yet one more reminder: on a table by Morandi's bedside were

, written in

small volumes of poetry, the Lirici Greci, by the Nobel prize-winning poet Salvatore

lint to Broglio's

Quasimodo, and booklets by Pascal and Tagore; atop this small pile he kept a copy of

position that

Andre Chastel's L'art italien. Le XXe siecle, published in 1957. A bookmark inserted at page

needed a mag­

218 marked scribbles by Morandi and pointed to a paragraph in which a perceptive

e lluovil, for

Cbasrel wrote: "The only painter who blossomed during the 'periode metaphysique' is G.

gone through

lVlorandi, the most remarkable of living painters ... of an austere nature, in love with

: to find out

purity, he devotes himself to the still life which, in a subtle and unique way he has made

we are making

into a world of dreams symbolizing the hidden and unseen ... Morandi stands out as

reigners rep­

a great exam pIe for he represents the im portance of pure art ... the conscience of one

,eing their ser­

who sought to get back to the true values of art. ,,2L

f the res pect

talian art."17

The End of Valori PlaHici

89

The nineteenth century ended in 1915. The twentieth began in 1922. - Massimo Bontempelli

For our group the word "revolution" had meaning in the artistic sense. The Fascist "revolu­ tion" had overcome the nineteenth century in politics, and we hoped that it would sweep away the artistic dregs left over from the nineteenth century as well ... but a Fascist revo­ lution has yet to occur in the arts-so the insidious artistic world remains unchanged. - Anton Giulio Bragag/ia

Morandi and the Novecento: Recognition from a Wider Audience Morandi's predicament, no less than thatofpittura metafisica and Valori Plastici, was inextricably linked to the takeover of the

Ital~ian

government by the Fascists in October

OfI922. The Primaverile Fiorentina exhibition ended on July 31,1922. Almost three months later, thirty thousand Fascists in their black shirts marched into Rome. Following sev­ eral years of political and economic chaos, Italy's monarch , Vittorio Emmanuele III, called on Mussolini to serve as the new prime minister and head the country's sixth gov­ ernment since 1919. Mussolini promptly announced that the world was moving to the right and Italy must do the same - the century of democracy was over. The citizens of Italy seemed to agree: apprehension about the violence that had brought the Fascists to power seemed secondary to the strong desire to end the general strikes, the occupation of factories, the fear of Bolshevism, and the severe economic crisis that was still paralyzing the nation. Some historians believe that the Fascist Revolution began in May [915, when Italy entered World War I. It was the hour of youth, Mussolini said, the first episode ofa revolution that would surpass even the French revolution. Italy entered the war divided, and it was still divided when hostilities ended. As the peace process dragged on, by 1919 a severe economic crisis still paralyzed the nation, and bands of armed ex-servicemen, Fascist squadristi, sprang up all over Italy. Extreme violence and intimidation were Llsed to suppress the Catholic unions, the Socialists, and the left-wing press. Well-known Fascism opponents were beaten during "punitive expeditions" and

6

often forced to drink large doses ofcastor oil, as was represented in Fellini's film Amarcord. In Bologna, where there existed intense fear of the Socialists and Bolshevism, even middle class Liberals welcomed the belligerency and the strength of the Fascists. With the threat ofa Fascist insurrection and the transfer of many Socialist unions into Fascist syndicates, MussoIini assured the leading Italian industrialists, among them Olivetti and Pirelli, that Fascist action would restore order to the country, put an end to the general strikes and the occupation of [lctories by the workers. By 1922 , with the complicity oflocal authori­ ties in northern arid central Italy, the Fascist squadristi seized prefectures, town halls, railway stations, post offices , and the main communication systems. Rome, however, was still unaffected by the Fascist takeover of the many local governments. [ Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti (1903-5, 1906-9, 19II-16, and 1920-21) resigned after his majoriry had fallen to 34 votes out of 434 votes in the Chamber of Deputies. He proceeded to do all he could to obstruct an anti-Fascist coalition, preferring to stay in the background and wait to negotiate a government of his own that would include Mussolini. One ministerial crisis tollowed another. lvanoe Bonomi, who previously served as minister for war in Giolitti's 1920-21 government, tried to govern with an anti­ Fascist coalition. In less than a year his government failed. Another ofGiolitti's ministers, Luigi Facta (February-October 1922), who refused to allow the Fascists to participate in his government, managed to put together two short-lived cabinets. A Fascist insurrection seemed imminent, and on October 28 Facta resigned because the king decided not to sign previously issued orders for a state of siege in Rome. These orders would have author­ ized the army to block entries to the city and to use force to prevent the Fascists and their sympathizers from taking over the capital. Conservatives, Democrats, Liberals, and Facta himself urged Giolitri to return to Rome to form another government-but he refused, remaining at a spa in Vichy "to take care of his health." Vittorio Emmanuele

m decided not to wait any longer for Giolitti.

He turned to Antonio Salandra, prime minister from May 1914 to June 1916, who was interested in forming a Conservative-Fascist coalition , but only on the condition that Mus­ solini agree to serve in it. When Mussolini, still running his newspaper in Milan , learned that the king's orders for the state of siege had been annulled, he realized that he could hold out for much more than just a cabinet post in another prime minister's govern­ ment. Mussolini refused to leave Milan even after Salandra had offered the Fascists four cabinet posts, which they rejected. Mussolini indicated he would come to Rome only if the king asked him to form a new government. Salandra, having failed, advised Vittorio Emmanuele III that Mussolini was the only potential candidate for the post of prime minister. Mussolini took a train to Rome the night of October 29 and formed a government the next day. Tbe king and his new prime minister watched as men from all parts of Italy marched into Rome wearing the black shirts of the Fascists. Among them were young people like Giuseppe Bortai and Mino Maccari, sons of professionals and veterans of World War I who had joined in the March on Rome.

film Amarwrd. , even middle

In a letter to a friend , painter and writer Cipriano Efisio Oppo described his reaction to the moment: "Goodbye youth! Now everything stinks, and I'll think only about

"ith the threat

my work. " (Addio giovanezza! Addesso tutto fa schifo e penso soltanto almio lavoro,f

;cist syndicates,

News of the "March on Rome" came to Morandi and Raimondi as they met for their daily

-ri and Pirelli,

coffee one night in their usual bar on Via dell'Indipendenza. The way Raimondi told it,

leral strikes and

it was late October and the streets were already full of men in Fascist uniforms. When the

,flocal authori­

waiter came over to tell them that tl1e "March" bad begun, according to Raimondi, Morandi,

, town halls.

holding his nose, emitted a long sigh.

~, however, was

Why, one might ask, would one such as Morandi, opposed to violence, or even a young Liberal like Raimondi stand by and watch the transfer of power to the Fascists?

II1d 1920- 21)

Luigi Salvatorelli, a respected historian oftlle time, concluded that even Italian Liberals had

Chamber of

become simply anti-Socialist, conservative , and , in fact, reactionary. The ambiguity of

ion, preferring

the political scene was illustrated by a contemporary account published by Angelo Tasca

r

that would

years later. "For everybody was hoping to make use of Fascism: Giolitti , to push the Social­

/who previously

ists into the government, the conservatives to keep them out, employers and landown­

Iwith an anti­

ers to liquidate working-class syndicalism, the monarchy and the Vatican to buttress the

Itti's ministers,

established order. They all relied on Fascism as a temporalY ally which could easily be

participate in

dis posed oflater. The economic crisis coincided with a political one ... for everybody was

ist insurrection

hoping to make use ofFascism."3 Public opinion was not concerned about the fi'agility

ecided not to

of Italy's democratic government. Although Morandi never supported the violence that

Id have author­

brought Mussolini to power, and in general was against what Fascism came to represent

;cists and their

-conformism, male chauvinism, rhetoric , totalitarianism, and war-it was clear that his life, like the lives of many of his friends, would settle into an ambiguous position of

iolitti to return

compromise and adaptation. Few understood (or, as Morandi would say years later, didn't

in Vichy "to

want to see) the impact that Fascism would have on their evelyday lives. I remember

5er for Giolitti.

being uncertain on one occasion whether Morandi was telling a joke or describing an

I

6, who was

actual event that someone had related to him: "During Fascism one could always pick out

ition that Mus­

an Italian abroad, because he was continuall)! twitching, looking over his shoulder to

lilan, learned

make sure that no one from Mussolini's secret police [the OUVRAJ was listening to his

that he could

conversation." But the more than twenty years of Mussolini's regime, the ventennio,

~r's

would be no laughing matter.

~

govern-

Fascists four

,orne only if

Few writers have delved into Morandi's life and circumstances during the ventennio. Many

vised Vittorio

believed iliat Morandi had emerged at the conclusion of the Second World War unscathed

)st of prime

by the wreckage ofFascisl11. The prevailing image is ofan artist who protested against ilie

a government

Fascist regime by retreating into isolation. The anti-Fascist art historian Carlo Ludovico

parts of Italy

Ragghianti , who knew Morandi well, described him as "the very opposite of a political

were young

animal."4 Cesare Brandi insisted that he was a man of no party. And the painter Pompilio

-ans ofVVorld

Mandelli, a student of Morandi in 1929, told me once that "he never wore the black boots required on Saturdays like everyone else."

Morandi and the Novecento

93

Even Francesco Arcangeli, whose I964 biography of Morandi devoted more attention to the interwar years than did any previous publication , maintained that "essen­ tially he could never have been a Fascist."5 Morandi's anti-Fascist reputation has thus seemed unassailable. Most admirers accept the portrait offered by Lamberto Vitali, who met the artist in I927 and who ultimately took on the enormous task of cataloguing his paintings and etchings. He wrote in his I964 monograph on Morandi: "After I920 ... nothing could be clearer [than the fact] that Morandi 'walled' himselfup in the Via Fondazza," the street where the artist lived. And in the "bloodless guerrilla warfare" between Strapaese and the Novccento (new cenulry)-a group ofartists that began exhibiting in shows under that title in the I920S (a politically active grou p, it would become linked with Fascism)-"he was not a partisan for one or the other. .. . As far as [his participation] with the N ovecento, nothing could be less congenial than their rhetorical celebration of political events." Mussolini himselfacknowledged that few works in the Novecento exhibitions recorded political events. Given the confluence of such firsthand testimonials, there had been little rea­ son for people of subsequent generations to examine Morandi's activities under the Fascist regime. That began to change, however, with Luigi Cavallo's I989 Morandi exhi­ bition catalogue, which cited a significant I928 autobiographical article by Morandi that had been published in L'Assalto, Bologna's Fascist weekly. In addition, Cavallo published some of the correspondence between Soffici, Morandi, and their contemporaries, which ,i ncreased our knowledge of Morandi's activities during the latter I920S.6 In I995 Emily Braun published an article illustrating Morandi's connections to the Selvaggi and Strapaese and hence to Fascism.? Meanwhile, in I990 Maria Teresa Morandi gave me her brother's registrello-a personal account book that he began in I927-which explodes the myth of his political and social isolation during the ventennio and situates Morandi clearly within the culture of Fascist Italy. The registrello's existence was mentioned by Ragghianti in I973, but it had never been examined by anyone outside of the Morandi f.1mily. 8 Contradicting Vitali's portrait of a Morandi isolated from the events of the tumultuous years of the ventennio, Morandi's registrello, whose contents have never been fully published, confirms that his intellectual and political itinerary thro~lghout the ventennio was f.1r more complex than had generally been acknowledged. However comforting it would be to believe that he had few links to Fascist culture, Morandi-like many Italian artists and writers-was in fact sym pathetic to Fascism. The registrello com prises a list of the owners of his etch­ ings that he had either sold or given away as gifts (he knew many of the distinguished men listed in his registrello through his association with Strapaese). Morandi began his reg­ istrello after the first group show of the Selvaggio in I927, where for the first time he had exhibited a group of his prints. Measuring tvvelve inches by four inches, the registrello contains more than one hundred lined pages of invaluable information. Morandi devoted one or two pages to each of his etchings. At the top of each entry is a vivid thumbnail

94

ink drawing of the etching to which the page is devoted. These sketches, created from the 'ained that "essen­

printed image after he had pulled his first proof, were an essential part of Morandi's record

tation has thus

keeping. Adamant that his works be seen and understood as "arte pura " (pure art),

berto Vitali , who

Morandi stubbornly persisted in giving them such vague titles as natura marta (still life),

of cataloguing

jiori (flowers), or paesaggio (landscape) . Simply listing these titles would not have allowed

pi: "After 1920 . . .

him to distinguish between individual prints. Alongside each sketch, Morandi entered the

fup in the Via

date on which the plate had been etched and often the num ber of prints that would

Trilla warfare"

appear in the final edition.

t began exhibiting

Early in his career Morandi did his own printing of his etchings, often using

ibecome linked

the press at the Bolognese Accademia. At the start of the process, he would establish the

"al celebration

today's standards. But he almost never printed a complete run . Initially Morandi gener­

r. the Novecento

ally pulled just one or two proofs from a plate. Rarely satisfied with his first print, he would

~his participation]

number of prints in each edition, usually twenty or thirty, a quantity that seems small by

often set certain plates aside; as a result, many impressions of individual etchings were ~d been little rea­

printed years after the plate was first etched. An example is his first etching from 1912 (V.

ities under the

I); unhappy with the result, Morandi set the plate aside. Long assumed to have been lost,

)9 Morandi exhi­

it was found and printed just in time for his major retrospective at the Calcografia in 1948.9

)y Morandi that

Morandi entered the lists of exhibitions to which the print had been sent, the names of

avallo published

those who had purchased it (as well as the price paid), and the nam es of those to whom

)oraries, which

he had presented the print as a gift.

6

In 1995 Emily

~gi

and Strapaese

When Broglio moved to France in 1925, his contract with Morandi had already ended and Morandi was left without a dealer. Serving as his own dealer, Morandi in

Ie her brother's

almost every case was personally acquainted with those who acquired his work, and the

plodes the myth

registrello of etchings confirms his links with many prominent contemporary figures

)randi clearly

who will be discussed in later chapters. The names of painters and poets, philosophers

[973, but it had

of Italy's cultural elite: Italy's gifted intellectuals and talented artists who were attracted

licting Vitali's

to Fascism-some more attracted than others, a few not at aJil- :md who, by 1927, had

and politicians , a nd journalists and ideologues fill the pages. They were a cross-section

fthe ventennio,

joined the Party. Individuals listed in the registrello include artists Rosai and Anton Giulio

'onfirms that

Bragaglia, both friends ofMorandi from his Futurist days; Longanesi and Maccari, whom

:'e complex than

he met after his exhibition at the 1926 Novecento; Giorgio Pini, editor of L'Assalto and later

elieve that he

editor of II Popolo d'ltalia and biographer of Mussolini; Riccardo Bacchelli, a writer and

vriters-was in

friend since his student days who, ,in 1918, published the first major article on Morandi in

rs of his etch­

the Rome newspaper II Tempo; Piero Jahier, a poet who had written for La Voce and the

tinguished men

Futurist magazine Lacerba, and who translated into Italian the poems of Paul Claudel and

egan his reg­

the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson and Joseph Conrad; Curzio Malaparte; Eugenio

irst time he had

Montale, the 1975 Nobel prize winner in poetry who many acknowledge as being the

:he registrello

greatest Italian poet since Leopardi (he is best known for his collection of poetry Ossi di

10randi devoted

Sepio, the first edition ofwhich was published by Piero Gobetti in 1925); Corrado Pavolini;

id thumbnai'l

Raimondi; the poet Giuseppe Ungaretti, whose early Futurist poems were published in

Morandi and the Novecento

95

Lacerba (he wrote a series of poems while on the front lines during World War I; see Chap­ ter 3 epigraph); and the writer Sandra Volta. Among the collectors, dealers, and pub­ lishers named were Pier Maria Bardi, Carlo Cardazzo, and Gino Gberinghelli, as well as Lamberto Vitali, Giovanni Scheiwiller, and Attilio Vallecchi (printer ofLacerba and publisher of La Vraie Italie and II Selvaggio, and an early collector of Morandi's works). Some whose names appear in these inventories were respected art historians, such as Cesare Brandi and Roberto Longhi. Names entered after Morandi received his invitation to exhibit in the 1928 Venice Biennale include those more connected to the ide­ ology and bureaucracy of the regime: Bottai, Cornelio Di Marzio, Antonio Maraini, Oppo, Soffici, and Arturo Tosi of the Biennale commission. Others belonged to the more mod­ erate wing of the Fascist Party: the sociologist Ernesto Codignola, who by the mid-1930S would be involved in anti-Fascist opposition; and Montale, who never joined the party. The murder of the Socialist Giacomo Matteotti in 1924 sparked a crisis that nearly brought down the government. Mussolini condoned the killing, which silenced his most outspoken critic in the Chamber of Deputies. Ironically, in that same year an editorial in Bologna's weekly r:Assalto described the Matteotti murder as "a terrtble and vile deed, [an act] to be condemned not because it was against Socialism, but because it was a plot deliberately aimed at discrediting FASCISM."IO As a result of the murder, some withtn the Fascist Party began to doubt Mussolini's judgment. Mussolini countered by naming a new party secre­ tary, the authoritarian Roberto Farinacci, the most brutal of right-wing zealots and defender of Matteotti's murderers at their trial in 1926. Farinacci's appointment meant that any expression of anti-Fascism would be suppressed, for he imposed a rigid censorship of the press using laws that already had been approved in January of 1925. II Contem ptuous of all modernism , Farinacci had con­ demned the Novecento and would institute the Premio Cremona, an infamous series of exhibitions that began in 1939 and were intended to illustrate what Fascist art ought to be. Giulio Carlo Argan would later write that Farinacci was in the employ ofthe Nazis. Farinacci favored a crude realism in painting and sculpture and believed that art should serve as political propaganda. Morandi called him "the G rand Inquisitor." As late as 1994 the Eng­ lish historian Adrian Lyttelton considered Farinacci "an appalling vulgarian"; even Mario Sironi, an artist with strong ties to Fascism, complained to Mussolini's brother Arnaldo that the "kind ofpaintings admired by Farinacci and his like would fill Italy with crap." 12 The national 1926 Novecento exhibition was Morandi's first opportunity to show his new work since the 1922 Primaverile Fiorentina and to do so to a sophisticated audience in Milan. Margherita Sarfatti -journalist, patron of the arts, and mistress of Mussolini - would organize two Novecento exhibitions, both of which enabled Morandi to gain consider­ able exposure for his art, make valuable connections, and conduct important sales. 13 Shortly after the conclusion of the 1926 Novecento exhibition Morandi began a lifelong

96

[Var I; see Chap­

friendship with artist-writers Mino Maccari and Leo Longanesi , who edited and pub­

lers, and pub­

lished, respectively, the magazines II Selva88io (The Sava8e, or The Wild One, 1924-43) and

helli, as well as

L'ftaliano (The Italian, 1926-42) . M0randi would be a founding member of and active

~a

participant in the loose association of Fascist intellectuals and artists known as the Stra­

and publisher

s).

paese group. His connection with this group did much to rescue him from the ted ,i um

1art historians,

and oblivion of Bologna's artistic milieu. And through his association with the Strapaesani

i received his

he would establish an important network of friends and patrons, some of whom had

~cted

high-level positions in Mussolini's gover~ment.

to the ide­

Maraini,Oppo, ~e

more mod­

the mid-1930s ed the party.

Like many ofille Strapaesani, Morandi was beguiled by MussoJini's promises ofa spiritual revolution that would create a new Italy. Insisting that artists not be margin­ alized from the corporate structure of the state, the Strapaese group believed that excluding them would return artists to their "deplorable ivory towers."14 Oppo was certain that unlike the "old Liberal regimes," Fascism would not allow good artists to be overlooked .

. nearly brought

Fascist reforms in education and politics led artists to hope that the Fascist "revolution"

nost outspoken

would also revolutionize the conservative art establishment. Artists were inevitably

in Bologna's

involved in politics . Most had little choice if they wished to continue to exhibit or to hold

I, [an actl to be

jobs that were under the patronage of the state. Some rationalized that politics no longer

It deliberately

had any meaning once they had compromised themselves and joined the Fascist Party. It

he Fascist Party

was a common joke among anti-Fascists during the ventennio that PNF (Partito Nazionale

.v party secre­

Fascista) could also be an acronym for per necessitafami,gliare; in other words, one joined

s and defender

the party in order to feed one's family. Some called the party membership card the tessera

cism would be

government was to bring him many rewards. Those years during the Fascist era were con­

t already had

tinually full of contradictions; as Longanesi said , "However, the opposite can always be

lacci had C011­

true too." (Eppure,

)Us series of

the late r920s witnessed the creation of several endudng myths about Morandi and his

Irt ought

work, myths that, paradoxically, the artist himself did much to perpetuate .

del pane, the card that put bread on the table . Morandi's own affiliation with the Fascist

to be.

fazis . Farinacci

esempre vero anche iJ contrario.)1'i It is not surprising, therefore , that

By 1931, Morandi would write sadly to his friend Soffici that the artists of

,uld serve as

Mussolini's new Italy had all the defects of the artists of the old Italy, and that he had little

1994 the Eng­

hope that things would ever change for the better. By then Morandi 's initial enthusiasm

"; even Mario

for Fascism had been transformed into indifference, though never into opposition. Giorgio

other Arnaldo

Castelfranco (who had purchased the only painting that Morandi sold from Giosi's show

lith crap." 12

in 1919) would later write: "By 1930 the majority ofItalian intellectuals tolerated the Fascist dictatorship .. . they were attached to the routine of everyday life as they went ahead

show his new

with their work . .. . From a political standpoint, this was an amputated ethos, but one

nce in Milan.

that could be lived with in order to make survival possible.",6

llini-would

After a promising debut at the Primaverile Fiorentina in 1922, Morandi had

in consider­

returned to a rather lonely, uneventful life in Bologna, where he played no role in the offi­

ant sales. IJ

cial artistic circles. While younger, less talented, and more conservative artists were

an a lifelong

invited to exhibit locally and at the Venice Biennale, Morandi was ignored by dealers and

Morandi and the Novecento

97

official sponsors alike. But that began to change three years later when, in June 1925, Carlo Carra -then art editor of the Milan newspaper L'Ambrosiano-published an article praising Morandi as Bologna's best contemporJry painter: "One of the few young artists who knew how to resist the catastrophic storm of pseudo-traditionalism that broke out over Italy for a while after the war. An angry Morandi stands in the middle of it, yet .. . stands high above the obscene resurrection of the Academy."'7 Carra was the first to point out Morandi's isolation in Bologna, his disagree­ ments with his teachers, and their lack of support. It could have been Carra's article that prompted Margherita Sarfatti to include Morandi in her upcoming Novecento exhibition, scheduled to open in Mila n in February 1926. Early in her career, Sarfatti, like Mussolini, had been a staunch Socialist. She wrote about art for Avanti, the Socialist newspaper. But by 1918 she was also writing about art for Mussolini's newspaper, II Popolo d'/talia, and she remained a dedicated Fascist from 1922 until 1938, when the racial laws enacted against Jews forced her to leave Italy. Yet it was chiefly her intelligence and devotion to art that first drew artists into her orbit. Of those who exhibited in her Novecento shows few had any particular commitment to illustrating Fascist political themes . As the respected art historiJn of the Novecento, Rossana Bossaglia, wrote, the Novecento artists "did not believe they were creating the basis for an art ofa Fascist state,,,,8 but they did believe their art was the one that truly represented the art of their cen tury. The actual number of Noveeento exhibitions has generated considerable confusion. Although the ambitious 1926 Novecento, fully tided Prima Mostra del Novecento

Italiano (First Exhibition of Italian Art of the Twentieth Century), was the first Novecento that was national in scope, Sarfatti organized five Novecento exhibitions in all between 1922 and 1929. The first exhibition, held in Milan in 1922, was called II Gruppo dei Pittori del'90o

(Novecento) (The Group of Twentieth-Century Painters) and included seven painters who had litde in common except their promotion by Sarfatti. Carra, scandalized because of their appropriation of the word Novecento, reviewed the exhibition in his column on the arts , describing the artists as pretentious and bizarre for implying d1at they were the only true representatives of the new cennlry. To the surprise of many, Mussolini spoke at the opening of Sarfatti's second exhibition in 1923, and, as "one artist to another," he claimed he could not govern without art or artists.'9 Giuseppe Prezzolini, a respected literary critic and a former vociano (a term for those who wrote for La Voce) , was so captivated by Mussolini that he described him as the first Italian statesman ever to show an intelligent appreciation of contemporary art.20 The larger 1926 Prima Mostra del Novecento Italiano, held at the Palazzo della Permanente in Milan in February, was intended explicitly to encourage young modern artists, and Sarfatti envisioned it as an annual event. Participation in the Prima Mostra del

Novecento Italiano was "by invitation only." A total of 140 invitations were sent out to artists representative of all parts of Italy, and

114

artists accepted . Mussolini again lent his

prestige and support. He inaugurated the show in the name of the king and delivered an

, in June I925,

introductory speech, written by Sarfatti. The speech was published in its entirety in II

dished an article

Popolo d'/talia (February 16, 1926), and in II Regime Fascista with the deliberately provocative

~w

young artists

title "Mostra '900: Arte fascista?" (The '900 Exhibition: Fascist Art?). Mussolini noted,

mat broke out

seemingly without surprise, that apart from a Futurist painting by Balla titled A Noi, none

die of it, yet . ..

of the works on view referred to "the events of War and Fascism in which we partici­ pated.,,2! Likewise, Sarfatti 's catalogue essay focused on art, not politics . She wrote of her

la, his disagree­

desire to present an "overview of the best of [Italy's) young contemporary artists ... in

'a's article that

our most dynamic and modern city-Milan." She also emphasized that the show was not

:ento exhibition,

intended to riva l any of the major exhibitions held in Venice or Rome. 22 In this first

like Mussolini ,

national Novecento 1926 exhibition (bllt the fourth ofSarfatti's Novecento shows), most

;t newspaper.

artists were represented by no more than three works , and with few exceptions the cata­

polo d'/talia, and

logue illustrated only one entry by each artist. From these illustrations it would appear

laws enacted

that a wide variety of styles were on view, but only a few abstract paintings. The majority

tl devotion to art

of the artists favored an old-fashioned naturalism that seemed to be an Italian answer

lto shows few

to European artists seeking an alternative sollltion to the cosmopolitan avant-garde. Land­

.s the respected

scapes, self-portraits, and religious subjects were among the subjects presented at this

rtists "did not

1926 Novecento. Among the exhibiting artists with whom Morandi was already acquainted

did believe their

were Edita Broglio, Carra, de Chirico, and Osvald Licini. Religious subjects on view included a painting titled The Trinity by the former Futurist Gino Severini, and a sculpture

Dnsiderable

called Jesus Condemned to Death by Maraini. Five of the artists who participated in the exhi­

tra del Novecento

bition would exhibit with Morandi at the first Selvaggio group exhibition the following

ovecento that

year: Nicola Galante, Achille Lega, Evaristo Boncinelli, Rosai, and Soffici.

ween 1922 and

Morandi showed three works: a landscape, a self-portrait, and a still life. The

ittori del'goo

landscape that he sent to the Novecento exhibition (V. 108) is similar to, bllt less inter­

s who had little

esting than, another painting completed around the same time (V.

Ise of their

is a landscape of a pink farmhouse with no human being in sight; the shadows of the

1I1

on the arts,

llO ,

1925; fig. 6.1). It

strong summer light that fallon the house make the painting seem almost abstract with

the only true

its horizontal zones of monochromatic tonalities. The second work was a sensitive self­

'at the opening

portrait of the artist sitting at his easel and wearing a hat, his face obscured by shadow

~

claimed he

(V. 96, 1924; fig. 6.2). Morandi 's third work was a small still life with an adventurous use

erary critic and

of scale (V. 64, 1921; fig. 6.3). It was unlike anything else in the exhibition. The painting

)y Mussolini

comprised but three objects, with two of them occupying most of the canvas-a white

It appreciation

caife latte bowl resting on its side, and a blue and white striped vase, which looks like a detail from a Doric column . A knife that is barely visible forms an oblique angle to the

Ilazzo della

table 's edge, and the artist's bold signature runs like a banner a long the upper border of

::lung modern

the painting. In thi s s till life, the scale of everyday objects has been dramatically altered,

Mostra del

and in its own way it anticipates the monuments to ordinary objects that Claes Oldenburg

1Q

t out to artists

lin lent his d delivered an

would construct more than half a century later. Carra, in his laudatory review of th e show, chose to illustrate Morandi's still life on the arts page of L'Ambrosiano, together with works by Oppo, Rosai, Soffici , Tosi,

Morandi and the Novecento

9

6. r

Landscape with Pink Houses, 1925. Oil on canvas, 18 x 13 in. (46 x 32 cm). Pinacoteca di Brera. Bequest of Emilio and Maria jesi. [Y. 1I0]

6.2

Self-portrait, 1924.

Oil on C;I1lVJS, 18 x 16 in. (47 x 4[ em) . Private Collection.

Photograph courtesy of the Galleria dello Scudo. [V. 961

6.3

Still Lije, 1921.

Size and location unknown . [V. 641

6-4

Still

Life, '920.

Oil on eanVJS, '9 '

20

in. (49 x 50 em).

Dusseldorf; Kunstsammlung, Nordrhei n-Westftlen. Photogra ph by Luea Carra . (Y. 53)

and Adolfo Wildt. (Tosi and the sculptor Wildt had been members of the exhibition's exec­ utive committee, as were Achille Funi, Pietro Marussig, Alberto Salietti, and Mario Sironi.) Although those artists might not have noticed Morandi 's three paintings at the exhibi­ tion, they could not miss seeing his small painting that was illustrated next to their own works on a page in Carra's review. Significantly, Oppo, Soffici, and Tosi would later help fi.lrther Morandi's career. Even more propitious for the artist was the fact that Mussolini himself paid 600 lire for one of Morandi 's paintings , probably the small still life that Carra reprinted and that is now lost. This was the least expensive painting in the exhibition. By way of comparison, a canvas by Licini, the only other Bolognese artist in the show, cost 850 lire, and a painting by Carra sold for 3,400 lire; only etchings were priced lower (as little as 425 lire). Mussolini's purchase nevertheless marked the first official acknowledgment of Morandi 's work. A few years later, the artist would note on a job application that Mo oil paintings of his had been purchased by "his excellency Mussolini."23 Three of Morandi's stilllires from I920 and I92I feature a different composition and use of light in each. A painting from I920 (V. 53), a work with various objects on a white table­ cloth, is seemingly an example ofa "return to order" that was prevalent in postwar Europe during those years (fig. 6.4). The composition is a clear, orderly arrangement a nd an accomplished rendering of the different elements gathered for this work- a glass decanter and goblet, the two small dinner rolls , a knife, a little blue decorated Chinese vase, and a white cafre latte bowl-and demonstrates that Morandi was also an accomplished "aca­ demic" painter. In an entirely different vein from this rath er stilted painting is V. 57, a still life with a Rembr;mdtesque golden glow enveloping four objects: a tennis ball, a round canister, a white bottle, and a cafre latte bowl (fig. 6.5). Its Metaphysical lighting is the same th at Morandi used in the etchings of the Natura morta con pane e 1imone ofI92I (see fig. 4.12) and the Garden in the Via Fondazza (see fig.

I. 3)

of I924, as wen as in an oil pa inting

of Morandi's Garden in the Via Fondazza from the same year (V. I02, I924; see fig . 6.12).

I02

The 1920S were productive years for Morandi . In 1921, when he and the other Vl1lori P!astici artists gained international recognition, he created twelve new paintings and ten etchings, many of them searching explorations of light and form. Forms seem to disappear in a still life now at the Brera Museum, Milan, a painting that was not publicly exhibited until a year after Morandi's death (V. 58, 1921; fig. 6.6). In the seeming absence of light in another still life (V. 59, 1921), eight objects lying on a tabletop are fused into a single huge, dim, earth-colored mOllnd that contrasts with the terra-cotta background. A small still life once owned by Carlo Carra depicts a voluptuous seashell, a fragment of

a vase turned upside down (a shell-like form itself), and, edging the left side of the canvas, a fragment of a second vase that is barely distinguishable from the background (V. 62, 1921; fig. 6.7). In two small stii'! lifes of1921 Morandi subtly counterposed an orange amphora with a blue vase , altering their scale so that he could create new shapes in the negative spaces between them (V. 63, V. 65; figs. 6.8, 6.9) (V. 65 was once owned by the l\ilario Siron i.)

artist Francesco Messina) . Both paintings, especiall), V. 65, in which the form of half of

at the exhibi­

the amphora has dissolved into the background, are masterful examples of the ambiguity

'xt to their own

offigure and ground that one finds in the best of Morandi's stilllifes.

)randi's career.

d 600 lire for and that is now

Ilnparison, a

d a painting by e). Mussolini's

1di's work. A

ings of his had

tion and use of white table­ ostwar Europe ent and an glass decanter

,e vase, and a

nplished "aca­ gis\l.57,a s ball, a round hting is the

:- 1921 (see fig.

t

oil painting

fig. 6.11). 6.5

Still L(fe,

1920.

Oil on ca nvas,

12

x 17 in. (30 x 44 em) . Morandi Museum, Bologna.

Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [V. 57]

Morandi and the Novecento

!O3

6.6

Still Life with Shells, 1921. Oil on canvas, 19 x 23 in. (49 x 58 em). Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Bequest of Emilio and Maria Jesi. [Y. 58]

6.7

Still Life with Shell, [921. Oil on canvas , 9 x 13 in. (24 x 32 em). Private Collection. Photograph by Luca Carra. [v. 62J

6.8

Still Lijl, 1921.

Oil on canvas, 14 x 16 in. (36 x 41 em ). Locatio n unknown. [Y. 631

6·9

Still Llfe. 1921.

Oil on canva . 17 X 20 in . (44 x 50 em ). Ludwig Museum, Cologne. [Y. 651

A landscape of a single house represents a Morandi most minimal and most modern (V. 66,1921; fig. 6.ro). Encroaching trees surround the facade of the dOOl'less, windowless house, which torms a powerful white shape that is neither a square nor a rhomboid. The golden light in this work recalls the opalescence of Morandi's pittura meta­ fisica paintings. The artist did not want to sell this work, which he gave to his sister Dina and which is now in the Morandi Museum in Bologna. Between 1922 and 1924 Morandi completed several innovative flower paintings (V. 71, 1922; V. 90 and V. 92, 1924). Perhap~ the most innovative is V. 71, in which abstract shapes, autonomous in themselves, exist as masses of color rather dlan as representations of the actual flowers. I.n 1924 Morandi painted one of his most powerful stilllifes-a dark composition now in Milan's Civic Museum of Contemporary Art (V. 100; fig. 6.II). Foreboding and lugubrious, this is one of Morandi's great paintings of the 1920S but was rarely exhibited before 1974 (eleven years after his death). This still life also marks the first appearance of two bright, lemon-yellow Persian bottles, here placed on either side of the canvas, as if guarding its perimeters. (Morandi continued to paint these yellow vases many times right up until his death, but they are never once painted the same way.) Except for one of the Persian bottles, which he covered with a dark cadmium yellow (nearly the color of burnt corn), Morandi turned his back on conventional lighting in this picture. Instead he wrapped the objects in a dense fog of warm, dark umber that establishes a melancholy mood. Another notable painting of 1924 is a view of Morandi's backyard garden from the window in his second-floor studio (V. 102; fig. 6.12). The eerie golden tonality that bathes the garden recalls the light in certain paintings not only by Rembrandt but also by the American painter Albert Pinkham Ryder. This canvas, once owned by Malaparte, was not exhibited publicly until sixteen years after Morandi's death. Over the next five years Morandi would alternate between academic stilllifes such as V. 1I4, 1926 (fig. 6.13) , or the Larne Still Life etching from 1928 (V. 46), and adventurous works such as Dark Still Life (V. roo) or a 1929 still life (V. 144) in the Brera, in which the objects seem to

be enveloped in a sandstorm. The Novecento exhibition proved to be a commercial success. A collector herself, Sarfatti was acquainted with many wealthy patrons, and her close association with Mussolini gave her much power in the art world. 24 With his continued support she had been able to ensure artists that money would be available for the purchase of their works. Sales amounted to almost 300,000 lire, one third ofwhich came from public funds. Many of the works sold were destined to hang in municipal museums or government offices. The show nevertheless drew harsh criticism from Ugo Ojetti, the right-wing art critic for Milan's most prestigious paper, II Carriere della Sera (Morandi disliked the critic for his reactionary views). Ojetti, who would later proclaim that social and moral issues should take precedence over artistic ones , complained that the Novecento exhibition had neither a clear program nor a unifYing style. Such artistic diversity, of course, had been one ofSarfatti's original goals.

Morandi and the Novecento

107

6.10

Landscape, 1921.

Oil on canvas, 13 x 12 in. (33 x 29 em). Morandi Museum, Bologna. [V. 66)

6.11

Dark Still Life, 1924.

Oil on canvas,

20

x 24 in. (50 x 60 cm). Civieo Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan.

Collection ofBoschi-di Stefano. [V.

6.12

100]

Morandi's Garden in the Via Fondazza, 1924.

Oil on canvas, 13 x 17 in. (33 x 42 cm). Collection ofJda Maramotti Lombardini,

Albinea, Reggio Emilia. Photograph courtesy of Achille and Ida Mar3motti. [V.

102]

Meanwhile , Sarfatti's ambition and success had begun to irk two powerful and politically well-connected artists who also exhibited in her Novecento show: Oppo and Antonio Maraini. Both held high positions in the Italian regional artists' organizations, which were long-standing associations that arranged exhibitions for painters and sculp­ tors. Oppo would ultimately preside over a new artists' union from Rome and Lazio, and Maraini would head the Tuscan artists' union. The two men were determined to take control of both the Venice Biennale and the newly formed Sindacato Nazionale di Belle Arti (National Union of the Fine Arts).25 Oppo and Maraini's opposition to Sarfatti had eliminated her plans for an annual series of Novecento exhibitions. In 1924 Sarfatti organized a third exhibition under the Novecento label at the Venice Biennale for six of her artists who exhibited there as an independent group. In her essay for the Biennale

6.13

Still Life, 1926.

Oil on canvas , 23 x 23 in. (60 x 60 em). Collection of Alberto della R.agione . Photograph by Amonio Masotti. [V. II41

110

I< two powerful and

catalogue (page 76) Sarfatti apologized to Carra and other artists who were angry because

, show: Oppo and

the "Painters of the Twentieth Century" had "captured the name of the century for them­

I ts~ organizations ,

selves," and she abandoned that title for her artists. Sarfatti, encouraged by the success of

pamters and sculp­

her national 1926 Novecento exhibition, made plans to bring a Novmnto Italiano show to Rome the following year, but the event never took place. Instead a much smaller exhi­ bition, Ten Artists of the !talian Novecento, was held; among those artists participating was Virgilio Guidi. Sarfatti requested that "her" Novecento artists once again exhibit as an inde­ pendent group at the 1928 Venice Biennal~, but Oppo and Maraini were eager to curtail her power, and her request was denied . Three years would pass before the fifth-and final- Novecento exhibition in Milan in 1929. This Novecento proved to be far more conservative than its predecessors. Mussolini served on the "honorary committee," together with two highly placed govern­ ment officials-Giuseppe Bottai (Minister of the Corporations from 1929 to 1932) and Augusto Turati (Secretary of the Fascist Party from 1926 to 1930)-as well as Marinetti and Ojetti. Whereas the rules governing the 1926 Novecento exhibition required only that exhibiting artists be residents ofItaly, those invited to the 1929 show had to be "artists of Italian nationality," as stated in rule five of the exhibition catalogue. And in contrast to Sarfatti's text for the 1926 exhibition, her 1929 catalogue essay carried a political tone, asserting that "these courageous artists are like sentries of the avant-garde ... Fascist in their cultural and political life. " Of the 130 artists invited to participate,

IIO

accepted. The Futurists were

notably absent, as were Amerigo Bartoli, Anselmo Bucci, Fortunato Depero, Leonardo DudreviUe, Oppi, and Enrico Prampolini. Commenting on struggles for power in the art world, the painter Alberto Salietti noted the "confusion in the artistic field . The Academy tugs from one side, the Sindacati from another, the young from theirs, and everyone pulls against the Novecento. ,,26 Despite their rivalry with Sarfatti, however, both Oppo and Maraini again sent works to the 1929 exhibition, as did Morandi and several of his fel­ low contributors to Mino Maccari's magazine, II Selvaggio. Maccari and Leo Longanesi showed drypoints and drawings; Achille Lega, Rosai, Pio Semighini, Quirino Ruggieri, and Soffici showed paintings; and Morandi exhibited both etchings and paintings. The Selvaggio group's decision to participate had been neither immediate nor unanimous. A letter from Rosai to Soffici dated October 24, 1928, questions whether tl1e Selvaggio artists ought to boycott the 1929 Novecento or whether they ought to insist upon exhibiting together to demonstrate the importance of their group. Soffici's reply makes clear what the Novecento meant to the Selvaggio group at that time and, perhaps, to other artists as well: "The point is to exhibit, and the way things are right now, there is no better Italian [artistic] organization ... in this way they [the Selvaggi] can show peo­ ple how superior they are ... for the Novecento is still much better than [the] Venice [Biennale], where one still sees Tito and Bistolfi [leading conservative artists ofthe official establishment], who continue to dominate the scene there .... Make sure that Morandi and

Morandi and the Novecento

III

Maccari understand how much good it would do them to exhibit there ... [e]specially Morandi who should take this opportunity to prove once and for all, who he is.,,27 Reviewing the 1929 Novecento exhibition in II Selvaggio, Sandro Volta observed that all of the best painters in Italy were exhibiting there with the exception of Giorgio De Chirico, whom, he said, foolishly chose "voluntary exile ." Volta also chastised the influential critic Ojetti for failing to take notice of"Ottone Rosai and Giorgio Morandi, two painters who by themselves would be enough to justif)' our entire era.,d Despite such praise, the paintings that Morandi exhibited were among his more academic. A case in point is a 1928 etching (V. 46), a still life that is similar to the painting V. 128. The com­ positions seem merely an inventory of twelve forlorn and useless objects-a cigarette case that his sister Dina had brought back from Tunisia, broken teapots, used canisters, pitchers, and strange oil lamps-all frozen in a gloomy atmosphere. Like certain other stilllifes that Morandi exhibited between 1926 and 1929, both carefully composed works lack excitement; the objects in it do not pulse with that secret inner life Morandi gave to his more successful works. Rule seven in the catalogue for exhibiting artists in the 1929 Novecento authorized the selection committee to visit artists' studios to choose the works for the exhibition. The preferences of the committee reflected a proclivity for the academic; one suspects that Morandi might have held back his more unconventional works from the people on the Novecento committee, and from those private visitors who came to his studio, perhaps because he was uncertain about the artistic choices he was making. After all, many of his most interesting works were shown only once or twice during his lifetime, some not at all until years after his death. Often, when his more daring works were displayed, they were largely ignored or misunderstood. Historians such as Leonardo Benevolo have col1lmented on the limited contact of Italian artists and architects with the European avant-garde during the 1920S. On this subject Arcangeli wrote: "Artists and critics were living, let us not forget, in an ambience that Fascism had, if not totally segregated (that would be saying too much), certainly isolated from the sources of the avant-garde: surrealism and abstraction [which] had barely reached the Italian scene. "29 An autarchic Fascist regime encouraged this isolation; for example, Morandi's student Pompilio Mandelli recalled that, when he was a student at the

/iceD artistico (high school) in 1929, it was rare to see foreign art magazines for sale in bookstores. These circumstances led to a certain provincialism in the works of some Ital­ ian artists during the late 192os-including many by Morandi. A few of the paintings that he produced after 1925 couId be described as being close to the art of the provincial Italian nineteenth century, the ottocento, a period Morandi often declared that he detested. Gauging from the paintings that he sent to exhibitions during this period, Moral1di tended to waver betvveen exciting new combinations offorms and colors and almost aca­ demic conclLisions. The latter assessment of his work was reinforced at the 1929 Nove­

II2

· . [e]specially o he is.,,27 '0

Volta observed

:ion of Giorgio [) chastised the ~io

Morandi, t\.vo

cento, where Morandi exhibited some of his more conventional paintings and prints and where abstract forms created by manipulating light and scale were often absent. Never­ theless, Morandi did produce many interesting and unconventional paintings between 1925

and 1929. Critics and members oEthe art-viewing pubLic today, however, have a distorted

picture of Morandi 's oeuvre because some of Morandi's most innovative paintings are

8 Despite such

in private collections and are seldom available for public viewing at museum exhibitions.

jemic. A case in

A few paintings from the late 1920S and 1930S received cruel criticism and contemptu­

'. 128. The com­

ous reviews, possibly because they were so far ahead of their time. Perhaps for this reason

l a cigarette case

Mora.ndi made little effort to exhibit these works again, and many were rarely seen in

,ed canisters,

public until after his death. Among them are three innovative landscapes of images of

ke certain other

Emilian farmhouses and orchards executed in the summer of !927 (V. 122, V. 124, and V.

r posed works

125). In these works, Morandi manages to transfer to the young fruit trees something

Morandi gave to

ofthe tragedy of the daily human drama. They parallel the fierce expressionism ofChaim Soutine (a contemporary with whose works Morandi was not familiar at the time), as does a 1928 painting of a bunch of chrysanthemums placed on a table near a window, so

authorized the

thickly painted as to seem three-dimensional (V. 128) . Of these, only the chrysanthemums

exhibition . The

were exhibited at the 1939 Quadriennale, anc! that painting was not shown again in a

suspects that

public exhibition.

~

e people on the

;tudio, perhaps

Because of Mussolini's patronage, many critics and art historians writing after World War 1I assumed that the culture of the Novecento exhibitions was reactionary and

all, many of his

deeply Fascist. Yet many ofthe works from those exhibitions made no political statement,

ne, some not

and only a few paintings reflected the neoclassical style later associated with official

displayed, they

Fascist art. In a letter to Sarfatti, Roberto Farinacci , the former Fascist party secretary who

limited contact

anti-Fascist. He explained that while Fascism was Italian , "the Novecento was inspired by

was openl}f hostile to modern art, accused her and her Novecento movement of being ~

[920S.

On this

in an ambience

a degenerate strain of German art ... it's over for the Novecento, it's not Italian."30 Various artists defended Sarfatti's Novecento and her internationalist point of

:h), certainly

view, among them Sironi in his well-known article "Enough" (Basta) published in II Popolo

hichl had barely

d'ltalia. Party members, including Morandi, Maccari, Longanesi, and Oppo, were among

s isolation; for

the artists opposed to the very idea of a Fascist style. The right-wing extremists who ulti­

a student at the

mately did promote the idea of a Fascist style d,id not turn for inspiration to the artists of

es for sale ill

the Novecento , whom they scorned as too modern, too international, degenerate-and

'ks of some Ital­

even anti-Fascist. Branded as a decadent artistic current of French and German origin by

:he paintings

men such as Farinacci, the Novecento exhibitions came to an end in Italy in 1929,31

[the provincial

Morandi's relationship with Sarfatti and the N ovecento was probably one of

lat he detested.

expedience. Sarfatti was a catalyst for bringing modern artists together. She created a

od, Morandi

venue to exhibit for those not tied to the conselvative official establishment and organized

md almost aca­

a structure for public acquisitions and sales. After the exhibition of the Primaverile Fiorentina,

he 1929 Nove­

her exhibition was the first major national venue where Morandi could, in her words,

Morandi and the Novecento

113

show his work "in our most dynamic and modern city," Milan. Bologna offered neither interest nor opportunities for him (Morandi and Licini were the only artists from Bologna to receive invitations to Sarfatti's 1926 Novecento); Morandi had not as yet been invited to exhibit at the Venice Biennale. At the 1926 exhibition Morandi garnered the respect ofSoffici and Tosi, two older and more established artists, and he had the opportunity to meet Oppo and Maraini. A new group ofMorandi fans also exhibiting at the 1926 Novecento was formed-Nicola Galante, Achille Lega, and Evaristo Boncinelli, along with Rosai and Soffici-and, I

together with Morandi, they would exhibit under a new banner, that of Maccari's Selvaggio clan. That same year Bottai would have suggestions for "what the state can do for art."3 2 Participation in the Novecento exhibitions, as Soffici would point out to Morandi, was simply an important place for young artists to show their works; few of Morandi's friends had received invitations to exhibit in the Venice Biennale, which before 1926 was still dominated by artists in the conservative Italian establishment-those "savages" that Savinio alluded to earlier. As Carra remarked in his laudatory review of the 1926 exhi­ bition, Sarfatti's intent was to display Italy's new art by including works in a variety of styles and depicting diverse subject matter. A pamphlet published in 1937 noted that the Novecento "was never a movement like Futurism, for it didn't have an organized agenda or program.... What the [Novecento] artists had in COmmon was a variety of techniques and many [almost] contradictory styles-but they al]] believed that they represented the 'new' [in art]."33 For Morandi and other artists, procuring a teaching position or participating in state-sponsored exhibitions would soon become conditional on Fascist Party mem­ bership. The power of the unions expanded during this period not only for the artists (there had always been regional artists' organizations for exhibition purposes), but also for Italy's professionals, almost all of whom by now had joined a workers' union . An artist had to be a party member to be eligible to participate in the Confederazione dei Profes­ sionalisti e degli Artisti (Confederation ofprofessionals and Artists)-and one first had to possess a certificate of "good conduct" to be eligible to join the Fascist Party. The Confederazione dei Professionalisti e degli Artisti included architects, engineers, musi­ cians, journalists, writers, painters, and sculptors. At one time this Fascist union had more than 425,000 members.3 4 The Sindacato Nazionale di Belle Arti became an inde­ pendent unit, and we know that Morandi already belonged to this union in 1929.35 In 1930 a spin-off from the Sindacato was formed-the Sindacato Nazionale di Be'lle Arti: Sezione Bianco e Nero (Black and White Section) -to include only those artists work­ ing in prints-etching, engraving, lithography, lino, and woodcut. Morandi joined this union in 1932, at which time membership had become obligatory if one was to be eligible to participate in the union-organized exhibitions.3 6 Despite the fact that right-wing Fascists accused Sarfatti of "x en omani a" and belittled her Novecento exhibitions because they had not given rise to a truly national

I14

a offered neither

art, Sarfatti continued

to

organize Novecento Italiano exhibitions abroad into 1932 in France,

:s from Bologna

Finland, Germany, Switzerland , and Argentina. Morandi participated in four of these

~t

international shows.37 As patronage increasingly shifted

been invited to

to

a more secure and stable state,

a trend in which Oppo and Maraini played powerful roles, Sarfatti would lose her posi­ ci and Tosi , two

tion in the art world. A few years later Longanesi would observe that she had become a

'po and Maraini.

liability to Mussolini: "Sarfatti is in full decline. Mussolini doesn 't want

formed - Nicola

around any

to

see her

more."3 8

;offici-and, Iccari 's Selvaggio .n do for art." 12 o Morandi , was )fMorandi's before 1926 was ose "savages" Dfthe 1926 exhi­ in a variety of l7 noted that the :anized agenda ety of techniques bpresented the or participating st Party mem­ the artists (there ), but also for mion. An artist ne dei Profes­ nd one first had .t Party. The 19ineers, musi­ st union had ecame an inde­ in 1929. ~5 [n 'Ie di Belle Ani: ~

artists work­

ndi joined this as to be eligible enomania" and uly national

Morandi and the Novecento

ll5

Talking about things that are understandable only weighs down the mind and falsifies the memory, but the absurd exercises the mind and makes the memory work.

- Alfred larry, Ubu Roi Artists must not only be part of the government, but they must set its tone and direction; because who better than the artists can represent the soul of the nation and the people? - Mino Maccari, II Selvaggio

Unlikely Friendships: The Selvaggi and Strapaese Morandi's Strapaese years (1926- 29) were among his happiest. This seems to have been a time in his life when he sincerely believed that artists could effect change by partici­ pating directly in politics. Strapaese was born in Bo!logna in June 1926, created by two artists who were also writers-Mino Maccari and Leo Longanesi. With them Morandi formed the warmest, most affectionate, and longest-lasting relationships that he would ever have with anyone outside his immediate family. It was through his close friendships with Maccari and Longanesi and the Strapaese group that Morandi eventually found his place in the symbiotic web of artistic patronage and favors in Fascist Italy. Important arti­ cles about his art would be written by four of the Strapaesani (as members of the group were called) : Achille Lega, Maccari, longanesi, and Ardengo Soffici. Strapaese was the name of the umbrella group for the artists and writers ofrI Selvaggio , LAssalto, L'ltaliana, and others. It was the Strapaesani who helped Morandi to obtain jobs that were tied to the new Fascist government's sponsorship of the arts, including his appointment to a teaching position at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Both Maccari and Longanesi were early supporters of Fascism and personal friends of Mussolini. The two writers first became known to him through their contribu­ tions to Mussolini's II Papala d'ltalia, Giuseppe Bottai's Critica Fascista, and Gherado Casini 's La Rivaluzione Fascista. I In 1921, the sixteen-year-old Longanesi had seen Mussolini cheered by thousands of admirers crowded into Bologna's main piazza. Fascinated by the charis­ matic leader, Longanesi joined the Fascist Party that year. Maccari, who was seven years older than Longanesi, had participated in the 1922 "March on Rome." But as early as 1924

7

he watched in dismay as Mussolini came more and more to resemble the "despised politic.ians of the old regimes": making deals with the bourgeo isie and the industrialists, forgetting those who had first supported him in the Fascist "revolution." In a I924 issue of II Selvaggio Maccari lamented: "il Duce has proclaimed that we will never turn back­ but we wonder, when are we going to move forward?,,2 An independent spirit, Maccari was expelled from the Fascist Party in June I925 for publishing in the Florentine La Rivoluzione Fascista an article accompanied by a linocut cartoon that mocked government corruption . The Fasci st prefect of Florence immediately

•

sequestered the offending issue and, calling Maccari an eyesore for Fascism , expelled him from the party. Welcomed back a year later (he would be expelled again in 1932) , Mac­ cari was ordered not to write about pobtics, but only about art. In March I926, appointed sole editor of II Selvaggio, he announced the birth of a new II Selvaggio and, in an article titled "Goodbye to the Past" (Addio al passato), protested that " [t]here is nothing [we can write about] but art" (non d~ che I'arte) . He also added, sarcastically, "Today, not just anybody is allowed to talk about politics-talking about politics is an art, reserved only for those [bureaucrats] in the government-leaving no place for us who are mere party members."3 Although Strapaese would always be in conflict with the Regime, it had no conflict about being loyal Fascists. (After World War II, Ragghianti described Maccari and his Selvaggio group as part of aftonda and openly opposed to the Regime. In a discussion with the author in I993, N. S. Onofri, an historian of Fascist journalism, implied that fronda was a postwar invention.) Strapaese, a word coined by Maccari , refers both to an imaginary Italian rural never-never land and to a loose association or league (Iega) of rebel­ lious, anti-bourgeois, elitist nonconformists, most ofwhom were university graduates. Maccari situated Strapaese: "A little below Florence, a little above Siena-it doesn 't appear on any map , but that won't bother us , we'll make room for it! Strapaese has its own way oflife. [If] the cities don't want us, [if] tile countryside is being destroyed ... we'll create a country just for people like us, and to spite those in large cities ... we'll call it [our own countryJ-Strapaese."4 By describing Strapaese and the Strapaesani perhaps we can understand what drew Morandi so closely to this faction of Fascism. Remaining loyal to what they perceived as Fascism's original morality and integrity, the Strapaesani opposed certain actions and policies of the Fascist regime: the centralization of power in Rome and the kind of mass culture that Mussolini was imposing on the country in an effort to achieve "unanimity" and modernize Italy. Mussolini proclaimed himself head of state. His final justification for abolish­ ing all civil liberties and suppressing every political party except the Fascist Party followed the last of four attempts on his life, which took place in Bologna on October 3, I926. By then, both Mussolini and Farinacci were ready to extinguish any political opposition. 5 Even before the dictatorship had been established, in January I926 Longanesi mischie­ vously printed (in the third iss ue of his magazine l'ltaliano, dated February I6, 1926) a dic­ tum making fun ofMussolini that is still remembered today: "Mussolini is always right."

1I8

Nearly twelve years would pass before Longanesi would be censured for that remark. In 1938 Giorgio Pini, editor of Bologna 's L'Assalto, the official weekly magazine of the Bolog­ nese Federazione Provinciale Fascista, accused Longanesi of having done more harm than good for Fascism: "By inventing a motto that made fun ofMussolini, he made us all look ridiculous. ,,6 This was the political climate surrounding the birth ofStrapaese a few months after the 1926 Novecento exhibition had closed in Milan. Maccari, fearful that his mag­ azine might be the next journal to be suppressed under,Farinacci's new policies of rigid censorship, traveled from Florence to Bologna to organize with Leo Longanesi and others what he would call "the great fight"-how to evade the censors and 'keep their magazines afloat. Longanesi and Maccari, who were, respectively, eight and fifteen years younger than Morandi, adored him and courted him. Nicknamed the "nani di Strapaese" (the dwarfs ofStrapaese) by Curzio Malaparte because of their stature, Maccari and Longanesi captivated Morandi with their energy and wit. The three made quite a picture as they strolled around Bologna: the two pixie-like young men, each barely five feet in height, on either side of the tall and skinny Morandi, who was six feet tall. Their lifelong friend­ ship made the Strapaese years into a time of tremendous conviviality and fun for the artist. He helped to recruit artists and writers for both II Selvaggio and L'ltaljano and even took a hand in their design. This was particularly the case for L'ltaliano, which was regarded in its day as one of the most elegant and sophisticated magazines published in Europe. Onofri recalled the publication as a testing ground, an incubator of ideas. One writer caJJed Longanesi the "most outspoken representative of dissent. "7 From 1926 to 1932, II Selvaggio and L'ltaliano between them published the first extensive articles about Morandi's work and illustrated thirty-four of his etchings and drawings, more than had ever been reproduced up to that time. Energized by the support of Maccari and Longanesi, Morandi was highly productive during the Strapaese years, as both printmaker and painter. In 1927 he created thirteen etchings; in 1928, fourteen; in 1929, sixteen, the most he would ever produce in a single year. Between 1927 and 1930, Morandi worked on a total of fifty-six etching plates. Maccari took on the challenge of circumventing the censors, employing satire and burlesque to expose the paradoxical absurdities of daily life in Fascist Italy. When he traveled to Bologna in June 1926 he had two purposes in mind: to recruit artists and writers for the new /I Selvaggio and to urge Longanesi, whom he had met in 1924, to join with him in the fight against right-wing zealots in art and politics. Longanesi had recently started the magazine L'ltaliano, and Maccari feared that Longanesi's new journal might cave in to th e pressures that Farinacci was imposing on moderate independent factions within the Fascist Party. Both Malaparte's La Conquista dello Stato and Gherardo Casini's La Rivo/Llzione Fascista, for exa mple, were about to be closed down, and it seemed that II

Selvaggio might be next. According to Longanesi, each issue of the magazine ran the risk

Unlikely Friendships

IIg

of being sequestered. Thus it was no casual encounter when Morandi toasted the new II

Selvag.C)io and participated in the founding ofStrapaese one evening in June. In planning this meeting Maccari had asked Longanesi to bring like-minded men to gather at a local tavern, the Osteria della Bella Venezia. Longanesi brought Raimondi (a former editor of the now-defunct magazine La Ronda). Raimondi in turn brought his friends: Morandi, Cardarelli (anti-Fascist, anti-Catholic, and publisher of La Ronda), and Mala parte. The painter Ottone Rosai was also present at that first meeting. 8 Bacchelli and Carlo Carra (contributors to Raimondi's magazine La Raccolta in 1918-19), as welt as Lega and Camillo Pellizzi (a close friend ofLonganesi who was about to befriend Morandi), joined the group later. 9 These politicaHy minded individuals formed the nucleus of the band of artists and intellectuals known as the Strapaese. By 1926 newspapers that opposed the government were shut down , and those still printing were advised to publish information, not criticism. New laws allowed the government to sequester magazines and newspapers and to discipline journalists, who could be expelled from the Fascist Party for acts of "disobedience," as Maccari and Lon­ ganesi were to discover. The newly organized Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti (National Journalists' Union) advised that the press was a political instrument whose mission was to serve it Duce and the party. As early as 1923 Mussolini had begun to issue la velina­ Fascist journalistic jargon for a daily directive from Mussolini to Fascist newspapers that journalists follow his choices ofwhich news items to publish and which to suppress. 10 Mussolini attempted to change much in Italian society-including the Italian character, which he found frivolous. Even though Mussolini encouraged tradition and the rituals of folklore, he directed veline at some of the issues especially dear to the Selvaggi, who were decidedly in favor of keeping the "old ways." One velina censured "regionalism," which represented the "dregs left over from the centuries of d,ivision and bondage in the the old Italy" (la vecchia Italia) and prohibited editors from pub'l ishing "articles and poetry in dialect, because encouraging literature in dialect rather than Italian goes against the spiri­ tual and political orders of the Regime."ll Nevertheless Morandi enjoyed speaking in the Bolognese dialect and watching plays and the puppet shows performed in it. Another velina that concerned women's fashions stated: "Drawings and pho­ tographs that show unnaturally 's kinny' woman like those from decadent western cul­ tures should not be published. Fascist women must be portrayed as healthy-looking [and] capable of becoming mothers in order to produce healthy children." " One wonders what Morandi, who never married, thought about the taxes instituted on bachelors (the clergy were exempt), as the Fascist state entered into every aspect of people's lives. Morandi was aware that customs and mores that were important to him were being discarded and replaced by a vulgar conformity, and Morandi was no conformist-perhaps an ele­ ment of nonconformity was what kept him at the side of I Selvaggio Much about "la vecchia Italia" appealed to Morandi. The veline directed against la vecchia Italia expressed the contradictory idea that things could be both modern and traditional. However, these para-

I 20

lasted the new Il

doxes and ambiguities were always part of Italian culture-as one writer, Berto Ricci,

ne.

explained in 1932, Italy'S history has always been full ofcontradictions: "Those who want

ng like-minded

to make everything depend on tradition ... have forgotten that tbe Italian tradition has

ught Raimondi

been [at the same time] both Catholic and heretic, monarchic and republican .... Those

urn brought his

who can't accept this would have to erase half of our history. Or you take in all of it, or

La Ronda), and

you [had better believe that we] have to create a new tradition." 13

.8 Bacchelli and

Strapaese sought to reform Fascism, not to bring about its demise. In particu­

•

9), as well as

lar, the Strapaesani were critical of the corruption among government employees. They

friend Morandi),

despised the new class of money-grubbing bureaucrats in Rome, a city they scorned as the

~ucleus

embodiment of pompous political manifestations, conformism, corruption, and power.

of the

Instead they idealized the countryside, which served as a metaphor for the traditional

fOW"' ,"d tlw"

and uncorrupted moral values that they sought to preserve. Men like Corrado Pavolini­

rvs allowed the

author of books about Marinetti, Cubism, Futurism, and Expressionism, and a contri­

ournalists, who

butor to II Selvaggio-saw many of the contradictions inherent in this unorthodox position .

.ccari and Lon­

Pavolini was afraid that the Strapaesani wanted to turn Italy into one large rural cultural

nalisti (National

province, an island against anything foreign and avant-garde. He questioned the Stra­

~

paesani's intentions, whom he believed wished to undermine Mussolini's goal of trans­

mission was

ssue la uelina­

forming Italy from an agricultural nation into a great industrial and modern one. The

newspapers

Strapaesani, he wrote, were wrongheadedly determined "to preserve Italy from the culture

h to suppress. IO

ofthe avant-garde," and Pavolini believed that II Seluaggio's attitude was symptomatic of

:alian character,

a mentality tbat was reaching dangerous proportions in Italy. They seemed determined

nd the rituals

"to make Italy into a nation as seen through the macrocosm of a tiny Tuscan village. ,,14

'aggi, who were

On occasion, their enthusiasm for Italianita (values tied to race and country) resulted in

!lism," which

hostility toward European art and literature and led some of the Strapaesani to promote

:e in the the old

the worst kind of provincial chauvinism. While some critics during Fascism maintained

md poetry in

that the best of Italy'S modern artists and writers were affiliated witb Strapaese, others

;ainst the spiri­

argued that many such artists and writers were backward and provincial. Both assertions

peaking in the

contained some truth; a number of former contributors to magazines with such different

1

it.

agendas as La Voce, Lacerba, Valori Plastici, and La Ronda were regular contributors to II

;ings and pho­

Selvaggio and rltaliano, and eventually to rAssalto, even though they were well aware that

. western cul­

they were unlikely to be paid for their articles. As Maccari remembered , "We never earned

'-looking [and]

a penny working for Fascism." (Noi il fascismo si faceva gratis.)'S

ne wonders

Despite their differences with the Regime, the Strapaesani did not refuse the

bachelors (the

rewards that Rome offered to those who accepted the new status quo. Their backing was

; lives. lYlorandi

crucial to Morandi, because many had connections in Rome, which had become "the judge

19 discarded

and supreme dispenser offavors and concessions .. . the political class in power, those

crhaps an ele­

who wanted what was best ran to those who could best support them. The road for an

lout "la vecchia

'arte di regime' was thrown wide open. For those who refused to enter the race, ... the

(pressed the

most they could do was slyly play at equivocal games; or withdraw to secluded places . ,,16

'er, these para­

Morandi, at some point, did just that.

Unlikely Friendships

121

Requiring subsidies for their magazines, Longanesi and Maccari (together with Malaparte and Bottai) tried to take some of the power away from the still-powerful Farinacci and went directly to Mussolini in Rome shortly after the founding ofStrapaese. It was, as Longanesi wrote Pellizzi, "a waste oftime."'7 Nevertheless Mussolini offered the editors ofL'ltaliano and II Selvaggio desperately needed financial support only if they confined their criticism to anti-Fascists and not to the Regime. I8 Having been warned by Mussolini himself to avoid politics and to concentrate on art and literature, Maccari and Longanesi understood that they would have to be carefu~ about the content of their mag­ azines. Neither was willing, however, to sacrifice the right to criticize the Fascist regime. /I Selvaggio and Lltaliano thrived on controversy, often printing what many thought but were afraid to say aloud. It was during those years that a correspondent for the London Daily

Express likened Italy to a cemetery, where no one dared to talk politics. Wary of the censors, Longanesi asserted with tongue in cheek that L'ltaliano would show that despite Fascism's many distasteful aspects, he was about to create an agreeable one. Longanesi envisioned his magazine as a catalogue of information abo ut the world and believed that by criti­ cizing the defects of the bourgeoisie he could express his dislike of the vulgarity of the Regime. Maccari in turn despaired that "Italian journalism is so full of standard cliches that it has become monotonous and hypocritical ... and with few exceptions so immoral ... that, when /,I Selvaggio tells the truth, it is implied that we are part of the opposition."19 The complex history of both magazines mirrors the baffling contradictions of the Mussolini era. Although Maccari and Longanesi were loyal Fascists, their continued criticism of the Regime put II Selvaggio and L'Italiano at risk. Macca ri already understood that a vicious faction of Fascism believed that II Selvaggio was too liberal and insufficiently orthodox. In the May 1928 issue of II Selvaggio he wrote: "Why was rAssalto so astonished when /I Selvaggio was no longer cited in the Bibliograjiafascista?" Government censors cut parts of articles in both magaz ines , and at times the police removed entire issues of both maga zines from bookstores and libraries . Maccari commented ironically that the local cara­ binieri were waiting to censor Jl Selvaggio while it was still being set in type. No wonder that when he wrote to Oppo in 1927, begging for material to publish, Maccari urged him to hurry because by ne xt year "there might not be any Selvaggio to write for. ,,20 Yet until 1931 Maccari and Longanesi continued to receive subsidies from Mussolini; in one year Lltaliano received

36,000

lire and /I Selvaggio received

24,000

lire. In fact, Mussolini enjoyed reading

their magazines . In a 1927 issue of II Selvaggio Maccari wrote: "It has been brought to our attention, by reliable sources, that our 'Ouce' laughs like crazy while reading II Selvaggio . ... We are happy to bring some good humor to our Capo, because that's part ofStrapaese's program. But even if [il Ouce] finds things to laugh about while reading between the Jines of II Selvaggio, he will find much that will make him cry. .. . We don't want il Ouce to cry, but we do expect him to read between the Jines." Recalling Mussolini 's much­ repeated comment "I will give a prize to any Italian who tells me the truth, even if it

I22

bcari (together

hurts," Maccari observed ironically that "for many years, the Selvaggi have been waiting

he still-powerful

patiently for that prize.""

I1g ofStrapaese. ~ussolini

offered

[n 1926 Morandi still shared the optimism of many artists and intellectuals about Italy's

lort only if they

future under Fascism. Certainly it seemed a promising moment for Italian a rtists. For

been warned by

despite the restrictions on the press, the Fascist regime (unlike the Nazis or the Stalinists

e, Maccari and

in Russia) tolerated -or at least did not officially discourage-a wide range of expres­

:nt of their mag­

sion in the arts. Still, reactionaries like Fa rinacci and Ojetti favored the neoclassical or

Fascist regime.

Roman imperial figurative traditions and rejected any form of modernism in art or archi­

hought but were

tecture . Maccari, a native of Siena, was certainly familiar with the Lorenzetti brothers'

Ie London Daily

fourteenth-century frescoes of Buono e Cattivo Governo (Good and Bad Government) in Siena's

~, ofthe censors,

town hall. While artists at that time bad not been active of the government, in the April

bpite Fascism's

1928 issue of1l Selvaggio Maccari imperiously and a bit naively wrote: "Today's artists . . .

.nesi envisioned

must set its [the government's] tone and direction ; because who better than artists can

] that by criti­

represent the soul of the nation and the people in the government?"

vulgarity of the

andard cliches

Maccari advocated an even more important role for artists, imploring Mussolini to create a cabinet position for them. Mussolini did not, but when Oppo was elected in

ions so immoral

1929 as a representative to Parliament, he urged Fascist politicians

e opposition." 19

great and noble strength within Fascism. In a speech to his fellow members of Parliament

I1tradictions of

in 1930, Oppo cautioned against accepting any kind of bad art merely becau se it was

to

respect artists as a

eir continued

Italian . Urging Italy to open its borders to the works of international artists, he encour­

understood that

aged Italian artists and others not to fear the influence of foreign art, for, as he pointed

nsufficiently

out, "if we had been intransigent in former times, Giotto would never have been allowed

oso astonished

to build the campanile [bell-tower of Florence's catl1edraJ] in the Gothic style."" Always a

lent censors cut

strong supporter offreedom for modern artists, Oppo quipped that for artists to return

issues of both

the imperial Roman style would be like trying to fight a modern war with Caesar's legions.

atthe local cara­

to

Morandi's first benefit from his association with Strapaese possibly came

fo wonder that

shortly after the group's first meeting, when he was appointed regional inspector of ele­

urged him to

mentary schools for the mountain regions around Modena and Reggio Emilia. This

o Yet

until 193 1

official government position lasted only one year and was the most congenial job that he

le year [Italiano

had held thus far. It was one of many created by the renowned sociologist Ernesto Codig­

Ijoyed reading

nola, who, with Mussolini's Minister of Education Giovanni Gentile, instituted one of

brought to our

the most important school reforms in Italy since the Risorgimento. 23 Among those who

: II Selvaggio . ...

might have recommended Morandi for this job were his fellow Strapaesani Longanesi

~Strapaese's

and Peilizzi, both close friends of Codignola. Another possibiliry is that Codignola him­

letween the

self had met Morandi through his brother-in-law, the artist Roberto Melli , an organizer

t want il Duce

of the Rome Secessione and , briefly, Broglio's partner in the Valori Plastici magazine.

ini's much­ ,even ifit

As inspector Morandi went from village to village in Emilia several days each month to evaluate and write reports on the effectiveness of rural schoolteachers in carrying

Unlikely Friendships

123

out the government's new educational programs. To reach isolated v,illages far from any train station, Morandi would cover long distances on foot, which also meant hiking through snow in the middle ofwinter. As he made his rounds Morandi was often fed and sometimes lodged by parents of the local schoolchildren. With dry humor he described to the author how he would be given a bowl of hot sheep's broth, "so thick with fat that the on ly way to drin k it was to pour in a halfliter ofwine to cut the grease." Through his association with the Selvaggi and the Strapaesani Morandi made

.

contact with many of the most interesting artists and literary figures in Italy. Giorgio Pini, the editor ofL'AssaHo, included him among his list of the "best of the young Fascist intellectuals." Morandi's indebtedness to them is evident in the brief autobiography pub­ 'Ii shed in february 1928 in L'Assalto.24 Morandi was the only Bolognese artist among the forty-three artists and writers whom Pini had asked to submit an autobiographical essay. Morandi found himself in distinguished company; among those who responded were lBacchelli, Bottai, Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Casini (the editor ofLa Rivoluzione Fascista), Telesio Interlandi (who wrote for II Selvaggio and who later became the editor of II Tevere and founded the anti-Semitic and racist magazine La Difesa della Razza) , Lega (who would write a moving article aboLit Morandi in II Selvaggio), Maccari, Malaparte, the sculptor Antonio Maraini, Francesco Meriano (the former editor ofLa Brigata), Alessandro and Corrado Pavolini, Pellizzi, Romano Romanelli, Rosai, Soffici, Mario Timi, and Sandro Volta. The complete list constituted an impressive roster of young Fascist intellectuals. (Bolognese academics in li terature and those connected to the Accademia di Belle Arti letters were notably absent.) Pini urged this select group to take part in the project and explained: "[W]e haven't asked everybody, so we do insist on your participation." He requested contri­ butors to explain how their faith in Fascism had been formed, what effect the events of the past few years had on their intellectual work, the reasons for their loyalty to Mussolini, and their future plans. Some of the essays openly criticized the Regime, for although L'Assalto was the official magazine of the Fascist Party the Bolognese faction maintained for a limited time some independence from Rome's central authority. A week after Pini had published Morandi's autobiography (with his portrait, which had been drawn by Maccari), he published an etching by Morandi, winning Mac­ cari's praise: "[T]oday, in fact, it takes courage to value the authentic simplicity, the genuine strength of the art of the new Italy.,,2 5 In 1984, when t"vent)' of the forty-three essays from LAssalto were reprinted, the editors acknowledged their difficulty in finding parts ofsome of the autobiographies because the "censors' scissors" had removed them; a few essays had disappeared altogether when their authors were punished or expelled from the party. like Bragaglia, Morandi had hoped that the Fascist revolution would bring about that total renewal of the Italian artistic milieu. In his autobiography Morandi described how backward the artistic situation had been when he was growing up and focused his criticism on the suffocating provincialism of Bologna and on his former

124

ges far from any

teachers at the Accademia. Maligning both in equal measure he declared his loyalty and

meant hiking

devotion to Florence and to the intellectually stimulating Selvaggio group. Morandi

as often fed and

complained that his training at the Accademia had proven totally useless once he left

r he described

school: "Very little of what I learned there could be put to use in the kind of art that I'm

ck with fat that

making today. Like many other concerned and sincere young men, I believed that it was

~e. "

necessary to bring about a total renewal of the artistic atmosphere in Italy. From the time

i Morandi made

I was a student I learned that tlle best lesson was to have tlle strength to forget whatever

Italy. Giorgio

I had been taught [at the Accademia] and 'trust my instincts and go forward on my own.

e young Fascist

Of all the cities that I have visited for my art, the one to which I am most drawn to is

)biography pub­

Florence, that's where I am the happiest and where I have friends with whom I sJure a

ist among the

certain spiritual affinity. I could relate to tlle old masters because they were always inspired

graphical essay.

by looking at 'nature.' Among the old masters, the Tuscans, Giotto and Masaccio, were

'ponded were

the painters I found most interesting.... [T]he legitimate heirs to the great Italian tradi­

Fascista) , Telesio

tion (among the moderns) were Corot, Courbet, Fattori and Cezanne."26 He also men­

'IJ Teuere and

tioned the importance of Mario Broglio and the exhibitions he had organized, and he

'ho would write

acknowledged the critical value of articles and works by Carra and Soffici not only to his

~ulptor

artistic formation, but to otllers as well. As almost an afterthought, and without answer­

Antonio

and Corrado

ing Pini's question about how his faith in Fascism had been formed, the most striking

1dro Volta. The

comment in Morandi's autobiography was his acknowledgment that he "had much faith

Ils. (Bolognese

in Fascism from its beginnings-faith that never wavered even during its most sad and

ti letters were

tern pestuous days." 27

plained: "[\N]e

His 1928 essay would prove one of the few occas,i ons in which Morandi wrote

ested con tri­

anything about himself. Rarely do his personal letters refer to people or events other

: the even ts of

than those of a purely business nature. Almost thirty years later he declined Edita Broglio's

y to Mussolini,

request to contribute to the catalogue accompanying a posthumous exhibition to honor

Jr although

her late husband Mario, with the explanation: "As much as I would like to, you know that

'n maintained

I never write anyiliing.,,28 Morandi may have come to regret his contribution to L'Assalto

h his portrait,

suppress. There was no ambiguity about Morandi's declaration about his faith in Fascism.

winning Mac­

The reprint caused a furor among those (this author included) who believed him to have

because it describes a chapter in his life that he-and many others-later preferred to

plicity, the

been a staunch anti-Fascist throughout his life and who agreed with Vitali's conviction

Ie forty-three

that Morandi isolated himself from tlle political and cultural events during Fascism witllout

tlty in finding

ties to any particular group. In postwar Bologna tlle painter Pompilio Mandelli (Morandi's

lloved them;

student at the Liceo in 1929 and a former director of Bologna's Accademia) insisted that

I or expeJJed

it was Longanesi and not Morandi who had written that essay.29 Nonetheless, the repub­ lication of Morandi's autobiography, together with the names in his regli strello, left no

would bring

, Morandi

doubt that a Pandora's box had been opened about Morandi 's life during the ventennio. A few weeks after tl1e first meeting oftlle Strapaese group in June 1926, Morandi

wingup and

gave Maccari several etchings for publication in II Seluaggio. On September 7, Maccari

his former

published Morandi's tiny but highly sophisticated Natura morta con pane e I'imom in his

Unlikely Friendships

125

magazine (V. 13,1921; see fig. 4.12). One of the great etchings of the tvventieth century, the work is barely one inch deep by little more than three inches across-scarcely larger than a postage stamp. in September Longanesi also published in L'Italiano a landscape etching by Morandi, The Chimneys of the Arsenale (V. 12), also from 1921. Not since 1918, when Raimondi had illustrated Morandi's 1915 Futurist etching (see fig. 4.4) in La Racwlta, had a print of his been reproduced in a magazine. Even though II SelvaIJgio and L'Italiano appeared irregularly, Maccari and Longanesi would publish at least one of Morandi's etch­ ings every year between 1926 and 1932. Until then few knew that Morandi, now considered one of the great European printmakers, had made any etchings at all. It was through II

Selvaggio and, to some extent, L'ltaliano that Morandi's prints became known to a large audi­ ence. In bct, his exhibition schedule in Florence during 1927-five exhibitions in eight months-gives a clear picture of Morandi's intense professional activity encouraged by Maccari during just one of the Strapaese years. Just three months after the founding ofStrapaese, Maccari announced tbat II

Selvaggio would sponsor an exhibition in Florence of the best of contemporary Italian drawings. Seven artists participated in this Mostra Permanente a Valorizzazione del Disegno Italiano, which opened in October 1926: Maccari himself, Carra, Nicola Galante (in 1919, Galante also exhibited with the Sei di Torino) , Lega, Morandi, Rosai, and Soffici (all but Maccari had exhibited in the 1926 Novecento). Still without acknowledgment from the artistic establishment of Bologna, and still without a place to exhibit there, Morandi welcomed the admiration and exhibition opportunities that Maccari presented to him in Florence, and he joined Maccari's new Selvaggio group. A few months later, in February 1927, Maccari, following Soffici's advice, moved from Siena and opened his own gallery in Florence, calling it the Stanza del Selvaggio. Its inaugural exhibition was conceived on a grand scale: eighty-two paintings, sculptures, and drawings by twelve artists from Milan, Turin, Tuscany, the Veneto, and the Emilia-Romagna. In addition to Carra, Galante, Lega, Maccari, Morandi, Rosai, and Soffici, others exhibiting there were Evaristo BoncineLli, L. Camporesi, Longanesi, Quinto Martini, and Pio Semeghini.3° At the Stanza del Selvaggio Morandi showed some etchings and two paintings described in the catalogue as Self-Portrait and Flowers in a Vase . The exhibition proved to be of great importance to Morandi's career; because of it he met Bottai, who, along with Soffici, would become collectors of his work. Bottai, a former Futurist poet who had been a student of the art historian Roberto Longhi when he taught in a high school in Rome, was by then a high-ranking official in Mussolini's government. Bottai attended the open­ ing both as a representative of the government and as a close friend ofMaccari. He deliv­ ered the inaugural address, titled "Arte e Fascismo" (Art and Fascism), which echoed Mussolini, who four months earlier at the Perugia Academy of Fine Arts asserted that "we must create a new art of our times ... a Fascist art."3 1 Arguing for unity in tl10ught and artistic expression, Bottai insisted that "art must be unified with politics and work together to create a standard of Italian ita-a direction that can represent the new Italy, an art

126

tieth century, the

that does not imitate any foreign school. "32 Indeed, Bottai's Critica Fascista had initiated

rcely larger than

discussions about the possibility of establishing a Fascist art. (Longanesi, however, dis­

lI1dscape etching

cussed this in L'Italiano on December 24, 1926, writing that Bottai's id eas about a Fascist

ce 1918, when

art were, literally translated, "a bag offoolishness" [un sacco di fesserie], or, perhaps more

I

La Raccolta, had

appropriately u'anslated, "for the birds.")33 At that opening Maccari introduced Morandi

and L'Italiano

to Bottai, who the following year expressed interest in acquiring some of Morandi's etch­

fMorandi 's etch­

ings. Soffici arranged for Bottai to purchase two etchings, vaguely described as House in

now considered

Shade and Still Life, at a total cost of soo lire. At that time Morandi's monthly stipend for

was through II

his teaching was 300 lire.

n to a large audi­

rtions ill eigh t I

encouraged by

Maccari complained bitterly that nobody came to see his Selvaggio exhibition. Stung by this lack of interest, and by the indifference of the local Fascist Party, he pub­ lished an article in 1928 titled "Quarentena" (In Quarantine), asking if II Selvaggio was being placed in quarantine by the party, because the magazine was being accused of fighting

rnollnced that II

against Fascism.34 There were no reviews of the exhibition as a whole, but a few months

Iporary Italian

after the show closed, Lega , one oftlle younger exhibitors, published an important article

:ione del Disegno

about Morandi in the July 1927 issue of II Selvaggio. Praising his work for its refreshing

'alante (in 1919,

lack of rhetoric in a period of "vulgarity and bad painting," Lega described Morandi as

Soffici (all but

"the best and strongest of the present generation of painters ... who paints with a consci­

~ment

entiousness ... indeed rare in these difficult times. Morandi's vision is exquisitely new

from the

ere, Morandi

.. . extremely poetic and sincere, unlike some artists, who even though th ey have nothing

;ented to him in

to say, keep on painting anyway." Lega reassured his readers that Morandi worked in

!r, in February

the "good [that is, Italian] tradition."l)

is own gallery in

After participating in the inaugural show at the Stanza del Selvaggio, Morandi

, conceived on a

was ready

s from Milan,

Moderna (Second International Exhibition of Modern Etchings), which ran from April to June 30,

Galante, Lega,

1927, at tlle Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Florence. No print show of this caliber had been

o

to

take part in another exhibition, the I/a Esposizione Internazionale dell'Incisione

o Boncinelli, L.

seen in Italy since the first International Exhibition of Modern Etchings in 1914. The 1927 exhi­

two paintings

establishment. Although Maccari had played no part in its organization, he encouraged

bition was a mixture of diverse schools and styles, including some from the academic j

ion proved to

Morandi and other Selvaggio artists to exhibit with him there . Maccari himself framed

vho, along with

Morandi's prints for the exhibition, and in the room where they were hung he installed

who had been

a banner inscribed "II Gruppo del Selvaggio." In a letter to Morandi, Maccari proudly

:hool in Rome,

announced that their group was "unique among all those other artists like tl1e de-carol is

nded the open­

[sic] [ti'om the establishment] for we are the only ones who will not disgrace Italy. "3 6

:cari. He deliv­

Morandi exhibited five etchings; altl10ugh it is not known ifhe made any sales, Maccari's

rhich echoed

portrait of Morandi sold for 100 lire. The next important exhibition of etchings, the Prima

serted that "we thought and

Iwork together

Italy, an art

Mastra deIl'Incisiane Italiana Mod erna (First Exhibition ofModern Italian Etdlillfjs), would take placc in 1932, but participation would be limited to Italian artists. Maccari also pushed Morandi to participate in exhibitions arranged by tl1e local Fascist artists' union. Thus at the same time tl1at Morandi 's etchings were on display at

Unlikely Friendships

127

the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, he also exhibited in the IlIa Mostra Sociale del Sindacato Fascista

Toscana, Arti del Disegno, which opened in Florence in April 1927 at the Galleria dell'Accad­ emia. Maraini, the regional secretary of the sponsoring artists ' union and a member of the selection committee, supposedly helped fund this exhibition. The following month Morandi participated in yet another group show at th e Selvaggio gaJlery. At the time only a tiny circle ofItalian connoisseurs-most notably Lamberto Vitali-had any interest in contemporary Italian prints. When Oppo reorgani zed the Fascist artists' union ih 1929 he suggested that Carlo ~berbo Petrucci head up a new union of printmakers. This became Sezione Bianco e Nero, which, under Petrucci, would promote exh ibitions of co ntemporary Italia n artists and try to find collectors to buy their prints. Morandi's exhibitions with th e Selvaggio group, as well as his appearance in the international print exhibition , earned him his first invitation as a printmaker (he still had yet to be invited as a painter) to the Venice Biennale in 1928. (Soffici was on the selection committee, as was Arturo Tosi; Morandi entered both their names, with gifts of etchings, in his registrello that year.) In addition to four Morandi etchings-a sti'" life and three landscapes-that were hung on the walls of this exhibition, a portfolio of etchings, five stilllifes, and one landscape was also on view. Morandi had never before exhibited so many etchings. In these works he used simple lines to create landscapes or stilllifes that resemble tapestries full of textures and patterns. Included in the 1928 Biennale was a tiny etching from 1922 (V. 18) of a pine cone set clos e to the broken frag­ ment of a vas e lying on its side. He also exhibited an etching from 1924 (V. 22) with an unusual composition ofwildflowers with staccato-like daubs of bright lights. These flowers, snuggled into leaves, are placed in a trial1gular ceramic container; the forms of the flowers and the ceramic container flow into each other so that figure and ground become one. All four landscapes that Morandi exh ibited in the 1928 Biennale had been etched in 1927: House in Shade (V. 33); Hous es with Great C~press (V. 34); HOllses and

Ha~ stack

(V. 35); and an untitled summer landscape (V. 32) that was published in the February 1928 issue ofL'Assalto. In this print the majestic facade of a single white house that nearly fills the etching plate is bisected diagonally by the full summer foliage of the surrounding trees and the shadows that they cast. The final two etchings shown at the Biennale were the Bouquet ofChr~/santhemums (V. 41 , 1928), a rarely seen print whose surface quivers with the points of light made by the flowers against their leaves , and a still life of 1928 (V. 50) (Morandi incorrectly dated the painting 1917). The com position of this work is the same as his great painting Of19I6, the Metaphysical Still Life with Three Objects (see fig. 4.1). Judging from the dated entries in Morandi's registrello, his debut at the 1928 Biennale proved to be a financia'l success. Mussolini bought several of the etch­ ings that had been exhibited, as did Oppo, who served on the exhibition advisory committee. The Museo di Arte Modern a in Rom e acquired twelve etchings from this Biennale, and the Museo Interna zio nale d'Arte Moderna in Vien na and th e Galleria Communale of Pi ace nza each purchased one. Yet Morandi received scant attention in

128

'I Sindacato Fascista

the press: two minor reviews mentioned only his namc , and he was briefly cited by

Illeria dell'Accad­

Corrado Pavolini in II Tevere.

d a member of

Two articles, one by Maccari and one by Longanesi, were apparently conceived

following month

in part as an antidote to Morandi's anti-Bolognese statements in the February L'Assalto.

'.

Maccari's article was published on June 8, 1928, to coincide with the opening of the Bien­

wtably Lamberto

nale . Published in the daily II Resto del Carlino, it was the first major article on Morandi to

Drganized the

appear in a Bolognese newspaper. In December Longanesi published an equally impres­

aup a new union

sive article about Morandi in L'Italiano. Each friend sought to introduce a new and different

I, would promote

Morandi. With nationalism then beginning to verge on xenophobia in Fascist Italy, these

uy their prints.

writers deliberately said nothing of his earlier ties to the international avant-garde that

is appearance in

Morandi himself had acknowledged in his autobiograph), in L'Assalto in FebrualY of that

ntmaker (he

'arne year. Gone was any indication that Morandi was an artist involved in any of the ideas

Dffici was on the

of modern art; he was "one who didn't expect to find anything worthwhile in L'Esprit

mes, with gifts

Nouveau"-the magazine that Morandi had asked Broglio to send him only a few years

ings-a still life

earlier. Rather than characterize Morandi as a painter with connections to French art and

a portfolio of

as someone who never wanted to be identified with Bologna or other Bolognese artists,

lad never before

Longanesi not surprisingly described Morandi as a painter as genuine and as typicaIJy

te landscapes or

Bolognese as the Bolognese bread made with oil-pane con I'olio.

~d

in the 1928

the broken frag­

Maccari, in II Resto del Carlino, praised Morandi for representing "a truly classical world"; he also said that Morandi was a thoroughly Italian painter. All of Morandi's ties

(V. 22) with an

to the European avant-garde were conveniently forgotten. At the end of the year, Morandi

·s. These flowers,

was hailed by Longauesi in the December L'ltaliano as the quintessential artist of Fascist

us of the flowers

Italy, home grown, "self-created" (senza parenti) ; he was born and bred on his own in his

become one.

native Bologna. Ironically, only eleven years later, when Morandi had his first major ret­

ale had been

rospective at the Rome Quadriennale, he was condemned by some as a subversive artist

uses and Haystack

whose art was too European and not part of the Italian tradition.

the February

Maccari urged the public to look at Morandi's work the same wayan artist

Juse that nearly

would, for it is artists who best understand and interpret his work. "The miracle of

he surrounding

Morandi," Maccari wrote, "is that he is able to discover the poetry hidden in the most for­

jiennale were

lorn objects and in the most modest aspects of landscape. He is a painter of majestic

:e quivers with

contemplation, and ... humanity. Because his art is so thoroughly Italian, he makes [others]

)f 1928 (V.

respect contemporary Italian art." Although Longanesi owned Morandi 's fascinating

50)

lork is the same

Cubist-Futurist canvases (V. 13, 1914; see fig. 3.5) and one of his beautiful Metaphysical

'e fig. 4 . 1).

paintings offlowers (V. 26, 1916), and Maccari owned the extraordinary Metaphysical

debut at the

landscape containing two fossil-like trees (V. 30, 1916; see fig. 1.4), neither writer men­

al of the etch-

tioned the importance of French art, Futurism, or the Valori Plastici to Morandi in the years

n advisory

19S

from this

just before and after World War I, when he was struggling to find his voice. Instead, both writers described Morandi as a "pure" painter who developed untouched by any influences,

the Galleria

and Longanesi specifically separated him from the Cubists as well as the neoclassicists.

nt attention in

Together Maccari and Longanesi created a portrait of Morandi as an emblematic Fascist

Unlikely Friendships

129

artist, autonomous and self-created, an Italian who willingly embraced tradition rather than breaking with itY Acknowledging that "the bourgeoisie who live in the heart of Bologna" may disdain such "humble and modest subjects," Longanesi took pains to reassure the Bolognese that Morandi was not the pariah that some in the city might take him for. A tiny man himself, Longanesi likened Morandi "to a giant lost in a city of small men.... When he walks, he looks like an old schooner seen from the prow, wearing his usual shabby hat on the back of his head like a big sail, ... [so tall] he touches the clouds.... In a citytwhere everyone is short and fat, .... a tall and skinny man who [cares nothing for elegance] and goes about in wrinkled and ill-fitting clothes makes a bad impression on those who don't know him.... [EJven though he looks like an anarchist, one shouldn't be afraid ofhim. ",8 Explaining that the bourgeoisie are always afraid of men different from themselves, both writers attempted to rehabilitate Morandi in the eyes of the Bolognese bourgeoisie. In so doing Longanesi and Maccari in fact laid the foundations of what has become the cherished Morandi myth. Even the artist was captivated by this portrait of him­ self When it suited him, Morandi would wrap himselfin the cloak of this invented per­ sona, conveniently forgetting, for example, not only the impact of early modern French art on his work in the years just before World War I, but also the importance of his con­ nections to Carra, De Chirico, and Broglio. A mere six months later, perhaps sensing that Morandi and his art would need defending, Longanesi made a sharp about-face and wrote in June 1929: "We will defend until we die the still life, the three pears, the little draw­ ing, the fragments ... the cubes, the mannequins, the metaJisica and Cubism."39 It was already too late. The portrait of a mythical Morandi that still clouds our understanding of the artist and his art has served both to marginalize him from the central issues of modern European art and to minimize the evidence of his participation in the art world of Fascist Italy. In 1929 Morandi's criticism of Bologna's Accademia di Belle Ani, published in L'Assalto, nearly derailed his efforts to obtain a teaching appointment in the Accademia. Bottai

I

I

had recently designed a Fascist law called chiarafama, which would establish new teaching positions in Italy's art schools, music conservatories, and universities. Passed in January

1929, this law created positions to be given per chiarafama (for outstanding achievements). It was an ingenious law, designed to weed out the deadwood (the "old fogies," as Bottai called them), and it enabled Morandi and others to bypass the centuries-old bureaucratic rules that required candidates to pass competitive exams and climb the tortuous academic ladder in order to gain a professorship. Bottai wanted well-known practicing artists, composers, writers, and poets-even those without degrees or teaching experience­ to be installed directly into tenured academic positions, and his law made this possible. As a result, over the years artists like Carra, Felice Casorati, Renato Guttuso , Giacomo Manzu, Oppo, Rosai, and poets like Quasimodo and Ungaretti, composers like Malipiero,

13 0

tradition rather ~ in the heart of

and writers 'like Pratolini were all awarded teaching positions by the state. Morandi, who was in desperate financial straits after his job as school inspector had ended in I9 :Q, applied

i took pains to

for the chiara fama position that was to be established at the Accadernia to teach etching.

e city might take

~ a city ofsmall

Less than a year after Morandi's autobiography had appeared in CAssalto, Maccari wrote

ow, wearing his

they leave one of our best out in the cold and broke."40 Close friends from the Selvaggio

: touches the

group- Lega, Longanesi, Rosai, and Soffici , -all mentioned Morandi's financial

man who [cares makes a bad

to Pini in 1929: "[Ut's truly ridiculous and pitiful that with all the moralizing one does ,

difficulties in their correspondence.

ke an anarchist,

Only thirty years after Morandi received his appointment to the Accademia did his difficulties in obtaining it become public. 41 When Morandi applied to the Ministry

r/
of Education ,in Rome for the chiara fama position, he was told it didn't exist. Furthermore,

randi in the eyes

if the position did exist, they could accept applications only from those already teaching in the higher institutions of fine arts. Morandi interpreted this reply to mean that some­

s ofwhat has

one objected to him as a candidate for the job. His remarks in CAssalto from the previous

portrait ofhim­

year had naturally infuriated the orthodox artists and engineers who ran the Accademia;

invented per­

moreover, those who had been his teachers probably remembered the trouble he had

nodern French

caused in his student days. He quickly turned to his friends in the Strapaese group who

ce of his con­

had connections to official Rome. Longanesi prodded Oppo, a deputy in Padiament, and

.ps sensing that

Balbino Giuliano, his former high school teacher and now Minister ofNational Education,

out-face and

to use their influence to help Morandi . On October IS, Ig2g, Morandi was advised that

;, the little draw­

the position was temporarily fil'led by Augusto Maiani, who had taught Morandi figure

sm." 19 It was

painting at the Accademia in Ig0g-ro. Morandi held such a low opinion ofMaiani's

lderstanding of

skill as a printmaker that he wrote to Soffici: "[N)ot only has he never made an etching,

)lIes ofmodern

but I'm quite certain he has never seen anybody else make one, eith(l[."4 2 Nevertheless

rt world of

Morandi's friends at court continued their efforts, and in a December Ig2g issue of /l Selvaggio Maccari openly acknowledged the help ofBottai and Oppo, who were working diligently on his behalf.

led in CAssalto, ~mia.

Bottai

Doubtful about his chances at the Accademia, Morandi had also applied for a job at the Bolognese Liceo Artistico, the equivalent of a high school for talented young

:h new teaching

artists. Giovann i Romangnoli, who taught figure painting at the Liceo, told him that he

:ed in January

had been invited to spend a year in the United States and suggested that Morandi apply as

achievements).

his replacement. In a handwritten application dated October 18, Ig2g, Morandi stated

es," as Bonai

that i(the Liceo needed someone to teach figure drawing he was "available." This unpub­

ld bureaucratic

lished document is interesting because of what he omitted, rather than because of what

lIOUS

academic

ticing artists , ~xperience-

. this possible.

he included. Many of the accomplishments that had figured in Morandi's autobiographical essay OfIg28 in L'Assalto were not noted in this application, which he wrote only nine­ teen months later. It is difficult to understand his choices; was it to make himself look as acceptably antimodern as possible to those in power at the Accademia, for they also ran

so, Giacomo

the Liceo? He did not mention his participation in the Ig14 Secessione in Rome, Broglio's

like lv1alipiero,

two exhibitions organized in Germany, the Primaverile Fiorentina, and all of the Selvaggio

Unlikel Friendshi s

[I

exhibitions. He did include his most recent invitation to the I928 Venice Biennale, the Novecento, and the PittsburIlh World Exhibition in 1929, and he noted that one of his paintings hung in the Gallery of Modern Art in Moscow. 4' He also included Acquisti Ufficiali (Official Acquisitions), which referred to two oil paintings acquired by "His Excellency, Mussolini." Having heard no news of the position at the Accademia, Morandi began to teach figure drawing at the Liceo that fall. Finally, in January of 1930 the efforts ofBottai and Oppo at the Ministry of Education paid off. Oppo sent Morandi a telegram inform­ ing him that he had been appointed "per chiara fama"

~o

teach "tecnica dell'incisione" (the

technique of etching) at Bologna's Accademia. (For some reason Morandi ' s graphic work is often incorrectly translated as engraving rather than etching; Morandi used an engraving tool only to widen a line after he etched it-in other words, to make correc­ tions only.) The position was an unusual one, because the class met only one half day each week and left Morandi time to paint. Subsequently that job would be increased to two half days a week. Ensuring Morandi's position at the Accademia would be one of the final achievements of the Strapaesani. By I929, it was already clear that they were trying to defend a vision of fascism that was no longer defensible. Casini likened Strapaese to "a sea­ sonal fruit" whose seJson was over. Dino Garoni wrote that it was necessaty at the time, "it did a lot of good, but now it seems to have lost its punch and is like a barrel rolling down a hill. "44 Having seen the "black shirts become strait-jackets," the Strapaesani were finding it difficult to be both pro-Mussolini and anti-Regime. Maccari had left Florence in 1929 for Turin when Malaparte offered him a job as :.1n editor at the newspaper La Stampa (he was fired within two yeJrs). In I931 Longanesi continued to run L'ltaliano and at the S:.1me time was appointed editor ofL'!\ssalto. After:.1 year and a halfparty officials gave him a choice: eith er resign or they would fire him. Longanesi knew if he didn't resign he could never work again as a journalist, for his membership in the journalists' organi­ zation (Albo dei Giornalisti) would be withdrawn. He decided to take Malaparte's advice to leave "that hole" (quel buco) Bologna and move to Rome. Maccari joined h'im two

years later, and Morandi would see them either when they came to Bologna or when he went to Rome on business and would stay with them. By 1930 Longanesi also acknowledged that Strapaese had ended, and he argued for bringing [taly back into the modern age. He wanted to distance himself from Stra­ paese anQ Soffici's ideas about a F:.1scist art. I-Ie wrote to Pellizzi that he was not only against the idea ofa "Fascist art, . .. but for the last t.ime, [have to say, that our position is not the same as Strapaese's-that means literature about agriculture, contrived and reactionary, etc. They have to understand that we are modern, that we believe in a modern [tall', attached to tradition, but that we don't want to be at the tail end of the rest of Europe. The expansion of industry does not disgust us" (non ci fa schifo).45 Longanesi continued to publish L:ltaliano in Bologna until 1942, but his move to the capital evidently energized him

Biennale, the

and expanded his outlook. As soon as he left Bologna for R.ome, LItaliano began to pub­

Jfhis paintings

lish work by some remarkable writers: Mario Soldati, Dino Campana, Alberto Savinio,

i1ciali (Official

Alberto Moravia, Mario Tobino, and Vitaliano Brancati. Longanesi was the first to publish

cy, lv\ussolini."

Hemingway in Italy; he also published Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and Gogo!.

di began to

(Later, in Omnibus, he published Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, John Steinbeck, Ring

~fforts

of Bottai

Lardner, and D. H. Lawrence.) By 1934, Longanesi's horizons had widened in the visual

Igram inform­

arts as well, for in that year he reproduced Edvard Munch's The Scream on the cover of

incisione" (the

L'ltaliano; and in 1936, he published prints by the German anti-Nazi artists Georg Grosz

Idi's graphic

and Otto DL,\, along with an article mocking the racial laws with which Hitler proposed to

orandi used an

safeguard the purity of the German race. Years later, Morandi recalled that it was in

make correc­

L'ltaliano that he first read Chekhov, Kafka, and Steinbeck, as well as contemporary Italian

Ie half day each

authors like Brancati (whom Longanesi called the "Gogol of Catania"), Moravia, and

~ased to

Anna Banti (Lucia Lopresti), the wife of Roberto Longhi. Begil1Jling with the 1930s, the

two

best ofR.ussian literature was published in his magazine. of the final ~ling

to defend

Morandi turned forty in 1930, at which time he apparently settled into an existence that would become known as the myth of Morandi. From this point the story of

e to "a sea­

his life seemed to be cast from a Pirandello play, as everyone would create their own

ary at the time,

characterization of him. Thanks to Longanesi and Maccari he was able to procure the

larrel rolling

teaching job that he was so eager to have, for it enabled him to paint nearly every day; mean­ while, his sisters were also employed, and so the family managed quite well. Neverthe­

aesani were ~ft

Florence in

less he missed the almost daily companionship and fun that Maccari and Longanesi had brought into his life. Twenty-five years later Morandi recalled to me the nanni di Strapaese

er La Stampa

and, with a glint in his eye reflecting sheer joy, remembered how they would make fun

no and at the

of and criticize the government, il Capo, and Mussolini, as well as how they would laugh

ficials g:1Ve

at themselves-all of which brought out his humor as well.

jn't resign he

;ts' organi­

Iparte's advice

d him two

1 orwhen

he

md he argued

ffrom Stra-

It only against

,ition is not d reactionary,

::Iern Italy, ~ Europe.

ntillued

The

to

lergized him

Unlikely Friendships

In

Fascism brought back and raised the art of painting the human figure to its rightful place as the only true representative of our great humanistic tradition .... [That tradition] was not brought back by those painters of the still life .... Mussolini has declared, "I am tired of bananas and carrots." -Italo Cinti

Mala Tempora Currunt: Bad Times Are Coming

Ever alert to the changes in the policies of the Regime, Longanesi noted that "bad times are coming [mala tempora currunt], and it's wiser for us to put politi cs aside, we can't be critical [of the Regime], so we just have to publish only drawings and bits of literature." [ AltJlOugh Longanesi continued to publish L'Italiano in Bologna, he and Maccari now lived in Rome. As for Morandi, now that the Strapaesani was dispersed he would take an active part in the newly created state-spo nsored Roman Quadriennale exhibitions that Oppo was organizi ng. Also, once he joined the Fascists' printmakers union, exhibitions and sales of his etchings increased. He taught at the Accademia a half-day each week, a nd he would often attend teaching-related meet,ings outside of Bologna. By 1931 Morandi saw Maccari and Longanesi less frequently, their departure to Rome putting an abrupt end

to

the almost daily camaraderie with these Strapaesa ni and

leaving an emptiness in his life. In the late summer Ofl929, as Str3p3ese's importance declined, a haunting introspection and pessimism begin to appear in Morandi's land­ scapes and stilllifes. Abrupt changes were unlikely to occur in the art of someone as con­ templative as Morandi, yet his paintings from 1929 on suggest that the artist had begun seeing in a new way the same objects that he had been painting for more than a decade. It was as if these frumpy, ordinary objects-carefully chosen from the local flea markets rather than purchased a t antique shops- had somehow awakened and revealed their inner life

to

him. Morandi transformed them into free masses of tones and colors in a style

entirely independent of nineteenth-centu ry naturalism. Departing from the reality of their shapes-as is evident when comparing hi s stilllifes with photographs of these objects­

8

he filled those objects with personalities and emotions. Morandi had no interest in rer dering an object's "reality." A painter of deep emotion, he created the still lites from his mind. For Morandi, light and form were tools that allowed him to express the feeling evoked in him by those objects. A 1929 still life (V. 144) represented a major departure through his adventurous use of light that created haunting, ghostlike forms. Each oftl~ painting's five objects, which look as though they have been through a sandstorm, twists into an abstract shape as it dissolves and merges into the shape of its neighbor. Similar!: a landscape pa,imed in the summer of 1929 (V. 150) is imbued with haunting desolation (fig. 8.1). The canvas holds two tiny houses, huddled together and isolated in a field , with nl sign of human activity. The houses, so far from the viewer that one imagines that the artist must have used binoculars to see them, are set into the hollows of the surrounding fields, which seem poised to swallow them up. Even though Longanesi and Maccari were no longer close by, and although Morandi lacked support in his native Bologna, he did not really wish to be "forgotten an a left alone," as he would claim in a letter to Soffici in 1931 (and would continue to say throughout his life).2 In the early 1930S the need for solitude that Morandi had described

in L'Assalto as being essential to his art did not keep him from participating in new ven­ ues or from making new connections. The year 1930 was exciting tor Morandi. Oppo chose him to be on the selection committee tor the new, prestigious Quadriennale exhibition that was to take place in Rome. At the same time, he managed to complete twelve paintings and ten new etchings. The 1930S would be a decade of enormous government-organized activity in the visual arts, and membership in the Fascists' artist union was encouraged. That same year Petrucci, under the auspices of the Sindacato Nazionale di BeUe Arti, organized the first Mostra d'Inrisione del Sindacato (fhe Etchin9 Exhibition of the Union) at the Calcografia in Rome. The union mentioned in this title was the Sezione Bianco e Nero, and was newly established by Petrucci , a printmaker himself, under Oppo's guidance. Morandi, who was already a member of the powerful Sindacato Nazionale di Belle Arti (which included painters and sculptors), at first ignored Petrucci 's invitation to exhibit with this new union. But eventually Oppo, who was secretary general oftl1e Sindacato Nazionale di Belle Arti, pressured Morandi into joining the printmakers' union and exhibiting even though he had questioned its value. 3 The union, whose headquarters would soon be in central Rome at the Calco­ grafia Nazionale around the corner from the Fontana di Trevi, had previously occupied itself mainly with conserving old copper etching plates and with selling prints pulled from these plates by such distinguished old masters as Ingres, Piranesi, and Tiepolo. Petrucci totally transformed the role of the Calcografia, orienting it toward the sale and exhibi­ tion ofworks by living artists . Eventually Morandi would establish a most fruitful profes­ sional relationship with Petrucci . The Sezione Bianco e Nero of the union provided a dependable system for what mattered most to the artist: getting his work exhibited and sold. The printmakers' union at the Calcografia, under Petrucci's management, exhibited

13 6

oterest in ren­ fes from his ;s the feelings or departure ns. Each of the Istorm, twists lbor. Similarly, Ig desolation a field, with no nes that tl1e ~

surrounding

nd although "forgotten and tinue to say r.ad described new ven-

: In

Hi. Oppo chose Ie exhibition velve paintings nt-organized encouraged. i Belle Arti , Union) at the nco e Nero, o's guidance. Ii Belle Arti

fOexhibit with

8.[

Landscape with Farm House in Vistant Hills, [929. Oil on canvas, 24 x 28 in. (62 x 7 [ em) . Pinacoteca di Brer:r. Bequest ofLamberto Vitali . Photogra ph by Luca Carra. [v. [50]

:ato Nazionale exhibiting at the Calco­

and helped market Morandi's etchings; later it would take over the printing of them.

sly occupied

Exhibitions organized under the union's aegis brought Morand i's work to the United

s pulled from

States, Central Jnd South Am erica, and Europ ean ci ties from Amsterdam to Prague.

Dolo. Petrucci

Indeed, from 1929 Morandi's international exhibition schedule was so extensivc as to belie

and exhibi­

his claim from a 1958 interview with Edouard Roditi that" [m]y privacy was thus my

'uitful profes­

protection, and in the eyes of the Grand Inquisitor [Roberto Farinacci] I remained merely

rovided a ~x hibited

and

ent, exhibited

a provincial professor of etching at the fine arts academy of Bologna."4 In reality, by the end of the 1930S no one in ItJly would havc described Morandi as merely a "provincial professor of etching."

Mala Tempora Currunt

137

..

Morandi benefited from the exhibitions organized by Petrucci for the Sezione Bianco e Nero of the artists' union. He often exhibited at the Galleria di Roma, which was founded in 1930 by Pier Maria Bardi and which would later operate under the auspices ofthe Confederazione dei Professionisti e degli Artisti. Morandi and Bardi formed a close friendship that continued even beyond World War II, when Bardi became director of Sao Paulo's Museu de Arte Moderna in Brazil. Morandi would be awarded a series of prizes at the Sao Paulo museum's Bienals. As the decade progressed, much of Morandi's enthusiasm for Fascism faded , but it was difficult to reject a system that had indisputably provided h.im witb so many benefits. Perhaps Longanesi's statement, written in 1948 after the f:111 of Fascism, might shed light on Morandi's ambiguous political position: "The absence of freedom didn't seem to be of great importance to us, but slowly as the years went by, we became aware that our consciences began to bother us. Too often we closed our eyes to events and facts that were unpleasant, disagreeable, and we truly felt that our imagination had dried up because the impulse to rebel had disappeared .""

With Antonio Maraini as its secretary general, the organizing committee for the XVII Venice Biennale in 1930 included artists, critics, and Fascist Party politicians, among them Bottai, Ugo Ojetti, Margherita Sarf:.mi, and Oppo . Although no stylistic restrictions were placed on exhibited works, the nature of the Biennale had changed since 1928. As Maraini announced in the catalogue: "For the first time we have instituted prizes for works dealing with life in today's Italy.... We have inspired enthusiasm for grandiose compositions that break with customs established for decades; paintings, sketches, fragment[s], or studies that have no meaning other than as an end in themselves. By giving prizes for themes such as contemporary socio-political events and the poetry that is to be found in workers and their labor ... we have brought a new purpose back to painting and sculpture.,,6 In all there were twenty-five prizes and cash awards ranging from

5,000

to

50,000

lire for

illustrating such themes as "life in today's [Fascist] Italy" and "maternity" (this competi­ tion was also open to foreigners). One prize, inspired by events in Fascist history, awarded the work that best illustrated the "dynamic and spiritual characteristics of [the Italian] race" (some categories stipulated that the figures be life-size). Another prize was for ren­ dering "the poetry of work," while there were two prizes for portraits of il DuceJ Although Maraini suggested that art fulfill "a meaning for society" (una fun­ zione sociale), and despite the fact that be, along with Oppo (both friends of Morandi) , were both so-called true Fascists, he adamantly defended the freedom ofartistic expression and was also criticized by the intransigents "for allowing the Biennale and the Sindacato Belle Arti to be open to those modern artists who had been accused of corrupting Italian youth."S Many, such as Telesio Interlandi (editor of the right-wing II Tevere), could not accept the existence of modern an and questioned whether it could ever be truly Italian or Fascist.

Morandi had no interest in the themes suggested at the Biennales of the ~oma,

1930s-themes often proposed by Mussolini himself, such as images of nude male

which

er the auspices

athletes or nursing mothers that were given such titles as The Defense ofthe Race, Joyous and

om1ed a close

Serene Maternity, or The Reconstruction of the Roman Empire. In the context of so much

director of Sao

bombastic rhetoric in the visual arts, it is easy to see why Morandi's art has been interpreted

Eries of prizes

as anti-Fascist.

~"""n

Morandi sent four paintings to the XVII Biennale: a beautiful 1924 painting of AOI·vers (V. 92), two still lifes of 1929 (V. 141 and V. 146), and a Jarge selt~portrait of 1930

fud,d, vith so many

(V.

:ascism, might

be exhibited again until 1948 in a retrospective of Morandi's etchings organized by Petrucci

eedom didn't

at the CaIcografia Nazionale. 9 The Aower painting that he exhibited (it once belonged

159). He also sent a group of fourteen magnificent etchings, many ofwhich would not

became aware

to his friend Camillo PelEzzi) is hardly a conventional image of blossoms gathered into a

nts and facts

bouquet: a triangular-shaped bunch of wildAowers floats on its side onto the painting.

had dried up

Of the two still Life paintings that Morandi exhibited, V. 141 was chosen to be illustrated in the catalogue of the 1930 Biennale. The work depicts nine objects in a rather ordinary grouping. But it is the other stilI life (V. 145, 1929) that presents a daring arrangement of four objects whose shapes Morandi has masked with slathered paint strokes, dissolving

e for the XVII

S,

the objects into masses of light and dark (fig. 8.2). The self-portrait, painted the year

among them

rictions were

Morandi turned forty, depicts a sturdy man with a strong but troubled and questioning

28. As Maraini

face. Produced at a time when the Fascist regime was beginning to extol Italy's great

works dealing

figurative tradition, this self-portrait would be Morandi's last painting of the figure.

I1positions that

oj, or studies

'r themes Stich

workers and

)ture." 6 In all

.000

lire for

(this competi­ story, awarded [the Italian]

:e was for ren­ DuceJ ~ty"

(una fun­

of Morandi),

;tic expression

le Sindacato

lpting Italian

I,

could not

'e truly Italian

8.2

Still Life, 1929.

Oil on canvas, 19 x 24 in. (49 x 61 em). Private Collection. Photograph by LllCJ Carra. [Y. 145)

Mala Tempora Currunt

139

Among those exhibiting at the Biennale were German Expressionist painters, including Max Beckmann, Ernst Heckel, and Karl Schmitt-Rotluff, whose work may have interested Morandi. At this time his applications of paint to canvas became thicker and the objects in his paintings more distorted, especially as seen in the stilllifes

v. 139 ,

1929-30 (fig. 8.3); V. 164, 1931 (fig. 8.4); and V. 169 (1931). (And although Mussolini urged Italians to boycott foreign goods, Morandi continued to coat his canvases with thick applications of paint produced by the English firm Winsor and Newton.) Two paintings that Morandi created curing this period, probably executed a year apart, seem to be slight variations of the same composition. In V. 152 (1929- 30) ten objects are clearly and aus­ terely depicted, among them the yellow Persian bottle, a white pipe, and the backs of the two portable clocks (fig. 8.5). In V. 169 (1931) the pipe has been replaced by a small vase (fig. 8.6) . In both compositions Morandi aligns the still life objects frontally and enlarges them so that they fill the canvas. But in the 1931 painting (V. 169) Morandi plays with the spaces between the objects. He uses pigment so thickly that th e objects appear to be three-dimensional vessels. The dark, distorted shapes of the objects in the background­ objects familiar to us from the Metaphysical paintings of 1918- 20 -contrast with the brightly colored bottles and vases in the foreground, which Morandi has infused with so much new energy and individual expression that they seem to dance out beyond the canvas frame. A few months after the 1930 Biennale had closed, Morandi was named to the jury for the forthcoming Quadriennale in Rome. Despite opposition from Maraini, who feared that Oppo's exhibition would compete with the Venice Biennale, the Quadrienna,le

8·3

Still Life, 1929-30.

Oil on canvas, 16 x 2S in. (40 x 62 em). Private Collection. [V. 139)

:ionist painters, ~se

work may

became thicker illlifes \I. [39, ~Iussolini

urged

;es with thick Two paintings m to be slight learly and aus­ the backs of ! by a small vase and enlarges . plays with the ppear to be background­ :rast with the hfllsed with so ~eyond

the

s named to the Maraini , who ~

QlIadtiennale

8.4

Still Llfe, 1931. Oil on ca nva s. 21 x 25 in. (54 x 64 cm). Private Co ll ection . [V. 164]

had been established by "royal decree" in July 1928. Oppo had been appointed its director and res igned as secretary general of the arti sts' union (Maraini took hi s place) to work full-time for the Quadriennale. Under government sponsorship, four Quadriennale exhibitions would be held: in 1931 , 1935 , 1939, and even during wartime, in I943. 1O A monumental undertaking, the Quadriennale seems to have been one of the rare official, Fascist-sponsored events that managed to maintain artistic autonomy. Unlike the Biennale, the Quadriennale offered no pri zes for works depicting Fascist-oriented subject matter. (It would appear from the reprodu ctions in the first Quadriennale catalogue that the only political piece was a staUJe of His Excellency Mu ssolini on Horseback by Italo Griselli.) Proclaiming his ambition to bring modern art to the Italian capital, Oppo promised that the Quadriennale would show the best and most interesting contemporary artists. The Quadriennale's liberal bylaws declared

8. 5

Still Life, 19 29 - 30.

Oil on canvas , [6 x 20 in. (42 x 50 em) . Private Collectio n. [V. 15 2)

d its director

that artists did not need the tessera (membership card) of the Fascist Party in order to

,lace) to work

exhibit. Oppo designed and headed an unusual jury procedure: not one but two juries selected the works to be shown at the Quadriennale (one jury each to select among works

would be held:

by invited and uninvited artists), thus ensuring that a wide variety of styles would be

ndertaking,

represented. Morandi, with four representatives from the artists' union, selected works

led events that

by those who had been invited. 1I

nale offered

The 1931 Quadriennale exhibition was held in Rome at the Palazzo delle

'pear from the ~

Esposizioni and provided a highly visible venue for Morandi's work. His presence on the

was a stante

selection juries in 1931 and 1935 gave him opportunities to meet with artists from all

bition to bring

over Italy and to spend several enjoyable weeks in Rome. It was an example ofan amazing

.lId show the

democratic process. The first meeting of the juries, which took place August 15,1930,

, laws declared

lasted ten days . In all, the two juries looked at 1,562 paintings, 306 sculptures, and 121

8.6

Still Life, [93 1.

Oil on canvas, 16 x [6 in. (42 x 42 em). Private Collection. [V. [69]

Mala Tempofa CUffunt

143

works in "bianco e nero" and ultimately chose works by 492 artists. The king opened the exhibition on January 3,1931, and patronage by the Italian government provided 500,000 lire in prizes and 300,000 lire for acquisitions. Various ministries as well as the King, iI Duce, Italian banks and museums, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Pittsburgh 's Carnegie Institute acquired works from this exhibition. Morandi was represented at the Quadriennale by three paintings, one drawing, and two etchings. 12 AU three paintings were stilllifes of only a few objects, two dating from 1929 (V. 147 ~nd V. I48) and one from 1930

(y. 157). A monochromatic tonality

envelops the three recognizable objects and the one unclear item in V. 148, which Soffici later purchased (fig. 8.7). A tall, skinny, dark bottle is flanked on one side by the back of the case of the portable clock-an object that had already appeared in a Futurist paint­ ing of 1914 (V. 18; see fig. 3.6) -and on the other side by a helmet-shaped copper pot lying on its side, an object first painted by Morandi in 1923 (V. 82). Another of these still !ifes of1930 (V. 157; see fig. 1.5) is even more reductive; it depicts only two objects: an oil lamp and the same white compote dish that had already figured in two paintings of 1916 (V. 28 and V. 29) and in one painting of 1920 (V. 51), a still life with the round table (see fig. 5.2). V. 157 is a work of absolute originality and piercing intensity (see fig. 1.5). The shape of the compote dish , which holds several pieces offruit, recalls a Cycladic kernos, a vessel used for offerings . Morandi was interested in objects from antiquity, but he was never drawn to Roman or Etruscan art, the cultures that Fascism endorsed (in fact, he dis­ dained Etruscan art, saying that its onl)1contribution to the world was the making of gold filigree ornaments). He preferred the art of the ancient Greeks, particularly tlle art ofthc Cyclades. At the same time, the compote dish suggests a pitiable figure begging witll open arms. Morandi enlarged the tiny oil lamp (whose shape recalls a small Greek lamp that

8.7

Still Life, 1929. Oil on canvas, 21 x 19 in. (53 x 48 em). Private Collection. [V.148J

144

ng opened the

he owned) so that it would be equal in size to the white compote dish. (In the works from

rovided 500,000

1916 and 1920 this compote is painted an alabaster white, but in this 1930 work Morandi

I as the Ki.ng, il

painted the same object a murky green.) In the 1930 still life with two objects (V. 157)

1 Pittsburgh's

the paint was so thickly applied to the canvas that, over time, the surface has formed a craquelure so pronounced that today the painting resembles a light-reflecting mosaic.

5S, one drawing,

While many of the compositions that Morandi painted or etched during his

ts, two dating

Strapaese years seem to be depicted in an academic manner, each object having little

Ilnatic tonality

relationship to its neighbor, the compositions of the stilllifes are different fi"om 1930 on.

8. which Soffici

These feature a heavier consistency of paint and a new palette, at times dark, at other

Ie by the back

times glowing with a rich variety of reds or yellows. By 1930, Morandi's work seemed to

a Futurist paint­

validate Broglio's earlier comment that Morandi didn't pai.nt from nature, he created it.

~d

By this time Morandi's works were no longer literal transcriptions of the objects that he

copper pot

her of these still

had set out in front of himself to paint; rather, these paintings reveal a new world of

a objects: an

imagined forms and colors.

Jaintings of 1916

A new format appears in three of Morandi's stilllifes painted between 1929

lund table (see ~e

and 1941. The first painting in this series is a long and narrow horizontal still life, V. 151

fig. 1.5). The

(1929), which first was owned by Leo Longanesi and later by Vittorio De Sica. Another

=ycladic kern os,

work, Long Horizontal Still Life (V. 296, 1941), on which Morandi positioned five objects

ty, but he was

that appear in sequence, unfolds as a painting on a Japanese screen (fig. 8.8).13

(in fact, he dis­

Many of these stilllifes were so innovative, so far ahead of their time, that only

making ofgold

a few of his contemporarjes appreciated them ; nonetheless Morandi was still unprepared

r the art of the

for the negative criticism evoked by his submissions to the 1931 Quadriennale. There were

i

ing with open

~ek

two catalogues for the exhibition, one a checklist of the exhibitors, the other containing

lamp that

statements by artists and critics. Even though Morandi had an influential position as a

8.8

long Horizontal Still Lifr, 1941.

Oil on canvas. 13 x 25 in . (31 x 63 em). Private Collection. [V. 296)

Mala Tempora Currunt

145

member of the selection committee, the conservative critic Arturo LanceJIlotti felt free to declare in the more extensive catalogu e of the exh ibition that Morandi 's sti ll life paintings "have received a much inflated press.. .. Morandi suffers from a simplicity that borders on poverty." '4 A still life painting that Morandi s howed at the Quadriennale (V. 148) was reproduced (in black and wh,ite) in the Roman magazine L'lta,Jia Letteraria . Nino Bertocchi, a Bolognese critic and painter who had been trained as an engineer wrote a long review, part of which was a vicious attack on this painting. Bertocchi also exhibited paintings at this Quadriennale, but it was his review of the exhibition that received a national prize. Writing about Morandi, Bertocchi contended that his paintings were only about objects that "should have been thrown out long ago," and wondered how "those critics, who in an excess of passion have dared to compare him to Rembrandt, don't know what they are talking about. ... One has to understand that those simple objects in Morandi's paintings reduce life to a monotonous beat of an exasperating fragility." (5 Bertocchi's article can be construed as an example of how some members of Bologna's art milieu viewed Morandi's work (Bertocchi would later be appointed to teach at Bologna's Accademia). Distraught, Morandi complained to a then-sympathetic artist­ friend Luigi Bartolini, who offered to respond to it immediately. Morandi advised him not to. "Bertocchi would be among those Bolognese who would beg you to attack me. Besides, it's useless to discuss anything with someone who ... always mixes up everything that has to do with art and will never understand anything. " ,6 Ironically, eight years later Bartolini himself would write a series of nasty reviews about Morandi's work at the 1939 Quadriennale. A few days after Bertocchi 's review appeared , Morandi expressed to Soffici his disappointment that the new Regime offered little hope that things would change for the better in the art world. He wrote: "It's a world so base out there, that my only wish is to be forgotten and be able to work in peace . ... I would never have believed that ... people were capable of such evil. Artists have inherited all the worst defects of the old politicians. They use gossip, personal issues-every mea ns including outright lies.... What little has been accomplished [for the artists] is about to be erased .. . . What displeases me most is that I know that for now, one ca n't even hope that things will change. " '7 Despite Morandi's disappointment at Bertocchi 's and Lancellotti 's comments, Morandi did receive one ofthe "secondary" prizes of 10,000 lire at the 193r Quadriennale. Osvaldo Licini, a former classmate at the Accademia and an artist who had spent many years in Paris, expressed disappointment but not surprise at this minor award in a letter to Morandi: "Don ' t expect my congratulations, but rather my condolences for the place they [the jury] put you in, with the infamous range of prizes that were handed out at the Quadriennale. When I saw that your name was among those ten who came ,in last and received prizes of 10,000 lire ... in a way I was relieved . .. because your art is so idealistic

'elt free to

and pure, I immediately thought that you couldn't possibly have received the biggest

fe paintings

prize, for it is always given to those with the most friends in the highest places .... Remem­

that borders

ber that as far as I am concerned, it was you who reaUy received the first prize for painting, even if they put you among those at the bottom of the class." [8

. 148) was

Shortly after the 1931 exhibition opened, Soffici paid 3,500 lire for two of

~o Bert~cchi,

Morandi's stilllifes from 1929: V. 147, which had been reproduced in L'ltalia Letteraria and

bng reView,

attacked so vituperatively by Bertocchi, and another still life (V. 148) .19 A year later, in

paintings at

March 1932, Longanesi devoted an entire issue ofL'ltaliano to Morandi with a "mono­

ional prize.

graph" that Soffici had written in 1929. Excerpts from it were reprinted a month later in

~out

the Bolognese daily, II Resto del Carlino, supposedly evoking considerable envy among the

objects

cs, who in

artistic establishment in Bologna. Longanesi had hesitated to publish Soffici's monograph,

"hat they are

for it appeared to be written by a very different Soffici-a chauvinist and racist-not

i's paintings

the artist and writer who, a little more than twenty years earlier, had so staunchly defended French art against the provincial taste of the Italians. A year before he published Soffici's

members of

article Longanesi, objecting to Soffici's extremism, complained to PeHizzi: "Soffici has

;ed to teach

sent me an article ... that is pitiful, he rants on about tradition, arguing against France,

Ithetic artist­

half-breeds [meticci], and Jews ... [his] usual old stuff." 20

Ivised him

In fact, Soffici's essay began by attacking "Europe in general, but in particular

attack me .

the anti-traditional and cosmopolitan French." Praising Morandi for having participated

lp everything

with " those Cubist and Futurist revolutionaries, foreign and Italian, for only he who has

ight years

actually rebelled is capable of returning to true order, " Soffici claims that Morandi, "better

; work at the

than anyone of his generation, has solved the problem of creating a modern style that is at the same time, authentic and Italian ... his works are examples of Italian classicism.

I to Soffici

Upholding traditional Italian art is of the greatest importance, [for] if a new Italian art

Id change

is to have any significance at all it must reflect the values of our past ... and reject any for­

: m)'onl)'

eign influence.,,21 This was the Fascist Party's line that Mussolini had spelled out earlier

believed

and that Bottai repeated at the Selvaggio's opening in 1927. Accompanying Soffici's text

t defects of

were a number of Morandi's works, badly reproduced in black and white. Nevertheless

19 outright

this was the first time that a group of Morandi's works spanning from 1914 to 1927 reached

lsed .. ..

a wide audience. (Although Soffici covered more than a decade ofMorandi's works there

lat things

was no discussion of the reasons for Morandi 's stylistic changes.) Among the works illus­ trated were the Cubist still life of 1914 with the clock case resembling a Cycladic figure

; comments,

(V. 19, 1914), the exquisite landscape Two Trees, owned by Maccari (V. 30, 1916), and the

ladriennale.

majestic Metaphysical still life The Round Table (V. 51, 1920), which was exhibited in 1922

)ent man)'

at the Primaverile Fiorentina exhibition but was not shown again in Italy until after World

I'd in a letter

War II, in 1948. Also reproduced were a painting ofa bouquet of flowers from 1921 (V. 61),

r the place

a still life of 1925 (V. 105), now in Leningrad, and the etching Landscape with the Large

:d out at the

Poplar (V. 34, 1927). Some etchings from Morandi's Strapaese years were also illustrated,

n last and

several of which Soffici not only admired but also bought, and he encouraged others to

so idealistic

purchase them as well.

Mala Tempora Currunt

147

Fascist art of the 1930S was largely defined by the mural painting movement. The success of the 1932 Mastra della Revoluzione Fascista (Exhibition ofthe Fascist Revolution), held in Rome, showed the possibilities of using large-scale works to integrate Fascist propaganda with art. It commemorated the tenth anniversaty of the March on Rome and the Fascist rev­ olution. Dino Alfieri, head of the Corporazione dei Professionalisti e degli Artisti (Corpo­ ration of Professionals and Artists), was appointed the principal coordinator for the exhibition. He was weJl acquainted with many Italy's best architects, painters, and sculp­ tors and commissioned them to work for the exhibition. Oppo was the artistic director, and Longanesi and Maccari played minor roles in this extravaganza. Morandi was not invited to participate. The exhibition was scheduled to last one year, but it was so success­ ful that it ran from 1932 through October 1934. Proclaiming a new aesthetic, the painter Corrado Cagli suggested that artists should abandon easel painting now that Mussolini had given them "walls to paint on," and that they should create "an art for the masses, an art that would serve the community." The mural works commissioned for this exhibi­ tion iJiustrated what Emily Braun called "historical fact with fictive re-creation.,,22 In this political climate, some critics characterized Morandi's art as "self-indulgent" because

8·9

Still Life, 1932.

Oil on canvas, 19 3/ 4 x 17 '/4 in. (50 x 44 em) . Private Collection. [V. 1731

It. ~Id

The Sllccess in Rome,

Dpaganda with

e Fascist rev­

it was not "socially useful." As if to spite those who commissioned mural-sized works, Morandi made his paintings s maller, and they were at times criticized for not reflecting enough of an Italian feeling. One certainly admires Morandi for the courage that it must have taken the same

.rtisti (Corpo­

year of the Mostra della Revoluzione Fascista to make a pain ting consisting primarily ofa

ltor for the

single bottle (V. 173, 1932; fig. 8.9). This work, never exhibited publicly until th e 1990s,

'rs, and sculp­

is one of Morandi's great stilllifes but, unfortunately, is rarely exhibited. At the center

istic director.

of an almost square canvas a VOluptuous', creamy white bottle (already portrayed in the

~ndi was not

important Metaphysica.! still life ofI916 [V. 28; see fig. 4.1]) is surrounded by atmos­

bs so success-

pheric tones of a deep burnt brown. Flanking the bottle on either side are barely visible

the painter

fragments of two other objects that hug the edges of the canvas (toward one edge is part

l

at lvlussolini

of an oil lamp that is fully visible in fig . 1.5; toward the other is a fragment of the same

the masses ,

white vase that appears in V. 164) . This painting is charged with as much imagination and

Jr this exhibi­

emotion as anything that came out ofItaly during the ventennio. If a still life can be

ltion. ,,21 In

compared to a figure painting, the figure painting that comes to mind in this case is Piero

gent" because

della Francesca's Resurrection at Borgo San Sepolcro. Rather lumpy and inelegant, yet determined and fi.lll of presence, the bottle is as defiant as Piero's risen Christ. The still life, seell1ingly the most innocent of genres, was increasingly disdained as an imported artistic style, one that was not auth en tically Italian. In 1933 the conser­ vative Bolognese critic Italo Cinti, a champion of De Carolis and neoclassicism, suggested that Italian art had declined once artists substituted the painting of still life for the human figur e. Cinti declared th a t De Carolis was the greater artist because he " never painted a still life." Ridiculing still life painters by comparing them to "turtl es who hide their heads in their shells," he claimed that such painters have neither audacity or courage. "Art," Cinti explain ed, " must glorifY a nation." 23

Concurrently with the 1931 Quadriennale Morandi also showed etchings in a large exhi­ bition organized in Amsterdam by Petrucci. Morandi, who previously felt the futility of yet another artists' union , soon realized there was much to be gJined by joining Petrucci's Sindacato Nazionale, the Fascist printmakers' union. Between 1932 and r934, for some­ one who pretended that he rarely exhibited, Morandi sent etchings to exhibitions in Madrid, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, and Munich. All were organized by Petrucci and the Sindaca to Nazionale. 24 He did not send, however, to the 1934 (XIX) Biennale any of the fourteen highly innovative etchings that he produced in 1931, nor any of the seven prints that he completed in 1932, perhaps fearing th at they were too unconventional. In 1933, Morandi worked on a magnificent group of nine etchings. One of th ese (V. 105) portrays a group of fragm ents; that is, Morandi had drawn only parts of the seven or eight objects that he depicted so that the print was more an abstraction than a conven­ tional still life. To transfer an image from a drawing ontO the etching plate, Morandi first

Mala Tempora Currunt

149

-

covered the back of the drawing with red chalk. Then, placing the drawing on the etching plate, he traced over it, the red chalk outline adhering to the black ground of the plate. With the outline drawn on the plate, he could the ignore the rigid contour and be free to create abstract shapes. Even for one as competent as Morandi, confident of his drawing that he put onto the metal plate, of the little marks he made with a steel needle , and of placing the plate into an acid bath, he nevertheless would never know the exact result until after he made the first print. Often this first proof from the plate is not what the artist expects it to be. At times M'orandi, too, was disappointed from those first results. Not comprehending how innovative those works really were, he might print only one or two copies and then destroy the plate. (Mindful of his own lesson, Morandi later told his etching students at the Accademia to leave the first proof alone and to take a good look at it only much later.) That Morandi, even by the 1930s, had so little confidence in his work is evident in a trUly sublime 1932 still life etching, the Natura marta con l'alzata (Still Life with Tiered Cake Dish) (V. 94) . Innumerable objects appear to be placed onto a tight screen of black-and-white crisscrossed lines. It is a still life that represents another of Morandi's ambiguous transformations of Bologna's architecture. For this work he chose the diffi­ cult hard ground wax technique, in which he transformed sensations of colors into a black-and-white tone scale. The artist was dissatisfied with the result, as he destroyed the plate after making just one print. In the prints ofV. 81 (1931) , V. 87 (1931), V. 103 (1933) , and V. 107 (1934), Morandi's method oftransferring the drawing with red chalk gave him the freedom to play with the effects oflight tllat flickers, sliding from object to object, and making the out­ lines disappear as the objects merge directly into the background. Unlike Jacques Villon, Morandi never used lines like grids drawn with rulers to squeeze his subject matter into a predetermined package oflines. Each ofMorandi's subjects has its own lite Jnd texture. The silvery tonal plate of 1928, which Morandi drew from the 1916 Metaphysical painting V. 50, contrasts with the Caravaggesque intense lights and darks of the familiar shell and shell-like vase in the print of the still life V. 71 (1930). In a print from 1931 (V. 82), Morandi has tentatively etched lines so delicate tthat they are more like a drypoint than an etching. This print contrasts with the great Natura marta a gran segni (Still Lift with Thick Lines) (V. 83, 1931). Although the composition is similar to a still life painting Of1931 (V. 169), the etching is a much more unusual statement. Similar in composition to the earlier etching (V. 82), in Still Life with Thick Lines Morandi lIsed a slightly smaller etching plate, more horizontal in format, and added a strange crooked bottle, a vertical figure which seems to point a finger at those who call for "art for the masses." The thick, juicy lines of the deeply etched Still Life with Thick Lines is the most deeply bitten of any Morandi etching, resulting in a netvvork of the thickest lines Morandi ever etched into a plate. In this print the lines of the background are like barbed wired, etched four times deeper than those seen within the objects. Morandi had created nothing like it before and would not do so again. Morandi waited four years before exhibiting the magnificent Grande natura marta

15°

on the etching

scura (Large Dark Still Life) (V. 107), which he etched in 1934. This print, which meas ures

1 of the plate.

II5/Bx 15'/s inches, is large for a Morandi etching. The print is almost entirely black, and

~ and be free to

the objects have seemingly been swallowed up into one dark mass of crisscrossed lines

Ifhis drawing

in which one object is barely distinguishable from another. Grande natura marta scura is his

needle, and of

last great plate of the 1930s. Morandi's objects have completely retreated into the back­

exact result

ground. Morandi had made one earlier attempt to etch a plate this size (V. 128, 1931).

what the artist

Unlike V. 107, each object in that work is clearly drawn and recognizable. Notwithstanding

results. Not

that the two plates are near identical in size, the earlier etching (which actually has a

nly one or two

later catalogue number) wasn't the result that Morandi was looking fori after printing one

ater told his

proof he destroyed the plate. Both the Grande natura marta scura of 1934 (V. 107) and Natura

'a good look at

marta (V. II3, 1942) seem entirely black, although there are none of the deeply bitten lines

e in his work

of the great Natura marta a gran segni Of193I. Every bit of these plates is covered with a

a (Still Life with

network oflines so close together that they did not have to be deeply etched for Morandi

5'h t screen of

to achieve such a balance of tonalities in black. In 1934, when Morandi began Grande

r of Morandi's

natura morte scura, he decided on an edition of thirty. In retrospect, thirty copies and five

lose the diffi­

artist's proofs ofone of the masterpieces on paper is practically nothing for today's world

colors into a

of collectors and museums, yet in the years in which Morandi sold at most only three or

lestroyed the

four prints, an edition of more than thirty prints would seem pretentious.

10 7 (1934),

in an Oual) (V. 130), which has an equally astounding dense network of thinly drawn lines,

'eedom to play

blacks and near-blacks-a difficult achievement, for there must always be a tiny white

ing the out­

space between each etched line that holds the ink. Like the virtuoso that he was, Morandi

lcques ViII on,

knew how to push the medium to its limits. Few prints contain as much pathos as this

Eight years later, in 1942, Morandi completed Natura morte in un'ouale (Still Life

matter into

etching. With no sense of place or scale, and with the absence of light-for the acid

eand texture.

has bitten into every inch of the plate-Morandi created only darks. The etching resem­

cal painting

bles a nocturnal landscape; indeed, I would describe it as a descent into a world where

iliar shell and

there will never be any light. Morandi did not make a print from the plate until 1958, and

~s

This still life was not exhibited until a year after his death. It is truly one ofMorandi's great

then, after seeing only tvvo prints, he decided that it would not hold up for an edition. so delicate

th the great

etchings, yet we have only two prints of this work.

composition

Ire unusual

In the fall of 1934 Morandi met with his fellow jurors to select works for the seco nd

lith Thick Lines

Quadriennale, scheduled to open in Rome in February 1935. The democratic process again

'nd added a

called for two juries. Some artists, even the less conservative ones, preferred to exhibit

lOse who call

at the 1935 Rome Quadriennale rather than at the 1934 Venice Biennale. In 1934 the

th Thick Lines

Biennale instituted a new law declaring that only those belonging to the artists' union

cthe thickest

could participate. Although Morandi was a member of the artists' union and tJle Fascist

und are like

Party (party membership was required for teaching in a government school), he did not

Mor:mdi had

send works to any of the Biennales between 1934 and 1948.

e natura marta

The two juries took two weeks to review a total of 3,703 works: 2,761 paintings, 537 sculptures, and 405 works in black and white (prints). In all, 680 artists participated

Mala Tempora Currunt

151

and competed for 36 prizes and awards totaling 500,000 lire. Reviewing the exhibition ill Milan's Carriere della Sera, Ojetti marveled that despite the difficult economic times all over the world, only the city of Rome "gives so much money for modern art."25 Morandi sent two superb and, for him, large still life paintings: V. 164 from 1931 (21 x 25 in.; see fig. 8.4) and V. 170 of1932 (24 x 28 in.); and an almost abstract landscape (V. 174, 1932; fig. 8.10). The landscape depicts a triangular hill that bisects the upper two-thirds of the canvas and shows four horizontal bands, which are green fields. In contrast to the two stilllifes, the paint is appied in thin washes. The stilllifes represent a new departure in Morandi's work. Perhaps the distortions and heavy applications of paint in the German Expressionist works he saw at the 1930 13iennale had filtered through and influenced these paintings. In the painting with four objects (V. 164) the pigments that Morandi used are so rich and so thick that they seem to have been applied directly from the paint tube rather than with a brush. The objects are strung across the canvas on top ofa large, round table. Tones of warm , juicy, creamy whites silhouette a compote dish, two sea shells, and -edging the right-hand side of the canvas-the same fragment of a vase at the edge of the canvas in V. 173 (1932; see fig. 8.9) . To the background Morandi applied rich, thick browns, like a chocolate pudding, and he used variations ofwarm earth colors on the table and in the foreground. Morandi's works in the 1935 Quadriennale received many positive newspaper and magazine reviews by Libero di Libero and Giuseppe Mar­ chiori, both of whom will figure in the next chapters.

In 1935 Roberto Longhi was appointed chair of art history at the University of Bologna, and he and Morandi soon formed a life-long friendship.26 Longhi's first lec­ ture at the university was a significant social event that was attended by many academic and political notables. After reading a long list of the famous Bolognese artists of centuries past, Longhi stunned his audience by placing Morandi 's name alongside those who had contributed to the great figurative Bolognese tradition. few in Bologna had ever asso­ ciated Morandi as belonging to their "glorious" tradition or even as being an artist worth knowing . Except for some former students and his close friend Guido Horn d'Arturo (who was astronomy chair at the Accademia until 1938, at which time anti-Semitic laws forced him out), Morandi had few exchanges with the Bolognese, with his colleagues at the Accademia, or with those within the university community. At this lecture Longhi spoke of "Giorgio Morandi as the last of the incarnrninati [members of the seventeenth-century Carracci Academy], one who knows how to nav­ igate the dangerous shoals of modern painting. "27 Longhi, who, since 1914, disdained much of contemporary art (see Chapter II), transformed what at first might have seemed significant praise and understanding for Morandi into an assertion that Morandi had suc­ cessfully avoided any contact with the modern movements. Rather than recognizing that Morandi had broken from Bolognese academic tradition, Longhi wanted to see Morandi as a continuation of it. Longhi never cared for Morandi's paintings that veered toward abstraction, he repudiated Morandi's contacts with modern art from 1910 to 1920, and his

~

preference was always for Morandi 's most traditional paintings. 28 During Fascism, pre­

exhibition ill

lic times all It.''2~ U

serving the history ofthe Italian tradition-and in this case, Bologna's -was important.

Morandi

Nevertheless, it was a lost opportunity to present Morandi as a contemporary modern

x 25 in .; see

European artist instead of an artist following in the Italian tradition . Morandi, who was

V. 174, T932; ~-thirds

not enthusiastic about Carracci's art, must have been astonished when Longhi connected

of the

him to those seventeenth-centlllY artists from Bologna.

;t to the two ~

It would be Francesco Arcangeli, Longhi's f:1vorite student, the young man he

departure in

would choose to be his assistant at the university, who was one of the few who did not fol­

the German

low his teacher's example and remove Morandi from the roster of modern European

mfiuenced

artists. Arcangeli would come to revere both Longhi and Morandi, although in 1961 his

lat Morandi

relationship with both his professor and the artist would abruptly end over the issue of

om the paint

how Morandi's art should be interpreted. Nevertheless, from 1935

top ofa large,

cover a new constituency of fans a mong Longhi's students. Longhi himself introduced

h, two sea

them to Morandi's works by bringing them to his studio-it was the only place in Bologna

~ t ofa vase at

where one could see them. The list is impressive, and many of their names are still well­

~ndi ;I pplied

011

Morandi would dis­

known today: Giorgio Bassani, Attilio Bertolucci, Paolo Pasolini, and Francesco Arcangeli.

earth colors nale received

eppe MarUniversity of i's first lec­ academic and

)fcenturies

lose who had

I ever asso­ 1 artist

11

worth

d 'Arturo

Semitic laws

:olleaglles at

e incal11l11inati

lOW

to nav­

4, disdained

lVe seemed ndi had SllC­

lizing that see Morandi

'ed toward

920, and his

8.10

Landscap~, 1932.

Oil on canvas , 20 x 24 in. (50 x 60 em) . l'o nd :lZio ne Robe rto l.onghi, [:lore nce. [V. 174J

Mala Tempora Currunt

153

I never see any newspapers, and I'm always in the dark about what's going on. -

Giorgio Morandi

A Decade of Delusions and the Road to War: ra Guerra, Guer- ra, Guer In February 1935, around the time that the second Quadriennale opened in Rome, Mussolirti invaded Ethiopia-to revive the glories of the Roman Empire and to "civilize the natives." Morandi could not have imagined that within five years Italy would declare war on England and France. Decades later he spoke about the chilling, unforgettable chants of "Guerra, Guer-ra , Guer--ra " (\\lar, Wa-ar, Wa--ar) that echoed in the Piazza Maggiore as thousands gathered that year in Bologna's main square to take part in rallies staged by the government to whip up enthusiasm for an invasion that would make the tiny Italian king an emperor. I The invasion of Ethiopia avenged one ofltaly's most humiliating military defeats, suffered in 1896 when Morandi was six years old: three thousand Italian soldiers died, and four thousand more were taken prisoner, in a battle for the Ethiopian city of Adowa. As a result, Italy had been forced to sue the Eiliiopians for peace, and that political disaster had haunted Italian foreign policy for forty years. Mussolini 's conquest of the African nation in 1936 brought his popularity to record heights, for he was viewed as having regained Italy's honor.2 Minor sanctions imposed agai nst Italy by the English, the French, and the League of Nations had only strengthened Mussolini's authority and unified the Italians . Even anti-Fascists like the philosopher Benedetto Croce "felt they could not refuse ... solidarity with boys at the front . .. for it was 'one nation against fifty."'3 Women willingly gave up their gold wed­ ding rings to display patriotic solidarity; Maria Teresa Morandi told me that women were asked to give their copper pots to the government, which needed metal for the war effort. Two 1936 stilllifes painted in an impasto ofwarm coppery colors seem to relate to that event (V. 208 and V. 207; see fig. 9.1).

9

The 1936 sanctions against Italy pushed Mussolini closer to Hitler. In that year Mussolini sent troops to fight with the Germans against tile Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. In Bologna, a small group ofyoul1g university students close to Morandi, among them the poet Antonio Rinaldi and the writers Giorgio Bassani and Carlo Savoia, began to question the moral implications ofMussolini's war against the Spanish Republic, which tlley perceived as a war different from the war against the Ethiopi­ ans, for, like them, the Spanish were "Mediterranean and white."4 Yet none criticized the Fascist regime openly, for that would have been a subversive act against the government. Mussolini's alliance with Hitler also affected the art world in Italy. Altll0ugh the Fascist government never imposed tile kind of monolithic dictatorship in the arts tllat existed in Nazi Germany, intransigents like Farinacci admired the cultural policies of the Nazis. His was among the voices calling for a new "rerum to order," a closing of the gap between "politics and culture and propaganda and art. "'i When Mussolini instituted the racial laws that deemed Jews an inferior race (razza interiOl·e) in 1938, right-wing critics boldly attacked modern art as being "Jewish and foreign." Until then, a certain amount of critical dissent had been tolerated in art and literature . In 1934, for example, Longanesi devoted an entire issue ofL'Italiano to a parody of Germany's anti-Semitic, Aryan rhetoric, with Munch's The Scream on the cover. But only four years later, Italian Jews not only were expelled from the Fascist Party, they were also forbidden to attend state schools, from the elementary to the university level, or to work as teachers. One ofMorandi's closest friends, the Triestino Guido Horn d'Arturo, lost his university chair in astronomy and was even denied permission to make use of the university library or to conduct experiments at night when the university was closed. Overnight, Jewish professors had their univer­ sity appointments withdrawn, Jewish artists were excluded from government-sponsored exhibitions, Jewish authors could no longer be published in the Italian press (Giorgio Bassani , for example, began to write under the pseudonym Giacomo Marclli), and works by Jewish authors, including Lamberto Vitali, were removed from libraries and bookstores and placed on a list of prohibited books. Although condemnation of Morandi 's work was stilluntllinkable in 1937, the racial laws of 1938 empowered right-wing fanatics to attack modern art and artists as degenerate, Bolshevist, and/or Jewish. That year A. F. Della Porta, editor-in-chief of the magazine Perseo (which he founded in 1929), published one such article that discussed the work ofeight modern artists, among them Morandi, Carra, Lucio Fontana, and Marino Marini. Among the works Della Porta illustrated to "prove" his point was Morandi's

1914 painting Fragment (V. 15 , a Brancusi-like nude; see fig. 3.7). Juxtaposed with these works were illustrations of six fourteenth- and fifteenth-century painters with a caption iliat read, "The great masters of the past exalt our [Italian] race" (I grandi maestri del pas­ sato esaltavano la razza). Della Porta, who would later become editor of the anti-Semitic magazine La Difesa della Razza (The Difense of the Race), charged that "certain modernists have set out to denigrate our [Italian] race.,,6 Other articles condemning modern art were

15 6

published by such anti-Semitic journalists as Telesio Interlandi, a founder of the right­ wing II Tevfre . Expressions such as "Mediterraneita e italianira" were unquestionably ref­ erence points that helped to define what an official artefascista should be about: the purity of the Mediterranean race, exaltation of family values, work, physical strength , and military courage. Ideally these characteristics were all to be expressed by a rtists in a solemn, epic style (epicita). Even the once relatively moderate Bottai, who had defended criticized the

cosmopolitan Europeanism and who had been known as a protector of the avant-garde,

government.

announced his opposition to the "apocalyptic cavaliers of Cubism, Surrealism, and

y. Although the the arts that

Expressionism, and ... international Judaism." Counter to the artistic restrictions Farinacci placed on the 1939 Premia Cremana

policies of the

exhibition that he originated, Bottai organized the more liberal Premia Bergamo (both

ngofthe gap

exhibitions will be discussed at greater length in Chapter

instituted the

10).

A few young party members,

among them Arcangeli , soon realized that merely being against Farinacci wasn't enough.

-wing critics

Arcangeli, who as a youthful dissident spoke out against Farinacci's policies during Fas­

~rtain

cism's last years , also criticized Bottai for, he said, sitting on both sides of the fence .

amount

Jle, Longanesi

Even though many considered Bottai an opponent of the extremism of Farinacci, Arcangeli

yan rhetoric,

wrote that "Bottai ended up being more insidious .... [\"')hen we began to be suspi­

not only were

cious of the so-called Fascist left-wing (fclS(ismo di sinistra), he appeared not only to be an

hools. from

elemen t of moderation but one of corruption."7 Bottai remained an im portant mem ber

Idi's closest

of Mussolini's cabinet almost until the end of the Regime. 8

"Cnomyand

Bottai's idea of the artist's role in the Fascist state, that of uniting art and pol­

ct experiments

itics, was emphasized in his speech at the opening ceremonies of the 1938 Venice Biennale:

their univer­

"There already exists a rapport between art and politics in the Fascist state ... artists

~nt-sponsored

must be protected and respected by the state, just like any other whose work is socially

'ss (Giorgio

useful ... the artist is [to be considered) above all a worker for the state." 9 Morandi sent

li), and works

no works to the 1938 Biennale, but he did exhibit at the newly renovated Galleria di Roma.

nd bookstores

The gallery was the exhibition space of the Fascist Confederazione dei Professionalisti e degli Artisti, and it was well known not only for mounting exhibitions that presented the

~ in

1937, the

d artists as

I-chiefofthe

It discllssed

1,

and Marino

best contemporary artists from all over Italy, but also because it fostered exchanges with European artists. Morandi's friend Pier Maria Bardi, who had been the gallery's first director, was asked to organi ze the inaugural exhibition at the reopening of the Galleria di Roma. Among the artists he chose to represent at the exhibition were Morandi, Carra, de Chirico,

"orandi's

De Pisis, and Modigliani. Except for the 1931 and 1935 Quadriennales, Morandi rarely

~d

had the opportunity to exhibit his paintings in Rome, and this was an excellent oppor­

with these

th a caption

tunity for him to do so. Mussolini spoke at the gallery'S inauguration, which took place

lestri del pas­

on April 21 , 1937, as did Dario Sabatello, the gallery'S new director; he had also appointed

~

Anton Giulio Bragaglia for theater projects. Sabatello'S speech was interrupted by

anti-Semitic

nodernists

Giuseppe Pensabene, who shouted anti-Semitic remarks and derogatory comments about

jern art were

Modigliani's Nuda Rosso (Red Nude), which he used as the basis for an attack on modern

A Decade of Delusions

157

art. A fistfight followed, and Sabatello, who punched Pensabene, was taken to court and subsequcntly removed from the directorship of the gallery. In the wake of his showing at the Galleria di Roma Morandi was courted by Libero di Libero, director of Rome's La Cometa gallery (a private gallery owned by the Countess Mimi Pecci-Blunt). Oi Libero wrote to Morandi: "Your wall at the Galleria di Roma makes a magnificent statement, everyone was given a chance to see just who Morandi is .... And remember that ... your Roman friends, and there are many, ... would like nothing better than to see a one-man show ofyour work, and I would like nothing better than to ofter you one at La Cometa." 10 Although Morandi never accepted the invitation from La Cometa to have a one-man exhibit in Rome, three of his works were included in two exhibitions held by La Cometa in its New York branch, which opened in 1938. That year the gallery in Rome was forced to close; running it had become increasingly difficult, as the modern cultural polices ofLibero di Libero and the Countess Pecci-Blunt clashed with the policies of the ever more powerful and intransigent right-wing of the Regime. Nevertheless, in that year the Countess Pecci-Blunt purchased two still life paintings by Morandi: one from 1935 (V. 190) and one brooding, coppery-colored work (V. 207,

1936; fig. 9.1). In the years betwcen the 1930 Biennale and the 1939 Quadriennale, Morandi exhibited more frequently outside Italy than in his own country, including the Carnegie International Exhibition oJPaintings, held in Pittsburgh (1930, 1933, 1936, and 1939), and the Golden Gate International Exhibition oJContemporary Art in San Francisco in 1939, where he exhibited seven paintings. II Morandi participated in more than thirty exhibitions, mostly of his etchings; but despite La Cometa's desire to give him a one-man show, there had been no comprehensive retrospective of his paintings, etchings, and drawings anywhere until the 1939 Quadriennale. Invited by Oppo, Morandi himself chose the works: forty­ two paintings, twelve etchings, and two drawings representing almost thirty years ofwork. Many had never been exhibited before. The earliest painting at tbe retrospective was a landscape from 1913 (V. 8). There was one semi-Cubist still life from 1914 (V. 19), and six paintings produced during the pittllra metafisica period (1916-20). He also exhibited the apparently modest but a,l most abstract solitary white house (V. 66, 1921; see fig. 6.10), and three recent works from 1938: two still lifes and a hazy landscape (V. 235,1939).12 The 1939 Rome Quadriennale featured little in the way of political art and included a group of abstract works. Bottai nevertheless recommended in his speech at the Quadriennale's opening that "[t]here must be a reciprocal connection between politi­ cal facts and artistic ones ... artists must participate in the history of our times.,,1 3 In mid-May, four months after the 1939 Quadriennale had opened and after extensive deliber­ ation, a jury announced that Bruno Saetti had been awarded the Quadriennale's presti­ gious first prize of 100,000 lire. SaettJ, a figurative painter who after World War 11 created

ken

to

court and

was courted by owned by the rhe Galleria di st who Morandi .. . would like e nothing better ~

the invitation 'ere included in

I in 1938. That ~singly

difficult,

Blunt clashed of the Regime. fe paintings work (V. 207, male, Morandi g the Carnegie

I 1939), and the B9, where he bitions. mostly

ow, there had Nings anywhere !

works: forty-

ryears ofwork. pective was a (V. 19) , and six

Iso exhibited ; see fig.

6.10),

235, 1939)·'2 litical art and

his speech at between politi­ times."'J In 'ensive deliber­ nale's presti­ War II created

Still Life. 1936.

Gil on canvas. 20 x 24 in.

(50

x 60 em) . Private Col lection. [Y.

207]

abstract works, was ten years younger than Morandi and a greatly inferior artist. The Quadriennale's catalogue described him as "a young painter whose works in fresco, tem­ pera, and oil ... follow a healthy and positive goal upholding the Roman and Italian tradition.... One senses the fresh smell of the countryside that enlivens the works of this painter who had mastered his technique. "[4 The jury met many times to debate whether Morandi or Saetti, the two artists who had been selected for major retrospectives at the Quadriennale, "best represented the goals of the Italian art·of today." [n a letter that was not made public until

1993 ,

jury

member and sculptor Romano Romanelli , a supposed friend of Morandi, warned Bottai ofwhat he considered to be a danger to Italian art ifa prize were to be given to the type of painting that Morandi represented. "In certain moments of history, we must describe the essential themes of our times in a masculine manner. It would be a terrible misfortune for Italian art ifwe were to allow the opinions of those dregs [quisquilie brandiane 0 longhi­ aneJ of critics such as Brandi and Longhi to prevail ... if they do prevail, our art will end up more tragically than French art did after Impressionism, when every form of deca­ dence was let loose in the name of feelings." Because Brandi and Longhi were among those critics who had backed Morandi for this prize, and because their jobs were under the auspices ofBottai's Ministero dell'Educazione Nazionale, Romanelli further urged him that" [a]ction be taken by the Minister's office to put the brakes on [those] thoughtless young men [Brandi and Longhil and stop them, for they don't know where their exaltation of the decadent will take them." Romanelli concluded that although Morandi was undoubtedly an intelligent person he was " not a painter. "'5 The

1939

Quadriennale was the largest exhibition of Morandi's work to date ,

and Arcangeli described it in three words: "Fu il sllccesso" (It was the success). [6 For Morandi, who was not awarded the first prize of 100,000 lire, the reality was quite different. (Likely Brandi broke the news to Morandi that he had won one of the two Quadriennale second prizes of 50,000 lire; the other went to the sculptor Italo Griselli for a seated statue oftbe reigning Queen Margherita.) For Morandi, who earned

3,600

lire a year,

50,000

lire was a handsome sum, but money was not the only issue; he was upset by the outspoken, vindictive disparagement of his work by friends Luigi Bartolini and Osvaldo Licini (his old classmate), who ridiculed his compositions of unpretentious still Lifes and amorphous landscapes. In fact, most of Morandi's contemporaries did not understand the stililifes from the

1930S

(Arcangeli was the first to comprehend these works, which, he argued,

were so far ahead of their time that they anticipated works by Jean FJutrier, Nicolas de Stael, and Wols). Morandi's works, with shimmering contours and 'layer over layer of pure, thick color, suggested three or four paintings beneath the surface of each canvas. The few paintings from the pittura metafisica years displayed at the Quadriennale were criti­ cized as little better than that by "a six-year-old child [un bambino di sei annil ... tones not only wrong ... but painted in faded colors diluted with turpentine. Morandi wants to appear as though he were a little boy [unfanciullino]."J7 Bartolini denigrated some of his

160

·tist. The :resco, tem­

Metaphysical works for being "painted as though seen through distorting mirrors. ,,18 Right-wing extremists objected to the Metaphysical paintings in which they saw "a neg­ ative and immoral world of doubting, contemplation, pessimism, and femininity­ while Fascism was action, certainty, optimism: and masculinity. A true Fascist had no reason to doubt, question, or be pessimistic." [9

! two artists resented

II 1993, jury

whom Morandi had complained when his work was poorly reviewed at the 193 I Quadri­ ennale-was among the first to attack Morandi in the press. With an astounding about­

ed Bottai

face, Bartolini , who previously had lavished praise on Morandi and, in fact, owned one

the type of

of his most beautiful paintings (V. 144,1929, now in the Brera Museum)-a work that

! describe

~

Bartolini (also an exhibitor at the Quadriennale) -the same individual to

Brandi described as "so beautiful as to take your breath away"-became vindictive. 20

misfortune

Bartolini's financial difficulties had embittered him, and he vented his frustrations on

eo longhi­

Morandi. He rarely made any sales of his prints and was jealous of the praise heaped on

art will end

Morandi by his friends Longanesi, Maccari, Argan, Brandi, and Longhi-critics and writers

11

ofdeca­

among those lI1der the

who were well-connected withi.n the government and who openly preferred Morandi's work to Bartolini's. Shortly after the opening of the 1939 Quadriennale, Bartolini attacked Morandi's

r urged him

work in the first of four vitriolic articles published in Quadrivio, a magazine that by then

lOughtless

had become an extremist right-wing weekly.2I In his article Bartolini compared Morandi's

!ir exaltation

beautiful, bold etchings of the 1930S "to the embroideries of cloistered Capuchin nuns,"

ndi was

and he described the houses in Morandi's landscapes as "cardboard shoe boxes." Bartolini vulgarly compared Morandi's voluptuous bottles to human buttocks (culo) and then, as

I'ork to date, ~ss).16 For

mentioned above, derided him for producing works that seemed to be "painted by a six­ year-old."u On one hand Bartolini accused Morandi of being provincial and on the other

lite different.

condemned him for being influenced by current trends in Paris. He agreed with the jury

adriennale

that Morandi's art was too European and that it turned its back on the Italian tradition.

seated statue

Decrying Morandi's work as "sophisticatedly foreign," Bartolini also condemned him as a

ar,5°,ooo

follower of Cubism, Cezanne, and Chardin, warning that "Morandi knows and likes

e outspoken,

everything that is fashionable in Paris, but that is a rather shortsighted approach today.

Licini (his

Considering that Italian art is flowering once again , ifhe is so fond of foreign things ...

I amorphous

he'll soon find out that it's the wrong path to take" (si trova assai a mal partito).23

Ie stililifes

In his final article on the Quadriennale, Bartolini reserved his parting shots for

. he argued,

Brandi, whom he described as a "hermetic, rotten, and nebulous critic, without any

"iiealas de

importance." He then returned to his criticism of Morandi and concluded that "1929 to

lyer of pure,

1932 were the best years for Morandi, but from 1932 on ... he showed a lack of courage.

nvas. The

I believe that Morandi still has the possibility [within him] to be a good painter, despite

e were cri ti-

this disastrous presentation [at the Quadriennale] of his works which all look alike .

. . . tones

Morandi's art lacks that [necessary] unity of style and inspiration ... which are essential

ndi wants to

[characteristics] of great artists .. . Morandi is nothing but a myth invented by that

some of his

mischievous, witty, imp called Longanesi.,,2 4

But a year later, after yet another about-face, the erratic Bartolini now wrote an article in the liberal magazine Emporium that was full of understanding and praise for Morandi's art. His fascinating conclusion even perceives an aspect ofMorandi 's work that often goes unnoticed. He wrote: "Morandi is an artist of contemplation and reflection; it is [both] melancholy and instinctive, his roots come from Cezanne, as well as from Cubism. For [Morandi] , art is an intense and serious occupation; scrupulous and methodical, his work is Michelangelesque, but also, in my view, wild [selvaggia]. "15 Licini's negative views that be expressed in almost identical letters to Carlo Belli, a champion ofabstract art, and Giuseppe Marchiori, a critic and close friend, demon­ strate just how difficult it was at the time to understand Morandi's work. In his letters he recalled the early days when both he and Morandi had based their art on Cubism and had "fougbt side by side with Marinetti ... I never doubted Morandi 's talent ... but I now see that he has been doped by the opium that 'Soffici & Company' have been feeding him. I suffered when I saw him turning backwards from Cezanne to Chardin ... and placed under the thumb of that cacasenno [wise-guy, tbat know-it-all] from Poggio a Caiano." (Licini did not mention Soffici's name, because it was enough to mention Poggio a Caiano, a small town near Florence where Soffici lived; it was known for the sixteenth­ century frescoes by Pontormo in the Villa Medici.) "Since belonging to Strapaese [Morandi] has been the creation ofOppo , Soffici, Cardarelli, Longa nesi, Bartolini, a group so reac­ tionalY that, like crabs, they only know how to walk backwards." (The fact that Licini included Bartolini in this group indicated that Licini had not read Bartolini's assaults on Morandi in Quadrivio.) "When I got to Rome I thought I could save Morandi from the disaster that I could easily have predicted would befall him.... The problem was that I had never seen so many Morandis together at one time. They were like a regiment ... all equal, disciplined , correct, and lined up in a straight line.... While outside there was a bright sun ... his paintings were foggy.... What are they all about? ... This kind of painting doesn't interest me. Morandi is the champion of Italian mediocrity and Ital­ ian bureaucracy." Licini concluded that Italian art has "no life , no balls ... [and] is characterized by fear of the unknown and lacks originality. ,,16 Licini was unable to recognize that, rather than being "all equal," Morandi's works were actually astute variations often on similar themes-simple compositions of bottles, jugs, and vases painted over and over again-his figures and ground becoming one. Morandi's objects , splotched with paint, seemed closer to works that would later be labeled abstract expressionism, as Morandi defied the academic use of light and space. What seemed to Licini to be repetitious works of " foggy " monotony were examples of serial imagery. Even though Morandi's forty-two paintings were probably badly hung and badly lit at the Quadriennale, their presence as a group made a considerable impression on some viewers. For the first time one could observe the changes that had taken place in Morandi's work over a period exceeding twenty-five years. Paintings with subtle varia­ tions of light and dark were hung side by side with paintings with dramatic contrasts. In

now wrote an praise for

.ndi's work that reflectio n j it

s from Cubism. nethodical, his

some works the paint was so thickly applied that the pictures seemed to be composed of five or six layers, while others had thin washes splashed over the entire canvas. What had seemed like "mediocrity" to Licini in fact showed how much of a master Morandi could be in using delicate tonalities that swept, like sandstorms, over his compositions. Not all of the critics agreed with Bartolini and Licini. Carlo Savoia, a young Bolognese architect and a former editor of LAss alto, took issue with Bartolini's claim that Morandi catered to the bourgeoisie. Savoi.a, who met Morandi ill 1932, stated in an article

~tters

to Carlo

that he had at first found his stililifes inaccessible. But in this perceptive article, pub­

friend, demon­

lished in the March-April 1939 issue ofBolo9na-Rivista del Commune, Savoia noted that

In his letters

some of Morandi 's work had been influenced by Cubism and Surrealism. Savoia wrote:

)l1

Cubism and

"When Morandi paints a bottle or an old coffee pot, the coffee pot is simply a colored

ent ... but [

shape within a colored space, just as the face of a man is also another shape within

e been feeding

another space." Savoia may have been discussing tIle 1916 still life tIlat was reproduced in

'din ... and

his article (V. 27, now at the New York Museum of Modern Art). Savoia explained how

ggio a Caiano."

Morandi's art offended the bourgeoisie: "It cannot please because it is profound. [t makes

Poggio a

the brain work and engages the sensibilities of those who look at it. Naturally the bour­

:he sixteenth­

geoisie are by nature incapable of any intellectual effort. They can't see [in Morandi's

aese [Morandi]

paintings] anything beyond the jugs, th.e cups, the dusty clocks. They cannot see the varia­

group so reac­

tions oflight, the range of emotions, the variety of pure forms and tones mat mis painter

t that Licini

has, for thirty years, achieved while using the same subject matter. .. . All of those char­

)J1

Ii's assaults on

acteristics and vanities that ... the bourgeoisie value- honors , approval, money, fads

ldi from the

-are nonexistent in Morandi." Savoia further commented that in Morandi's first land­

lem was that [

scape painting OfI9II "Morandi was already Morandi ... [and at t\venty-one] had already

egiment . ..

escaped from the pleasing and dilettantesque kind of painting so fashionable at that

utside there

time. " Savoia added mat "Morandi, who in the evening wanders about Bologna's old streets,

? •• This kind

resembles an ancient warrior encased in his armor. Morandi's armor is his integrity, his

Icrity and [tal­

honesty, and his moral rectitude- his artistic conscience. "27

.. [and] is

Although he would also be later defended by some of the most respected writers in [tall', Morandi did not recover easily from the barrage of attacks made against

II, " Morandi's

him and his work at the 1939 Rome Quadriennal e. The criticism by so-called friends had

mpositions

devastated him, and in a letter in 1942 to the painter and poet Mario Becchis, Morandi

und becoming

confided how much he regretted having exhibited there. 28 Still, this setback didn't stop

would later

him from exhibiting the next year in Rome, Zurich, and elsewhere. Mrer the 1939

~ht and

Quadriennale he completed nine important works that year, among them the extraordinary

space.

~xa mples

of

,adly hung and

e impression

still life v. 240 (1939), which was exhibited at the San Francisco exhibition, and the less­ interesting still life

v. 241 (.I939), which was exhibited in Pittsburgh.

Six months before Savoia's article appeared, a new Roman magazine, Le Arti,

aken place in

was established by the Direzione delle Antichita e Belle Arti (Offices of Antiquities and

.ubtle varia­

Fine Arts), which fell under Bottai's Ministry of National Education. Le Arti (published from

contrasts. [n

October 1938 to June 1943) printed articles about antiquities a nd sought unpublished

A Decade of Delusions

163

works by modern Italian artists. In a 1938 letter to Morandi, Brandi explained that, while the Ministry was continuing to conduct "a thorough attack on 'Modern Art,' paradoxi­ cally Le Arti will be sponsored by the [same] ministry. " 29 Among Le Arti 's contributors were Argan , Brandi, Massimo Bontempelli, Carra, Longhi, Maraini, Oppo, Giuseppe Pagano , Marcello Piacentini, and Soffici. Along with Gio Ponti, Bontempelli and Pagano were editors of the magazine Domus , well known for its articles on modern architecture and the decorative arts. Longhi had initially promised Morandi that he would write about his

,

work in Le Arti, but Brandi requested that he be allowed to replace Longhi, who apparently was too busy organizing the 1939 exhibition ofItalian art in San Francisco. The mutual admiration that followed berween Brandi , who had met Morandi in 1933, and the artist developed into a friendship. The article that Brandi published on Morandi in Le Arti, "Cammino di Morandi," was expanded into a monograph and published in 1942. Brandi became Morandi's friend at coun (in other words, at the Direzione di Antichita e Belle Arti) , and throughout the rest of his life he brought the artist news and gossip from Rome and performed occasional favors for him at tlle various Ministries. Morandi was sin­ cerely grateful to Brandi, whose monograph was the most important book about the artist to date. It contained forty-six black-and-white iUustrations of paintings from

T9II

to

1938, and it also listed their owners, who were among the most prominent Italian collec­ tors of modern art. 30 Ten years later, in a postscript to his 1942 monograph, Brandi recalled the times surrounding his first essay on Morandi for Le Arti in 1939, when "the hostility, the lack of understanding, the ridicule aimed at the painter of bottles also became political censure." Writing about Morandi , he stated, was to defend the artist, his "ivolY tower" and his "contempt for the Fascist admiration of ... Romanita [a harkening back to the days of Imperial Rome]." 3 1 The hermetic portrait that Brandi drew of Morandi in 1939 would set the tone for the formalist view of Morandi's art and would be embraced by Lamberto Vitali and virtually all others for decades to come. Not until Arcangeli arrived at a different conclusion in his 1964 book on Morandi would some of these myths be challenged. Interestingly, Morandi himself apparently never took issue with Brandi's suggestion that his origins were "completely autonomous."p In his book Brandi seemed to agree with the myth of Morandi's "spontaneous creation,"-in other words, that he was an artist enveloped in poetic solitude. Brandi avoided any contextual references that might destroy that image. And in affirming yet another myth he also portrayed Morandi as a repository of the authentic Italian tradition, a continuation ofItalianita. At about the same time, Arnaldo Beccaria, a poet and friend of Brandi , offered a portrait of Morandi in a small monograph published in time for the opening of the 1939 Quadriennale. Beccaria had attempted to publish a book on Morandi in 1933, but the artist was apparently unhappy with it, and the project was never completed. This book, with thirty-four black-and-white illustrations, became the prototypical way ofdescribing the artist without saying much about him: " [Ll ittle or nothing is known about [Morandi]

ed that, while

the man ... the way I see him ... he is a bit withdrawn, a stay-at-home, perhaps even

Irt,' paradoxi­

timid. I know of nothing else to say about him." Beccaria went on

ntributors were

that" Morandi has never been

1seppe Pagano,

to

to

proclaim with pride

Paris. "33

In contrast to his friend Licini's letters attacking Morandi, Marchiori was a

Pagano were

defender of the worl<s that Morandi exhibited at the 1939 Quadriennale, arguing that

tecture and the

Morandi was not an antimodern artist but rather a modern constructor of form and that

e about his

"there is a unity of architecture and space in his stilllifes." Yet Marchiori also confined

Nho apparently

Morandi to "a kind of aristocratic isolation," overlooking his involvement with the Euro­

The mutual

pean avant-garde. 34 Years later Marchiori would ignore Morandi's connections to Futurism

and the artist

and Valori Plastici and would declare that his work was a protest against the Fascist regime.

I.

di in Le Arti,

In 1963 Marchiori wrote in Art International: "Morandi passed by Futurism, metaphysical

n 1942. Brandi

art, and the [Metaphysical] movement that was centered around the magazine Valori

tichita e Belle

Plastici .... During the tragedy of conflict and oppression we were consoled in our sorrow

fip from R.ome Idi was sin­

by the thought that in a room on the Via Fondazza ... Morandi was in all probability

flbollt the artist

and lonely steadfastness was a bulwark; it was the noble protest of the man [who was]

'om

'the most out of step' in the

[91l

to

t Italian collec­

randi recalled

painting a picture of bottles, lamps and dusty boxes. Amid the clamor of the war his silent world."~)

Unable to ignore what was happening around him, Morandi seemed to retreat as much from his former friends as from right-wing members oftl1e R.egime who belittled

"the hostility,

modern art in general and his work in particular. And in the process, for reasons known

:came political

only to Morandi, he certainly did not discourage writers from portraying him as a man

ivory tower"

isolated fr0111 his times.

Ig back to the Id set the tone to Vitali Jnd

em conclusion oterestingly, t his origins h the myth of enveloped in Dy that image. tory of the

randi, offered hing of the in 1933, but d. This book, 'describing ~ut

[Morandi]

A Decade of Delusions

165

Notwithstanding the contempt that Mussolini felt for intellectuals,judging them incapable of any action, anti-Fascist activities became more intense, and more dangerous. The wave of arrests of intellectuals connected with the Partito d'Azione began in earnest in the spring of 1943.

- Antonio Rinaldi

The End of an Era: The Debacle of Fascism, '945 Morandi spent the summer of 1939 painting the landscape in Grizzana, a small , isolated village thirty-eight kilometers southeast of Bologna. He was still there when, on September I,

news came over the radio that Nazi Germany had invaded Poland. Less than a year

later, in June 1940, Morandi could not have missed the headlines announcing that Italy had declared war on those countries Mussolini contemptuously called "the democracies " - England and France. Both countries entered the war when they tried unsuccessfully to

defend Poland from the invading Germans; World War II had begun. That same month

France fell, and Morandi , usually indifferent to political events, was shocked by the news. I Yet for the remainder of the war, despite his brief imprisonment in [943 by the Fascist police, Allied bombardment of Bologna and the surrounding countryside where his family had sought safety, and the Nazi mas sacre of innocent civilians prac­ tically at his doorstep, Morandi was able to close himself off from the horrif)'illg events taking place around him. He made painting his sole purpose during the war years. Morandi vividly remembered those terrible times when a man's life was worth five kilos of salt-the reward for turning in a partisan, as he later recalled to me-yet he never gave any indication, explicit or implicit, that he held any political position other than one of determined neutrality.2 Morandi managed to produce a large body of work during the wartime years: fifteen landscapes and thirteen stilllifes in 1940; twenty-four land scapes and thirty-five stilllifes in 1941; sixteen landscapes and thirty stilllifes in I942; and twenty­ three landscapes and forty-four stilllifes in I943, including a series of extraordinary

10

expressionistic paintings ofsbells. Morandi's production dropped dramatically in 1944, when he painted only three landscapes and seven stilllifes, and in the following and last year of the war he painted tbree landscapes and nine stilllifes. Although it would have been out of the question for Morandi to participate in Farinacci's infamous Premio Cremona exhibitions, neither did he show works in the Premio Bergamo. In a letter to Mario Becchis dated May

12,

1944, Morandi wrote from Grizzana:

"I'm working very little . ... Every day the airplanes are overhead, and when they are not bombing us, they shoot at each other. You can understand that with this going on it's impossible to think about painting. I no longer have that quiet that is so indispensable for my work." Almost a month later Morandi complains to Raimondi: "I can't paint out­ of-doors because every day, and several times during the day, the cross-fire from the anti­ aircraft [guns] shooting [against the Allied planes] rains down shrapnel everywhere." Morandi concluded facetiously: "It's a real paradise."3 Nonetheless, in the same letter to Raimondi, Morandi expressed concern about not completing enough paintings that year to satisf}1 the demand for them. Morandi had expected the war to end in 1943 and wrote to Arcangeli, who worked for the Sovrintendenza: "Dear Arcangeli, regarding the recent events, let us hope that finally our poor dear Italy can once again find a little peace [un poco di pace]. "4 Evidently he was alluding to events that had taken place in Rome on July 25, 1943, when the Fascist Grand Council voted Mussolini out of power. With this coup d'etat against Mussolini, Morandi, like many others, expected that an armistice would be signed in September. 'I nstead a new and even more violent phase began. The Nazi army occupied northern Italy from 1943 to 1945, and those years proved to be especially difficult for civilians. As Italian Partisan activity escalated, reprisals against the men of the Italian

Resistenza and the civilian population increased. Some of the works that Morandi painted during the war years are among the most beautifi.rl of his career. His paintings of the 1940S have a different palette from the works of the 1930s. The light in these later works varies from a lugubrious dark crimson to austere sackcloth browns. Asphaltum-like blackish umbers and burning dark ruby reds replace the clear, gemlike colors (bright yellows and pure ultramarines) of the 1930S. In another palette that Morandi favored in the 1940S he combined different kinds of hues with dark purples, light mauves, dark pinks, copper reds, and dull )Iellows-an unusual combination of colors tbat created a mood of sad uncertainty. In both his still lifes and landscapes Morandi captured the changing light of the seasons, ranging from the gray tonal light of a late winter afternoon to the bright light of SlImmer. In the 1940S Morandi returned to serial work more extensively; sometimes, as in the paint­ ings of shells, he could create as many as seventeen variations of a single visual idea. His new palette notwithstanding, each painting remains a variation of the themes that remained constant throughout his life.

168

Seven closely related stilllifes painted at the beginning of the war suggest lowing and last

how Morandi continually adjusted his focus, magnifYing and reducing an image while

It would have

always looking for new ways to transform nature into art. Photographs of his studios in

remio Cremona

Bologna and Grizzana confirm a marked contrast between th e actual subjects (stilllifes, flowers, and landscapes) and the way Morandi represented them in order to create the

from Grizzana: . they are not

mysterious world that exists in his paintings. A 1939 still life that once belonged to Nelson Rockefeller is one of two works

•

; going on it's

that begin this series. In it are six objects-two tall bottles, painted a deep, scorched reddish

ndispensable

brown, act as pillars that embrace four objects placed between them (v. 244; fig. ro.I). Shad­

:an't paint out­

ows appear as sharp, dark, horizontal bands that break into the solemn forms of the objects.

from the anti­

A copper-colored Turkish coffee pot-a dark, sandy-colored container with a shape resem­

everywhere. "

bling a rocket-is placed so that it barely touches a Venetian-red water pitcher. In front of

same letter to

the pitcher, placed at an oblique angle, stands the ubiquitous cadmium yellow Persian bottle

fings that )'ear

that Morandi has broken up into four facets of subde and different shades ofyellow. These objects float onto a magical lavender background. Morandi painted the objects not at eye

1I1geli, who

level but, since he always stood while painting, most likely on the lowest table in his studio

ts, let us hope

so that he could look downward at them. In a still life painted a year later he has added three

di pace]." 4

new objects: a blue, amphora-like vase that he first painted in 1921, a creamy white flask,

5, 1943 , when

and a small, dark, watering can (V. 262, 1940; fig. IO.2). Morandi has brought the objects

'etat against

close to the table's edge, and they appear to have been painted at eye level.

)e signed in

my occupied

There are two more variations to this composition, both painted in 1940 (V. 263 and V. 265). In the latter work Morandi added the helmet-shaped copper pot, changed

difficult for

the color of one of the bottles to an off:'white, and eliminated both the rocket-shaped

of the Italian

object and the blue vase (fig. IO. 3) . The objects are muted in color and fade easily into the background, as does the tabletop (which here includes two of the table's legs and acts as a bridge that sustains the objects).

the most

11

the works

The final stilllifes of this series (v. 298 and V. 299) are both from 1941. In V. 298 (previously in the ]ucker Collection) Morandi has enlarged the seven objects so that

rimson to

they fill the entire canvas, and a funereal dark crimson glows over the entire work (fig.

Irk rub)' reds

lOA). At first glance V. 299, the final painting from this group, seems to be composed of

the 1930S.

only three objects, each of which Morandi had already illustrated in other paintings from

•kinds of

this series (fig. 10.5). These objects are perched precariously on a burnt umber form that

lows-an

more closely resembles a ledge than a tabletop. With an almost chiaroscuro effect, this

oth his still

work is the most dramatic and emotionally charged painting of the group. On the left side

ranging

is the old helmet-shaped copper pot, which Morandi has placed upside down and at an

ummer. In

angle so that one can easily recognize the white shape that he daubed onto its bottom. The

in the paint­

object in the middle is the same Venetian-red water pitcher, and to its s ide is one of the

sllal idea.

Persian botdes. In previous paintings Morandi had elongated the body of his favorite yel­

hemes that

low bottle, but in this work its body has become almost square. Closer scrutiny of this work reveals two more objects: in front of the yellow bottle is a cream-colored white flask

The End of an Era

169

10 . 1

Still Life, 1939. Oil on canvas , 17 x 23 in. (43 x 57 em).

Private Collection . [\I. 244]

(also depicted in fig 10.2), which lies on its side like a fallen ancient architectural figure, and a portion of Morandi 's painted canisters is barely visible behind the copper pot. Most unusually, the entire painting seems compressed within an eerily glowing, diffused reddish light-the kind of illumination present in night paintings such as Piero della Francesca's Dream of Constantine or in the tenebrist works of Georges de la Tour. Among the works in

this series this still life in particular exemplifies Morandi's extraordinary range of tonal variation and subtle modifications in the composition of his paintings. Also in 1941 Morandi began the first in a series of stilllifes that use an unusu­ ally long horizontal format and that line up the objects in a restricted space (V. 291, V. 293, V. 294, V. 295, and V. 296).5 In contrast to the gloomy stilllifes Of1940, these hori­ zontal works have lighter colors and an austere palette. The canvases are infused with the warm, toasty colors of autumn, and the objects are clearly defined. Although these paintings may appear identical, no two are exactly alike. In fact, even in terms of canvas dimensions few of Morandi's paintings are exactly the same size. Most of his stretchers before 1945 were handmade by a carpenter, so Morandi was not restricted to the standard canvas sizes. This series of horizontal stilllifes focuses on almost abstract construc­ tions in which vertical chunks of several objects-the Turkish coffee pot, the striped vase, a simple rectangular box that Morandi covered with paint-are clumped together, pro­ voking unexpected vertical forms that contrast with the horizontal format. Patterns of light break IIp the objects and create new forms, and parts of the objects often dissolve into the background, making the spaces between them an active part of the corllposi­ tion. As Fellini observed when describing a painting by Morandi in La Dolce Vita , nothing has been left to chance. In another 1941 group of stilllifes that Morandi painted in immediate succes­ sion he clustered three or five objects on a table (V. 302-310): a large, voluptuous white decanter; a bottle that Morandi had painted a rich ultramarine blue on the bottom half and a warm white on its long neck; a small ultramarine bottle; and the ubiquitous petroleum lamps. Those lamps, which Bartolini and Licini had scorned in 1939, were now transformed into spires. In these pared-down compositions, Morandi gave new life to a silent world

:md injected new tonalities, atmosphere, and mood as in the still life V. 303 (fig. 10.6) and a comparable later still life from 1948 (V. 647; fig. 10.7). The following year Morandi began another series in which he included old Ovaltine canisters that he had covered with paper and decorated with colored ovals and rectangles, as well as vases , pitchers, bottles, and the metal box from his Metaphysical paintings. One of the most dramatic paintings from this group is the still life V. 374, pre­ viously in the Plaza collection (fig. 10.8). Painted a thick, rich, dark-brown asphaltum, the objects represented in this still life near'y fill the canvas. Sumptuous and impenetrable, they stand silhouetted against a muted brick-red background and cast no shadows. The painting seems Metaphysical, and it recalls the austere landscape setting from Alain Resnais's 1961 film The Last Year in Marienbad. In V. 384, a work from World War II that is in a private collection in Parma , there are eight objects, four ofwhich are triangular, elon­ gated shapes that resemble cloaked figures (fig. 10.9). In both paintings Morandi renders a sense of an ominous, gloomy mood. a Francesca 's g the works in

Only t\vo monographs about Morandi-Soffici's and Beccaria's-had been written by 1940. Both had only poor black-and-white reproductions that gave no hint of

range of tonal : lise an lInllsu­

:e (V. 291, V. 40, these hori­ infused with ihough these 'rms of canvas ~is

stretchers

) the standard lct construc­ te striped vase, :ogether, pro­ . Patterns of Dften dissolve !le composi­ e Vita, nothing ~diate

succes­

Ituous white ttom halfand . petroleum wtransformed

silent world

10.2 Still Life. I940.

Oil on canvas, 16 x 2I in. (42 x '53 em). Civi co Museo di Arte Moderna, Milan . Boscbi-Di Stefa no Collection. [V. 262]

-

10.3

Still Life. 1940.

Oil on canvas , 18 x 20 in. (47 x 50 cml. Staatli che Museen zu Berlin

Nationalgalerie, Berlin . Photograph by Antoni o Masotti. [V. 265]

10.5

Dark Still Life with Five Objects, 1941.

12 x 18 in. (31 x 47 em). Private Collection. [y.299)

Oil on canvas,

10.4

Still LUi?, 1941.

Oil on canvas, 16 x '7 in. (40 x 44 em) . Private Collection. [V. 298]

10.6

Still Life, 194I.

Oi l on canvas, 15 x 19 in . (37 x 4 8 cm). Priva te Collectioll. [V.303J

10·7

Still

Life, 1948.

Oil on C'lnvas, 10 x 16 in. (26 x 40 em) .

Fondazione Magr13ni-Rocc3, Mamiano di Traverseto lo, Parma. [V.

6471

10.8

Sti ll

L~e,

1942.

Oil on ca nvas, 17 x 20 in. (44 x ')0 em). Privare Col lecrion . [V. 374)

10.9

Still Life, 1942.

Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in. (50 x 40 em).

Fondaz ion e Magnani-Rocca, Mamiano di Traverserolo, Parma. [V. 3 84)

the splendor of Morandi's colors and the range of his subtle use of monochromatic tonal­ ities. In October 1941 Giovanni Scheiwiller approached Morandi to discuss a new project that Mario Becchis was developing-a series of monographs on the best of Italy's living artists, and he wanted to include Morandi. Scheiwiller, whom Morandi had known since 1927, would write a short text. Morandi and Lamberto Vitali would select the works, and to obtain the necessary photographs for illustrating the publication the two would approach private collectors, among them Pietro Feroldi, Riccardo lucker, Longanesi, Longhi, Soffici , and Vitali himself. Because of the war only the monographs on Casorati, De Pisis, Bartolini, and Morandi were published, and Becchis was unable to cany out his origLnal plan to publish each monograph in large format and with full-color illustrations. Cesare Brandi published his important monograph on Morandi in 1942, but all the illustrations were in black and white. Although Becchis's book (text by Scheiwiller), published a year later, contained fewer reproductions than either Beccaria's or Brandi's monograph, the fifteen color images reproduce the textures of the original works more accurately than illustrations from any previous publication. Morandi had wanted his drawings and etchings reproduced in their original size, and the quality ofdlese reproduc­ tions is so high that it is difficult to distinguish them from the original work. Moreover, the colored illustrations in this wartime publication are of such excellent quality that even today, more dlan fifty years later, they remain fresh and beautiful and do complete j'Ustice to the colors in Morandi's works. No works from Morandi's Cubist-Fururist period were reproduced, nor were any of his self-portraits. The book illustrated still lifes, land­ scapes, and two flower pieces only. Among these were the Metaphysical painting of three objects from 1916 (V. 28) and a majestic still life offive objects (V. 305) from 1941; depicted in both works is the large, voluptuous white bottle. In his defense of Morandi's work Scheiwiller uses his essay in Becchis's mono­ graph to demonstrate the existence of two antagonistic "wings" of Fascism. In justifYing Morandi's choice of the still life in the face of right-wing critics who attacked this genre he wrote: "No, illustrious censors, a still life can move us because of its intrinsic qualities, for its emotional intensity and for inexplicable mysterious reasons .... No, Morandi's paintings are not~ as they are so often recklessly described-the most authentic expression ofartistic impotence, [rather) his works document the triumph of the spirit over materialism, ... Morandi is among the few privileged [artists) with the capacity to produce paintings of pure poetry." 6 In addition to the monograph, Becchis (a painter and poet) proposed to mount a Morandi exhibition in Turin. The artist agreed to help with this project, provided that no one knew of his advisory role. In a letter dated October

II,

1942, Morandi wrote to

Becchis: "Ifyou want [to know) I lost my [peace), and I regret having exhibited at the last Quadriennale." (Se vuole io ho perduto la pace e mi pento di aver fatta la mostra della alIa passata Quadriennale.) 7 One can only speculate that Morandi was busy making deci­ sions for Becchis's book about the kinds of paper to use and about which works to be

:hromatic tonal­

reproduced. Ultimately, the war likely preempted the exhibit, as the Italian army was in

a new project

the midst of suffering a terrible defeat on the Russian front.

of Italy's living

Surprisingly, until 1943 the war apparently did not curtail MorancLi's exhibition

ad known since

possibilities. Even more unexpected was the timing of the opening of the first private

ect the works,

modern art gallery in Bologna in 1942 by the young painter Giovanni Ciangottini. Morandi,

the two would

whose work would rarely appear there again, exhibited at the opening ofCiangottini's

Ir, Longanesi,

gallery to show his support for a younger generation of modern artists. 8 Except for the

)hs on Casorati,

1943 Quadriennale (which was cancelled because ofwartime activity), Morandi continued

to carry out his

to exhibit during the war, though not in Bologna. More often than not, his exhibitions

r illustrations.

Ii in 1942, but t by Scheiwiller),

were arranged by individual collectors or private dealers, but he also participated in some government-sponsored exhibitions. Despite the attacks on modern art by right-wing Fascist extremists, Bottai,

's or Brandi's

under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education, organized an exhibition of con­

laJ works more

temporary art in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 194I-the Prima Mostra delle Collezioni ltaliane d'Arte

d wanted his

Contemporanea (First Exhibition of Italian Collections of Contemporary Art). A major goal of this

:hese reproduc­

exhibition was to show future collectors that private patronage is as important as that of

lork. Moreover,

the government. In the catalogue a statement by the organizing committee concluded

It quality that

that the exhibition "once more documented the eternal vitality of the genius of Ollr [Italian]

ld do complete

race."9 Selections from the most important Italian collectors were exhibited; Morandi

-Futurist period

was well represented with eighteen works (drawings as well as paintings from several col­

;tilllifes, land­

lections) and was the only artist included from Bologna. In a review in Emporium , a dis­

ainting of three

cerning Attilo Crespi noted Morandi's "aristocratic reserve, his ability to ennoble the most

1941; depicted

humble and silent of models ... giving a solemn dignity to his paintings of objects that Morandi elevated to the stature of symbols." 10

cchis's mono­

A word must be said about the contradictory aspects of the patronage of the

a. In justifYing

arts under Fascism. This contradiction became evident in two important and contrast­

cked this genre

ing exhibitions held annually between 1939 and 1943: the Premio Bergamo and the Premio

insic qualities,

Cremona. Sponsored by rival Fascist factions, the exhibitions were each named for the

No , Morandi's

city in which they were held. A few artists and noted critics participated in both. The ret­

mtic expression

rograde Premio Cremona was establ,i shed by the former Fascist Party Secretary Roberto

er materialism,

Farinacci to celebrate art to be used for propaganda purposes. Farinacci stated that "it

,duce paintings

would be the first attempt to gather together Italian artists in order to document the his­ torical authenticity of the Era of Mussolini."11

posed to mount provided that di wrote to

Among the committee members for the 1939 Premio Cremona were repre­ sentatives from the Ministry of National Education and the newly created Ufficio per l'Arte Contemporanea (founded under Bottai's Ministry of Education to encourage and pro­

bited at the last

mote relationships between private dealers and ga'lleries and collectors), and critics with

mostra della

views as diverse as Giulio Carlo Argan and Ugo Ojetti. Writing on the opening of the exhi­

;y making deci­

bition, Ojetti praised the artists for their works that "expressed the strength and beauty

works to be

of the Italy of today and tomorrow-the Italy of Mussolini."12 (He was also among those

The End of an Era

177

-

on the commission who joined with Nazi Germany's condemnation of modern art.) All works submitted to the Premio Cremona were faithfiJl to a conservative, figurative tradition and served as models for a Fascist art. The makeup of the jury for the second Premio Cremona was similar to the first: Farinacci headed the group, which included Ojetti but also Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Arturo Tosi (representing the Sindacati di Belle Arti), Soffici (WlilO represented the Accademia d'Italia), and Argan (for the Minister of National Education). "Was it possible," the "Grand Inquisitor" Farinacci pondered years earlier,

•

"that the era of Mussolini should be handed down to posterity illustrated by drooping breasts, varicose veins or the typical stilllifes? What is needed is art that can depict the drama present in our history.,,13 There were two them es to the 1939 Premio Cremona, and participating artists could choose either " Listening to a Speech by il Duce on the Radio" (Ascoltazione alia radio di un discorso del Duce) or" States of Mind Created by Fascism" (Stati d'animo creati dal fascismo). A pri ze of50,000 lire was to be awarded for a work on each theme. 14 An ambiguous review of the 1941 exhibition by Guido Piovene admitted that while the Premio Cremona "was a celebration of the difficulties of combining art with propaganda ... its function was to create an iconography of the Regime."IS Plans were made to allow artists from Nazi Germany to enter the fifth Premio Cremona, but because of what were described as " wartime activities" the exhibition was cancelled. By then, Italy was divided into two zones-the liberated South and the German-occupied North. Counter to the Premio Cremona was the Premio Bergamo, which was created by Bottai and called by some "the exhibition of good art," and by right-wing critics such as A. F. Della Porta "the festival of Jewish art." It opposed the narrowly prescribed polit­ ical themes in favor of an apolitical title Premio Bergamo- Mostra Nazionale del Paesaggio Italiano (Premio Ber,gamo-National Exhibition of the Italian Landscape). With such an ambigu­ ous title, artists were encouraged to submit works on any theme even marginally associ­ ated with "landscape," but they could definitely ignore subjects dealing with themes of propaganda. In contrast to the Premio Cremona the exhibition explicitly excluded "statue­ like life-size figures and compositions illustrating historicall themes," thus avoiding the creation of art as propaganda.

It would have been out of the question for Morandi to participate in Farinacci's Premio Cremona, nor did he exhibit in the Premio Bergamo. According to art historian Pia VivareIJi, Morandi was not invited to exhibit at the Premio Bergamo, and ifhe had wanted to exhibit he would have had to submit works to a jury. 16 Remembering the debacle at the

1939 Quadriennale, Morandi probably had little desire to do so. However, he was asked to be a member of the jury for the fourth Premio Bergamo in June 1942, an invitation he declined. Although Morandi consciously avoided submitting his works to a jury, he had no hesitation about holding a solo show at the Fascist union 's Galleria di Roma in 1942. In addition , invited to exhibit at the 1943 Quadriennale, Morandi sent three works and also served on its acquisitions committee. The Quadriennale was scheduled to open in May

and, had it not been for Morandi's encounter with the secret police, there is no doubt that he otherwise would have attended the opening ceremonies as he usually did. 17 On the afternoon of May 23, I943, Morandi, his mother, and his three sisters were in the middle of Sunday dinner when they were suddenly interrupted by men from the secret police-the OUVRA-who searched the artist's room and confiscated a stack of letters. According to Morandi, the OUVRA were looking for letters from Ragghianti, who had been arrested the previous year for anti-Fascist activities in Bologna. They hoped by drooping

to find others who were involved with Ragghianti and the anti-Fascist group Partito

can depict the

d'Azione (Party of Action). Cesare Gnudi, an art historian and Morandi's close friend and

lio Cremona,

neighbor, had been arrested a few weeks earlier. 18 (The secret police, also aware of

Duce on the

Morandi's long-standing friendship with Gnudi, assumed that Morandi was part of an

nd Created b}1

anti-Fascist group that met in Gnudi's house to listen to "Radio Londra," the forbidden

I

be awarded

BBC evening newscast from London.) Morandi was arrested because the secret police had found a postcard from him among Ragghianti's papers. Even before Mussolini started

. admitted that

ling art with "15

Plans were

la, bur because

to arrest large numbers of anti-Fascist intellectuals, Morandi , who feared incrimination, had already disposed of Ragghianti's letters; years later he had enjoyed relating to me that he had "flushed them all down the toilet." Longanesi, who often made anti-Fascist statements, feared imprisonment if the

ed. By then,

OUVRA discovered his notebooks and diaries from I932 to I942, so he entrusted all of

:cupied North.

them to Morandi for safekeeping. Morandi feared that he, too, might be suspect and would

:h was created

be sent to prison ifLonganesi's papers were found in his possession, and so, without

: critics such

notifying his friend, Morandi burned all of them in I942.19

escribed pol it­

del Paesaggio

The OUVRA took Morandi to the local prison, San Giovanni in Monte, and placed him in a cell along with two petty thieves. (In retelling this story Morandi would

ch an ambigu­

always mention how kind and respectful they were to him.) Because oftheir involvement

:inallyassoci­

with Ragghianti and the Partito d 'Azione, Arcangeli, Gian Carlo Cavalli, Gnudi, Raimondi,

lith themes of

and the poet Antonio Rinaldi were arrested at the same time. Through the intervention

uded "statue­

of Longhi and Maccari, whose close connections to Bottai proved invaluable, Morandi was

; avoiding the

released in less than a week. (In I999 a marker commemorating Morandi's arrest for his allegedly anti-Fascist activities was placed in the courtyard of the former jail of San Gio­

in Farinacci's

vanni in Monte, now used by the University of Bologna's history department.) The others

t historian Pia

arrested with Morandi were freed two months later, on July 26, one day after the Italian

~

had wanted

king surrendered to the Allies. Gnudi and some others Red south to Florence, where they

debacle at the

continued their anti-Fascist activities.

vas asked to be

In late June I943, almost a month after his release from prison, Morandi and

n he declined.

his family, still nervous after Morandi's incarceration, left Bologna for Grizzana. There

a jury, he had

they believed he could paint undishIrbed. Morandi first visited Grizzana in the summer of

Ima in 1942.

19I3 and returned sporadically between 1927 and 1939. His eldest sister, Annetta , had

mks and also

taught school in one of the villages close to G rizzana, where the Morandis were al ready

Jpen in May

well known. The Morandis rented two floors ofa house, expecting to spend just the sum-

The End of an Era

179

mer in Grizzana, but after learning of Boll ogna's first aerial bombardment by the Allied forces on July 24 they agreed that they would be safer in the country and decided to remain there indefinitely. Morandi had left behind in his studio most of the objects that figured in his still lifes; they would not reappear in his paintings until after he and his family returned there more than a year later, in September 1944. 20 Morandi spent the summer of1943 painting the fields and houses surrounding the village. He completed twenty-three landscapes (V. 450-472), and they reveal a mas­ terful use of serial imagery. To appreciate Morandi's

inv~ntiveness

one should see the

works from this group all together. Many of these paintings seem as if they were a part of a contact sheet of photographs, each snapped one after the other with only a slight shift of focus. We know that they were largely painted en plein air, because as the war front ,

I

I

drew nearer to Grizzana (then occupied by the German army) Morandi needed a special permit from the military authorities to paint outdoors. He wrote to Arcangeli , who still worked for the Sovrintendenza, asking for his help to renew his old permit, or to obtain a new one, which he did. In a 1944 letter complaining to Arcangeli that he was no longer allowed to paint outdoors Morandi wrote : "It would bother me [mi seccherebbe assai] if! couldn't do anything at all during the spring and summer.,,21 Grizzana does not appear to be an inspiring landscape for a modern artist. There is nothing in the surrounding country reminiscent of the awesome presence of Cezanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire or the monumental cliffs and rocks around Mouthier that Courbet painted. Today almost evelY inch ofGrizzan a's small, rolling hills and valleys is planted with vineyards or wheat fields; in the 1940S there were more open spaces­ indeed, parts were barren and desolate-and clumps of small, young trees that resemble twigs in Morandi's landscapes. The beauty in the Grizzana landscape was all in Morandi's ability to visualize it; he took possession of the countryside and abstracted its essence in his paintings. Some of his paintings of this period glow with the intense, almost shad­ owless light ofhigb noon, such as Landscape with Six Young Trees (V. 457, 1943; see fig . ID.18). The white rectangles of the houses must have been painted at that hour, for there are no shadows (V. 465, V. 469, V. 470, and V. 471). Others were dearly painted in the late afternoon. Morandj's ,l andscapes have rarely received the same accolades as those given to his stilllifes, but landscapes are an equally important part of his oeuvre. Both show the same constancy ofobservations and continuous variations. No figures are represented, but the tidily tended fields, the well-ordered gardens, and the pruned young vineyards that Morandi chose to record are dear testimony to the hand of man. His early landscapes -for example, The Snowfall (V.

10,

1913) , Landscape (V.

II ,

1913; see fig. 2.5) , Landscape

(V. 30 , 1916; see fig. 1.4) , and Landscape (V. 32, 1916 ; see fig. 3-4)-are not conventional and do not literally represent an actual scene, even though Morandi often painted on the site. In a stark painting of two houses from 1943 (V. 470) Morandi reduced details to a minimum (fig.

180

10. 10).

A large hill hovers over the houses, which are rendered nearly invis­

by the Allied

ible except for a splash of sunlight captured on one side of each structure. In his next

decided to

landscape, now in the Morandi Museum , a solitary white house placed on a ledge has been

.e objects that

transformed into a white shape that could well be an abstract square from a painting by

[h""d h;,

Malevich (V. 471,1943; fig. IO.U). Poorly framed, this landscape hung above Morandi 's bed

i surrounding

Ireveal a l11as­ mid see the

during his lifetime. Fascinating companions to these Mo works are paintings of old farmhouses represented as white rectangular shapes and seen through tree branches (V. 182,1934; V. 397, [942; and V. 465, 1943, in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart; fig. IO.I2) . In [943 Morandi produced sixty-eight paintings , among dlem a series of lumi­

~ were a part

nous landscapes that he created during the summer. It was as ifonly painting and working

mlya slight

outdoors could return any joy and serenity to his life , and provide momentary escape

I

the war front

from the turmoil and uncertainty all around him. Like Monet, Morandi was interested in

:ed a special

observing the changing patterns of sunlight; searching for the abstract, he constructed

geli, who still

patterns of light in both his landscapes and stilllifes. He played with the variations oflight

t, or to obtain

on houses , often creating square or zigzag patterns from the deep shadows. Among the

'as no longer

'ebbe assai]

in

many landscapes dlat Morandi painted in the early [9405 are works that feature three old farmhouses: one from [94[ tllat isn't catalogued in Vitali, V. 325 ([941), and V. 396 (1942) (figs. IO.13-15). The houses are arranged like sections ora folding Asian screen, bunched

Jdem artist.

together and sunk into the middle of a field. A distant mountain rises in the backg round,

Jresence of

and clusters of trees hover over the backs of the houses . Much of Morandi's work has been

Mouthier that

criticized as being monotonous and identical, and at first glance such criticisms might

and vaneys

seem applicable to these works as well. But a closer look reveals that Morandi painted each

Jen spaces­

from a slightly different viewpoint, closer or farther away; sometimes he even used binoc­

lat resemble

ulars. In each work the group of houses appears to be an a bstract island floating in a sea

I in Morandi 's

of light-green fields . These paintings exemplifY how Morandi played with the formal

its essence

as pects of a landscape and applied serial imagery in the same way that he depicted a group

almost shad­

of objects in a still life.

43; see fig.

In several paintings of 1942 Morandi focused on a white villa surrounded by

Jllr, for th ere

poplar trees (V. 388-390). Each painting was completed from a different viewpoint, as

inted in the

Morandi subtly s hifted his focus to a different aspect of the landscape. He returned to the same theme in 1943 , co mpleting V. 45[, V. 456, and V. 457 (Landscape with Six Youn9 Trees),

s those given Both sho,,\' represented,

in which he captured so beautifully the luminolls skies and brilliant field s ofGrizzana in the slimmer (figs. 10.16 -18). On September 8, 1943, Italy's General Pietro Badoglio and King Victor

gvineyards

Emmanuel III surrendered to the Allies. This was sarcastically called an armistizio imbro9lio

Iy landscapes

(a fraudulent armistice) because it did not end the war. Mussolini was captured and

), Landscape

briefly impri so ned in a Roman jail before being rescued by Nazi paratroopers. With a

:onventional

group ofloyal Fascists, Mussolini formed th e notorious Republic ofSalo (Repubblica

>ainted on the

Sociale Italiana) that divided Italy almost in half Shortly after the armistice, massive AJlied

details to a

bombardments destroyed parts of Bologna , whose important geographical position had

i nearly invis­

made it a primary target. As the Allies fought their way up from the sou th, their bombers

The End of an Era

181

10 . 10

Landscape, 1943.

Oil on e:lavas, 19 x 20 in. (49 x So em). Private Collection. [V. 47 0 ]

10.11 Landscape, 1943.

Oi l 011 ca nvas,

12

x 15 in. (32 x 38 crn). Morandi Museum, Bologna.

Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [V. 47 I J

10.12

Landscap(, 1943.

Oil on canvas, 13 x 16 in. (33 x 40 cm). Staatsgalerie. Stuttgart.

Photograp h by Antonio Masotti.

[Y.

465J

10.13

Landsca pe, 1941.

Oil on canvas, 15 x 17 in. (38 x 46 em). Private Collection. [not in Vitali)

10.14 Lan dscape, 1941.

Oil on canvas, 14 x 18 in . (37 x 47 em) . Private Collection. [Y.325)

in Vitali]

10.15

Landscape,

1942.

Oil on canvas , 13 x 20 in. (3'i x 'io em). Pinacoteca ProvinciJie, Sari.

Grieco Collection. [V. 396)

...

10.16

Landscape, 1943.

Oil on canvas, 19 x 20 in. (49 x 50 cm). Priv~te Collection. [v. 451)

10.17 Landscape, 1943 .

Oil on canvas, 19 x 20 in . (49 x 50 cm). Private Collection.

Photog raph by Luca Ca rra . [v. 456J

IJ

10.18

Landscape with Six Yo ung Trees, 1943.

Oil o n canvas, 14 x 21 in. (35 x 53 em). Private Collection. [V. 457]

attempted to destroy the crucial knot of railways in Bologna that had provided the Nazis with a steady flow of supplies from Germany to its army in Italy. In the winter months that followed, Morandi, still in Grizzana, turned to an object that he first painted in 1921. Perhaps intrigued by the similarities of seashells to flayed bodies, he painted two, three, or four seashells in a remarkable series of small still lifes (v. 433-449). Two works from this group are a still life of four shells (V. 437; fig.

10.19) and a still life of two shells (V. 442; fig. 10.20). The largest of the group of shell paintings is only 121/ > x 16 inches, and the smallest measures 8 1/ 2 x II inches; however, someone looking only at photographs oftbe paintings might think these works were at least four times larger. Morandi's inanimate shells evolve into writhing, organic forms -

gloomy expressions, perhaps, of the horrendous events taking place around him.

Although the shells were actually a brilliant white, Morandi increasingly represented them with muddied ochers, dulled yellows, and tired grays. Nevertheless, the shells took on a life of their own: in several of the paintings the shells appear to be engaged in combat with one another, while in others they look like miniature prehistoric monsters that are spent, exhausted, and lying flat on their backs, conquered targets from some unknown source of rage.

10.19 Still Life, 1943. Oil on canvas,

1I

x IS in. (28 x 38 em). Private Collection.

Photograph by Luca Carra . [Y. 437)

188

tied the Nazis

When the ongoing air raids finally ended, more than 40 percent of Bologna's housing was demolished. Circumstances in Grizzana, which to that point had been a

turned to an

haven, were changing. After th e king's surrender, northern Italy faced a devastating civil

: seashells to

war, as Partisans and other groups from the Resistenza joined with the British Eighth

~s

Army to fight both the Nazis and the Fascist bri.gate nere (black brigades), a militia from

of small still

; (V. 437; fig.

Mussolini's Republic ofSalo. 22 For the remainder of 1943 and all of 1944 Bologna was

group of shell

under Nazi occupation. The surrouuding countryside became the target of Allied air

~es; however,

attacks that attempted to destroy the bridges and railroad tracks between Bologna and

works were at

Florence. Arcangeli described the Allied raids as "massive and indiscriminate," com­

rganic forms

menting ironicaJly that "Rome, Venice, florence weren 't touched. Evidently the Allied com­

lround him .

manders, like [the Italian Mannerist painter and writer Giorgio] Vasari, believed that

resented them

Bologna had less to offer artistically than those other cities. "23

tells took on

In 1944-45, as the Nazis fought to keep the Allies, who were pressing up from

ged in combat

the south, from breaking through to Bologna, the linea Gatica (Gotllic line) - the dividing

5ters that are

line between the Germans to the north and the AlJies and members of the Italian Resis­

me unknown

tance to the south -was stalled at Grizzana. Virtually all civilian travel into and out of Bologna was blocked. German soldiers took lodging in many of the houses there, including

10.20 Still Life, 1943·

Oil on canvas,

II

x 12 in.

(27

x 30 cm).

Lo cation unknown . [Y. 442]

The End of an Era

189

-

the Morandis'. Morandi later recalled with some pleasure that the Nazis, who looted the Morandis' and many of the other homes in the village before they retreated, did not want his gloomy paintings of shells. Along with neighboring villages, Grizzana became a bloody battleground for some of the fiercest fighting in Italy during the war. In addition, the SS committed horrific crimes against the civilian population. In October 1944, as an example to those

living in the tiny villages that were home to many of the local Partisans, civilian hostages were executed-including children, women, parish priests, and elderly residents-from Marzabotto, Monzuno, and Griz zana . In Grizzana everyone knew someone who had been among those killed, but few wanted to discuss those events after the war.24 The last two years of the war inevitably took a toll on Morandi's productivity. Between 1943 and 1944, his yearly output dropped dramatically from sixty-seven paint­ ings to a mere ten. In the fall of 1944 the Morandis returned to Bologna, believing that they would be safer from Allied bombardment there than in Grizzana. Like many others, they erroneously believed that the Nazis had negotiated with the Allies to declare Bologna an "open city."'5 It would be another year before the Nazis unconditionally surrendered to the Allies and nearly fifteen years before Mora ndi felt ready to return to Grizzana and once again paint the landscapes that he so loved. 26

In 1959 Morandi's sisters went forward with their pl an to build a house in Grizzana, a project that Morandj adamantly opposed. In letters to me he complained, "They want it," and "It's their house." But the sisters' villa in Gri zz3na would ultimately give Morandi great pleasure when he retired from teaching. He would remain in the country with his sister Dina until mid-November, at which time the house would become uncom­ fortably cold . Some of Morandi's most haunting and poignant landscapes were created during these years. In 1960, four years before he d ied , he wrote me from the newly finish ed villa in Gri zzan3 that "for the first time in my life I have the luxury ofa studio" (fig. 10 . 21) .

19°

who looted the ~d,

did not want

)attleground e SS committed mple to those Ivilian hostages dents-from r e who had e war. 24 i's productivity. :y-seven paint­ lieving that they many others, leclare Bologna

~ surrendered J

Grizzana and

d a hOll se in

rnplained, "They imately give in the country ,ecome uncom­ were created newly finished io" (fig.

10.21) .

10.21

Morandi at Gri zzana. 1960. Photograp h courtesy of the author.

The fear of reality, the terror, that's what those sweet flowers of Morandi are all about. - Giorgio Bassani, II giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi-Continis)

We will never recover from this war nor will we ever stop worrying [because of it]. We can never again be serene, nor be a people who can think, study, and put our lives together in peace-time. Look at what has happened to our houses. Think about what has happened to us. - Natalia Ginsburg, Le piccole virtu, 1962

The Casting of the Myth: The Last Years Having returned from Grizzana in the fall of 1944, Morandi resettled into his Bolognese studio, already described by Sandro Volta in 1929 as "the famous room on the Via Fon­ dazza , which by now is known to everyone.'" That statement was about t\venty years pre­ mature; not until the 1948 Venice Biennale, when an internat,i onal jUly awarded Morandi a major prize, did he finally receive international recognition. From then on, that room in the house on the Via Fondazza became an obligatory stop for intemational admirers as well as for the most respected artists, intellectuals, and politicians in Italy. Morandi regularly insisted that he wanted only un poco di pace, to be left alone; astonishingly, most people seemed Dot to notice that he was actually leading a life completely at odds with his reputation as a legendary recluse. By 1946 Morandi had resumed teaching at the Bolognese Accademia, not for the tiny stipend he received but because he enjoyed the company of the junior faculty (almost all ofwhom had been his students in the 1930s) and the young, new students. By this time Morandi did not have to worry about selling his work. Since 1936 he had been represented by one of the leading commercial galleries in Mibn, the Galleria del Milione, which also showed works by Arp, Albers, de Chirico , Kandinsky, and Soldati. In 1941 the gallelY's owners, Gino and Peppino Ghiringhelli, who would become Morandi's prin­ cipal dealers, wrote to him: .. [I]f YOll were to send us at least one painting every three or four months, we could help

YOll

to make more money.'" AskiJlg ever higher prices for

Morandi 's paintings, the Ghiringhelli brothers were able to sell many of them to Milanese collectors, even during the dark days of World War II.

11

In a catalogue essay for a Morandi retrospective held in 1957 at the World House Gallery in New York, Lionello Venturi (who knew Morandi well) wrote: "He does not care for renown, and he tries to avoid as many exhibitions of his own work as he can." 1 This was only partially true. Morandi did care about "renown," but he believed that group shows (in which just one or two of his paintings were exhibited) did not offer his work the proper exposure. After 1946 Morandi tried to avoid exhibiting in group shows held in Italy. And between 1948 and 1964 Morandi was also reluctant to exhibit at solo

•

shows in his native country. But by then his friends Bardi, Vitale Bloch, Rodolfo Pallucchini , Petrucci, and Vitali were arranging solo shows for him abroad , and Morandi willingly participated in them .4 In the 1950S it was almost impossible to view his paintings in Italy except in private collections, because few museums owned any of his work; discriminating collectors in Milan, such as Vitali and Gianni Mattioli, often opened their homes to allow others to see their collections. Before 1945 Morandi never had a one-person exhibition in a private commercial gallery. In 1945 and [946 he had four such solo shows. First, in April 1945, just as World War II was ending, Longhi organized a Morandi ex.hibition at Il Fiore in Florence, and another Morandi show was mounted at the Circolo Le Grazie in Milan. Meanwhile , two exhibitions of Morandi's work were being held in Rome: one at the Galleria dell'Obelisco, and a more extensive show at the Galleria La Palma, which engendered particularly nasty criticism by Marxist critics. Their attacks stunned both Morandi and his fi-iends the distin­ guished Italian art scholars and critics Arcangeli, Brandi, Gnudi, and Venturi , all ofwhom made a point to defend Morandi against this newest round of criticism. 5 Now that the war had ended, Morandi had assumed that the polemics concern­ ing his work-which had been so fierce during the Fascist era-would finally be behind him. But it was not to be. The fall of Fascism created a highly politicized climate for I talian art critics and artists. The immediate postwar era was filled with heated debates

about what kind of painting was appropriate for postwar Italy, and what Italy's place in modern European culture should be. 6 These issues divided Italy'S artistic community well into the 1950s. In those years of cold war politics Morandi would almost always end a conversation with the lament "Dove andremmo a finire?" (What will become of liS?) Italy experienced a moment of national euphoria at the war's end, when aU Italians briefly united to rebuild a country devastated by the German occupation and Allied bombardment. Yet historical amnesia about the immediate past developed, and prac­ tically no one discussed the Fascist ventennio; indeed, most Italians were trying to forget that it had ever existed. As most Italians sought to distance themselves from the previous regime, no one was interested in whether Morandi had been a staunch anti-Fascist or not, for with few exceptions almost everyone in the art world had ties to the Fascist bureau­ cracy during that time. Ironically, the very positions that had reinforced the image of Morandi as an anti- Fascist- his rejection of the classicizing Fascist iconography that focllsed mainly on the human figure, and his insistence that art should have no role in

194

It the World

:ote: "He does work as he

I

politics-also put him at odds with postwar Marxist critics. During Fascism the Com­ munist Party had been outlawed, but now it seemed that Marxists and Fascists shared the same views about the purpose of art. As a result Morandi was attacked by Italy's post­

e believed that

war Marxists on virtually the same grounds for which he had been reviled in earlier years

not offer his

by factions within the Fascist Party.

:1

group shows

;hibit at solo

Right-wing Fascists had maintained that Morandi's art was irrelevant and useless. Now Marxists condemned it as a reactionary act of self-indulgence. Argulng

fo Pallucchini,

that artists must encourage a sense of collective social responsibility through their art,

ldi willingly

the Marxists faulted what they saw as Morandi's aristocratic isolation and elitism, com­

intings in Italy

plaining that his work could have no appeal to the masses because it evaded reality

:liscriminating

rather than embraced it. Morandi was first dragged into this political controversy in May

homes to

1945 by the painter and writer Antonello Trombadori, who published a savage review of the Morandi exhibition at the GaIJeria della Palma (which had been organized by Bardi,

Ite commercial

who would soon become the director of Brazil's Museu de Arte di Sao Paulo). Sounding

ust as 'vVorld

not unlike right-wing Fascists ofan earlier time, Trombadori described Morandi as "a man

Florence, and

of bourgeois art and culture" who evinced no interest in what was taking place in his own

anwhile, two

coLmtry or in the problems of its people. Trombadori went 011 to lament: "[Wjhat bitter

dell'Obelisco,

indifference, what impotence."7

icularly nasty

Reviewing the same exhibition, Marxist critic Raffaele De Grada condemned

nds the distin­

Morandi's custom of painting variations on the same group of objects and suggested

:i, all ofwhom

that Morandi's work revealed the artist to be "scratching himselfover and over on the same formalist issues."s Mario de Micheli, another Marxist, charged that Morandi's "noble

mics concern­

vocabulary ... has become obsolete and fossilized."9 It seemed that no matter which radi­

climate for

and not the still life was the worthiest subject for the visual arts. These critics measured

eated debates

Morandi's humanity by the number of human beings he had painted, though, as Morandi

Iy's place in

remarked to me in 1955, "What could be more human than painting things made by man?"

~y be behind

mmunitywell

cal political party was in power, many within each party believed that the human figure

In a 1946 article titled "Italian Painting and European Culture" (Pittura italiana

Iways end a

e cultura europea), the critic Giulio Carlo Argan (a former student ofLionello Venturi)

ne ofus?)

observed that, for twenty-three years, Fascism had imposed a strict cultural isolation on

~nd,

Italy'S modern artists. IO If Italians were now to become part of an international scene,

when all

pation and

Argan advised, they should forget their native Italian traditions and immerse themselves

ped, and prac­

in European modernism. Italian artists were urged to learn from Picasso, whose art com­

agto forget

bined abstraction with a political message. Argan , formerly an admirer of Morandi,

the previous

reserved the most stinging criticism for him and his Metaphysical paintings . Argan also

ti-Fascist or

faulted Morandi for focusing on the still life, which he described as out of date in the

ascist bureau­

modern world. According to Argan, pittura metafisica had been a failure because "it had

e image of

never connected to a larger European tradition." (Here , however, Argall overlooked the

ography that

impact that pittura metafisica made on French and German painters of the 19205 and

e no role in

1930s.) Some eighteen years later, Vitali's 1964 monograph would echo Argan in its dis-

The Casting of the Myth

195

missive attitude toward pittura metafisica, and Morandi's Metaphysical work as well: "[I]t was an interlude that did not produce any effects and at the same time, it risked suffocating the true nature of Morandi's art."" In I947 Cesare Brandi, who had vehemently defended Morandi from right­ wing critics during the I939 Quadriennale, jumped to tbe artist's defense once again, this time to address Argan's attacks. Brandi and Argan had been close friends when both were working for Botrai during the Fascist era, but they had since grown apart. Their differ­ ences became apparent in the articles they published in the immediate postwar period. Brandi believed that it was important to rekindle Italian pride by showing respect for Italian traditions and not submitting to France's domination of the arts. He cautioned young artists against pursuing "a false Europeanism constructed on the dead remains of French Cubism ... and European abstraction."n Taking an opposite position, Brandi urged artists to build on the foundation of pittura metafisica and, above all, on Morandi's Metaphysical works, which he saw as the beginning of a new golden age for Italy's mod­ ern artists. Even in the era of postwar internationalism, Brandi, unlike Argan, wished to protect the integrity of Italian culture and to keep it classical and pure, uncontami­ nated by Picasso, who was much admired by Renato Guttoso and other postwar Italian communist artists. Unfortunately, Brandi's defense of Morandi has also obscured the artist's ties to his European contemporaries, because he based that defense on the premise (with which Morandi concurred) that his artistic formation, although "decidedly very complex, was completely autonomous ... uncontaminated by any cultural situation." 13 In this way Brandi, along with Longhi and Vitali, did much to establish the false parameters within which Morandi's work has too often been placed , as they ignored Morandi's involvement with Futurism and the politically committed Fascist Strapaesani. All three critics sought to place Morandi on a pedestal, remote from any contemporary events that might seem to compromise what Brandi called Morandi's "poetic isolation." In 1961 Vitali again proudly took up this theme that Morandi has never been "a contemporary artist." 14 Even today the writings of these well-known critics continue to influence the popular view of Morandi as an artist who was withdrawn from society and who was politically unengaged. James Thrall Soby, after paying a visit to Morandi's studio , wrote an essay for the I949 exhibition of twentieth-century Italian painting held at New York's Museum of Modern Art in which he placed Morandi squarely in the context of European modernism by comparing him to Piet Mondrian. Soby did not find Morandi's still life paintings to be outdated relics of an earlier era. Nor did he criticize Morandi's habit of painting varia­ tions on the same group of objects. According to Soby, Morandi, like Mondrian, conducted "persistent research into form and space witllin a narrow iconographic range."IS Soby made the important point that Morandi's paintings, when seen in groups, assert a new variable and convincing order, as do those of Mondrian . In response Brandi scornfully remarked that this comparison ofMorandi to Mondrian was like "justifYing Byzantine art

19 6

k as well: "[Ilt ed suffocating

by the use of children's drawings"-a statement that might indicate that Brandi apparently did not understand much about the modernism of either artist. Io

from right­

for the first time compared Morandi with Mondrian. But Morandi certainly read an article

ce again, this

by Pallucchini describing Morandi's works at the Brazilian Bienal and published in the

Morandi mayor may not have read Soby's essay, written in English, which

when both

Bolognese newspaper II Resto del Carlino. In it Pallucchini argued that Morandi's art had

t. Their differ­

little connection with French or Italian art of the nineteenth century, and he made the

twar period.

point that Morandi was not in any way "an epigone ofChardin."I7 Although Morandi

respect for

never challenged Charles Sterling's 1959 complimentary portrait, in which he was dubbed

He cautioned

the "Chardin of the Twentieth Century," Morandi was unhappy at being compared to

'ad remains

Mondrian -even though Pallucchini understood that abstraction had allowed Morandi

;ition, Brandi

to expand his poetic style. IS Moreover, it was also difficult for many Italians, who had

n Morandi's

seen little of Mondrian's work until after 1945, to grasp that both Mondrian and Morandi

r Italy's mod­

used space in an abstract sense. Once Mondrian's painting did become better known

an, wished

in Italy, it was then possible to look at Mora ndi's art in a new and different way. As Soby

uncontami­

;twar Italian

wrote in 1970, "[WJe began to realize that Morandi was not simply a painter of bottles and occasional landscapes, but a man intent on exploring subtle equations offorms, placing and atmospheric effects." 19

Ie artist'S ties

Edouard Roditi, who interviewed Morandi in 1958 after his exhibition the previ­

nise (with

ous year at the Sao Paulo Bienal, understood the artist's strong ties to twentieth-century

leI)' complex,

modernism and contemporary abstract art. In his essay Roditi expressed his wish "to

"13

In this

clarifY certain historical developments in the evolution of the art of our century.... In the

neters within

case of Morandi, I was interested in verifYing the facts offriendships and association, so

nvolvement

as to clarif)1 his evolution from his earlier pittura metafisica to his present style of nearly

Titics sought

abstract still life compositions.,,2o Although Morandi always adamantly denied having

might seem

anything in common with Mondrian, he told me in 1955 that had he been born twenty

19ain proudly

years later he, too, would have been an abstract painter. Earlier Venturi, in his 1957 New

Even today

York exhibition catalogue essay, noted that "Morandi is much more of an abstractionist

w oflvlorandi

that he believes himself to be." l I He believed that, even though Morandi at times seemed

~aged.

to begin from the abstract and work toward the concrete, his art should be viewed by

~

first looking at those elements that make his art abstract. 22

an essay fo r

Museum of modernism

aintings to

In 1947 Venturi (who was echoed by others in subsequent years) perceptively likened Morandi's work to "abstract architecture" in its use of form and space. 23 Indeed, Morandi believed that architecture was the greatest of the arts, and, in return, some of the

linting varia­

most notable contemporary architects-among them Aldo Rossi, Carlo Scarpa, and

n, conducted

Michael Graves-have been admirers of his work (as Morandi noted in an earlier chapter,

::e."IS Soby

"Even a sti.lllife is architecture"). In the mid-1950S he was appoi.nted to a commission

Issert a new

charged with considering plans by Frank Lloyd Wright for a proposed building to be con­

scornfully

structed in Venice on a corner site of the Grand Canal next to a fifteenth-century palace.

,yzantine art:

Many objected to the idea of a contemporary structure-not to mention a structure

The Casting of the Myth

197

designed by an American-being built next to the five-hundred-year-old palace , and the project was ultimately rejected. Morandi, however, was among the few who beLieved the project should have gone forward. He once mentioned to me that he found Wright's proj­ ect preferable to the new hotels imitating the style of the Venetian cinquecento that were being constructed on the Grand Canal. 24 Wright's work was evidently on Ragghianti's mind when, in 1954, he compared Morandi's still Lifes to modern architecnlre, writing that "only those with the ability or courage to understand someone like Wright can completely understand Morandi."25 Indeed, there is a startling similarity between the basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua portrayed in a picture postcard that Morandi had tacked on the wall of his ' studio and the painter's own architectonic still lifes. Robert Irwin, a West Coast American conceptual artist, was struck by Morandi's modernism after seeing a small show organized b>' Irving Blum at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1961. Irv"in, who understood that Morandi's seemingly conventional com­ positions actually defied traditional time and space relationships, discussed the fasci­ nating ambiguity ofMorandi's figure! ground relationships: "There was no separating the two ... it was as if the air had taken on substance. ,,26 Irwin did not regard Morandi as a traditional or academic painter, but rather as an artist whose work was essentiaLly abstract and modern. From 1947 to 1962 Morandi had an active role on almost all of the planning committees of the Venice Biennale, while still enjoying the reputation of a stay-at-home loner. In the summer of 1947 Giovanni Ponti, the commissario straordinario (high commis­ sioner) who had been named sindaco (mayor) of Venice by the Committee of National Liberation immediately after World War II, invited Morandi to serve on the planning com­ mittee of the 1948 Biennale, the first to be held since 1942. Among the artists and critics chosen by Ponti to serve along with Morandi on the planning committee were men whom he knew well: Carra, Felice Casorati, Longhi, Marino Marini , l\.1gghianti, Pio Semeghini, Lionello Venturi, and Pallucchini. Pallucchini, an art historian who was semtario genera Ie of the committee, became an ardent supporter of Morandi's work. Nearly twenty years younger than Longhi and Morandi, he had met both men in 1935 when he was the director of the Galleria Estense in Modena (he was also on the committee of the Prima Mostra delle Collezioni ltaliane d'Arte Contemporanea in Cortina in 1941). One of the most difficult tasks facing the 1948 Biennale was to disassociate the organization from its Fascist past. Should decisions about which artists to invite-or not to invite- be based on their previous political activities? Initially both Longhi and Morandi wished to exclude Oppo and Maraini from the Biennale because of their past links with Fascism. (Longhi had voted against their inclusion in an exhibition, while Morandi had abstained from voting on this issue.) In a letter to Morandi and Longhi dated October 7, 1947, Ponti advised that nothing in the records of either Oppo or Maraini was politi­ cally damaging to the other. Ponti, a well-known anti-Fascist, recalled that Maraini managed the Biennale for fifteen years and that he "defended its very existence in 1930,

when certain leading Fascists in the government of Venice considered discontinuing the Biennale." Ponti added that Maraini had always given space to artists who were known to be anti-Fascist, and that he never allowed issues ofrace or politics to determine whether an artist could exhibit at the Biennale. For these reasons Ponti urged Longhi to recon­ Ragghianti's

sider his position as "an act of conciliation.,,27 Longhi, who was not without the taint of

re, writing that

political scandal himself, replied that "other artists more politically tainted are being

can completely

invited ... so that if pacification is to take place it must include everybody," and he changed

e basilica of

his vote. Morandi wrote to Ponti and agreed that both artists should be invited.

tacked on the

The Biennale of 1948 was to include exhibitions of pittura metafisica and works by the French Impressionists. Paintings by Jackson Pollock, whose art was still

:k by Morandi's

unknown in Italy, were also to be shown. International modernism was to be represented

'us Gallery in

at the Biennale by works drawn from the Peggy Guggenheim collection, a decision that

Iventional com­

triggered negative comments from committee members. Longhi even questioned Guggen­

ed the fasci­

heim 's motives for displaying some of her collection: "[W]asn't it so she could benefit

separating the

[later] from the American ma rket which has barely digested that stuff?,,28 Longhi was

:l Morandi as

aghast that the committee was proposing to show works from the Guggenheim collection

entiallyabstract

by such artists as Arp, Brancusi, Giacometti, Malevich, Man Ray, and Kandinsl-:y. As Longhi wrote to Pallucchini, "Exhibitions like that ... do Italians more harm than good. "29

:he planning

Although Longhi had proposed exhibiting the French Impressionists, he

stay-at-home

wanted to exclude their later works, in particular the late paintings of Monet. Morandi

(high commis­

objected to this suggestion because he believed that it was important for younger artists to

l

of National

see Monet's last and most abstract paintings. At the Biennale the Impressionist paintings,

)lanning COl1l­

which were mostly borrowed from foreign museums because Italian museums owned

ts and critics

scarcely any, were a big success. They were particularly admired by younger artists and

~re

critics who had little opportunity to see Impressionist art because they had grown up during

men whom

Semeghini,

I

the Fascist era, when travel abroad was difficult. Upon viewing these canvases for the

:retaria generale

first time Arcangeli wrote, "[I]t was like opening a window [onto nature]. " 30 The broad

wenty years

spectrum of recent art from Europe and America displayed at the Biennale may have

as the director

contributed to a change in Nlorandi's art, though this was not immediately apparent.

ma Mastra delle

It was Longhi's suggestion that there should be an exhibition of pittura metafisica despite (or perhaps because of) post\var left-wing criticism of it. This exhi­

!isassociate the

I

bition, titled Tre pittori italiani dal 1910 al 1920, displayed thirteen works each by Carra

invite-or

and de Chirico and eleven by Morandi. Somewhat surprisingly, pittura metafisica, an art

Longhi and

that had been ridiculed by Fascist leaders and Marxists critics alike, was now chosen to

their past links

embody the renewal ofItalian painting. Arcangeli wrote the introductory essay to the

lile Morandi

catalogue for the exhibition. Avoiding such words as school or movement, which are often

dated October

used erroneously in connection with pittura metafisica, Arcangeli noted that metajisica

~i

was an ambiguous label and described it as "a cluster of three artists who created a chapter

was politi­

lat Maraini

in the history of Italian painting." 31 (The reviews of Morandi 's three Metaphysical still

ence in 1930,

lifes that he exhibited at the 1939 Quadriennale were quite negative; none theless, when

The Casting of the Myth

199

the 1948 Biennale opened, all but one of his Metaphysical paintings had already entered Italian private collections.) The only painting that Morandi still owned from this group by 1948, a 1916 still life (V. 27), was acquired directly from the artist the following year by the Museum of Modern Art in New YorkY The 1948 Biennale, which opened May 29, ran for 125 days and was visited by 216,471 people. After it closed Ponti observed in a letter sent to everyone who had helped in its planning that this Biennale was the biggest success since its founding. It also proved to be a particularly momentous event for Morandi, both emotionally and fin a ncially. Decades had passed since he had seen all of his Metaphysical paintings hung together, and these works were admired by a huge international audience and by a new generation of Italians who had no idea of their grandeur and who were barely aware of Morandi's con­ nection to pittura metafisica. And on June 6 an international jury awarded Morandi the exhibition'S first prize of 500,000 lire earmarked for an Italian painter. (Another prize for a non-Italian painter was give11 to Georges Braque.) A photograph taken on the day Morandi received his prize shows his radiant smile (fig. II.I). According to the minutes of the meeting of the prize committee, Emilio Langui of Belgium proposed that the Italian prize be given to de Chirico, but Venturi opposed this on the grounds that de Chirico had not wanted to exhibit his Metaphysical works. Much to everyone's surprise, one month later, on July 3, de ChiJico filed suit against the Biennale, Longhi , and Venturi. Expressing

11.1

200

Morandi at the 1948 Venice Biennale. Photograph courtesy of the author.

Ireadyentered

indignation that Morandi 's prize was for his "Metaphysical paintings," de Chirico argued

this group

that " no one has ever considered him [Morandi] a 'Metaphysical' painter, but he received

lowing year by

the prize probably through the insistence of the modernistologist [sic] Professors Roberto

h

Longhi and Lionello Venturi to their beloved Morandi ."33 Morandi never forgave de ~vas

vi sited by

, had helped . It also proved ~

Chirico for initiating this laws uit. On the other hand, Morandi never acknowledged how much de Chirico had helped him during the Valori Plastici years of [9[8-22 . Morandi's admirers have had little opportunity to see Morandi's more daring

financially.

and brutally expressionistic works , becau~e many of them are in private collections and

together, and

are rarely loaned for public exhibitions. Moreover, such anguished works have often been

=neration of

deliberately edited out of Morandi exhibitions because they are so at odds with the sup­

Ol·andi's con­

posed calm and serenity of Morandi's art. But some of those who had the opportunity to

Ilorandi the

see these canvases recognized their underlying sense of pain. In his eulogy of the artist

ther prize for

Roberto Tassi saw in those works a recognition of the uncertainties oflife, "anxiety, human

on the day

imperfections ... that is what his modernism is all about. [This is] his response to the

he minutes of

feeling of the times." 34 The architect Giovanni Michelucci, renowned for his design of the

at the Italian

Florence train station , wrote to Morandi in 1942 on the back of the picture postcard of

e Chirico had

the basilica of Saint Anthony at Padua mentioned previously: "Dear Morandi, I thank you

one month

for the warm welcome you gave to me and my friends, and for having shown us )'our

i Expressing

latest works. I think a lot about them, especially the landscape with two houses on the left and one on the right, and the road down below. There have been only a few times when I have seen works of art in which I was able to feel the world of suffering experienced by the artist and to find so mllch comfort in that suffering."l5 Many of the landscapes that Morandi painted after the war were deserted, threatening, and phantomlike, and his later stilllifes also convey a strange, forsaken feeling. Micol, a young woman in The Garden of the Fillzi-Colltinis, by Giorgio Bassani, one of Nlorandi's oldest friends, accurately describes these works in the novel: "[E]ven the poet, in the last analysis, has to fight against the hostility of Nature and Death.... That's what Morandi's famous paintings of bottles and those sweet little flowers are all about. ... It's thefear ofreality."3 6 At first glance the flowers in several late paintings may seem deli­ cate, but upon closer examination they actually ap pear to be tormented and twisted into knots; for example, a little bouquet offlowers from 1946 seems to be struggling to escape from the confines of its vase (V. 499; fig. U.2). ill 1989, while a guest at Lamberto Vitali 's house in Milan, I had the opportunity to examine a ha unting still life painting that was cast in the gloomy lighting of a morgue. It is similar to another still life (V. 484, dated betweeL11944 and 1945; fig. LI.3). I wondered if Morandi 's memories of the tragic events that had taken place during World War II were reflected in those still life paintings. Morandi's production increased dra matically in the postwar era. Whereas he completed only ten paintings in 1945, the final year of the war, he produced fifty-two oil paintings in 1946 and forty-two in 1947. From 1948 until his death in 1964 Morandi painted

author.

more than 772 works, half again as many as he had painted in the thirty-five years between

The Casting of the Myth

201

11.2

Flowers, 1946.

Oil on canvas, 9 x II in. (23 x 27 em). Morandi Museum , Bologna. Bequest of the

Countess Camilla Malvasia. Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [V. 499)

1l.3

Still Life, 1944-45 . Oil on canvas, 1I x I3 in. (27 x 32

COl) .

Private Collection.

Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [V. 484]

11.4

Still Life, ca. 1946.

Oi l on canvas, [5 'J, x 20 in. (3 7.5 x So em) .

Private Collection. Photograph by Luca Carra. [Y.

1I.5

Sti ll Life, 1953.

Oil on canVJS, 15 x 16 in. (36 x 38 cm).

Photograph by AJitonio Nlasotti. [Y. 868]

502J

11.6

Photograph of o bjects in Morandi's s tudio. Photograph by Bruno Lam be rti.

1910 and 1945. After the war the same objects seen in Morandi's previous stilllifes reap­ peared in more compact configurations , as can be seen in two still life compositions. In Still Life (V. 502, 1946) Morandi transformed common items-Ovaltine tins and tea can­ isters painted with white rectangles and ovals, the copper pot with its base daubed with white paint, the caffe latte bowl, the gray metal box (first depicted in the 1916 Museum of Modern Art still life) , and, in the background , the long neck of the white voluptuous bottle (the same as in the 1916 Mattioli Still Life with Three Objects)-into a majestic surface of unusual forms (fig. 11.4). In a still life from 1953 (V. 868), seven objects huddle together to form a compact, strange configuration (fig. 11.5). A photograph ofsome of the objects in Morandi's studio shows how he covered the round Ovaltine tins with paper and painted ovals on the tea canisters (fig. 11.6). By this time his work had become less three-dimen­ sional , and he confined many of his still life groups into a square or rectangular space , isolated within the framework of the canvas. The subtlety of Morandi 's art can be seen in seven stilllifes painted in 1949 (V. 682-688). Two of the paintings from this series show the blue urn, the Cycladic clock, and the red canister collection among seven or eight objects that are crammed into a reddish square configurat,i on that is set on a rectangular background of Naples yellow (V. 683 and V. 686; figs. 11.7, II.8). These works may seem to be virtually identical but they are notj they present a fascinating series of variations on the sa me theme-and can be fully appreciated only when the paintings are viewed as a group. Like Bach 's fugues , th ese paintings , rich in s ubtle tonalities and infused with emotion, are much more than mere exercises in the variations and permutations of composition and tone.

The Casting of the Myth

205

-

1\.7

Sti ll Life, 1949.

Oil on canvas, 13 x 18 in. (36 x 45 em).

Private Coll ection . [\I. 6831

-

ited with the galleries of Curt Valentin, Delius, and World House. Once the Museum of Modern Art had purchased a Morandi, other American coLlectors followed. (Also during this time Morandi received an invitation fi'om New York's Stable Galle!y to show his work. Asking my help in translating the gallery's letter, he decided he was not interested once I provided him with a translation for "Stable." ) Morandi continued to paint landscapes in the 1950s, returning to a scene that he had painted on and off since 1921: the view from the window of his bedroom studio, which overlooked·the back garden . In the fall of 1953, however, construction began on a large apartment house that cut off half the view beyond Morandi's backyard. This totaily transformed this familiar landscape and left him angry and disgusted; he grumbled for a while, but there was nothing that could be done. The following year he decided to paint the view of the backyard garden once again, and this time he included in his composition the blank wall of the intrusive apartment house. The new wall appears as a solid mass of warm pink, with just the whisper of the crack that had already appeared (V. 927,1954; fig. 11.9) (he painted several variations of this scene again in 1956 [V. 1018J). Morandi painted other Jandscapes looking directly down at his garden from his

[1.9

Landscape, [954.

Oil on canvas, 19 x 21 in. (49 x 54 em).

Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Mamiano di Traversctolo, Pann:!. [V. 927)

2.08

Ie Museum of

window. In V. rr68 of 1959 he eliminated the sky entirely (fig.

~d.

canvas into three nearly abstract panels painted il1 pastel pinks and greens. This is no con­

(Also during

show his work.

I teres ted

ILIO).

Here he divided his

ventional illustration of a group of houses. Eve,lY inch of the space is so completely cal­

once I

culated in Morandi's painti ngs that to crop a photograph of a painting such as this is to disregard the great care with which he organized his compositions. In a 1962 landscape

: to a scene that

he illustrates the building across the way as an example of an architecture that is both

'droom studio,

Metaphysical and mystical, an effect that he heightens by the accompanying use of eerie

tion began on a

tonalities of pinks and greens (V. 1296; fig.

d. This totally

lI.Il).

In the mid-1950s Morandi began to use fewer objects in his stilllifes. A small

grumbled for a

painting from 1955, the bri[i[iant V. 940 (which measures 9 x 10 inches) portrays only

cided to paint

two objects: a glass bottle with spiral indentations barely touches a minute striped copper

lis composition

vase (fig. 11.12). In this small composition Morandi creates fascinatil1g spatial tension

a solid mass

between the wavering stripes on the vase and the spiraling lines of the bottle. In V. II66,

I (V. 927, 1954;

a slightly larger work

m.

(10

x II inches) painted four years later, a green mug and round

red canister are placed together in a nearly square configuration, with two Oval tine tins

:arden from his

in. the background (fig.

II.IO

lI.I 3).

This work creates a haunting, poetic mood of arte povera.

Lands[ape, 1959. Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 in. (31 x 46 em). Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di

lV·9 2 7J

Trento e Rovereto. Giovanardi Collection. Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [V. u68)

The Casting of the Myth

209

Morandi employed an extraordinary range of subtle tonalities in V. 1098, a 1958 work that depicts five objects (fig. II.I4). Although seemingly simple, this still life is, in reality, highly complex. On the left, behind an ordinary olive oil container, is one of the Persian bottles, this time painted bright }'ellow (in V. 100 of 1924 he painted both Persian bottles a dark golden yellow, but in this work the bottle is painted a bright Napl es yel­ low, wh,ich is closer to its original bright color). The bottle has been transformed into a strange rectangular shape, and its tall, skinny neck has almost disappeared. It is out­ lined by a dark, wavy Iille that is swallowed up by the tabletop in the background. In front of this yellow object is a smalJ blue bottle, so dark that it actually appears to be black in color. An ordinalY empty olive oil container-Morandi has covered its lettering and orig­ inal color-serves as a study of s hapes and shades. Two sides of the container appear as wide vertical bands of color; one side is painted a deep chrome green, while the other is painted a warm white, and the top is a raw umber. Adjacent to the oil container is a smaJl vase decorated with narrow vertical stripes of pink and blue-green; this vase also appeared in both V. 64, a still life painting shown at the 1926 Novecento exhibition, and

II.II

Landscape, 1962. Oil on canvas, 16 x 17 in. (40 x 45 em). Private Collection. Photograph courtesy of Galleria Marescalchi, Bologna. [Y. 1296J

2IO

V. 1098, a 1958 till life is, in r, is one of the tI both Persian t

Naples yel­

formed into a ~ d.

It is Ollt­

ollnd. In front D be

black in

~ring

and orig­

liner appear vhile the other lntainer is a this vase a Iso r-:hibitiol1, and 11.l 2

1l.l3

Sti ll LUi, 1955·

Oil all canvas, 9 x 10 in. (22 x 26 em). Private Collection. [V. 940]

Still Life, 1959. Oil on canvas, 10 x II in. (20 x 25 em). Private Collection (Prot: Augusto Giovanardi).

[V.

1166)

11.I4

Still Life, 1958.

Oil on C3nvas, 8 x 14 in. (20 x 35 cm). Private Collcction.

Photograph by Marco Bald;]ssa ri. [V. 1098]

II.IS Still Life, 195I. Oil on canvas, 9 x 20 in. (22 x 50 cm).

Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung, Nordrhein-INestfalen. [V. 781]

in V. 781 from 1951 (fig. 1I.I5). In the background the vase is flanked by a tea canister and the gray metal box, whose vertical stripes extend to the edge of the round tabletop and thereby complete the enclosure of the group of still life objects. For example, two later paintings, V. I026 from 1957 (fig. 1r.r6) an d V. II88 of 1960 (fig. II.1 7), depict the same blue urn that had already appeared in two much earlier stilllifes from 1921, both titled Blue Urn

with Orange Amphora (V. 63 and V. 65; see figs. 6.8 , 6.19), but in the later paintings

Morandi changed the scale of the urn. The 1957 exhibition that Lionello VenUiri organized at New York's World House Gallery offered a more comprehensive view of Morandi than had ever before been pre­ sented in the United States. 39 In a time of huge canvases being generated by the abstract expressionists, many New Yorkers may have been unprepared to understand the impor­ tance of Morandi 's small paintings, many of which measured II x 15 inches or smaller. Nevertheless, the following year Morandi's reputation as a modernist was firmly established when Venturi included him in an exhibition of abstract Italian artists: Afro (Basaldella), Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Mattia Moreni, and Emilio Vedova. This show, called Painting in Post-War Italy, 1945-1957, was held at the Casa Italiana at Columbia University. Venturi, who grasped that Morandi's tenacious fascination with the still life was also an aspect of his modernism, was one of the first critics to understand that the objects in Morandi's paintings are symbols, "poetic meditations on form and color." Noting Italy's contribu­ tion to the avant-garde in the years before Fascism, Venturi challenged the Marxist view that social realism was the only possible choice for artists in postwar Italy and praised those "young Italian painters who have dared to express their feelings and passions in form, color, and li!1e rather than in the imitation of nature. "4 0 By 1956 Morandi had become financially secure from steady sales and prizes for his work, and he decided to retire from his position at the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he had been teaching since 1930. For years Morandi had endured slights from col­ leagues who had no understanding of his art and who were jealous because he was the only living Bolognese artist to achieve international recognition. Morandi was sixty-six when he wrote to me in 1956, "You really understand why I need to leave the Accademia." By that time he had had enough of teaching, the endless committee meetings , and the bickering over such matters as student grades and tenure appointments. He wanted to spend more of his time painting. His fame continued to grow. Owning one of his paintings beca me a status symbol in Italy, and a g rowing list of collectors waited patiently for him to complete more paintings. Actors and directors of Rome's cinecitta, including Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren, Federico Fellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni, were among those who collected paintings by Morandi. In fact, the waiting list for one of hi s paintings was so long that there was hardly any inventory to disperse when Morandi died. Reproductions of his paintings appeared in two acclaimed films Of1960. Federico Fellini included copies of two stilllifes (V. 143, 1929, and V. 305, 1941) in La Dolce Vita. The 1941 still life that belonged

The Casting of the Myth

213

11.16 Still Life, 1957. Oil on canvas,

10

x 14 in. (25 x 35 em). Private Collection.

Photograph by Antonio Masotti . (V. 1026]

"·17

Still life, 19 60 .

Oil on canvas,

12

x 16 in. (30 x 40 em). Museo di Arte Contcmporanea e Modema di

Trento e Rovereto. Giovanardi Collection. Photograph by Antonio Masotti. [Y. !lSS]

to the Milanese collector Riccardo lucker was the focal point of an introspective conversa­ tion between the two main characters, Steiner (played by Alain Cluny) and the journalist (Marcello Mastroiarmi) . A still life of 1960 (V. I202) can be seen in Michelangelo Amonioni's La NotteY (Morandi never saw either film, as he had difficulty hearing and so never went to movies or concerts.) Perhaps the paintings were incorporated in these films because the sets in which they appeared were intended to represent a backdrop for the affluent intel­ lectuaJ elite who lived "the good life" (fig. ILI8). (Another well-known director, Luchino Visconti, approached Morandi to collaborate on a completely new theater production of Goldoni's La locandiera and create a far different setting from the typical neo-eighteenth­ century sets used for Goldoni's plays; but in the end Morandi was willing only to advise Visconti's set designer about colors for his production.) It was not easy to obtain a painting from Morandi. He rarely allowed buyers to choose; instead, Morandi himself would decide which work would be sold to which buyer. Moreover, when he finished a painting he would not immediately turn it over to the eager collector. Instead Morandi would hang it on the wall over his bed with others that explored the same theme and observe the sequential development of that particular series. At that time he would often write the name of the future owner on the wooden stretchers of the finished painting, but tbe canvas would remain on Morandi's walluntiI he felt he had studied it sufficiently. In I977, almost thirteen years after Morandi 's death, Lamberto Vitali published a two-volume catalogue raisonne of Morandi's work. This publication listed more than fourteen hundred of Morandi's oil paintings and included photographs that Vitali had requested from the owners of these paintings. Until tJlen few people had any idea of the quantity of Morandi's output. Morandi himself often pretended that he had produced very few works, sometimes claiming to have painted no more than ten or twelve works in any given year. In fact, during some years he produced as many as forty paintings and innumerable drawings. The reason for Morandi's deceptive arithmetic is unclear; was it to make his work less accessible and therefore more prized? Certainly he had no desire to make more money through sales of his work. Most likely he thought that the ambiguity surrounding the ongoing availability of his work would give him greater control over the market and enable him to select the collectors that he wished to favor with one of his paintings. Morandi was not interested in the market price, but he could not have been upset knowing that the nebulous output figures did nothing to discourage the overall demand for his work. As Morandi's fame grew, so too did the myths about him . Ragghianti, a close friend since the early 1930s, offered a logical explanation for the apparent contradiction between Morandi's professed isolation and his actual busy life: "The quest for solitude" he wrote, "is also a defense, a way of not taking part in what one doesn't want to do, or, doesn't enjoy doing."4 2 Even after the artist's death the legend of his isolation lingered. In I967 the New York Times critic Hilton Kramer praised Morandi for having kept himself apart "from our current artistic dilemmas and aspirations. " The British painter Andrew

216

UCII"C-lIIUIl

of

:J-eighteenth­

mly to advise

)wed buyers

,Id to which

I

it over to the

others that

ticular series. en stretchers I he felt he th, Lam be rto publication

)hotographs

)eople had

·d that he had

11.1 8

Pho tograph fr0111 a scene in La Voice Vita; at the fa r right is a 1929 Mora ndi Still Life. Comtesy of Ga ll eria dello Scudo, Verona.

Ian ten or

lany as forty ithmetic is

forge began a 197 0 essay about Morandi with the by th en familiar refrain: "His isolation

Certainly he

is proverbial ... that short brush with Futurism in

e thought

tact with de Chirico, Ca rra and the Valori Plasti(i circle , then years and years of bourgeois

~

life in Bologna, teaching, summers in the country, a routine which the international fam e

him greater

~d

to favor

but he could

) discourage

1914,

the war, illness, a fleeting con­

that came to him after 1945 did hardly anything to disturb . "43 But fame came at a price. He complain ed th at, after receiving the grand pri ze at the 1957 Sa o Paulo Bienal, more people than ever came to call on him, there were more letters to answer, and there was less time for his work. It was then, perhaps, that he

anti, a close

most came to appreciate the manufactured legend of th e "reclusive hermit." Accused of

tradiction

li ving in an ivory tower Morandi remarked , "I would even put barbed wire around it. " Yet

or solitude"

althou gh Morandi complained about his many vi sitors, his studio was always open to

: to do, or,

loyal coU ectors and close friends, and was especially accessible to foreigners . In his letters

lingered. In

to me Morandi claimed repeatedly that th e only people he ever saw were Arcangeli and

t himself

Gnudi. Yet thes e sa me letters might contain descriptions of dinner parties given by George

ter Andrew

Bridges, head of the British Council (the cultural section of the British government abroad)

The Casting of the Myth

21 7

in Bologna, where, on one occasion , both Morandi and I were guests at a dinner that Bridges gave in honor of Elizabeth Bowen , the English novelist. His letters to me were so full of what he was doing and his responses to the many invitations he received that it seemed almost miraculous that he had any time at all to paint. It has been said that Morandi never wanted to travel outside Bologna , and his correspondence with friends, collectors, and art critics is filled with reasons why he could not travel to meet them -such as the weather is too cold so his rheumatism will suffer because the railroad has' yet to begin heating its railcars , or the summer weather in Bologna is too hot, so he must leave at once for the countty. But when the occasion suited him, Morandi was indeed a willing traveler. I knew from personal experience that he could often be found at the Bologna train station by seven in the morning (often an hour before his train was actually scheduled to leave) , ready to depart on a new journey. On several occasions I accompanied Morandi to Florence, where he would visit the Uffizi Galleries and call on friends. Taking an early morning train to Florence so that he could return to Bologna the same day, he almost always revisited Giotto's enormOliS Madonna Enthroned at the Uffizi . Interestingly, he was most captivated by the tiny bouquet of flowers in a vase at the Madonna's feet. Another of his favorites at the Uffizi was a small landscape by Altdorfer, the sixteenth-century German painter. On one of Olir trips to Florence N\orandi took me to meet the art collector Sandrino Contini-Bonacossi, whose works were housed in an ancient palazzo. Among the paintings I remember seeing there were a large painting by Sassetta, a beautiful Titian, and, most ofall, a regal Zurbadn still life, Lemons, Orange and a Rose, which Morandi greatly admired and which is now in the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena , California. Contini­ Bonacossi invited Morandi and me to have coffee in a small sitting room , under a large painting by Tiepolo that covered the ceiling. 1 watched in astonishment as three menser­ vants wearing white gloves brought us the coffee; Morandi, however, seemed quite at home in this setting-he had been a guest there many times-and he was thoroughly bemused by my reaction to such extravagant luxuries. On another occasion Morandi took me to visit Roberto Longhi 's magnificent villa and art collection. However, 1 remember only two of the paintings there-one a Corbusier-like, beautiful Metaphysical still life by Morandi (V. 46, 1919, which has since been stolen), and another by Caravaggio-for 1 was so impressed by Longhi's brilliant and elegant wife , the writer Anna Banti, that I

scarcely looked at tl1e works ofart. In Milan, Morandi and 1 also visited the Brera Museum, and he introduced me to the hospitable Lamberto Vitali, his wife, America, and their three children. The walls of the Vitali living room, which were painted a bright lemon yellow, were covered wim some of the most extraordinary Morandis I had ever seen. Clearly there was an apparent contradiction between Morandi's professed isolation and his actual busy social life. One of Morandi's closest friends in Bologna was the astronomy professor Guido Horn d'Arturo , who was almost twenty years older than Morandi. About once a

218

~inner

that

month, after the Friday afternoon etching class, Morandi and I would walk up the hun­

:0 me were so

dreds of steps to the apartment on the top floor of the university observatory where Horn

eived that it

lived. (His chair at the university had been returned to him after the f.111 of Fascis m, along with his apartment in the observatory.) There we would be served afternoon tea as Horn

Jlogna , and

read aloud to us. Sometimes he read the Latin poets (Horn preferred Catullus); at other

~asons

times he would read Shakespeare's sonnets in English, or both men would laugh over the

why he

!matism will

ironic humor found in Leopardi 's Operette Morali. Horn and Morandi discussed Galileo's

ler weather in

letters to his patron Cosimo II, the Medici Duke ofTuscany, and talked about the planets

:asion suited

and the stars .

that he could hour before

Although Morandi may have ignored most of the other residents of Bologna, he always had time for foreign visitors. The Russian-born art dealer and writer Vitale

y. On several

Bloch was one such individual. Together with Lamberto Vitali , Bloch arranged for exhibits

ifizi Galleries

of Morandi's work in 1954 in The Hague and in London.44 in 1955 Bloch published a

,uld retu rn

small booklet about Morandi in both Italian and Dutch; in it Bloch, like Brandi and Longhi

mna Enthroned

before him, described Morandi's lifestyle as "that ofa monk.... Certainly his room, his

)wers in a

entire house appears to be from another time, a time that h as stopped in Bologna , in

landscape by

Via Fondazza." 45 Not only Bloch, but many others have also preferred-and still prefer -to see Morandi as someone from "another time " who was apparently untouched by

:t collector

the brutality of two world wars, the Fascist era, and modern art. As recently as 2001,

o. Among the

Longhi's description of the "monastic Morandi in his cell" (which had appeared in a cat­

ttiful Titian ,

alogue essay of 1945) was even quoted in the catalogue of a Morandi exhibition held at

'randi greatly

the Tate Gallery in London one year into the twenty-first century.4 6

nia. Continj­

Not until Morandi retired from teaching at the Accademia in 1956 did he

der a large

venture for tlle first time beyond the Italian border. As a young man Morandi wanted very

lree menser­

much to study in Paris, but there was no family money to enable him to do so; and dur­

~d

ing the Fascist era, travel abroad was not encouraged. But in 1956 he joked in a letter to

quite at

; thoroughly

me that he had "finally summoned up the courage to apply for a passport" (mi sono f.1tto

>randi took

coraggio, ho richiesto il passaporto). That year he traveled to Switzerland three times: once

I remember

to see the Thyssen Collection, then housed in Lugano; once to Winterthur to see a retro­

::al still life

spective of his works at the Kunstverein (Vitali had loaned many Morandis from his col­

raggio-for

lection for tllis exhibit); and once to Zurich to a see a Cezanne exhibition. If Morandi had

nti, that I

to miss an important exhibition, he made sure that someone brought him tlle catalogue. 47

ra Museum,

Although Morandi had at last achieved fame, financial success, and, at times,

I their three

perhaps even a small measure of contentment, he experienced over his final years pos­

)n yellow,

sibly the most devastating and contentious personal affair of his life. At a time when his

learly there

life should have been serene and calm , it became a nightmare instead. In the early 1950S

actual busy

Morandi handpicked

me critic Francesco Arcangeli to write me first comprehensive schol­

a rly monograph about his work. This was quite an honor for the young writer, as several professor

older candidates had hoped to be chosen to write the book. Unfortunately the project

bout once a

did not go at all well, and

me story of Morandi's shocking attempts to suppress Arcangeli's

The Casting of the Myth

219

-

book clearly demonstrates just how much control Morandi wished to exercise over any­ thing written about him. In many ways this was nothing new, as Beccaria, Brandi, and Roditi had all been asked to submit drafts of their texts on Morandi for the artist to approve. But Arcangeli's draft, which dared to portray Morandi as a man immersed in the artistic and cultural concerns of his century, infuriated the artist, who tried obsessively for three years to prevent its publication. By 1961 the two men, who had been close friends for more than twenty years, were no longer speaking to each other. Commenting on Morandi's attempt to censor Arcangeli, Gnudi, then director of the Bologna Pinacoteca and a well-known opponent of Fascism, remarked ironically that Morandi's idea of censorship exceeded even that of the Fascists. Arcangeli's book was the first monograph to place Morandi in the company of European modernists and to situate the man within the context of his own time. This did not please Morandi, who remarked that Arcangeli's book was not a monograph about him but rather a history ofItaly. Morandi was particularly alarmed by Arcangeli's dis­ cussion of Futurism, Fascism, Surrealism, Expressionism, and especially the contempo­ rary Italian Informale , which , in Morandi's eyes, had no connection with him . He also adamantly refuted Arcangeli's attempts to establish any links between the artist and the naturalism of the nineteenth-century Bolognese painters Luigi Bertelli and Alessandro Scorzoni. He also disputed that any of his Metaphysical works could be compared to paint­ ings by Frallcis Picabia. "What do I have in common with Picabia, with Munch, with the Informale?" Morandi declared. 48 ArcangeJi's book also attempted to shatter the myth of Morandi's c'loistered life and cultural isolation." This, too, angered Morandi, who was anxious to preserve his image as an isolated painter with "autonomous roots."49 (Even Bardi agreed with Arcangeli, declaring ironically that "Morandi had not grown by himself, alone with the Gods on Mount Olympus. ")5 0 Preferring to be portrayed as one whose life had been calm and serene, free from tIle controversy and criticism that had in fact shadowed him, Morandi demanded that Arcangeli delete all references to Argan's com­ m ents, which were strongly critical of pittura metafisica, and the negative judgments of Morandi's work by postwar Marxists. After seeing a first draft Morandi insisted that almost a third of the text be cut. Several revisions later, Morandi still had major objections, but Arcangeli refused to make any more changes, fearing they would fatally compromise his manuscript. Arc:mgeli sent his text to Longhi in the hope that he would intervene and convince Morandi of the manuscript'S worth. BlIt Longhi, who completely rej ected the idea that Morandi had any ties to Futurism, pittura metafisica, or modern abstraction, wrote to Arcangeli, "[Yjou and I disagree about the value of modern art; you have a positive attitude toward it, I, sub­ stantially, ... am skeptical and negative [about modern art]. "5 1 After a cursory look at Arcangeli's text, Longhi concluded that it was not "right." Longhi wrote to Arcangeli in

1962 to tell him that too much of his manuscript was devoted to the mUieus of Bologna, Italy, and Europe, from which, in Longhi's opinion, Morandi had purposely isolated him­

220

self. Clearly Longhi had no desi re to serve as peacemaker benveen Morandi and Arcangeli. This was a terrible blow for Arcangeli, who realized that his friendship with Morandi artist to

had irrevocably ended and that without extensive changes in the text his book might never

nersed in the

be published in the face of Morandi's opposition.

I obsessively close friend s ~ nting

on

IPinacoteca

~i's idea of

Ghiringhelli, who had originally commission ed this monograph, had little choice but to agree to Morandi's demand that Arcangeli 's text be discarded in favor of a new text to be written by Lamberto Vitali. But in 1963 Morandi learned that Einaudi , the publishing house that had produced an edition ofVitali's catalogue raisonne ofMorandi's etchings in 1957, was eager to buy the rights to Arcangeli 's book, and Ghiringhelli was about to proceed with the Il.ew plan when Morandi reluctantly agreed to allow Ghiringhelli

Ie company of

to publish both Vitali's Giorgio Morandi pittore and Arcangeli's manuscript, which would be

time. This

titled Giorgio MorandiY The tvvo books finally appeared in 1964, a month after Morandi

ograph about

had been safely buried. Vitali's Giorgio Morandi Pittore was the most sumptuous book

ngeli's dis-

about the artist'S paintings published to date. To mark tile publication of this monograph,

he contempo­

Morandi created an etching (V. 131, 1961) that was printed in an edition of III and later

:m. He also

distributed with Vitali's book. There were 264 illustrations in Vitali's monograph , 113 of

artist and the

them in color. These illustrations had originally been destined for Arcangeli's book, which

Alessandro

was intend.ed to be a two-volume set. But when Arcangeli 's monograph, ultimately reduced

ared to paint­

to one volume, was published, it contained just fifty-six small black-and-white illustra­

nch, with the

tions. At the time, Arcangeli's more modest publication seemed fated for obscurity because

the m)/t11 of

the Vitali book was so impressive and authoritative with its extensive documenta tion,

Idi, who was

ex haustive bibliography, and detailed listil1g of exhibitions , all ofwhich Arcangeli's book

s. "49 (Even

lacked. But today Arcangeli 's book remains as central to Morandi scholars as it was when it first appeared. s ,

'n by himself,

me whose

It had in fact

One of Morandi's last works, painted shortly before he died , possibly embodies his anguish over the rift benveen him and Arcangeli (V. 1340, 1964; fig. lI.I9). Before

'gan's com­

the publication of Arcangeli's book Bologna'S artistic circles had divided into nvo camps

udgments of

-those who believed in the worth of the book and those who sided with Morandi (Gnudi and Mandelli, among the few in Bologna who sided with Arcangeli, were no longer cor­

:he text be

dially received by Morandi). The still life V. 1340 of 1964 might well have been a reaction to

Ii refil sed to

those incidents that took place over his last three yea rs -an abstraction of a modern

pt. Arcangeli

crucified figure.

lI1di ofthe

Many of those who greatly admired Morandi's prewar paintings had difficulty

andi had an)'

accepting his work from the last decade of his life. Of the eighty-three paintings that

:eli, "[YJou

Longhi chose to display in a posthumous Mora ndi exhibition held at the 1966 Venice

Ird it, I, sub­

Biennale, only nventy-five had been painted after World War II, and no work s from the

Dry look at

1960s were included at all. Both Longhi and Vitali disliked the paintings that Morandi

I\rcangeli in

created during his tast decade. Although they claimed to see evidence in these works of

fBologna,

what they attributed to his growing fatigue, more likeJy the nvo had little sympathy or

;olated him­

understanding with Morandi's increasingly abstract works. In a 1962 letter to Arcangeli,

The Casting of the Myth

221

-

11.19 Still Life, 1964. Oil on canvas,

12

x 12 in. (30 x 30 em). Private Collection. [V. 1340]

Longhi took issue with those who regarded Morandi as a modernist by stating: "Morandi represents an acrimonious reproach to those [artistic) degenerates whose taste runs towards abstractionism."s4 Increasingly Morandi drained his subjects of their meaning, whether he was depicting houses or containers used in his stilllifes. In 1962, two years before his death, Morandi again painted the pair of Persian bottles that are so ubiquitous in his work. Pho­ tographs of Morandi's studio show that these bottles were actually covered with a shiny lemon-yellow glaze and decorated with black squiggles that Morandi never reproduced in his paintings (see fig.

1.12).

In V. 1273 the two Persian bottles are in the background, placed

at an angle to one another; they are part of a group often objects that together create a

222

rectangular form (fig. 11.20). Further variations of this composition appear in the two paintings from 1963 (V. 1299 and V. 1301; figs. 11.21, 11.22). In these works the two Persian bottles are separated by strange antenna-like forms that peer over the bottles (they are actually the stripes on a vase that Morandi often painted -although only a tiny portion of the vase itself is represented here). In another still life of the same year the two yellow bottles have been transformed into monolithic rectangular blocks that occupy almost the entire space of the canvas (V. 1300; fig. 11.23). In this work the necks of the bottles

• shapes recal.l the forms oftbe two houses have entirely disappeared, and their rectangular

in a late landscape (V. 1292, 1962). Some of Morandi's late works are so abstract and minimal that they are some­ times said to be unfinished , even when they bear his hand-painted signature signaling their completion. In Morandi's Metaphysical paintings, and in his works from the 19305 and 1940s, the paint is built up in layers, but his works from the 1960s seem to be painted with thin washes. For that reason some of these paintings look as though they could have been completed in one sitting, even though Morandi may have worked on them over several days. Marks on the backs of his paintings bear witness to the many times that he would attack a canvas with a palette knife, scraping away a day's worth of paint before resuming work on that same canvas the next day. In some photographs of his studio a mountainous lump, which he referred

to

as his "unsuccessful paintings" (quadri

sbagliati), can be seen heaped on his easel (fig. LI.24). An important work from Morandi's last years is a painting of a bunch of Bowers in a white vase decorated with a pattern of twisted vine leaves (V. IllS, 1961; fig. Il.25). This dreamlike work is divided in halfby a light cerulean blue overlaid on a yel­ low background, and Morandi uses the same blue to outline the white vase. The flowers in the vase seem to writbe upward in their search for the top of the canvas, rather like modern dancers gesturing on a stage. Similarly, rarely have houses been depicted with such cheerless melancholy as they were in a group oflandscapes from this period: V. 1252 of 1961, and V. 1288 Of1962 (figs. 11.26, 11.27). A landscape (V. 1241 , 1961) that once belonged to Pietro Nenni conveys the same desperation as Munch's The Scream .55 Creating a pro­ found sense of isolation , these landscapes often portray the desolate, almost primitive forms ing: "lvlorandi ~

taste runs

of uninhabited farmhouses that resemble ancient tomb structures, some punctured by just two tiny windows. Many late landscapes from this period depict houses that lack both windows

hether he was

and doors (fig. 11.28), and the structures are often shown as strange hexagonal shapes

Ire his death,

reminiscent of the forms found in Morandi's Metaphysical stiIllifes; one of these land­

his work. Pho­

scapes is now owned by an Italian bank (V. 1292, 1961; fig. 11.29) while another was for­

I with a shiny

merly in the Plaza collection (V. 1334, 1963; fig. 11.30). In all three works Morandi depicts

reproduced in

two houses that he has flattened into spare, rectangular shapes. In a pencil drawing

ground, placed

ofa solitary house only the briefest essentials are delineated (fig. 11.31). The rectangular

~ther

side of the building is bisected by a single stark, leafless tree.

create a

The Casting of the Myth

223

11.20 Stil l Life, 1962. Oil on canvas, Scotti~h

12

x 12 in. (30 x 30 cm).

National Gallery of Nlode m Art, Ed inburgh.

Photograph by Antoni o Masotti. [V. 1273)

11.21

Still Life . 1963.

Oil on canvas, 8 x 12 in. (20 x 30 em).

Private Collection.

Photograph by Antonio M;lsOtti. [V. 12981

11.22

Stilill f. 1963.

Oil on

C;lIlV;(S, 10 X 12

in. (25 x 30 cm).

Private Collection. [V. 1301]

11. 23

Still LI fe ,

196,.

Oi l on CJnl'JS , 8 x 14 in. (20 x 35 em) .

Pril'Jte Collection. [V. !joo]

, em).

~rn

Art. Edinburgh .

[V. 12731

-

11.24

Easel with Morandi's quadri sbagliati ("unsuccessful paintings").

II.25 Flowers, 196\.

Oil on canvas, 12 x 10 in. (30 x 25 cm). Private Collection.

Photograph by Antonio Masotti. (V. 121 5)

11. 26

Landscape. 1961.

Oil on Cil nvas, 16 x 14 in. (40 x 35 cm).

Co ll ecrion of Ida Maramotti LOl11bardini, Albinea, Reggio Emilia. [y.12521

11.27

Landscape, 1962 .

Oil on ca nva s, 16 x 18 in. (40 x 45 cm).

Private Coll ection . [V. 1288]

But more than Morandi's paintings, his late drawings and watercolors show just how much the artist's vision changed toward the end of his life. After the war Morandi's interest in etching had diminished , but he began to paint watercolors with new enthusiasm. Given Morandi's growing interest in the fusing oftorms, watercolor was a natural medium to pursue at this stage of his career. (In his later years he virtually aban­ doned etching altogether, for the techniq ue of hard-ground etching would not allow him to create the abstract, amorphous flat planes that consumed his interest in the early 19605. He made a fev/etchings after 1947, but I knew that he was not completely happy with thel11.)56 In these works ghostlike, fluid forms and abstract squares, spirals, and rectangles replace his previously weU-defined still life and landscape elements. In his water­ colors the flow of pigment creates flat patterns of luminous color interspersed with

11.28

Landscape,

1960.

Oil on ca nvas,

10

x 12 in. (25 x 30 CIll).

Private Collection. [V. 12131

228

.how colors With new tercolor was > virtoall aban­ d not allow e!\t in the early

lplerely happy

spirals, and

In his water­

red with

IS.

11.29

11.30

Lanciscapt, [96( . Oil on canV3S. ( 0 x [2 in. (25 x 3' em ). Collection on ola Banca, Bologna. [Y. 1292]

Lnndsrapt, 1963 . Oil on canvas.

10 x 20 in. (25 x 50 em). FOnllCrly Plaza Collection . [V. 13 34)

-

broad, nervous lines, leaving the negative white spaces between the dark splashes of color to function almost as additional objects. Arcangeli compared the brushstrokes in these

works (albeit in miniature) to the luminous orange, green, purple, and umber brushstrokes in the paintings of Mark RothkoY A final note on h is late work: the desolate stilllifes and landscapes that the artist created in 1963 also often involve tortured brushwork, as the artist dug into those canvases with forceful zigzag strokes that could have reflected his anger over both his declining health and his bitter feud with Arcangeli. s8 At the 1957 Sao Paulo Bienal in Brazil, where Italy'S presence was funded by the Italian government and organized by Pallucchini and the staff of the Venice Biennale, Morandi was chosen by Pallucchini to represent Italy. (Morandi earlier had received an important prize at the 1953 Sao Paulo Bienal , where he exhibited t\venty-five of his etchings that were owned by Lamberto Vitali. Since 1947 he had participated in fifteen print exhibitions.) As Pallucchini wrote to Morandi's dealer, Ghiringhelli, "We're playing a trump card: Morandi is the most important ace ofItalian modern painting. "59 Ghiringhelli wrote back: "Morandi's stock is rising everywhere ... even in the world of the foreign abstractionists" (astratti stranieri) . When first approached about the exhibition, however, Morandi had no desi re to participate. But Palluccbini explained to him that Italy'S prestige was at stake, and Morandi realized that he could not refuse in a matter of national pride. He selected thirty paintings for Sao Paulo: most came from private collectors and the GaLleria del Milione; from Rome's Museum of Modern Art he selected one that bad been purchased for the Galleria di Mussolini at the 1939 Quadriennale. In September of that year an international jury-Alfred Barr from New York's Museum of Modern Art, France's Raymond Cogniat, Sir Philip Hendy from Great Britain, and Marcel Janco from Israel reviewed the work of the three finalists: Ben Nicholson , Nlarc Chagall, and Morandi. They awarded Morandi the Gran Prix of the Sao Paulo Bienal; this prize was worth the equivalent of two million lire and was the first time that an Italian artist had received such a large sum of money. The Galleria del Milione published an illustrated monograph, witb a short text by Bardi, that was timed to coincide with Morandi's exhibition at the Sao Paulo Biena!. Recalling the negative critical reviews that his previ­ ous exhibitions of Morandi's paintings had received, Bardi commented that Morandi 's work had been controversial for the past thirty years and would always be so, because "that's a lways the case with innovative artists." 60 By the spring of 1964 Morandi was terminally iLl with lung cancer. Through­ out his life Morandi was rarely without a cigarette, which he would smoke untiJ there was scarcely enough of it left to hold without burning himself. He must have known that tobacco had been causing him problems, for in a letter dated July 8, 1956, he wrote me that he hadn't been feeling well and joked: "I'm limping along as best I can without smoking. Although it's clear to me that something inside of me is eating me up! Can you imagine that for three da~ s I haven't had a cigarette. ['m afraid I feel so awful because my body is

23 0

plashes of color :okes in these

/

ler brush strokes ~Iate

f

stilllifes

brushwork , as

i

have reflected 1i. 58

d by the Italian ~a le,

Morandi

ti an important tchings that nt exhibitions.) r ump card: elli wrote back:

11.31

Landlca pe, 1962. [leneil on paper, 9 x 10 in. (24,25 em). Morandi ,\-1 lI SC lI In , Bologna. lnot in Vitali)

lstractionists"

iorandi had no

completely soaked from top to bottom with nicotine [proprio inzuppatto di nicotina). Even

' was at stake,

so, I don't know ifI can be so heroic as to stop." Morandi did not stop smoking, and he

e. He se.lected

died from it eight years later, on June 18, 1964. His death came at home, surrounded by

Galleria del

everything that had meant most to him throughout his life: his family and his world of the

~ en

hundred or so objects kept under his three tables. His work, seemingly so simple and

purchased

effortless, caused him much pain to create. He confided to me in a letter written a few years

1m New York's

before he died: "I too am not getting enough done, and what I do always seems to require

Great Britain,

so much time and effort. For the past few days, I don 't think I've done anything worth­

cholson, Marc

while . Believe me, to feel this way at my age is quite sad , since each time we begin, we

Bienal; this

always think we've understood, that we have all the answers, but we're always starting

J

that an Italian

over again from the beginning."

ublished an vith Morandi's aat his previ­ tat Morandi 's ;0,

because

:. Through­ til there was own that 'Irote me that utsmoking. you imagine I), bod}1 is

The Casting of the Myth

231

... Unlm stot~d othrrwis~, all translations arr by th~ author. Occasionally the contents hav~ been paraphras~d and given an eq uivalent meaning rather than a literal translation to maintain the voice ond styl e oJthe original text.

A World Within a Studio Epigraphs: Letter of 1902, in The ilutobioijraphy of Bertrand Russell (London, (975), 249; WilliJlIl Rouwsma, V~nic~ and th~ Dljet1S~ oJ Rrpublicon Lib~rty (Berkeley, (968). Raggh iallti , Bologna Cruciale, 242. 2

Notes

Sax3ndalJ , Patt~rn s of Intmtion , 102. Coen, "MOrandi tra Sotfici e Sroglio."

3 Quad~rni Morandiani, (1985) 107. The P
4 Weschler, Suing Is Forgetting, 68. [ thank Heather Lechtman for provid in g me with this book. 5 de Santi llana, Homage to Golilea, 18. 6 Ci ted in Ricci, Bo[ogna, 76, 123- 24,1 37. (Origi­ nally from L. Co let, L'italir de.1 i tali~ns [Paris , 1862J , 373-74) During Co let's time many thought that Bologna might become the new capital of a unified Italy. 7 Stendahl, Rome, Nop l~s and Flor~ncf, 295 (lirst English publication in 1817). 8 Sterling, La Nature morte de I'antiquite anosjours, 9. 9 This date is always incorrectly given 3 S 1957. I was present when Peppino Mangravite , an artist, then teaching at Columbia University, came to Morandi 's house to record thi s inter­ view tor the Voice of America. 10

Architects from Le Corbusier-who likewise saw architecture as a still li fe-to sllch modern profess ionals as Giuseppe Micilelucci, Aldo Rossi , Ca rlo Sc;lTpa, and l\olichael Graves , have been Jl110ng the most devoted admirers of Morandi's work.

Bologna

2

Epigraphs: Coen, Boccioni. Raimondi, ktture at the lstituto di cultura di

s are by the een paraphrased tr than a li teral style oJthc

J.

io

Quoted in JVlaltese, Storia del/'urte in Italia, 234. Raffaele Gio lli (1889- 1945), a painter and critic, was ki ll ed in Mauthallsen, a Ge rman concen trati on camp, during Wo rld War II. Salmi, Morandi e il 5UO tempo, 1- -18. Euge ni o R.iccomini cited So fti ei's frif'n d Henry des Pru ­ raux as the author; others beli eve it was wri tte n by Soffici him self.

!utobiograph!1 249; William 'epllb licun

4 l.onganesi, LIta liano. ~.

Cited in Apell a and Trucci , ,I,.lino MOClori , 22.9.

Coen.

he passage ; for an

l (In

I920 ,:r

Ins on mod- .Valori rla ni(i . one Oil gio "'Iorandi ; thank ne with

.. 137. (Origi­ ns [Paris, ne mallY 1C

the new

29'; (first ir nos jOllrs, 9. n as 1957. lvire , an fniversity,

this intera likewi se uch modern cei, Aldo

6 La Vocc, no. 9 (1909): 3 . See also Prezzol ini , t' italiano inll tile, 180, an d Arcaogeli , Gio r!Jio ,vlorandi, 15 - 17. Some vociani would become well know n fl)r their active oppositio n to Fascism. J\ I11on g them were Luig i Einaudi, t.he distin­ gui shed eco nomist (and , afre r 194';, pres id ent ofltaly). Ferruccio Parri (who would bead the Co mmittee 0 Na tional Liberation, which was a coa liti on orthe Italian Res istance Movement from 1943-4';). and two fllture exiles, Gaeta no Salvemini (w ho would teach at Harvard) and Giuseppe Prezzolini (who would teach atCo lum­ b i ~ University). Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Ge ntile, and Giovanni Pa pini also were cons id ­ ered vociani. Many of the magazine's artists '1l1d writers would loter co ntribute to La Raccolta, Valori Plastici, and II Se lvaggio; all three wou ld publish Mora ndi's wo rks . 7 Quoted from A. Ross:1to, Mussoli ni, colloquia intima (M ilan , 1921); in Smith , Mussolini, 37. 8 Th e article was published in La vTaie itali e, a magaz ine wr itten in French and printed in 1:10­ renee in j\'lay 1920 b)' Attilio Valleechi , who also printed Laccrba. rd engo Softici in ClVa llo, "A PTato peTvedm i COTO t," 19. i'or changes in 'offi ci's politics see also Montanelli and Stagli eni. l.eo l.onganfs i, 173, and 35 3n';4. After World War 1[ , Soffiei wa s intern ed for a year in an alli ed co llcentr:ltio n cam p in It:llv for hi s support of~ :·l scism.

raves, have

9 Soffiei, "L'impressio ni smo e la pirrura it"lian:r."

irers of

10 Soffiei, "L'impressionismo a Firenze," II

2 .u ltura di

tance [in Pica's bookJ than Cezann e, and Sisley and Pi ssa rro were less documented than Raffaelli" (Giufii'e, GioTgio Morandi , 29).

Bruxe ll es; ci ted in B ccilieri and Ev:wge li sti , F(gllre del Novmnto , 276.

I.

Nlan), write rs have cited Vittorio Pica's book Im pTmionistllo (Bcrgamo, 1908) as the "bible of impTess ion ism" and eruci;]1 to Morandi 's develop ment. Bur ~s Guido Giuffre po inted out: "Bertlw Mo ri sot "';], givcn more impor-

I2

Pellizzi's letter is ci ted in MJngo ni , L'intcTven­ tislno de lla cll it ura, 226. [ktiJrc unification, Italy was a co nglomerate of dismeillbered kingdoms and mall city-states tha t Austrian cmperors, Bourbon kings, and papa l arm ies h"d fought ove.r an d occupied for cc nnrries .

13 Sca lia , "Carlo Carr:I," 396. 14 A. Mazzotti, "Esposizione [ibcra," II Giorn(lle del Mattina, July 6, 1911: cited in So lmi , Morandi e il suo tempo, 31. 15 Soffici, 'Tes posi zione di Venezi,,"; cited in Cavallo, "A Pra to peT vedm i Carat, " 26 - 27.

16 In di sc uss ions with the au thor. : ce also Roditi, Dialog ues on Art, '59. The l'vlacchia ioli weTe a gro up of nin eteenth-ce ntlilY It"li:ln painters who us ed:l technique si mi la r to that orlJl e Im pressioni.sts. Mos tly frol11 Tu~ca"y, they revolted again st thc i cod:lss icis ts. li ke th e Fren ch Imp r 'sionislS, the Macchiaio li worked directly fi'om nature usin g a low-keyed palette and distri bu ting the paint to the an vas in nerv­ ous and rap id bTU hstrokes. The macchia­ hlohs or mark. - ga ve the group its name. Among the arti sts co nsidered M:lcchiaioli were Vito D'A neo n:l , GiOV
Morandi Futurista

3

Ep igmphs: Hulten. Flltllrislno &JUtu risti, 05 ­ 506. The l' uturist printed thousands of their mani fi to to be give n away in the street.. Boccioni rcad the firs mani fc to of the pai nteTs from the stage of the 1'0Ii r<"3 111 :1 in Tu rin ; Giuseppe Ungaretti (written wh ile at the front ill France, luly 1918), in Contin i, LttteTatuTO dell'ltalia unita, 803. M3Tinctti published the firs t "1\>lallifesto of FU tll ri Slll " in French on l:ebruJr)' 27, 1909, in the Pa ri i:rn newspapcr l.c Figaro, believing [hat it would reach a wider audi ence. Boceioni met M:1rin etti in 19IO and together lVith Carra and Lu igi Russo lo drew up the first "Manifesto of rhe f-uturi st Painters" (which was subseq uently signed by Balb and Severini. SC Ill Benelli, who

Notes to Pages 9- 38

2' 3

organized the Primaverile Fiorentino in 1922, and Marin etti founded the magazinc Poesia in 1905. 2 Carr;], "Parlato su Giotto. " As late a~ 1917 Carra considered him selfaJUturista di ssente (dis­ senter) but still a futurist. For more informa­ tion about Carra's participation in the Futurist movcment see M. Calvesi's ca ulogu e entry in Hulten , rutIJrismo &: I'uturisti, 44 2. 3 See Scrivo, Sintesi delfuturismo, 15 ; cited in Frigessi, La cultIna italiana. See also Lytte/ton, Society and Culture, 24. 4 Fagiolo dell'Arco, Balla e i rIJturisti , 22. Dates vary from 1910 to 19II for this painting. In Hul­ ten, Fu turismo R:: Futuristi, 423, Balla stated that he was in spircd by Marinetti 's Ucddiamo iI chia ro di luna (Let's Kill the J\'loonlightJ. B;llla taught painting to Severini and Boccioni. Roditi, Dialogu es on Art, 5S. 6

Carra becamc the art critic for the Milan es newspaper L'Ambrosiano and in June 1925 pub­ lished an important contextual article on Morandi, also mentioning that be was "virtu­ ally ignored in his oIVn city." Bacchelli , "Gior­ gio Morandi ," 226. Mario Bacche lli dicd in a motorcycle accident in Tenm:ssee in 1953.

7 Russoli, Masters of Modern Italian Art, 40. Sofll ci provided trans lations ofMaliarme and Rim­ baud and through hi s co nn ection s in Paris gar­ nered the support and collaboration of Apolli­ naire and Max Jacob for the magazine. S Solmi, Morandi e il suo tempo, 263. The bright co lors of the Fu turists' palette mu st have affected Morandi. We knoll' tilat he destroyed or painted over many of his early 1V0rks, but one that he did not destroy is tile painting of Rowen in a vase (V. 20) begun in 1913 but com­ pleted in 1915, in which he used the s:t me bright red paint throughout the entire canvas. 9 Arcangeli, Giorgio Morandi, 45 and 5S, and Vitali, Gior!lio Morandi pittore, IS-IS. IO

Solmi, Morandi e ilsuo tempo, 33.

1I

ArC'dngeli, Giorgio Morandi, 45 , suggested that the books may have been I maniJesti delfuturismo, Boccionj's Pitturtl e sculturajilturi~ta, tbc cata­ logue of th e Esposizionefu turista di Firenze, and Cubi smo eoltre, Sofllci's book in praise of the f.uturists. Fo r 1110re on Pratella, see Hulten, rUltirismo R::fu turisti, 549-51; on Morandi's friendship with Licini , see So lmi . Morandi e il SliO tempo, 264. Osvaldo Licini , the autilOr of the

234

"infamous" collection of short stories. Racco nti di Bruto (Ta les of Brut0), sent copi es of his book to Mora ndi as well as to Pratella, whom he hopcd would publish it in Lomba. One of the stories. "La conversazione sentim ent'll e," whether true or not, describes visits mad e by all three friends to the lo ca l brothel and other youthful escapades. L'Acco dem ia di Bologna Figure del Nouerento, 43. 12 Arcangeli, Gio rgio Morandi, 49-50. 13 Ibid ., 9. The lettcr tl'om Boccioni an d Russolo is printed in its entirety in Vitali, Giorgio Morandi pittore, [6. The text is originally from Gambillo and Fiori , Archivi del Futurism, 325 . 14 Vitali , Giorgio Morandi pittore, 58. 15 See "Rules," Secondo Esposizione Internaziollole d'orte, 15 . 16 Russoli , Ardeng o Soffici, 46, addresses this iss ue , noting that this drawing was "transtormed tor Morandi 's own use." I thank Silvia Eva ngeli sti for providing me with a facs imile of the Picasso drawi ng. 17 Quoted in Smith, Mussolini, 26. When Mussolini broke with th e Socialists' position of neutrality, tilCY wa nted nothing l110re to do with him, and in 1914 tiley forced him to resign [he editorship of Auan ti , Milan's Soc inli ~t newspaper. With help trom what ha s been described by so me as "French go ld ," a 1110nthl), allotment from French sources enabled Mussolini to es tabli sh his own newspaper, II Popolo d'Ha lin . whose edi ­ torial position f>w(Jred war on the side of France. Seton-Watson, Italyjrom Liberalism to Fascism, 441.

Pittura Metafisica

4

Epi graph: De Ch iri co, "Zeusi I'espl oratore." Edita Broglio reca ll ed that Morandi was always offby him se lf (un solitario). that Carra and de Chirico did not en joy each other's company (and that after the Valori Plastici ceased publica­ tion they each went th ei r sepa rate ways), and that de Chirico never wanted to talk about Val­ ori Plastid-with good reason, becallse in Broglio's view the lea ding light wa s Ca rril . See Fossati, Valori Plastici . For a discll ssion of differences between Ca rra and de Chirico, see Briganti and Coe n, La pittura metojisica , 110 -11. 2 Cited in Briganti and Coe n, La pittura metajisica. Th e misundersta ndings and jealousies that

'ies, Racconti of his book hom he :)ne of the male," s made by Is and other ,ologna l'i9ure

plagued the hi story of pittura met'lfisica had just begun. R.,1imondi probably had no clear idea of de Chirico's pre-19 17 oeuvre, and there­ fore could not have imagined tilJt de Chirico might have influenced Carra. Savinio, Valori Plastid , cited in Maogoni, L'interuenti5mo della cultura , 39. 4

Id Russolo is jio Morandi Gambillo

~s this issue, ;formed for Evangelisti fthe

Ibid. Cited in Carra, "Review of the Mastro d'Arte Independente.·'

If neutraliry, th him , and e editorship ler. With by some as . from o establish , wh ose ed ideaf ?ralism to

4 rJtore, " alwJ)'s rra and de lmpany ~d publicaIYs), Jnd 3bolltV'IIWJS

Ise in

arra. Sec of 'rico, see 11

,IIO - II.

llletajisira. es that

15 De Chirico, " II ritorno al mcstiere ," Valori Pla5­ tid I, no. lI -f2 (November-December 1919): 15-19; cited in ros~ati , Valori Plastid , 42. The [talian reads, "[ 1pcrfczionamemo tecnico non ha 10 ,copo di avvicinJre 13 rapprescntazione all 'oggetto, rna al contfario distaccarla sem pre di pill, per tame uno [050 a se." 16 Arcangeli, Giar,q io Morandi, 107. 17 Lista, De Chirico et I'avant-garde, 29 .

6 "Vedere il mondo comune in modo non romun e," is quoted in Briganti and Coen, La pittura lOetajisira, 56. In ,I poignant letter de Chirico laments to Carra tha t he has few faith­ ful fricnds: "Be my friend and let us work together. ... We are the new Vespucci ." De Chirico, Ventisettelettm a Carlo Carra, 315-16, as cited in Baldacci, De Chirico, 393. 7

See Salvi ni, "Per una definizione di 'Va lori

Plastici, '" 222. 8 Hulten and Celant, Arte italiana presenzo, 137.

~n l'v\u~~o lini

for confirming that it did take place in 1955 and not in 1957, the date usually given.

9

Lista, De Ch irico et I'auant-garde, 29.

10 Filippo De Pisis (1896- 195 6) had studied clas­ sicalliterature at the University ofBolognJ and was a critic of art and poetry before becoming a painter. When de Ch irico moved to Rome, the painter I~oberto Melli-a native of Ferrara whom de Chirico had met while statio ned there-introduced him to "'brio Broglio, Melli's friend from their art school days. II

[ thank Silvia Evangelisti for making avaibble both the material about Raimo ndi and Tzara's letter to Raimondi. See also Bertolucci, "Gior­ gio Morandi," who, 011 the occasion of the opcning of the Museo Morandi in Bologna, confirmed th e fact that the artist never forgave Raimondi for se llin g his Morandi paintings when Raimondi needed mane), to educate his daugllters and provide them with dowries.

12 [t was not that Soffici could nOt app reciatc new works , for "he alone among Picasso's painter friends" had ad mired that artist'S Demoise ll es d'Auignon. Rubin , Picas50 and Braque, 43. Briganti and Coen, Ln pittura 1l11tajisica, HI-IS . 13 Dali, "Nouvelles limites de la peinture"; ci ted in Evangeii sti, Morandi e il5uo tempo, 53. [4 I thank Dina ,vlorand i for the typed transcript ofiler brother's inteI>'iew widl Mangravite, and

18 II Giornale del Mattino ceased publication in 1919. Its editor, Pietro Nenni, a former sccre­ tary of rorli's R.epub li can part)', had once sh~red a cell in pri son at l:orli with Benito Mussolini, at that time editor ofa Socialist newspaper. Both were arrested in [911 for demonstrating against thc Giolitti govern­ ment's colonial expansion into Tripoli. Nel1ui, who joined with the r:ascists in 1919, left th e party and became a Socialist in 1920. When he spoke out against the Fascists' violence, he was arrested and imprisoned by Mussolini. After his escape he remained in France from 1926 to 1943, after which he returned to Italy to fight witil the Resistance. '9 Lisca, De Chirico et I'avant-garde, 221 (letter dated August 3, 19 18). 20 Letter from Carra to Raimondi, April 17, 1918; quoted courtesy ofrhe Raimondi family. 21 Franchi, "Giorgio Morandi," 11 7-18 (rpt. Vitali, Giorgio Morandi pittore, 46) (italics added). 22 See Arcangeli, Giorgio Morandi, 84. 23 [' ranchi, "Avcrtimento Critico"; cited in Vitali, Giorgio Morandi pittore, 30. 24 [ thank Georgcs de Canino for providing me widl this reference in Edita Broglio's handwriting. 25 Morandi 's work was included along with that ofCarrir, de Chirico, Braque, and Zadkine in the advertisement about a book to be published in 1923 under th e imprint ofValori Plastid , Edi­ tions, Rome, and titled Le nioriassicisme dans I'art rontell1porail1, avec 66 reproductions en phototypie. See also Silver, Esprit de Corp5 , 89. "The pre-war [World War IJ artist of avant-garde tendencies coul d respond to a new sense of'organization' ... because history demanded classic ism .... Th e ncw classic age tilat was dawning was the next, Jnd inevitable, direction for the modern sensibiliry."

Notes to Pages 38- 65

2 15

26 Fos sati et ~ I.. Valori Plast i " 139.

with M. Va lsecchi, Pittura f s(ultura ita liana dal 19 10 al 1930 (1956).

27 B:ddacci, De Chirico, 90.

42 Letter from Mora ndi to Raimondi, September 17,

28 List:!, De Chirico tt I'avan t-garde, 26.

1919; in R;limo ndi, Anni can Giorgio Morandi. 195.

29 De Chirico, in Gauctta Fmarcse, June 17, 1918,12. 30 Briganti Jnd Coen, La pif1ur(l

m f ta.~5ica,

54.

31 Longhi , "AI dio ortopedico," 427 - 29.

32 Li sta, De Chirico et I'avant-gorde, 29. 33 Vitale, Murandi: ata logo genera Ie.

I!.

34 Solmi, Morandi e il suo tempo, 41 . 35 De ·hirico. in Gazzetta Fmarl'>f. Jun e 17, 19[8.

36 Fur more de[;]ils abou t th e riuts and the general strike uf)uly 20. 19[9, that Mor;lI1di discusses in a letter to Raimond i, sec Seton-W:ltson , Italy from Li btra li sm to Fascism , 524. Moran di t R.a i­ mondi, Jul y 22., [9[9; in R.aim ondi, Anni [O n Giorgi o Morand i. 185. 37 Rai mondi , Ann i con Giornio Morandi, 186. 38 The Bacchus \Vas discovered by Longhi in 19 16 , hur J nother arr historian, Matteo MJ rangoni, published iL ls a CJrJvaggio cupy in 19 17 and sent the ;micle to Raimondi in 191 8. According to Evang elisti, Raimundi pl anned to write an artic le on aravaggio (Evangeiisti, ,vlorandi e il Sli O tem po, 50). See al so Raimondi. I divertimenti Ictterari, 148. (Longhi published the attribution ro CJIJvagg io in 1922.) MorJndi, who was fas­ cin ated b? the slililite objects in the lloccilllS, IVrote to I~lim ondi on Jul y 22, 1919. requesti ng him "to a k Ma ran go lli for a photograph of the Bacchus," and also asked him to obtain a letter of in trodnction fi'om J\hrango n i that would ad mi rtbem to IllLIseUIllS still closed to the pub­ lic because of the W:Ir. Giuseppe Raimondi, Anni COil Giorgio Mora ndi , 185. For more about Mor:rndi's trip see Raimondi , "Due Bolognesi a ROlli;]." in I di vrrtimrnti letterori, 146 - 59 . Morandi had cluse fri endships with the leading lra lia n art historians throughout his life. Th ey val ued his judgment on attrib utio ns and on con se rv:1tion problems, an d he was oftcn con­ sulted in an official capacity by Cesare Brandi , Ces.1re Gnudi, and Arca nge/i.

43 The contra r, executed in l~ rugJiu', hanciwriting, was rather am bi guous. It appears that ,vlorancli was nliOl"ed to sell privately, but on ly after he had give n Brog lio Ih e seve n paintings he required, and at d price th at Broglio woul d dete rmin e. Moreover, Morandi WilS not to p,1I'ticipatc in any exh ibiti ons without Broglio's permissi on. Bra­ gagli;,r and Ra im ndi had plan ned to publi sh pho togra phs 0 Mor:lnui's work, a. ha d CarrCl, but because of Ihogli o's CO lllrJct they coul d not do so . In:ln unpu blished letter of 1927 , in the Broglio archives at rhe Mus um of Modern Art in Rome, Morandi l ks Broglio's permis­ sion to allow the crilic Ma rio Tinti [0 publish phutograp hs of hi s work in a pl:rnn ed 1110no­ graph; the monograph was never realized, and Broglio's response to this request is nut known. 44 Raimondi. i\nni con Glor,91o Morandi , IllS . 45 Broglio came from Piacenza. a small city north ofBo lognJ . He starrcd Valori Plastici supposedly because ofa dispute with Papini (the edirar of the tma pagin(l of II Tem po) over ;111 article Broglio wrme for that newspaper abo ut the Mostro d'lirtr Independente. Papini cut so lIluch of [hi s artic le that:!n angry Broglio decid ed to start his own lIlagaz in e that would be so lely about art. He began \Ialori Plastici with Roberto Melli and su bsequently had two oth er parrner~ . ,"la ri o Girardon and Fla minio Martellotri , both ofwholl1 were we ll -k nuwn Roman couru riers. Broglio's September 1922 conU'Jcr wi th M;we/­ lotti stated rh'lr he would be p:lid not less than 2 ,000 lire a month for ten years for fonning J collection of modern art for the couturi er. See l'os ~ Jri el aI., Valol'i Plastid, 289. 46 A biography from the ex hibi tion cat. Joguc of

Le$ Riolis11I r.s 19 19-1939 :It th e Musec Pompidou, Pa ris , 1980, touc hes on problem' rhil t Edita Brog lio had with the r-ascist reg ime :lnd tha t caused her to leave 1[;]1 in 19 27. 130th Edita and Mario Brogli o serried in France. aneI Bmglio 1V0uid conti nue to travel [0 and from Italy. In 19'5 Oppo arranged for Mario Broglio to exhibit in Rum '5 1935 Quadriennale. and both Brogl ios returned to II;1ly.

39 Cavallo , "/\ Prato ptr uedere i oro!," 166.

40 Raimondi. Ann i COIl Giorgio Mo rand i, 199. 4[ elstel ranco la ter beca me a well -known critic

and :!uthO!' ofsel'cralmaj or books, alllong them La pitturo modern a 1860- 19,0 (1934) aIld,

47 Fossati, Valori Plastiti 1918-1922, LOr.

48

ee Cavallo, "'\ Prato per vedere I Coro t." 29 .

dal

The End of

lack of collectors ofpittura metafisiea. Broglio's partners were Mario Girardon :lI1d a Rome tai­ lor known as F1,lIuinio Mmtellotti ; each of the three rook his share of the paintings that Broglio had ea rlier acquired fi'om Can'a, de Chirico, and Mor,mdi.

5

Valori Plastici

oiling,

randi chad rcd, Ie. n :Jl1}'

Bra­ sh Id I,

in

Uern I~­

sh 0­

and own.

'orth sedly ro f

hoI'

~ rt()

~ers. loth ·rs. llel­ [an

:3 ee

' nd

Ibit lOS

Epigraph: S. Dali, "Nouvelles limites de 1<1 pein­ ture," in L'al11ie des arts, no. 22 (February 1928): 29; cited in Evangeli~ti. Morandi. 53· Daubler grew up in Trieste, which at the time a part of Austria. In 1919 he lost Ius Austrian citizensh ip and was offered German citizen­ ship, bllt he chosc to become an Italian citizen instead. Daubler was;1 close friend of George Grosz and Hcrwarth Walden (director ofBer/in's Del' Srrurlll Gallery) . In 1914, along with Rilke, the architect AdolfLoos, and Kokoschka , he was Jmong th e beneficiaries who each received money (100,000 crowns, eqllivalent to $80,000) that Ludwig Wittgcnstein transferred to "Aus­ trian ar ti sts who are withour means." Wittgcn­ stein. born in Vienll'1 in 1889. was among the 1110st noted philoso phers of the twentieth cen­ tury. He had been brought to Cambridge by Bertrand R.ussell and subscqllently h,1d l11uch impact on British scholars. Wittgenstein came from a f.1l11ily of considerable wealth, but upon inheriting a vast fortune he chose to give it all aw"y. See Monk, Ludwi,g Witt,gemtein, 106 - 108. Diiubler published articl es in cight different issues ofValori Plastici between 1919 and 1921. See Vitali. Gior,gio Morandi pittore, 26. aod Fossa ti , Valori Plastici, 293 - 95 , for a complete list of the publish ed articles. Broglio had originally con­ tacted the dealer Paul Cassirer. who became in erested in showing the Italians on ly after Justi agreed to bold the exhibition in the museum .

Archives ofValori Plastici, ,vlll~eum of Modern Art, Rome. Even in England. pro-German feel ing wa~ on the rise; the English poet Robert Gra&e. , who was wounded in the trenches of World War I, observed: "A nti -I'rench feeling among most ex-so ldi ers amounted almost to an obsess ion ... some in sisted [hat we had been fighting on the wrong s ide ... that our natura l enemi es were the French." Graves, Goodbye to All That, 293.

""IS

2 A lack of informationl11akes it difficult to iden­ tif)- the paintings and drawings that Morandi actually exhibited. An installation photograph published in I' ossari et aI., Valori Plastici, 94. sholVs that Still LiJe with Four Objerts (V. 29, 19l6) and Still Life with Round Table (V. 5I, 1920. now in the Pinacoteca di Brera), were among his exhib­ ited works. In addition, there is mention of an ex hibit of the Valori Plastid group in 1924, but there is scant. reliable information to confirm this. An essay (title unava ilable) by Franz Roh in Nach Expressionisl11us. Ma,gischer R~alis l11us (Leipzig, (929). n.p., desc ribes a group of German artists who showed enormous intercst in the exh ibition ofBroglio's artists. See also Evangelisti, Morandi e iI suo tempo, SO-53; Schmied , " De Chirico and the Realism of the Twenties," 101 - 109; and Vivarelli, "La politica delle arti figurative, '" 24 - 37 , concerning the

4 Corriere delle Sera , November 24,1918, cited in Seton-W,ltson, Italy./Tom Liberalism to Fascism. 504. 5 I thank Dina Morandi for providing me with this review by Diiubl er. 6 Paolieri (3 painter who also exh ibi ted in the Primaverile Fiorentina), in La Na zion e (june 9, 1922), cited in App el l ,Edita Bro,glio, 222. 7 In La Fiorentina I'rimaverile. 8 I thank Georges de Canino for giving me this material. Edira Broglio, "L'esordio della rivist,1 Valori Plastici, " 9. 9 Oppo, AII'[sposizione "l'rimoverile" Fiorelltina; cited in Appell a, Edita Bro,9lio, 222. 10

Note that the ominous words that will appear in Soffiei's article on Morandi in 1929 - tr ditioll, race, and country-have yet to appear; cited in Cavallo, "A Prato per vedm i Corot," [9-20.

11 Ibid., [9. [2 In La Fiorentina Primaverile, 153 - 54; also cited in Vitali, Gior,gio Moralldi pittore, 47. De Chirico's last sentence concludes: " ... Jnd in order to continue d1e purity of his 1V0rk at night, in the squalid classrooms of the public schools, he teaches the young the erernallalVs of geometric drawin g. the basis of every great beaut)' and of every protollnd melancholy. " Mari:J Teresa Morandi confirmed that her brother never did teach at night but that he did teach drawing to elementary school srudcnts. 13 De Chirico. Gior!lio de Chirico; rpt. Arte itoliano prmllw , 644. [4 See Vitali, Morandi: Catalo,9o ,generule, for the

Notes to Pages 66-88

237

complete contract (dated Bologna , December 26,19 19). 15 See Vivarelli, "La politi ca dellc arti figurativ c," 24-37· 16 De Pi,i" Futurismo, dadaismo, rnetnjisirn, 96. Lctter to Tzara, dated November 9, 1918. 17 Pratelb. "Una lettera all'editore," 22. 18 Cited in ListJ, De Chirico et l:avant-garde, 29. 19 Luka ch, "Mor;lIldi . 20th Century Mod ern ," 28. 20 Vitali, Giorgio A·[oran di pittore, 28. 21 Chastel, Cart itlilien, 218.

6

Morandi and the Novecento

Epigraphs: Sec Mangoni , L'il1terventismo della eultura. 127. The ),cJr 1915 was the year tlut Italy entered World War I; the March on Rome occurred in 1922. r-rom Bragaglia 's autobiogra­ phy in the 1928 L'i\ssalto; rep rinted in !\Jrilli and Bonetti, 20 Giovani Leoni, 122-23. See Seto n-Watson, Fascism, 606.

Ital~jrom

Liberalism 10

2 Oppo to Di Mmzio (1888-1962), in Cannis­ craro, LaJabriCll del conSeI1SO, 25, 30-38. Oppo lVould be the future secretary of the Sindacato Nazionale di Belle Arti and would be in charge of organizing the Roman Quadriennale from 1930 to 1943. Di Marzio in 1928 became presi­ dent of the Confederazione dei Profess ionisti e degli Artisti (Confederation of Professionals and Artists). Both Oppo and Di Marzio would appear in Morandi's registrello. 3 Tasca , The Rise of II ali an taseism, 1918-1922, 333. The ''Jasei of revolutionary action" was originally cre~ted in 1914 by revolution ary sup­ porters for intervention. 111 March 1919 Mus­ solini and a group ofvVorld War [ veterans for­ mally established a national organizJtion that would be called thefasci di combattimento. Two years later this organi zation became the official Fascist Party and believed it could seize power by violence. Fa5eio (literally a bundle of long objects gathered together and tied) was first used symbolically as a political association b)' the Fasci dei Lavoratori, a workers' organization in Sicily, at the end of the ninetcenth century. In ancient Rome it was a symbol of authority; in modern times it became associated with Fas­

cism. Organized as Fasci di COl11battimento, the Milanese fascio were a mixed bag of anar­ chists, Catholics, Communists, nationalists, Republicans, and Liberals of every kind. The ideas put forward by this group bore littl e rela­ tion to l\<\u sso lini 's political philosop hy as it emerged ten years later. The early Fascists were strongly anticlerical and wanted to confiscate ecclesiastical property; they favored ending the monarchy and opposed any kind of dictator­ ship or arbirrary power. In 1919 , the first gen­ eral election after the war, Mussolini was sou ndly defea ted in Milan, where he ran the daily newspaper /I Popolo d·italia. He obtained just 5,000 votes out of a total of 268,000. 4 R.agghianti, 1l0109n(] (rueinle 1914, 223. An art histori an, R.agghian ti held the position of Chair in History of Art at the University of Pi sa. In 1935 he became a chieforga nizer of the anti­ Fascist opposition Giust2ia e Liberti! in the El11ilia-Romagna area and gathered around him a group of young ami-Fascists who were atte nding Bologna's university, among them Cesare Gnudi, Gian-Carlo Cavalli, Arcangeli, Giorgio Bassani, and Antonio Rinaldi. Ragghi­ anti was one of the founders of the Partito d'Azione, and after World War Il he became a member of Ferruccio Parri's government. Arcangeli, Gior9io Morandi, 16 2, 237. He was the first Italiall scholar to investigate Morandi's hisrory within the co ntext of his times, includ­ ing the Selvaggi, the Strapaese, and r-ascislll. 6 Cavallo, "A Prato per vedere i Corot," 40-51. 7 Braun, "Speaking Volumes," 89-116 . 8 She gave me the registrello when I was collabo­ rating with the [stituto per 13 Grafica and the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome on a retrospec­ tive exh ibition of the arti st's etchings. 9 See Abramowicz, "Vision and Tecllllique," 97-103; and Abralllowicz, "La tecnica dell'arte incisoria di Giorgio Morandi," in Cordaro, Morandi L'Opero Grajica, xlii - xlviii. 10 Onofri ,

/9iornali bolo911esi nel venlennioJaseista. 147.

11 In an article published in /I Seiva99io in June 1926, Bottai warned that Farinacci 's brand of intransigence was a har mti.ri disease-"a perfidious syphilis for Fascism ." Bottai found it convenient to us e Maccari 's magazine to attack Farinacci. According to Montanelli and Staglieno, Leo L0l19anesi, 75, it was Farinacci

ts , nationalists, every kind. Th e up bore little relJ­ lhilosophy as it early Fascists were ted to confiscate hvo red ending the :ind ofdictator­ 19. the first genJssolini was here he ran the !Iia. He obtained of 268.000. 114,223. An art c position of nivcrsity ofrisa. ~anizer of the antil.ibert.'! in th e hercd ,lround scists who were ry, among th em

valli, Arcangeli, l Rinaldi. !\;1gghi­ of the Partito r \I he became a ?overnm ent.

2. 2F. He was ~st igatc Morandi 's lis times , includ­ e, and fascism.

who spurred Mussolini to form a dictatorship. Only five oftbe persons involvcd in Matteotti 's murder were put on trial in 1926. 'I\~'o were acq uitted; the other three were given senrences of six years and were released after serving only three months (Seton-Watson. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism, 662). To disassociate himself from the murder, Mussolini removed Farinacci as party secretary in 1926, replacing him with Augusto Turati , who would be on the committee for the , 1929 Novecento exhibition. At the time, both Maccari and Longanesi condoned the murder (Montanelli and Staglieno, Leo LonBanesi. 75). and Su llivan , II Duee's Other Woman, 387. See also Braun, "Speaking Volumes," 177­ 78, who places the phrase in context, citin g Mus­ solini's 1933 comment again st the Novecento.

l2 Cannistraro

13 for a biograpby of,\llargherita Grassini Sarfatti, see Ca nnistraro and Sullivan, II Duer's Other Woman. Sarf.l rti was born in Venice in r880 into a wealthy ort hodox Jewi sh f.lmily. She was tutored at hom e by Pietro Orsi, a well-known hi storian, and Antonio Fradeletto, secretarygeneral ofthc newly created Venice Biennale. According to her biographers she met Mussolini in 1912, and mllch later she wrote a biography of him , Dux, which was aimed at an English aud ience but subsequently translated into eighteen languages. 14 See Mangoni, t:interventismo della cultura, 161. 15 Montanelli and Staglieno, Leo LonBanesi.

-ot," 40 - 51.

16 Cited in Arcangeli, Gior9io Morandi, 250.

89- 116.

17 Carra, "Giorgio Morandi " (rpt. Cavallo, "A Prato per vedm i Co rot, " (69).

hen I was collaboGrafica and the Ie on a retrospec­ tchings. Technique, " 3 tecnica dcll'arte , in Cordaro,

iii. tfnntofascista, 147.

vaYBio in June acci's brand of sease-loa ,." Bottai found magazine to Montanelli and vas r-arinacci

18 Bossaglia, II "Novecento" italiano, 19. See also Braun, ,\olario Siron i and Italian Modrrnism, 90-92. 19 Two of the artis ts, Dlldreville Jnd Bucci, were not pleased that Mussolini would speak at the open­ ing but went alo ng with the others. See Bossaglia, II "Novecento" italiano, 65 -77. Cited in Tempesti, Arte dell'ltoliafascista, 59. Mussolini's entire speech was published the next day (February 12, 1926) in Sarfartj's column, the "Cronaea d'Arte, " which appeared weekly in II Popolo d'ltalia. 20 Giuseppe Prezzolini , Fascism (London, (926) ; cited in Lyttelton, The Seizure of Power, 385. 21 The chant "a noi!" (for us), adopted b)' the Fas­ cists, had originated with lYAnnunzio when his legion naires attempted to take over Fiume

in the spring Of1919: "ror whom is Italy on the march? For us!" (A noil) . 22 Sarfattj, Novmnto italiano,

II.

23 Unpublished job app lication addressed to the board of Bologna's Licea Artistico, from the Morandj archives at the Museum Morandi. 24 In 1925, the French government awa rded Sar­ f.1tti the Legion d'Honneur in recognition of the successful exhibiti.on of Italian art that she had organized in Paris in con junction with the Exposition Intcrnationale des Arts Decoratifs ct Indus­ triels. By then Sarfutti had become a sort of cul­ tural ambassador without portfolio. In her trav­ els abroad she served as a publicist for "her" Novecento artists, while at the same time pro­ moting a positive image of Mussolini and his Nuova Italia (New Italy). Perhaps it was Sar­ fatti's inAuence that caused Mussolini to aban­ don the "black shirt for the top hat. " Quoted from Lyrtelton, The Seizure of Power, 380 . 25 Oppo and Maraini could not tolerate Sarfa tti 's assertiveness and independence: as Maraini wrote to Oppo, th ey wanted to keep her "under our control"; from Milan she seemed ready to invade their territories of R.ome and Venice. See letter ofOppo to Maraini in Benzi, Materiali inediti dall 'archivio di Cipriano Ejisi o Oppo, 173. I thank Emily Braun for this material. Sarf.ltti made plans to bring a Noveernto Italiano show to R.ome the following year and requested a rOOIll for " her" Noveeento artists at the 1928 Venice Biennale. Different variations on the names of the var­ ious Sindacati (unions) appear in the literature. To avoid confiJs ion I have adhe red throughout to one spelling of each. Oppo urged Mussolini, whol11 he knew well, to advise Sarfatti to postpone the next Nove­ eenlO exhibition until 1929, when it would not conAict with the 1928 Venice Biennale. (Oppo's appeal was particul arly effective because b)' that time th e Biennale was no longer funded and managed b)' the Venetians, but by the cen­ tral government from Rome.) 26 Cannistraro and Sullivan , II Duce's Other Woman, 380. 27 See Cavallo, "A Prato per vedm i Corot," 81. See also Allowa)'. The I'wice Biellllale, 1895-1968,94. Fo r example, at the Biennale Ettore Tito showed forty-two paintings in 1922, forty-five in 1930, twenty-si x in 1936, and twenty in 1940.

Noles 10 Pages 88-111

239

28 "C hiosa al Novecento," II Selvaggio (M:uc h 15,

prepa re three painti ngs for an exhibition in Argentina but I don't know wh en and wh ere I have to send th em." I than k Silvi a Evange listi for this letter, given to her by Siro ni 's grandson Andrea Sironi . Among th e ex hibitions abroad that Sa rf3tti organized and in which Morandi participated with th e Novecento group were the fo llowi ng: the Calerie Bona partc in Paris in November 1929, the KlInsthalie ofl'l3sel and Berne in 1930, and at the Cal erie Geo rges Bernheim in Paris in 1932.

1929), cited in Mangoni, L'interve ntismo della cul­

tura. Cavallo, "A Prato per ved ere i Corot," 8 1, cites three paintings, two sti llli fcs, and one land­ sca pe. Vitali, ,"Iorandi: Cata logo generale, men­ tions th~t Morandi exhi bited a Natura morta (V. 128).

29 See Benevo lo, History oJArchitecture, 563, which

speaks about the decade between 1920 and 1930, when the Regime iso bted [t>tly from making contacts with European ava nt-ga rde artists and critics. See also Arcan geli, Giorg io Morandi, 25 8.

38 Montan elli and Staglieni, Lio Longanesi, 213-14 ,

30 Farinacci's letter is cited in Tempesti, Arte dcll'­

Unlikely Friendships

ItaiIaJascista, 1')8. Sec also Boss ~gIi a, II "Nove­ cen to" itali ano, 19. "fascism, at that point, wa s unabl e to es tabli sh a politi cal art (however, once it [fascismJ did pursuc th e idea ofcreat­ ing one) ... many withi n the regi me spoke up against it. " The [talian reads: "II fa scislllo no n era ancora in grado di produrre una politi ca dell'alle (quando pure fosse stato interessa to a farlo), in segllito, una volta afferma to ebbe molti contradd ittori e antagoni sti all'interno del reg im e"

Casi ni's Ln Rivoluzione Fascista wou ld iatel' be sup pressed for continuin g "to publish articl es , one after another, abou t la vecchia Italia, whic h was deplorable vomiting up of the old Italy [10 vecchio Itali a] that was pitiful; [an [talyJ at one time divided and quarrelsome, fu ll ofconAicts and disagree ments. En ough of articles about the old Italy." (Basta con gli articoli sull'1l'ecehia [talia.) Cannistraro, Lafabri ca del consrnso, 420.

31 For a full KCO urlt of the dispute between Si roni

and farinacci, sec Brau n, Mario Siron i and Italian Modernism, 176 -7 8. 2

Cited in Man goni , l'intcrventismo dell a cu ltura , 99 ("E avanti quando si va? ").

3

Cited in ibid., ll2. II Selvaggio was fir st pub­ lish ed in Val d'Elsa ncar Siena in 1924 by A. Bencini, then with iVlaccari in 19 25, and by Maecari alone in 1926-29 . From 1929 to 1930 it was publish ed in Sien a, where Ma ccari put his father (a teacher of Latin) in charge, th en in Turin in 1931 , and finally in Rome fr om 1932 to 1943 , after which it ceased publication. Anti­ fas cist hi storians maintain that des pite all th e criti cism of the regime by the Strapaese group, they never questioned th e sys tem nor did they ever actively oppose it. In 1927 Maccari stated: " [O]ur hon esty ... our co ura ge, that' s what Fascism is all abou t. Who admires LI S, admires Fascism. We are Fascism, and our ehi rfis Mussol ini"; cited in ''''Iangon i, L' interventismo della cultum , 146 (itJ li cs in ori ginal ). They were not una fronda , meaning an opposition;jTonda is from the FrenchJrolldeur (critic, fault fll1d er).

32 As reported in "Res ultanze dell 'in chiesta sull'­

arte fa scista," Critica Fascista (February 15, 1927); ci ted in P~pa, "II premio Bergamo," 261. Critica Fascista was fo unded by Bottai in 1923 and lasted until 194'l. An important journal, it was highly criti c11oftbe authoritarian vi ews of Farinacci and reported on deba tes of intellectu­ als within the pa rty. Accordin g to Mangoni, in a 19 28 articlc in Critica Fascista Bottai first pro­ posed that artists' union s could be part of a state-sponsored organi zation (Mangoni, L'inter­ ventisl110 della cultura, 161) . 33 Eva Tea, Lo spirito religioso e il Novecen to (Milan, 1937),4 1; cited in Malvanno, Fascismo e po litico dell'il1l a.gine, 52. 34 Adrian Lyttel ton, cited in Braun , Italian Art in

th e Twentieth Century, 240 . 35 Pasquali, "Mora ndi e iI dibattito arti stico negli

anni trenta ," Il7. 36 Ficacci, "II carteggio Morandi-Petru cci, " 140. 37 [n an unpublished letter to Siron i, dated June 18, 1930, ,\1orandi wrote: "Dea r Sironi, Sorry to

bother you but la Signora Sarfatti told me to

7

Epigraphs: Alfred larry, UI:lU ROI (New York, 1961); Mino Macca ri , cited in Mangoni, l'inter­ ven ti smo della eultura, 161.

4 II Selvaggio , Jul y IS , 1926; cited in i\ppella an d

Trucchi , Mino Macco ri, 187. ("Un po ' piu giu di Firenze, un poco piu su di Sicna - sulla carta non esegnato, ma non imporra, ct' 10 metter­

an exhibition in when and where [ Silvia Evangelisti 'y Sironi's grandson 'xhibitions abroad n which Morandi ~nto group were the parte in Paris in aile of Basel and tlcrie Georges

emo, cccome se ce 10 metteremo! ... Strapaese vive a suo modo. Le citt,] non ei vogliano? [ paesi si imbastardisono? E noi facciamo un paese, secondo i! nostro gusto, e per dispetto aile metropoli 10 chiamiamo Strapaese.") The term Strapo1S/ is difficult to translate; some writers have preferred not to translate it at all or to translate it as Supercoulltry. 5

a Lot1gal1esi, 213 - 14.

IS

7

ROI (New York, 1 Mangoni, f.:inter·

I

This last assassination attempt has been bri!o liantly reconstructed by Brunella Della Casa i~ i\ttentoto al Duce, 48; this account demonstrates that the attempt was a plot by l:arinacci and not by the anti·Fascists who were later brought to trial.

6 Onofri, I 9iorrto/i Bolognesi, 176. 7 Andreoli, Leo Longdnesi, 42.

8 Although Maccari was a graduate of the Uni·

a would la1et be to publisb articles, 'ecchia Italia. which of the old Italy [Ia ; [an Italy] at one IC, full of conflicts of articles about Irticoli sulla veccilia 1del consenso, 420.

sma della cultura, 99

)was first pub· a in 1924 by A. 11925, and by

rom 1929 to 1930 lere ~'\accari put Iin charge, then in

"orne from 1932 to

Iblication. Anti· hat despite all the ~ Strapaese group , ;tem nor did they -7 Maccari stated: .ge, that's what mires us, admires Ir ehiifis i'v\ussolini"; 1110 della eulrura, lVere not una n;ftonda is from ilt finder).

vcrsity in Siena in 1920 with a degree in law, he looked to Rosai for advice when he made the decision in 1922 to become an artist. Rosai (1891-I917), a Florentine painter, met 1\1orandi at Laeerba's Futurist exhibition in Florence in January 1914 and became a close friend and an admirer oflv!orandi's "intelligence and talent." See letter from Rosai to Morandi in Cavallo, "A Prato per vedere i Carat," 86. 9

Camillo Pellizzi was perhaps the most cosmo· pol iran of the group. A journalist by profession, he was professor of Italian literature and Ian· guage at the University College in London (where he lived for long intervals over a period of nearly twenty years) and was the London cor· respondent for II Popolo d'ltalia. I am extremely indebted to Mrs. Rafhella Pel lizzi, Camillo Pel· lizzi's widow. for her recollections to me in Rome of Morandi and Longanesi in Bologna, and of life with her husband in London and Rome. See also the autobiographies published in "L'Assalto" in the years 1927-28; and Mon· tanelli and Staglieno, Leo Longanesi, 61.

10 La oelino was an order to ensure that news and

commentaries toed the party line. The word originally referred to papier ve1in, a thin but strong paper often used for publishing luxury editions; it is also used today to describe official communications.

Lofobrieo del consenso, 421; see also Onofri, [giornali Bolognesi, 12.

II Cannistraro,

in Appella and Un po' pill giG di ~na-sulla carta rta, ce 10 metter· j

I2 Cannistraro, Lafabrica del consenso, 421. 13 Cited in Mangoni, L'interventis111o della cultura, 227.

14 See ibid., 136, reprinted from II Selvaggio, September 7, 1926 . 15 Montanclli and Staglieno, Leo LOllgollesi, 58. 16 Maltese, Storio dell'arte ill Italio, 336.

17 Ibid., u6. Longanesi's letter is dated Septem· ber 5, 1926; ibid., 327. Bottai and Maccari, par· ticipants in the March on Rome, believed that Mussolini had forgotten that it lVas not the bureaucrats who had fought for tbe Fascist rev· olution but men like them who had belonged to the independent squadres. The squad res had bccome a threat to Mussolini, for they acted as an independent militia, they did not take orders from Rome's central government, and they opposed giving Mussolini total control. Many of the squodristi were made up of young men "without parties," eX'servicemen, veterans of World War I. Upon renlrning home they found the fascist Party to be an attractive association, and, since they still had tbeir arms, they llsed violence to bring Fascism to power. h\ussolini used Farinacci to order the squadres to disband and turn in their arms. 18 Onofri, I giornali Bolognesi, 177. Mnaldo

l'v\US'

solini, who lived in Bologna, was much more liberal than his brother and urged him to help Longanesi, who had used his own money to start L'Italiano and was now greatly in debt. The dictator gave him the money on that condition. I9 II Selvaggio, August I927; cited in Mangoni, L'interventis111o della eultura, 181. 20 Benzi, Materiali inediti dall'archillio, 183; letter

dated August 26, I927. I thank Emily Braun for providing me with this article. 21 II Selvaggio, November 10, I927; cited in Man·

goni, L'interventis111o della eultura, 146. 22 Tempesti, Arte deJl'Italiafascista, 158. The Italian

reads: "[NJon bisogna essere intransigenti, nemmeno su quello che puo essere l'apporto artistico straniero: se si fosse stati ill altri tempi, tanto per portare un solo esempio, non si sarebbe permesso a Giotto di costruire il suo campanile in stile gotico." 23 Pellizzi Jnd Codignola (both were friends of

Longanesi) were early admirers ofrascism and would collect Morandi's work. Codignola and Balbino Giuliano (Longanesi's high school teacher) had worked together with Giovanni Gentile to form an organization for educational reform. They founded an organization-the

Notes to Pages

112-

23

24I

Fascio di Educazione Nazionale, which at that time had nothing to do wid1 Fascism. Shordy before the March on Rome, Pcllizzi arranged a meeting between Codignob and Mussolini. When Mussolini became prime mini ster their organization, which had remained independ­ ent, was absorbed into the Fascist Party. and Gentile was made Minister of Education. See Lyttelton , The Seizure oJ Power, 405.

73

lished Morandi 's handwritten acceptance of Pini's invitation, dated December 2, 1927. 30 Of the Selvaggio artists, only Maccari, Rosai, and Soffici were Tuscans. Semeghini came from the Veneto; Carra was fi-om Milan; Galante, Martini, and BoncineIIi came fi·om Turin; Lega , Longanesi, and Morandi were from the Emilia-Romagna region. Maccari was chided because Strapaese represc nted only a small region around Tuscany. In tbe September 15, 1927, II ScivaB9io he proudly noted that "among the collaborators of II Selva!J9io, there were Strapaesani not only from Tuscany, but from Sicily, Turin, and even Bologna."

24 Barilli and Bonetti, 10 Giovani Leoni, -76. There were also dwwings 3nd caricatures by Longanesi, ,vlaccari, and Oppo. According to Onofri, f 9iornali Bol09nesi, 137, Dlisalro began as a magazine in 1919 to support D'Anuunzio but published only one issue in 1920. Its origins were claimed by both a soon-to-be Socialist Pietro Nenni (ill 1919 the magazine was then part ofa radical and antimonJrchial group under the aegis of the Bolognese Facio di Combattimcnto) and the Futurist lVlarinctti. T.:/lisalro became the official magazine of the Bolognese Fascist Party in 1921. Morandi's autobiographical essay was included in a 1989 exhibition catalogue of his paintings, but in d1e United States few except Emily I3r;lUn (see her article "Speaking Vol­ umes") paid any attention to his statement.

32 Cited in Appell'1 and Trucehi, Mino Moccori , 189.

25 fI Seiva99io, February 15,1928; cited in Mangoni, L'inlervenlismo della cultura, lSI.

38 Longanesi, L'ltaliollo 3, no. 16- 17 (1928).

26 Barilli and Bonetti,

39 Andreoli, Leo Lon9anesi , 42, citing an article in d1e june 1929 issue ofL'ltaliano.

20

Giovani Leoni , 73 -76.

27 Braun, "Speaking Volumes," 89-I16, has inter­ preted tbis last sentence as alluding to the mur­ der of Socialist leader ,1nd outspoken Fascist opponent Giacomo lVlatteotti in 1924. According to Onofri, I Biornoli Bol09nesi, 197, during Fascism it was customary to end articles, especially those critical of the Regime, with an affirmation of f.1ith in Fascism or "immortal faith in il Duce." Nevertbeless, Morandi's article was critical of Bologna only, not of the Regime. 28 Unpublished letter from the Broglio archives, Museum of Modern Art, Rome. I thank Barbara Tomassi of the museum, without whose help r 1V0uid never have had access to this resource. Mario Broglio (1891-1948) was given a retro­ spective at the 1950 Venice Biennale. The com­ mittee was made IIp of Edith [sic] Broglio, Carra, Longhi, Morandi, and Giuseppe Fiacco. Carra wrote the introduction. 29 Longanesi may have helped Morandi; neverthe­ less Cavallo, "A Pralo per vedm i Corot," 41, pub­

31 Susmel , Opera omnia di Benito Mussolmi, 230; cited in Lyttelton , The Seizure oJPower, 387.

33 Ibid. 34 Cited in Mangoni, T.:interventismo della cululro, 155· 35 Cavallo, "1\ Prato per vedere i Corot." 85 -86. 36 Cited in Pasquali, "Morandi e il dibattito artis­ tico ncgli anni trenta," 116. 37 Braun, "Speaking Volumes ," 89-116.

40 Cited in Appella and Trucchi , Mino Maccari, 193. 41 Cavallo, "A Prato per vedere i CorDI," 88-99. 42 Ibid. , 95. 43 Between 1927 and 1929 Mussolini began cul­ tural exchanges with the Soviet Union . Gio­ vanni Scheiwiller helped Boris Ternovets, direc­ tor of Moscow's Museum of New We~te rn Art, to accomplish an exchange between Soviet and Italian artists. Ternovets visited Bologna twice in 1927 to seck Morandi but never found him at home. One result of this exchange lVas that a Morandi srililife (V. 107, 1925) cntered the Soviet collection. It has since been transferred to the Hermitage Museum in St, Petersburg. See Pasquali, Gior9io Morandi,
1966), 51S. I thank Dr. Charlotte Douglass for this in formation.

ler 2,1927. aceari, Rosai , .ghi ni ca me m Milan; 'Ii came from orandi were on. Maccari W.1S :sentcd on ly a thc Septem ber noted that &elva,'l,9io, there 1Tuscany, but ogna. lt

ssolini, 230; 'ower, 387. ina MQc(Qri, IS9.

) della Iultura, 155. ," 85-86. I dibattito artis­

f-ll 6. 17 (1928). Ilg an article in

!lino Mocmri,

1(}3,

t," 88-99 .

lini began cul ­ rUnion. Gio­ Temovets, direc­ _II' Western Art, ween Soviet and I Bologna twice ver found him at ngc was tha t a entered the een transferred t. Pctersburg. rtista d'Eu ropa, om Temovets to ~ Morandi's COI"­ :change. lI)'a is admiration ' o/. 6 (,'\'loscow,

ited in the best IVa)' possible." Cordaro, Morandi , 140. I thank Fabio fiorani for this book.

44 Casini's com ments were part of an article he wrote for Criticn Fascistn, and Di no Garrone's comments were m"de in :1 letter to Berto Ricci , both cited in Mangoni , L'interventismo nella Iul­ turn, 21 7, 289. Ri cc i and Casi ni would I:1ter co l­ laborate with Eduardo Persico and Rosai on the maga zinc L'Universale.

4 Roditi, Dia lo,'lue.s on Art, 59.

45 Cited in Montanelli and Staglicno, Leo Lon,'lonesi, 154-55 and 167·

9 The etchings exhibited were; I. V. 30, 1927, La stradn 2. V. 31 , 1927, Natura marta con panne,'l,9io

a sinistra

3. V. 33,1927 , Pa esa99 io del pioppo 4. V. 37, 1927, S6 mele in un piatto

5· V. 4[, 1928, Chrysanthemums

6. V. 44, 1928, II pO,9,9io 01 mattino 7. V. 45, 1928 , Piante di !Jerani e rm dijilo 8, V. 49, 1928, RitrattoJemminile (l\Olorand i's siste r J'vlaria Teresa) 9. V. 53, 1929 , Cma del campiaro a Grizzana (cover: Calcografia cata logue) to V. 56, 1929, Natura morta con tazzina e caraffa IIV. 57, 1929, l'aesa!J,'lio sui Savena 12 V. 58, 1929, Monti di Grizza na 13 V. 9, 1929 , Le tre case del campia ro (in II Selva,9,'lio, 1929) 14. 60 , 1929, l'a91iaio a Gri zzana

Mala Tempora Currunt

8

Epigraph: Cinti , "G li affreschi di !ldolfo De Carol is," 3-5. The Italian reads: "1'Jrte C decaduto proprio perche si C:111011l:111<1t<1 da quella tradizione umanistica .. . Mu ss olini ha detto sono sta nco di carote e banan e. " Cavallo, "/1 Prato pe r vedere i Corot," 97 . I' rom a 1929 letter to Soffici, ",\-Illia tempora cu rru nt .. the letter continues, "Bad times are co ming, and it would be wiser to st'l), away from politic s and . . . the independel1l criti cism that we've bee n able to do up to now, and instead pri nt [only] drawings and litcrary bits." (M ala tem po ra currunt, ed e bene la seiare 1:1 politica e la critica :1utonoma che abb iamo fino ;ld oggi fJtta, per stampare invece brani letterari e disegni.) 2 Ibid., 108-lOg. 3 In a letter of April 15 , t929 to Bartolini, Morandi replied that to creJte yet another union would be co mpl etely useless: " I don 't agree with yo u [that we need yet ,mother union] , since th ere is :Jlreadya national union of painters and SCU lp­ tors . If we were to be really selective and serious, holl' I1l any print-m:Jkers do you thi nk would be admitted? At the maximum five or six." Cited in Pasquali , "Mor:lI1di e il dibattito artistico negli Jnni trema, " 11 7. A letter of May 23,1931 , from Petrucci, which was originJlly addressed to Carlo Carra, with copies simultaneo usly sent to Maccari, Morandi, Jnd Tosi, admonished those anists for not replying to a "call" for works to the first exhibitio n organized by the Sindacato Naziol1Jie. Petrucci informed these artists (whom he may not have known perso nall y) that the Ro)'al (Regia) Calcografia would provide a place where ":Jlllateurs, scholars, and critics will be able to view your works which will be cx hib­

Onofri, I gio rnal i Bolo,9nesi, 174. 6 MarJini, "Introdu ction," 9 -14· 7 Ibid., 13. 8 Tempesti, Arte deli'ltaliafnsci sta , 216.

10 After the war, the Quadriennale resumed its activities and co ntinues to organize ex hibitions of hi storica l va lue, such as the 1998 Valori Plastid ex hibiti on, and to show the works of contem­ poraryartists. I I The Quadriennale's organiz ing committee included Carlo Ca rra, Margherita Sa rfatti, and Ardengo Soffici. Artists who had not been officially invited to exhib it could su bmit their works to a different jury composed of other members of the artists' unio n. I2 Tbe

etchings, both executed in 1930, were rather uninspired, The first (V. 70) was from a plate so lightly etched that it resem bl es a pencil drawing; the other (V. 75) was JIl etching often dre31)' objects.

13 This painting first belonged to Longanesi, and was later acquired by the actor Vittorio De Sica, who directed til e film Th e Bicycle Thiif. The original story was written by Luigi Bartolini, the graphic artist who also wrote reviews about Morandi.

Notes to Pages 124- 45

243

-

14 Lancellotti, Catalogo della prima Quadriennale romana , 151-56. 15 Bertocchi , "AHa prima Quadriennale. " 16 Pasquali, "Morandi e il dibattito artistico negli ann i nenta," 117. 17 Cited in Cavallo, "A Prato per vedere i Corot," 108-109; the letter was dated April 2, 1931. 18 Letter fro III Osvaldo Licini to Morandi, March 23,1931, from the Morandi Archives. l'asquali, "Morandi e il dibattito artistico negli anni trenta," 122 (also in Solmi, Morandi e il suo tempo, 65). Almo st ten years later Licini would excoriate Morandi' s p;lintings at his retrospec­ tive at the 1939 Quadriennale. 19 [tbank Lorenza Trucchi for taking me through the archives of the Quadricnnale and poinong out this sale to me. 20 Montanelli and Staglieno, Leo Longanesi, 173. The letter is dated March 193!. 21 Soffici, "Giorgio Mor;lndi," 3-11. \-"hen Vitali republished Soffici's article in Vit;lli, Giorg io Morandi pit1ore. 50-51, he eliminated any refer­ ence to his anti-French and racist attitudes, perhaps in deference to Mor;mdi's respect for Soffici. 22 For informatio n concerning tllis important piece of cultural propagand,] sec !Vlalvanno,

Fasci smo e politica dell'imnwgine, 48 , 62-76; Braun, Mario Sironi and Italian Modernism, 132 - 86; Stone, "Staging rascism," 215-43; and Alfieri and heddi, ,"lostra della rivoluzione fasdsta. Accordin g to this catalogue 18,040 objects relating to the "revolution" were 011 view. Cagli eventually became a victim of the anti-Semioc laws and left Italy in 1938. 23 Cino, "Gli affreschi di Adolfo De Carolis," 3-9. 24 Despite a letter to Petrucci in which Morandi explains that he prefers not to exhibit during 1932, he nevertheless se nt etchings that year to the Prima Mostra dell'Incisione Italiana Modema in Florence, and to a large exhibition organized by th e Sezione Bianco e Nero at the prestigious Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome (rwo sti ll lifes and a land scape). In June 1932, Morandi sent four etchings to Bordeaux for an exhibi­ tion otled L'ltalie dans I'art du livre ct de 10 9ravure. Exposition d'oeuvres de maitres 9raveurs illustrateurs et itnprimateurs italiens ctfran rais, anciens et mod­ ernes (Exhibition of Italian and French Modern and

244

Old Master Printmakers, Illustrators and Printers). Petrucci, who kept J portfolio of Morandi's work, would periodica ll y exhibit works from the portfolio in group shows at the Calcografia. He sent two etchings to the 1934 (XIX) Venice Biennaie, one of which \Vas the lightly etched Wild Flowers (V. 78,1930). 25 A comment by Ojetti in the Milanese Carriere della Sera shortly after the opening noted that "th e city of Rome will spend halfJ million [lire] in prizes to th e artists, and 300 ,000 lire in acquisitions for the Museo Mussolini." Cited in Tempesti , I\rte dell'ltaliafascista, 193. Morandi's painting V. 170, which first hung in Rome's Galleria Comunale d'Arte. and which has now been moved to the Galleria Naziona le d'j\rrc Modema e Contempo r3 nea , was purchased by the Italian state at the 1935 Quadriennale. Th e catalogue also stated that the state 1V0uid have the first option to purchase any work that received a prize. 26 for a discussion by an embittered candidate who did not win the competition for the chair in art history at Bologna's universiry, see Mary Pittaluga's correspondence with Adolfo Venturi in Agoso, "Una posolla su Roberto Longhi," 251. 27 Republished in Roberto Longhi, "Mo menti della pittura bolognese." 28 At the same ome, however, Longhi wrote posi­ tively about the work of Carra, Maccari, and Mafai. For articles about Longhi's years in Bologna, see Caroli, "Il nodo Longhi-Morandi," 90-101; Trenra, "G li sto rici dell'arte e l'accade­ mia ," 245-50; Agosti, "Una postill" su Roberto Longhi," 251-53. Longhi never wrote about Morandi until, as the critic Daria Trento told me, Longhi "thought he had died." This essay was the introducoon ra an exhibition at th e Horentine gallery !l fiore in 1945. Yet Longhi wrote a monograph on Maccari, whom he believed was aile of/taly's great artists; it was published by Edizioni U in Florence in 1948. He agreed with Ntorandi's censure of Arcan­ geli's biography of Morandi , which will be dis­ cussed in the !Jst chapter.

A Decade of Delusions

and the Road to War

Ep igraph: Cordaro, Morandi, 144. Discussion with the author.

9

rs and Printers}. of Morandi 's lit works from It the CaJcografia. ~4 (XIX) Venice : lightly etched

lancse Carriere ing noted that alfa million Id 300,000 lire in ssolini." Cited in 193. Morandi's g in Rome's which has now

2

Delzel, Mussolini's Enemies, 143. 4

i.

"~10I11enti

Ighi wrote posi­ MacC3ri. and Ii 's years in mghi-,vlorandi," 'arte e I'accade­ stilla su Roberto . wrote about a lrento told ~." This eSS3)' bition at the !5. Yet Longhi . whom he artists: it was ~nce ill 1948. Jre ofArcan­ lich will be dis­

5

9

See Antonio Rinaldi's essay in Bergonzini, La

resistenza a Bol09no, 288. Rinaldi was Longhi 's student and later became a close friend of Rag­ ghianti, takin g an active P'lrt in the Resistance. Carlo Savoia studied architecture and art his­ tory and was the ed itor of I.:Assalta in 1938 (and would write a perceptive review of Morandi's exhibition at the 19~9 Quadriennale). Giorgio Bassani became known around the world after World W;)r II with the publication of his many novels, the best known of which is The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

l ionale d 'Arte as purchased by hdricnnale. The tate would have I work that

:ed candidate In for the ch'lir ersit)'. see Mary h Adolfo Venturi rto Longhi." 251.

In the final decade of th e nineteenth cennll)', Italy's emergence as a new European industrial nation seemingly required colonization in Africa. Great Britain assured Italy that she would not be opposed if she pursued such an action in Ethiopia. Initially Italy purchased coaling sta­ tions along the coast but began to penetrate into the interior over the objections of the Ethiopians. In 1895 Ethiopia rejected a treaty, and the government of trancesco Crespi made the ill-filted deci sion to send twenty-five thou­ sand u'oops to fight Ethiopian forces.

5

See Papa, "II premia Bergamo, 237-63.

6

Vivarelli , "La politiea delle a rti figurative," 30.

7

Arcangeli, Giorgio Morandi , 295.

8

Giuseppe 130ttai helped to create the Reale Accademia d'ltalia (Royal Academy) in 1926 to include artists and writers representing the "Fascist Revolution " in the arts and letters (Mal­ vanna, Fa seismo e politica dell'imm09ine, 36. 44). He created the law for Chiara Fomo in 1929 and founded two important journals, Critien Fasei sta (1929 - 43) and Primato (1940 - 43). Bottai served as minister ofcorporations tram 1929 to 1932, and as minister of national education tram 1936 to 1942-lI'hich also supervised the Direzione delle Antichita e Belle Arti (Office of Antiquities and Fine Arts). He also created L'Istituto Cen ­ trale del Restauro (Center for Conservation) and the Ufficio per I'i\rte Contempor:lIlea (Office for Contemporal)' Mt). In 1942 he succeeded in passing the law known as the le9ge del 2% Clivo Percent Law), whereby the state (Bottai and his Ministero dell'Educazione Nazionale) pledged 2 percent of the budget for a nell' building to painting and sculpture (administered tJJrough the artists ' union s) to enhance public buildings and adhere to a certain aesthetic standard.

9

Papa, "II premio Bergamo. " 247 and 261.

10 Letter to {"'orandi in Libero, Rama , 19,5,33-34. See also Pasquali , "Quelle sabbi e port:lte a vibrdre ... ," 66. L1 Cometa (1935-38) opened with an exhibition of works by Corrado Cagli. Among other artists who subsequently exhib­ ited there were !\fro Basaldella and his brother Mirko, de Chirico, Renato Guttoso, Carlo Lcvi, 1\13rio Mafai , Giacomo Nlanzu. Roberto Melli, Francesco Messina, Enrico Paolucci, Gino Sev­ erini, Aligi Sassu, and Arturo Tosi. II

!vlorandi exhibited a IJrge stililific (V. 1344, 1929, which is similar to V. 114: see fig. 6.13). Richard Hunt of Harvard University told me that this work had been purchased directly by his parellts from the 1929 Carnegie Illterna­ tional exhibition in Pittsburgh. See also Alloway, The VCl1ice Biel1nalc, 18gS-lg6g, 128. Beginning in 1907 the Carnegie Elmil)' spon­ sorcd this anmlal internation:ll exhibition to stimulate American artists :lIld to enable people in America to vicw works by Europeans. Prizes were awarded; Matisse received one in 1927, Picasso in 1930. Its importance might be under­ stood by comparing Alloway's attcndance figures of the 1931 Carnegie International (161,747) to thosc of the Venice Biennale (193 ,000). Morandi 's paintings in the S:m Francisco exhi­ bition were: a 1914 landscape (V. 16, The Door­ way); a Metaphysical still life (V. 35, 1918); a still life with seven objects (V. 52, 1920); a 1924 still life with a basket, pot, and cloc k (V. 101), from Longhi's collection; a landscape with two trees (V. 214, 1936) : a brilliantly colored still life (V. 222, 1937), also frol11 Longhi's coll ec ­ tion: and 3 sparkling still life (V. 240, 19)9) froln the Mattioli collection.

12 The Metaphysical works were: V. 27, 1916; V. 29, 1916; V. 30, 1916: V. 31, 1917: V. 38, 1918; and V. 46,1919. Other still lifes were V. 229, 1938; V. 231,1938; and the landscapeV. 235, 19>9. 13 See Papa, "II premia Bergamo," 248. 14 Twa Quadrimn ale d'arte nazianale, 16. 15 Both Vivarelli, "La politica delle arti f-igurative," 31. and Brandi. Morondi , 168, cite this letter: hOlVever, Brandi cites Bartolini as the letter writer (he does not mention Romanelli) , while VivarclIi does cite Romanelli but does not include Romanelli's quote that Morandi was "not a painter." Romanelli had been a close friend of Morandi a dccade earlier. In a 1928

Notes to Pages 146- 60

245

-

letter Rosai thanks Morandi for sending etch­ ings to both him (Rosai) and Rom~nelli (Ca­ vallo, "A Prato per vedere i Corot," 86). Both names are in Morandi's registrello. [n the S,lme letter Rosai wrote to Morandi that "it is so rare to find someone ofyour talent and intelligence ... I otten use your name in my discussions in 'defense of art. ", 16 Arcangeli, GlOr!lio Morandi, 293. 17 Brandi, Morandi (1990), 158. 18 Bartolini, "Un pittore fra i pittori della Qlladri­ enllale," Quadrivio (February 12, 1939); cited in Brandi, Ivtorandi (1990), 158, 161, and 168. 19 A. F. Della Porta, cited in Giuffre, Giorgio

Morandi,

20.

20 It was "like the quivering grains of sand" (quelle

sabbie portate a vibrare) (Brandi, Morandi [19901, 168). Cesare Brandi (1906 - [988) worked with Giulio Carlo Mgan in the Direzione delle Ami­ chit!! e Belle Arti in Rome, and was first recog­ ni zed for his articles on artists of the trecento and qlldttrocenro. He was appointed head of the Istituto Centrale del Resmuro, created in [939 by Bottai , a position he held until 1960, at which time he chaired the department of art history firsr ar the University of Palermo, and later at the University ofl~ome. 21 Qlladrivio was founded in Rome in [933. TeIesio

Imerlandi W;], editor. and early comributors included CardarelLi and Roberto ' 'telli. In 1935 the magazine's policies became more openly anti-Semiric and against modern art, which it condemned as having Jewish origins. 22 The

second article was titled "Diario romano: Dedicato ai superintelligenti," Quadrivio (May 7, 1939). cited in Brandi, Morandi (1990), 161-62.

23 Brandi, Morandi (1990), 158. 24 Bartolini , "Cbiusura della III Quadriennaie,"

Quadrivio (July 30, 1939), cited in Brandi, Morandi ([990), 168. 25 Bartolini, "Artisri contemporanei, Morandj

incisore." Emporium, a noteworthy m'lgazine of contemporary art from 1895 to 1964, was mod­ eled on the English magazine Tile Studio and was published by the [stituto It~lliano di Arte Grafiche di Bergamo. For three and a half years Lamberto Vitali was one of its editors; he was forced to leave the magazine in 1939 when the racial laws were strictly enforced. See Ficacci,

Luigi Bartolini alia Calcograpa, for his compas­ sionate biographical notes about Ilartolini's erratic and sometimes near-paranoid behavior. 26 Angelucci,

"Licini e Morandi i differenti somiglianti," 44. Licini's letter to Carlo Belli was almost a copy, with slight variations, of the one be sent to Giuseppe Marchiori; it was later published in Licini, Errante, erotica, erctico, [40-41.

27 Savoia. "Giorgio Morandi," 23 - p. Savoia incorrectly ciaime,i that "in almost thirty years of activity, he [Morandil has rarely exhibited, and now that he is almost fifty, he has decided to exhibit a number of works at the [939 Quadriennale." I am grateful to Lidia Puglioli Mandelli, who in [955 provided me with a copy of this magazine. 28 Letter of 1942, cited in Cordaro, Morandi , I'opera

9raJica, 155-56. Becchis was preparing a monograph abollt Morandi and had also pro­ posed organizing a small exbibition ofbis work in TlII'in . 29 Brandi, Morandi (1990), L41. Bottai established

the Ufficio per I'}\rte ColltempOrane'l in 1939, which was around the same time that he organized the Prel11io Bergamo. 30 Bf3lldi, Morandi ([952). The list included most

of Morandi 's close friends and collectors­ Longanesi, Longhi, I\ bccari, Francesco Messina, Camillo Pellizzi, jI.'taIaparte , Soffici, Cado Car­ dazzo, EmiLio lesi, R.ino Valdameri, Alberto Della Ragione, Pietro Feroldi, the COUIlt Ol'Olllbelli, Rollino, and the Countess Pecci-Blunt. 31 Brandi, Morandi (1952), 38. 32 Brandi, Morandi (1990), 151. Letter to Morandi

(dated December 18, 1939), in which Brandi suggests d13t perhaps Modigliani - along with Cezanne-may have inAuenced Morandi 's early works. Morandi never answered Brandi's ques­ rions about Modigliani's influence, an idea which lIe found abslII'd. (And yet his drawings of the elongated figures of women illustrared in Valori Plastid seem to show that Modigliani cer­ tainly could have been an inAuence.) AltLlOugh Morandi told me he did not care for Modigliani's paintings, he did appreciate his sculpmres. According to Giuliano Briganti in Bandera, Morandi mglie Morandi, 57, Morandi was quoted as saying, "Of all the artists of the Noveccnto, the one I admired mosr was Brancu~i." 33 Beccaria, Giorgio Morandi, 16. The history of lit­

'r his compas­ Ul Bartolini's ranoid behavior.

erature on l"10ra ndi is full offailed projects. As early as 1919 both Carra and Anton Giulio Bra­ gaglia were planning monographs on Morandi, and both asked for perm ission to illustrate his work. Morandi lVas unab le to oblige, because Broglio had the exclus ive reproduction rights. In ;] letter of 1923 to So ffici, Morandi men­ tioned that Francesco Meriano, an edito r of La Brinota, had told him that Atti lio Vallecchi, pub­ lisher and printer ofLacerba , was proposing to bring out an "album" of Morandi's works (see Cava llo , "A Prato per vedere i Co rot," 69) · In 1927 Mario Tinti, th e critic who had written lllany entries in the exhibition catalogue of the [922 Primaverile Fiorentina. tried to publish a book on Morandi. In the Broglio Archives at the Museum of Modern Art in Rome is;] letter from Morandi to Broglio, asking permission to give Tinti photographs with whi ch to illustrate it. In 1925 Broglio him self aspired to publish a Morandi monograph under the imprint of Valori Plastici, and he wem so far as to ask Morandi which paintings to reproduce (see Cuen, "Morandi tra Suffici e Brogliu," L06). None of these projects came to fmition. By 1939 , when Beccari3's monograph IVas published, Broglio's excl usive rights to Morandi's paintings had IJpsed.

I:fifferenti to Carlo Belli variations , of the ori; itwas bter :0. erctico, 140-41. 32. Savoia nost thirty years relyexhibitcd , he has decided t the 1939 Lidia Puglioli :I me with" copy

r

Ivforandi. I'opera 'eparing a tl had also pro­ lition of his I,

ttai established Jranea in [939, le that hc

included most collectors­ ncesco Messina. ffiei, Carlo Ca r­ :ri, Alberto Della III Orombelli, Blunt.

i

Fascist group Partito d'Azione. In [955 he received a Bronze Medal from th e president of Italy for saving important works of art from the Emilia and Romagna provinces during Allied bombardments, among them a fresco by Pie.ro dell a Francesca in the Tempio Malarestiano in Rimini. After the war, Arcangeli became Longhi's assistente volontario at the University ofBologn
Scheiwiller, Gior9io Morandi (italics in o ri ginal). I th ank Lidia Pllglioli MandeJli for giving me this book, which was published unbound and measured ]'J x 1') " 4 inches.

7

Ficacci, "II carteggio Morandi-Petrucci," 155-56.

8

One of Francesco Arcangel.i's earl ies t articles on Morandi was a review of that exhibition.

9

I thank Pia Vivarelli for giving me the cata­ logue of th e 1941 Prima Mostra delle Co ll ezio ni Italiane d'Artr Co ntfmporanea . Jew ish collectors of Morandi's work, Jesi and Vitali, were not included. Among rhe collectors in the exhibi­ tion were Carlo Ca rdazzo , Pietro Feroldi, Alberto della Ragione, Mario Giacobbi, Attilio Vallecchi (printer ofLarerba and II Selva9n io) , Rino Valdam er i, and Giorgio Zambe rl an. VaJ­ dameri ;]mil'eroldi are fami liar names beca use they are sti ll linked to some ofJ"10randi 's ea rly works that th ey coll ected . The catalogue noted that " [tlhe accomplishments of these private [collectors], as His Excellency Bottai has writ­ ten, are just as i.mporrJ nt as that of the State .. . and help create an aesthetic ta ste [for modern artl and defi ne a plan of culture." The com mis­ sion consisted of Nino Bcrtocchi, Ferdinanda Forlati, Vittorio Moschi ni, and Rodolfo Palluc­ chini (the Lmer became the secretary general of the 1948 Venice Biennale).

34 Ma.rchiori, "Alia III Quadrien nale"; see also the article "Giorgio Morandi" in Domtls. 35 Marchiori, "The Universality of Morandi, " 4 1.

The End of an Era

10

Epigra ph: See Antonio Rinaldi's testimonial in Gergonzini, La rrsis trnzo a Bol09 na, 288.

ter to Morandi "hich Brandi ni -along with Morandi's early I Brandi 's quts­ Ice. an idea ~t his drawings en illustrated in Modigliani cer­ nce.) Although for Modigliani's scu lptures. in Bandera. ndi was quoted

Ie Novecento, lcu~i."

e history oflit­

Conversations with Pompilio ,"1anclclli in [995. 2

As told to th e author by Morandi. Notices were posted announ cing the reward of salt. Th is was confirmed in a 1999 interview with Nazario Sauro Onoh'i , au thor of I 50rialisti bolo9nrse nella rrsi strnzn, who also told me th at ,),000 -10. 000 lire and 10 kilos of sa lt were offered as reward fu r revea li ng a hidden deposit of exp losives or the hiding pla ce of a partisan.

3

[v10randi 's letter to Becchis is cited in Cord aro, Morandi , [')8; his letter to Raimondi is cited in Pa sq u:di, Giol'9io Morandi, 55.

4

A stud ent ufLo nghi , Fr;mcescu I\rcan geli (191,)-H)74) was an Ispcttol'r (lnspccto r) drlla Soprintrnd enza in Bologn;1 tur the Sovrintende nza from 1943 to 1945 and a member ofthc anti-

10 Cresp i, "Raccolte d'arte contemporanea," 290. II

See Malnnno, Foscismo e po litica dell'imma9inr, 59.

12

Perina, "II premia Cremo nJ, questo novecen­ tismo fascista," 5[-57. Mussolini himselfsug­ gested political themes tor th e 1940 and [942 Premio Cremona: th e theme in 1940 was "La battaglia del g rano" (The battle for wheat) , and th e theme in 194[ was "Gioventu italiana del Littoria" (Italian youth at the Littorio). The Lit­

-

torio was a coastal region where Mussolini had reclaimed swampland to be used for crop culti­ vation; it also wa s the name of a se ri es of the­ matic exhibitions about ['ascism. The 1940 Pre­ mio Cremona exhibition was also presented in Hann over, Gcrmany. By 1941 th e Third Reich had donated 30,000 German marks to be added to the pri ze money, and J rcpresentative ofN;lzi propagandist Joseph Goebbels was present at th e opening. 13 Tempesti , Artr drll'ltal iafascista, 215 . 14 The jury was dissatisfied with th e eutries dealing

with the brrer theme and so doubled thc pri ze money for the form er. The winner was Luci ano Ricchetti, whose painting Listenin!J (/\scalto) por­ trayed a large family and friends in a t lrlll er'S kitchen. The mother, an inf:1nt in hcr lap, is seated next to her husband , who se arm is around one of his so ns, who looks to be about eight ye:us old and is dressed in the black uniform of the Fascist youth organi za tion flalilla. Three young adults stand behind their mother and fathcr. In the backgrou nd are a chest of drawers with shelvcs holding basic kitchen utensil s and simple bowls and plates. In the doorway stand three other members oftllC' family. The gather­ ing is spellbound as th ey listen to an il [)uce speech on the radio, which is not picllired. 15 Bottai, "Politicita dell 'a rte," 20. 16 Personal communication, 1994. 17 Brandi , Morandi (1990), 200-20 1. Atthe 1943

Quadriennale Morandi showed three paintings. Two were subtle landscapes: V. 391 (1942), which shows bands oflight-colored fields con­ trasting with dark bundles of young trees, and V. 392 (1942), which portrays seemingly 3bstract forms of tall hedges, through which poke cor­ ners of houses. The third was a recently com­ pletcd still life, V. 423 (1943). His works , along with those ofTosi, Fel ice Caso rati, Bruno Saetti, Manzu, and Marino Marini, were exhibited in the most importan t place, the first Sala. Writing to Brandi in mid-M ay to inform him of his ill health , Morandi was apparently in no hurry to go to Rome to see the Quadriennale. A letter of June 1 suggests that Morandi must have already seen tile Rome show because he complained that his still life painting V. 423 (1943), which had already been purchased by Pietro Rollino, an executive in the Olivetti Company, was hung "in the most awful light poss ible,"

18 Raggilia nti , who had been involved in anti-Fas­ cist activities in Bologna sin ce 1935, joined the Partito d'Azione in 1942. This organization brought togeth er varioLls group s consistin g of Liberals , Socialists, and Republicans. Gnudi, already respec ted as a scholar, beca me the director of Bologna's Pinacoteca after World War [I. As ea rly as 1942 he had worked closely with Ragghianti in an attempt to organi ze within th e university a unified anti-Fascist movemen t. Gnudi held meetings in his hou se for the group from th e Giustizia e Libert;!. Rag­ ghianti headed one group, Gnudi anoth er, and both were in co ntact with yet a third group in Florence, of which Morandi's friend and noted sociologist Ernest Codignola was a partieip'lIlt. The Partito d'Azion e, headed by Ferruccio Parri, took the Giustizia e Liberti! group under its wing in 1942. 19 Details about Morandi's brush with the police

were given by the artist to the author. Sec ,"\on­ tanelli and Staglieno, Leo l.onganrsi, 371, for con­ firmation of Morandi 's de struction of Lon­ gan es i's journal s. I alll extremely gra teful to Nazario Sauro On ofri for providin g me wi th material about Ragghi'1I1ti, Longanes i, and Pom­ pilio Mandelli and with essays writtcn by various peopl e involved with the anti- Fascist movement. Much of tllat material came from the archives of tile IstiUlto Regionale ['erruccio Parri in Bologna and frolll personal interviews with men involved in the Italian Resistance, es pecially Nazario Sauro Onofri and Eduardo Volterra. 20 Before leaving th e city, Morandi had co nsi gned

all of his pa imings and etchings for safekeeping to hi s friend Giuseppe Beli ossi , a well -known busin essman and collector of Morandi 's work who used his fl eet of tru cks to transport Mor­ andi's art to a safer pbce wi thout raisin g suspi­ cion (verbal communication from Maria Teresa Morandi in 1990 regarding the di spositio n of his paintings, etchings, and etching pbtes dur­ ing th e lI'ar; later confirmed by Beliossi' s daughter in 1993). 21 Pasquali, Gior!Jio IVlorandi, 48. 22 The name "Rep ublic ofSa lo" was take n fro m

Salo, a town in northern [tall' on Lake Gdrda where th e Nazi-allied group Reppublica fascista (also known as the Rcppublim Sociale Ital­ iana)-a group loyal to Mu~solini-was ba sed, 23 Ricci, Bologna, 125-26. Unl ike the house in

, Ived in anti-Fas­ 1935 , joined the )rganization ps consi$ting of Uicans. Gnudi , became the ~a after World worked closely It o organize

3nti-l'ascist gs in his house ia e Liberti!. Rag~di another, and third group in fr iend and noted as a participant. Ferruccio

i, 371, for contion of Lon­ ~Iy gratefiIi to \:ling me with rJncsi, and Pomrritten by various SCISt movement.

24 See Veggetti, " Un libro ricorda I'orrore,"

26 See Ferrucio P~rri's testi monial in Bergonzini, La resistcnzn a Bologna, 134 and 136, for hi $ account of th e last two years of Fascism and the difficulties that the Giusti zia e LibertiI and th e Partisans experienced in their attempts to coordinate efforts with the Allied offensive against the Germans. Genera l Alexander mi strus ted th e Italia ns fighting alongsiue the British Eighth Army in the struggle to take Bologna, and he wanted those figh tin g with rhe Italian R.csisrenza to lay down rheir arms. They refused our of fear of being shor as deserters of the Italian army (now th e arm y ofMussolini's Republic of Sa lol. Verbal commun ication with Pompilio Mand elli , who was among those who joined with the British. Bologna was liberated April 21, H)45, by the Second Polish Corps of the British Eig hth Army. Sec Pratt's testimonial in Bergonzini, La resistenza a Bol09na, 639.

The Casting of the Myth

Ie house in

11

Volta, "II via ggiJtore di pittura," 40. 2

Sellcri, "R,;lppo rti di Giorgio Morandi con il collezionismo milanese," 53.

3

}\rt hi sto rian Lion ello Venturi (whose [Hher, Adolfo , lVas also a fricnd of Morandi) was amo ng thc eleven anti-Fa$cist profes>ors expelled fro m univers ities in 1932, when Fas­ cist iJws required those working for the sta tc to swear allegiance to Mussolini and the king. Their refusal to do so meant that the)' were for­ bidden rrom continuing their academ ic careers. Venturi left the country and lived first in Pari$ fro ll1 1932 to 1939 and then , to escape the Ger­ maliS, moved to the United States until 1944. In 1945 he returned to Ital y, at whi ch time hc wa s appoi nted to th e chair of art hi sto ry at the Un i­ versit), of Rome, a po st that he held until 1955.

4

""orandi explained to me th at he preferred not to participate in group exhibitions because in a sholV of bad pa intings it would be difficult to recognize even a work by Cezanne. I believe that ,\1 0ra ndi wanted the public to be able to >ce and co mpare the variations on a work, and not see just one piece by itself. fiis ex planation

i had consigned for safekeeping a well-known lorandi's work ransport Mor­ ut raising suspi­ 1m Maria Teresa disposition of hing plates dur­ Beliossi's

is taken from I Lake Garda publica I'ascis ta ,ociale Ital­ ni -was based.

I!.

25 R.icri, Bol09na, 144·

~ the archives of

arri in Bologna ~h men involved Ill' Nazario fra.

notwith standin g, he parti cipated in the follow­ ing group cxhibi tion s: 1949-PaiJis des Beaux-Art$, Brusseb ; 1954-Gemee ntemu­ scum, Thc I-lague, and Th e New Burlington Gallerie>, London (und er thc sponsorship of th e Arts Council of Great Britain) ; 19,) ,)-Deliu s Gallery, New York; 19'57 - Weyhe Gallery, New York; 1961-World f lousc Ga llery, New York. In 1962 a Morandi solo show was held in Siegen, Germany, followed b), an ex hibition in 1963 at th e K.rugier Gallery, Geneva, and in 1964 at th e Galerie Obere Zaunc in Zurich.

whi ch Arc~ngdi lived, Morand i's hou se in Bolog n~ $utvived the bombings intact.

5 The diverse po sitions of Italian artists and critics in postwar Italy ha s been brilliJntly and thor­ oughly documented in Vetrocq , "National Style and the Agenda for ,\b>tract Painting," 448-71. 6

See also Arcangeli, Giorgio Ivlorandi, 164. These debates by Italian artists and critics involved Marxi st artists who endorsed a "nlOral art," meanin g a represen ta tiollal art that "po rtrayed local stru ggle Jnd popular v;llues," that is , a realistic portraya l ofevellts th;H wcrc currently t;lking place in Italy. Arcangeli presented an alternative to th e socia l reali sts (~ nd other ~rti s ts who wcre workin g ill non figurative abstraction [stra tto concreto]) by writing about what he ca lled gli ultimi naturalisti (t he most recent naturalists), which was firs t published in Longhi's m~gJZinc Pamgont in 1953 (Arcan­ geli, "Gli ultiI11i natmalisti, " 313-26). The shock of having see n Jackson Pollock's works at the 1948 fli en nalc ca used Arcangeli to ques­ tion "what could peoplc think of our age ifonly classical and ca lm works survived to represent the terribl e oppression and anguish of the post-war period. " He wrote that Po ll ock's works show "our inevitable [feeli ng of] alien­ ;.nion." Arca ng~li believed that some form of abstraction was th e ollly legitimate choi ce fo r a painter of the twenti eth century; Arcallge/i, "I pittori ~Jllericani ill la citt~," 326. ArcJngeli began writing about a Lombard and Emilian naturalism, choosin g exa mples ofa regional culture that produced, among others, twelfth­ ce ntur)' natural ist sculptors such as Antelami from Parma and Wiligelmo , whose work lVas on th e facades of the ca thed rals in Modena and Ferrara. Arcangeli $uggested that his group of young abstract pa imers trom Bologna ~J1d Milan were involved with a new "tradition ," as the naturalisti used ges tural, vi sceral strokes and ap plied paint thi ckly. These artists were not followers of rea lism, but they maintained

Notes to Pages 178- 94

249

-

some relationship to a visual world , llluch as the painters of the French informel -Wols , Fautrier, and Tapies-did. In 1955 ''''orandi mentioned to me that Arcangeli, who had recently begun work on his book about the artist, was wasting his time writing about this group of young painters, and he should instead focus OIl his book on Morandi. Arcangeli would later relate Morandi's oft-repeated joke regarding the type of paintin g that ArcangeJi described in his ,uric/e abollt the young painters in "G li ultimi naturalisti": "A perspec­ tive on nature seen from the eye of a chicken while s he pecks at the grass" (Una natura vista dall'o cchio della gallina quando becca I'erba); Mandelli, Via delle Belle Arti, 69. 7 Trombadori, "Sericta e limiti di Morandi," 156-58.

9 De Mich eli, "Rea lismo e poesia," 43. IO See

Argan, "Pittura italiana e cultura europea," 29'5. Beginning in 1938 Giulio Carlo Argan (1909-1993) worked with Cesare Brandi under Bottai at the offices of the Direzione Gcncrale di Belle Arti, remaining there as an ispettore cen­ trale (central inspector) for national Illuseums and galleries until 1955. Argan also repre­ sented the Ministero deJl'Educazione on the selection jury for the first I'remio Cremona and for the first Jnd second Premio Bergamo. Because of his party affiliations he was nomi­ nated mayor of Rome in 1976. Vitali , Morandi Calalogo Genera Ie,

I I.

12 Brandi, "Europeanismo e Jutonomia di

culrura," 69-86. I

3 Brandi, Morandi lungo Ii cummino, 74; the Italian

reads: "eppure senza lasciarsene infestare culturalisticamente. " 14 Vitali , "Giorgio Morandi. ,. 15 Sob)'. "Painting and Sculpture Since 1920, " 26. 16 Brandi, "La mo strJ dell'arte itaiiana modern a a

New York ," 294 - 96. 17 Pallucchini, "A lb Biennale di San Paolo." 18 Sterling, La nalure morte de I'antiquiti ii nosjours, 230.

Dialogues on Art,S.

21 Venturi, Giorgio Morandi. 22 Cited

in Bandera, Morandi 5[/9lie Morandi, 9.

23 Venturi, Giorgio Momndi, Rctrospwive. 24 Abramowicz , untitled essay, Giorgio Morandi,

3 2 -37. 25 The article titled "Morandi Interiore" was first

published in 1954 and later republished in Rag­ ghianti, Bolo!ln(l CIuciale 1914,196. 26 Wesehler, Seeing Is forgctting, 57. 27 Bandera, MOrcIndi seeglie Morandi, 81. At the

Biennales MJraini had introduced programs about Illusic, the cinema, and the theater and created an archive of co ntemporary art. 28 Bandera, Morandi scegl ie Morandi, 55.

8 De Grada, "Le belle arti, " 12-19 .

II

20 Roditi,

Mandelli, "Le ore con Morandi ," 184. In a

195 8 interview Morandi told Edouard Roditi

that "I have nothing in common with Mon­ drian"; Roditi , Dialogues on Art, 55. 19 james Thrall So by, "A Vi si t to Morandi," 5.

29 Bandera , II ca rteggio Longhi-Pallurchini,

21.

30 Ibid. , 18. 31 Arcangeli, "Tre Pitrori Italiani," 27. 32 Following are the eleven Morandi paintings

that were exhibited at the 1948 Biel1nale; with the exception ofV. 27, V. 35, v. 46, and V. '51, these works were cxhibited here for the first time. Also listed are the collectors, who were among the most discernin g of the time. V. 26, 1916: Collection Pietro Rollino, a exeCll­ tive at the Olivetti Com pan)!. V. 27, 1916: Listed in the catalogue as private collection, Bologna. This work belonged to Morandi and had been exhibited at the 1939 Quadriennale. V. 28, 1916: Feroldi Collection, bter acquired by Gianni Mattioli. V. 35, 191 8: Collection Emilio jesi, Milan. This painting had been exhibited in 1939 at tbe San Francisco World 's ~air. V. 39, 1918: Private collection, Milan. V. 40, 1918: Private collection , Milan. V. 42, 1918: Collection Count Alfonso

Orombelli.

V. 43, 1919: Collection Emilio jesi, Milan. V. 44 , 1919: Collection Emilio jesi, Milan. V. 46,1<)19: Collection Roberto Longhi. This work had been exhibited at the 19.39 Rome Quad rienn ale. V. 51, 1920: Collection Lamberto Vitali, Milan. This work had been exhibited at the 1922 Pri­ maverile Fiorentina exhibition. 33 See de Chirico, Memoirs, 186, and Bandera, II

ie Morandi , 9. ;pectiue. or9io Morandi, ~riore" was first llIblished in Rag­ j6.

i, 81. At th e ced programs :he theater and lraC)' art.

t

55· mhini,21.

[ 27· di paintings Biennale; with 46, and V. 51 , e for the first ors, who were the time. ollino, a execu­ ~uc

as private belonged ro d at the 1939 later acquired ~ i, Milan. This

939 at the San lilan. Iibn. fonso si, Milan. ii, Milan. onghi. This

carte99io Lon9hi-Pallucchini, 298-99. Vitali, Gio r­ 9io Morandi pittore, 26, often disavowed Morandi 's connections to the group by refer­ ring ro his Metaphysical works as "so-callcd metaphysical" (cosi-detta metafisica). 34 Tassi, "Giorgio Morandi." 35 Michelucci's postcard from Padua was dated September 26, 1942. In the 19305 his modern plan had won the competition for a new ra ilroa~ station for Florence, the Renaissance capital of Tuscany; his design encountered the wrath of conservatives, among them Ojetti and Soffici. 3 6 Bassani, 119iardino dei Finzi-Contini (italics min e) . 37 Sobyand Barr, Jr., Twentieth Century Italian Art, v. The artis ts of pitrura metafisica always denied that they were a scuola (school or movc ment) . Arcangeli's article for the Biennale avoided using either term: he describes mftajisico "as a label that can be both ambiguous and generic"; ArcangeIi, "Tre pittori italiani ," 27. 38 The following paintings were exhibited (aster­ isk denotes that the work was illustrated in the catalogue): Still Life, 1916, Museum of Modern Art* Still Life with Bottles and Fruit Dish, 1916, lent b)' the Gianni Mattioli Foundation, Feroldi Collection FlolVers, 1918, Vitali* Still Life with Box and Ninepin, 191 8, Jucker* Mannequin on Round Table, 1918, Ju cker* Objects, 1919, Roberto Longhi* Still Life, 1920, Collection Vitali Still Life, 1920 Private collection, Milan Still Life, 1920 Galleria del Cavallioo Still Life, 1937, Collection Marmont* Landscape, n.d., Collection Rollino' Still Life, 1939, Collection Rollino Still Life, 1949, Anonymous, Milan Five etchings from 1913 to 1934 were already in the museum 's collection. 39 The exhibition included thirty-five paintings (dated between 1916 and 1957), ten drawings (between 1940 and 195 7), and thirteen etchings (between 1912 and 1951). 40 Venturi, "The New Italy Arrives in America," 27. 41 See also Lamberti, "Convellzioni e convinzione di un gc nere pitrorico," 32-33.

Vitali, Milan. the 1922 Pri-

4 2 Ragghianti, Bologna cruria le 1914,217. 43 Forge, Giorgio ,\ilorandi, 7-9.

I Bandera, II

44 In 1922, Vitale Bloch was awarded a Commu­

nist government fellowship ro study in Berlin with Max J. friedliinder, the renowned art his­ torian. After the revolution, conditions werc so bad in Russia that Bloch decided not ro return. He remained with Friedlander in Berlin until anti-Semitism forced them both ro leave. The)' were given refuge in Holland, where they remained throughout World War II; man)' of the Morandi paintings owned by Bloch were donated by him after his death ro the Boymans Mu seum in Rotterdam. Bloch was a dealer in Impressionist and old master paintings in Paris. Before World War II he also jointl)' owned important sixteenth-century works of art with Roberto Longhi. through whom Bloch met Morandi. In 1950 Bloch wrote his first article on Morandi. 45 Bloch, Morandi-Sri tavolc a colari . 46 See Gale. "White Bottle - Red E:1rth," 86. 47 Morandi, whose taste in art was catholic, was always hun gry for gallery Jnd Illuseum ex hibi­ tioll cat:llogues. If in a letter to him I mentioned a painter he had never heard of-in p:micuiar I remember being enthusiastic about a Marsden Harrley exhibition-Morandi would write back asking for catalogues or plIOrographs ofrhat artist's work. 48 Mandelli, "Storia di una monografia," 315. 49 Thirty-four years later Mandelli published the correspondence between Arcangeli. Longhi. and Morandi. Sec MJndelli , "Sroria di lIna mona­ grafi.l," 316, and Abramowicz, "Un'altro ,vlorandi," 171-73. Arcangeli was angry because Morandi seemed to prefer brandi's interpreta­ tion of hi s art. an interprctation that, in Arc:m­ gel i's view, had not ch:1Ilged sin ce 1939. BlIt JS Venturi supposed l)' observed in 1955, " Hrandi doesn't understand modern art" (Brandi non si inrende di pittma moderna). Cited in Erandi. Morandi , 243. Arcangcli wrote to MorJndi that if Brandi's ideas pl eased him so lllLlch, he should have asked Brandi to writc the book. See Mandeili, "Srori~ di una mOllografia," 316. 50 Arcangeli, Gior,qio Morandi, 260. 51 See Mandelli , "Sroria di una monografia ," 327. 52 "Arcangeli is capab le of writing (yet] another book that could makc me look ridiculous. " Ibid., 320. 53 See Trucchi, "I si lenzi di Morandi." I thank the author for giving me her article in 1993. Truc­

Notes to Pages '94-22'

2SI

chi, an art historian who organizcd many of the postwar Quadriennales in Rome , W,lS thc first critic to make public Murandi's censor­ ship of Arcangeli 's book, which sbc praised as "one ofthc most important books written in Italy in the past twenty years." i\rcangeli was director of Bologna's Galleria Communale di i\rte Moderna. from 1955 to 1968, when he was appointed to the position of cbair uf art history at th e University of Bologna. I-Ie was as well known fur bis writ­ ings on the Emilian Romanesque sculptors Wiligelmo and Antelami as for bis wurk on Courbet and Monet. 54 Mandelli, "Sturi,! di una monografia," 334. 55 At the end of World War II Nenni was a leader of one of the postwar Socialist parties and became a member ofPariiamenr. 56 Ficacci, "II carteggio Morandi-Petrucci," 173. In 1953, wbcn Petrucci asked ~"\ornndi if he bad any new etchings to send him , Morandi replied tbat he had non e and "still hadn't takcn up etching [again] eve n tbough I would like very much to do su." In th e following years Morandi produced only five ncw etchings; thes~ were commissiuned for various causes, for friends, and for two major books by l.amberto Vitali on Morandi's art. In 1947 Morandi completed a dark. dense, small ctch ing (V. 114) for Brandi's magazinc I.'imagine. In 19 54. he produced a ratber stiftand cold still life of nine objects (V. 115) that was published in an edition of one hundred prints as J favor to Lionello Venturi, who was trying to raise money for the organi­ zation Libertir della Cultura. In the following year Morandi completed anoth er etching (V. 116), which was printed in an edition of one hundred and fifty for the same organization. Morandi completed an etching in 1956 (V. 117) in connection with th e publi cation of a portfo­ lio of his etchings in f:lcsimile format. Thi s was a luxurious edition of the first catalogue raisonne that was published in 1957. Morandi's last etching (V. 131,1961) was made for Vitali's monograph ufMoralldi 's pai nti ngs in 1964. 57 Not until 1968 W:IS an exhib ition devoted solely to Morandi's watercolors. The cJtalogue for th e exhibition connects Mo randi to the older [talian masters only-Giono, Masaccio, Piero, Bellini, and Titian-and to hi s "spiritual guide, Cezanne" (Leymaric, ilcquarelli de Morandi, iv). Twenty-tv.'o years would pass before a major

exhibition OfllO Morandi w,ltcrcolors was organized in the Musco Morandi in Bologna by Marilen;) Pasquali. 58 Morandi's sisters an d Longhi were convinced that Areangeli 's vituperative text was the cause of the artist'S illness and death. But not until the 1990S did the remaining surviving sister, Maria Teresa, finally acknowledge (to me, at least, after many years ofm)' efforts to convince her of the importance and significance of Arcan gel i's book) that her brother might have been mistaken abou t its value. 59 Bandcra, ,"[orandi sceglie Morandi, 37. 60 Pier Maria Bardi, Sedici dipinti di Gior!}io Morandi , 7. I th ank Moraudi's sisters for providing me with this book.

-

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I'~ge numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

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A

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99 2 ).

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ambridge,

Index

di Belle Arti,

Bologna, 23- 35 , 65,87,95,

117,124-25, qo-p, 135,

150, 15 2, 19.~, 21 3

Africa, 2,5,155, 245 n2

airplane, 40, 41

Albert-Birot, Pierre, 53

Alfieri , Dino, 148

Ilmbrosiono, L., 98, 99, 156, 234n6

anti-Se miti sm. 98 , 152,156-58,

246n21,251n44

Apollinairc, Guillaume, 55, 61

Aragon, Louis, 53

Arcangeli, Francesco, 55, 57,

63,65,94,112,153,157,179,

180, 189, 194, 199,217,

247 n4, 249 n6 , 25 1nn 49, 53;

Morandi monograph by,

219-21,252n58

Arc hipenko, Alexander,

4 2-43 ,74

architecture. 14, 16, 16, 17-21,

26-27,197 - 98,232nlO

Argan , Giulio Carlo, 178,

19') - 96,220

Arti, Le, 163-64

Ilssalto, L,' 61,94,95,96, 117,

119 - 25,128-32,136,

24 2n2 4, 245 n4

AuoMScoperta, 55, 61

B

Bacchelli, Mario, 37, 39,40,41,

43, 234 n6

Bacchelli, Riccardo, 28, 39, 60,

61,62,63,66,95, 124

Baglioni Hotel exhibition (1914),

41 - 42

Balla, Giacomo, 37, 38, 39, 99,

234 n4

Bardi, Pier Maria, 138,157,194,

195,220,230

Barr, I\lfred H., Jr., 207, 230

Bartolini, Lui gi, 146, 160-63,

170, 176

Bassani, Giorgio, 153 , 156 ,

245n4; The Garden oJthe Finzi­

Continis, 193 , 201

Beccaria, Arnaldo, 164- 65, 171

Becchis, Mario, 168, 176-77,

24 6n28

Beckmann, Max, 140

Benelli, Sem, 81, 85, 86

Benevolo, Leonardo, Il2

Berlin, 39; Valori Plastici exhibi­ tion (1921), 79-86

Bernheim-Jcune Gallery, Paris, 39

Bertelli, Luigi, 31,220 Bertoccbi , Nino, 146

Bertoloucci, Attilio, 153

Binazzi, Bino, 60-61

Bloch, Vitale, 194, 219, 25In44

Blue Urn with Orange Amphora, 213

Boccioni, Umberto, 23, 30, 37,

38,39 , 40,43,49, 2~3-34nl

Bologna, I, 3, 5, 6, 14, 23 - 35,

60, 1I7; architecture, 14, 16,

16,17-21,26-27; fascism,

93 -9 8, 117-30; Nazi occu­

pation, 189-90; papal state,

3, 16, 26; postwar, 69; trade,

3; unification and, 3; Via

l'ondazza arcades, 16, 17;

view of, 17, 18-19; World

War II, 181 , 188 -90

Boncinelli, Evaristo, 114, 126

Bontempelli, Massimo, 91,164

Botmi, Giuseppe, 117, 122, 124,

126-27, 130, 13 2,13 8, 157,

160,178,245n8,246 n29

bottles , vases, an d pitchers,

8-10,12,13,14,15,18,21,

45,58,60,63,7 1,99,102,

103 , 107, 140,144, 170-7 1,

205, 209-10, 213, 222

Bouquet oJChrysan themurn s, 128

box, metal, 12, 14, 58, 71,171,

205, 21 3

Bragaglia, Anton Giulio, 69, 70,

91,95, 124, 157,247"'33

Brandi, Cesare, 93, 96, 160, 161,

164, 176 , 196, 245 "15,

246nn20, 32,250nlo

Brazil, 138, 195, 197, 23 0

Bread and Fruit, 81

Breta Museum, Milan, 12, 103,

10 7,218

Breton, Andre, 53

Bri90ta , La , 60, 61

Broglio, Edita, 43, 45, 51, 53,

65,74,79,80,81,85,99, 125 , 236n46

-

Broglio, Mario , 10,45,53-55, 59- 61 ,65,69-77,79- 8 9, 95,125,130,232n3, 236nn43-46,247n33 Burri, Alberto, 213 Buscaroli, Renzo, 68

Croce, Benedetto, 155 Cubism, II, 27, 31, 39,43-49, 62,63,67-69, 129,162, 163,19 6 Cubist-Futurist Still Life , 60, 62, 62 Cycladic art, 144-45

12 5- 27,13 2 ,135-39,147, 149-5 1,17 6,221,228, 2431112,2521156; exhibits, 127,136,139.149-51, 244n24; working methods, 149-5 1 Ethiopia , invasion of, 155,

o

c Cagli, Corrado, 148 Calcografia, Rome, 136- 37,139 Caravaggio, 70, 150, 2361138 Cardarelli, Vincenzo, 61, 69, 120,246n21 Carra, Carlo, 28, 30,37-40, 51- 62,66-7 1,74,79,81, 86,98,99,102,103, Ill, 114, 120, 125, 126, 130, 156, 157, 164,199,217,234n2, 247n33, The Drunken Gentle­ man, 56, 57; Hermaphrodite God, 57, 61

DaIf, Salvador, 57, 58, 59 D'Annunzio, Gabriele, 26, 80, 2391121 , 2421124 Dante, Divina Commedia, I7 Dark Still Life, II, 107, J09 Diiubler, Theodor, 53, 79,

[32 , 240 nl 243"44 Cas telfranco, Giorgio , 71, 97, 23 6n 41 l

Cava lli, Gian Carlo, 23, 179

sa ni and , 117 -33 , 196; World

99, Il2, 130, 157, 193, 199 , 200 - 1,217, 23711l2; EvaI19e1i­ cal Still Life, 62 Degas, Edgar, 28, 29 De Grada, Raffaele, 195 de la Tour, Georges, 170 Della Porta, A. F., 156, 158, 178 De Pisis, j: ilippo, 53, 55, 61, 65,

Ceza nn e, Paul, 28, 29, 35, 43, 48 ,65,162, 180,230 Chardin, jean Baptiste, 9, 62,

Fascism, 24, 29, 30, 48 , 54, 80, 9 1- 1I 5, 117-33, 135-39, 14 2 -43, 147-5 1, 155-57,

53,149 De Chirico, Giorgio, 51-62,

Cavallo, Luigi, 94

Pari s, 12,45,49

1I9. 122, 123, 137, 15 6, 157, 168 , 177,178, 238111I, 241115

235n18; birth of; 48, 91-93;

Cendrars, Blaise, 53, 61 Centre Georges Pompidou,

Farinacci, Roberto, 96, 113, Jl8,

80-8I,237 nI De Carol is , Adolfo, 26- 27,

66-7 1,74,79-81 ,86-88,

Carracci, 24, 152, 153 Casini, Gherardo, Il7, Il9, 124,

245 n2

Dada, 54,55,65

• Dada, 55 , 60,62,89

88, 157, 176, 235nlO Derain , Andre,s Descriptive drawing from the course of amato, 24, 25 di Francesco , jacopino, 6

167-91, 198-99, 220, 233n6, tall of, 138, 194-95; Strapac­ War 11.167-91 Fellini , Federico,

II,

91, 170. 213

Fero ldi, Pietro, 176 Fioravanti, Arisrorele, 14, I7 Flauben, Gustave, 16 Florence, 14, 16, 17, 27- 29, 39, 70,85, lIS, 123, 125, 189, 194, 218, 244111124, 2S, 2511135; Futurism exhibits, 39 , 43; Primaverile Fiorentina (1922),81 - 87,96,97; Stra­ p;lese exhibits , 126 - 28 flowers , 1, 43-45 , 63,1°7, 1I3, 128. 139, 147 , 169, 176, 223· See also sper(jir paintings

65 , 197 Chastel, Andre, Lart italien, 89 Chimneys of the Arsenale, The, 126

di Libero, Libero, 158 Dix, Otto, 133 Dolce Vita, La (film), 213, 216,217

Flowm (fig. 4.2), 55 , 56 Flowers (fig. Il.2) , 201, 202

Ciangottini, Giovanni, 177

Domus, 164

Flowers (fig. 11.25), 223, 226

Cinti, Italo, 24, 135, 149 Civic Museum of Contemporary

Donatello,3 1

Flowers ill a Ceramir Vase, 63, 64

Art, Milan, 107 Clavel, Gilbert, 53 clocks, 11-12, 12, 18,45,58,63,

Doorway, A, 41

Fontana, Lucio, 156 , 213

Dore Galleries, London, 43

Forain, jean Loui s, 29

drawing, 24-26, 81, 94,149,

Forge, Andrew, 216-17

176,2 28

140, 144, 20 5 Coctenu , jean, 53

Fra9ment, 45, 48, 49. 15 6 France, 3,39.48, 80 Franchi, Raffaello, 58 , 61, 63,

Codig nola , Ernesto, 123, 24In23 Contini-Bonacossi, Sandrino, 218

Emilia, 3, 21, 40, 123 Epoca, L,' 66, 70

65- 66 Francia, Francesco, 26,42

Corbusier, Le, 74, 89 , 129, 23 2nlO

Ernst, Max, 57 Esposiziane Futuri sta lnterna zionnle

Futurism,

Carriere della Sera, II, 109, 152

(1914, ROl11e), 42 - 43

Costa, Lorenzo, 70

Esprit Nouveau, L,' 74,89,129

Courbet, Gustave, 29, 180

etching, 17, 21, ~I, 74, 81,

Crespi, Attilo, 177

94 -95,102,112,114, Il9,

Il,

26, 30, 3 1, 35,

37-49,5 6 ,57,62,67- 69, 111,114,129,144,165,196, 217, 220; exhibitions. 30, 39-43; manifestos. 37- ~8, 4°,233111; "Serate," 39-40

j-39, 147, ,228, exhibits, 9-5 1, f methods , f,155,

96,113,118, ,, 156, 157, Snll , 241n5 4S, 54, 80, 135 - 3Q, 155-57, 1220, 233 n6, 4S,9 1-93; -95: StrapacI, 196: World 91.170, 213 e, 14. 17 6 27- 29.39 , [25, [S9 , -4, 28, n exhibits, ie Fiorentina 6, 97; Stra1<6-28 3,107, 113 , 9, 176,223. ntin!]s

. 56

III

ZOZ

.23,226 ase, 63, 64 , 21 3 19 -[7 15 6 is, 61 , 63,

6.42 , 31, 35 , 2,67- 69, , 165,196,

G

Gabnte, Nicola, 114, 126 Galileo, II, 219 Gallerin del Milione, Ig3, 230 Galleria di Kama, 138, 157-58, 178 Galleria LJ Palma, Rome, 194, 195 Galleria Permanente Fumrista, Rome, 43 Garden in the Via Fondazza, The, 3, 4,102 Gauguin , Paul, 29 German Express ionism, 140, 152 Germany, 39, 4 S, 53, 79 - SI ; Nazi, 79, 123, [33, 15 6, 167, 168, 17S, [SI, 18g-9O, 24 71112 Ghiringhelli , Gi no , 74, 193, 221 , 23 0

GhiringheUi, Peppino, 193 Gin sburg, Natalia, Le pirrolo virtu, 193 Giolitti , Giovanni, 92-93 Giornale del Mattino, II, 30, 42, 61 , 235 nl8 Gios i ex hibition ([919 , Rome), 70 -7 1 Giotto, [S, 28, 29, 62, 68, 123, [25, 218; Presepio del Grw io , 65 Girardon, Mario , 89 Gnudi, Cesare, [79, 194, 21 7, 220, 24811I8 Great Britain, 2, 48, 80, 245n2 Greek art, [44-45 Grizzana, [67-68, [79-80, [88 - go, 191 Grosz, George, 57 , 133 Guggen heim, Peggy, [99 Guggenheim Museum , New York, [9S[ Morandi exhibition , 89 Guidi, Virgilio, III H

Heckel, Ernst, [40 Hitl er, Adolf, 133, 156 Horn d'Arturo , Guido , 152,156, 218-[9 Hou se in Shad e, [28 Houses and Haysta ck, 128 Houses with Great Cypress, 128

rions. 30, os, 37 - 38,

te," 39-40

Impress ionism, 27, 28-29, 30,

33,35,199,233 nIl Ingres, jean August Dominique, 6 Interlandi, Telesio , 124, 138, 157 Irwin , Robert, la-II , 198 Italia Lrtteraria, L,' 146, 147 Italiano , L,' 45,97,117-19,121, 122,126,127,129,132,133, 135,147, 15 6 Italy, 2-3; Ethiopia invaded by, 155, 245n21 Fascist, 24, 29, 3°,48,54, So, 91-I15 , 11 7-33,135 -39,14 2 -43 , 147-5 1, 155-57, 167-9 1, 194 - 95, [9S-99; national­ ism, 24, 129; post-World War I, 6S, 80, 88; post-World War fI , 194-9 5; racial laws, 156; unification , 3,29, 233nI2; World War l, 48,51,5 7,58, 69,91; World War II, [67-9 1

jacob, Max, 53 jalIier, Piero , 2S, 95 larry, Alfred, Ub u Roi, H7 lohns , Jasper, 10 lolas Gallery, New York, 207 K

Kandinsky, Wassil)" 43 , 45, 53, 55, [93 Kramer, Hilton , 216 L

Lamba, 38, 39, 4°, 43,48 , 60, 61,95,121 La Cometa, Rome , [5 8, 245 nlo lam ps, 6, [70-7 [ Lancellotti, ,\rturo. 146 lan dseape(s), 1, 6, II, 17,31, 41 , 45 , 51,62, SI, 107, Iq, [28,135-3 6, 15 2, 15 8, 167-69, [76, [go, 208 - 9; late, 223, n S; Metaphysical, 17,21, sr,

63,

I 29 ; wJrtime ,

[SO-90, 201. See also specific paintings landsca pe (fig. 1.4), 6, 6 Landscape (fig. 2·3) , 31, 32 Landscape (fig. 2.5) , 31 , 34,41,180 Landscape (fig. 3· 3) ,45, 46 landscape (fig. 3.4),45,46,55, [SO

Landscape (fig. 6.10), 107, 108 , 158 Landscape (fig. 8.(0), 152 , 153 Landscape (fig. 10.10), 180, 182 Landscape (fig. 10.11), 180, IS3 Landscape (fig. 10.12), 180,183 Landscape (fig. 10.13), lSI, 184 Landscape (fig. 10.1 4) , 181 , 184 Landscape (fig. 10.15), 181 , 185 Land sca pe (fig. 10.16), 181, .186 Land sca pe (fig. 10.17), 181, 186 Landscape (fig. 11.9), 208, zaS Landscope (fig. [I. 10), 209 , 209 Landscape (fig. II.II ), 20g, 210 Landscape (fig. 11.26), 223, 227 Landscape (fig. 11.27), 223, 22 7 Landscape (fig. 11.28), 223, 228 Landscape (fig. 11.29), 223 , 229 Landscape (fig. 11.30), 223 , Z29 Landscape (fig. II.3[)' 223, z31 Landscape with Farm House in Distant Hill s, 136, 137 Landscape with Pink Houses, 99, 100 Landsca pe with Six Yaung Trees, 180, 181, Iil7 Landscape with th e LariJe Poplar, [47 Landscape wi th Two Trees, 45 Large Dark Still Life , 15[ Large Still Life, 107 Lega , Achille, [[4, I17, [20, 124, 126, [27 Licini , Osvaldo, 39-42, 99, !O2, [14, 146, 160 , [62, [63, [70, 244 nIS light and slwdows, 7, ([ ,60,65, 71, 8[,102,13 6, [39 , 150-51, 162 , 168- 70, 18[ little Vase with Rom, 8[, 84 London , 39,43,2[9 Longanesi , Leo, 45 , 95 , 96-97 , III, ([3 , "5, 1[7- 34, 138, 145, 147 , [48 , [56, 161 , 176, 179, 241nn[8 , 23, 243 111 3 Lon ghi , Rob erto, 2S, 55, 6S, 87, 96,126, [52-53 , 160, [61, 176, [79, 194, [9 6, [98- 99, 219 , 220-2[, 244n28 lOll9 Horizontal Stilillfe, 145, [45 Lorenzetti brothers, 123 M

Ma ccari, Mino , 27, 5[, 95-9 7, [[[ - 14,117-33, [34, [48, 161 , 179 , 240n3, 24 Inn8, [7

-

Macchiaioli group, 3 1,33,2331116

critics on, 42, 65 - 69 , 80-81 ,

scapes; nudes; self-portraits ;

Magritte, Rene, 57

85- 8 7, !O7, 1I3, 12 9, 145-47, 160-65,177, 194- 200, 217,

specijir paintil1,gs and exhibi ­

Malaparte, Curzio, 1I9, 120, 122, 124,13 2 Malevich, Kazimir, 181 Mandelli, Pompilio, 33 , 93, 1I2 Mangravite, Peppino, 58

Morandi, Giuseppe, 3,4

period, 43-49 , 62-63,129 ; death, 231: early exhibitions,

Morandi, Maria, 3, 4, 5, 31, 35,

17, 41 -48; early work, 3 I, 33,35 ; easel, 223, 126; edu­

mannequins, 69, 71 Maraini, Antonio, 110, III, Il4,

cation, 3, 5, 23-35, 125; • f.1mily life, 1-2,6,133; Fas­

lIS , 124, 128, 138,140, 142,

cism and, 93-115, 117-32,

Manzu, Giacomo, 130

tions; stililifes

220-21, 230; Cubist-Futurist

57,179 Morandi, Maria Teresa,

I,

3, 5,

7,94, 155, 179, 19 0 ,25 211 5 8 Morandi Museum, Bologna, 5, 10 7 Morandi 's Garden in the Via Mostra d-Arte Independel1te (1918,

Marconi , Guglielmo, 37

135-39,148 -49, 16 5,177, 194-95; finances, 71, 87- 88, 102, 12 7. 128 ,13 1,147 , 160,

Marinetti, Filippo Tomaso, 23, 37,

193,213,216,220; Futurism

Mostra della Revoluzione Fa scista

and, 37-49, 62, 196; govern­

(1932), 148-49 Mostra d'lncisiol1e del Sil1dacato

16 4, 198-99, 239 n2 5 Marchiori, Giuseppe, 152 , 165

38,4°,43,48,49, III, 178, 233-34 nl ; Elmricita, 39, 40

mentjob, 123-24, 131; at

Marini, i\13rino, 156

Grizzana. 167-68, 179-80,

Masaccio, 29, 125

188-90, 191; international

Matisse, Henri, 29, 43, 245nII Matteotti , Giacomo, 96

exhibitions and reputation,

Mattioli, Vitali and Gianni, 194 Melli, Roberto, 45, 66, 70, 80, 81,123, 235nlO, 246n21 Meriano, Francesco , 55, 60-61, 124 Metaphysical period_ See pittura Metaphysical Still Lyi> with Three

R.ome), 66-68, 69

(R.ome),13 6 Mostro Permanente a Volorizzazione del Dise,gno Italiano (1926 , Flo­ rence), 126

137, 158, 163, 193-97, 207-8,213,230,245nll,

Munch , Edvard, 29; Tire Scream,

249114; last years, 193-230; military service, 57; mod­

133, 150, 223 Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao

ernism of, 10-11, 27; myth,

Paulo, 138, 194 Museum of Modern An,

13°,133 , 164-65 , 193-23°, 249-52 ; Novecento and, 91-Il5; perceivable world

metafisica

Fondazza , 102, 107, J09

and, 58-60; personality,

I,

Bologna, 68 Museum of Modern Art, New York, 12, 88,89,200,230;

Objects, 51,52,57-58,128

57; pittura metafisica and,

1949 Italian painting exhibi­

Michelangelo, 24, 26, 30, 31, 65

12,17,51-77,79,87- 8 9, 129, 140, 158, 100-61, 176.

tion, 196-97, 207-8 Museum of Modern Art, Rome,

modernism, 10-lr, 2 -24,

195-96,199-201 , 207,218 , 220,223 , 234-37 , 25 011 33,

45, 128 Mu ssolini , Benito,s, 28,48,61,

27-3 1,37 Modigliani , Amedeo , 157, 158,

251n37; in prison, 179; reg­

80,81 , 9 1-93,9 6 -99,102,

istrello of, 94-95; rift with

107,

ArcJngeli, 220-21, 2511149.

Milan, 30 , 96, 114, 193, 194 Minoan art, 48

III,

113 , lIS , 117-23 ,

24 611 3 2 Mondrian, Piet, 196-97

2521158; social life, 217-20;

126,128.132,139,147, 155-57, 167, 168, 179, 181,

Monet, Claude, 28, 29 , 181, 199,

Strapaese years, 117 - 33, 135,

189,2341117, 247n12, 248nl 4

230 Montale, Eugenio, 95, 96

145 , 196; success and fame ,

Montano, Lorenzo, 61

42, 77,79,87,193-94,200 , 213,216-20,230- 31; teach­

Naples, 2, 5

Morandi, Andrea, 3, 4

ing positions, 117, 127,

Nationalgalerie fur Moderne

Morandi , Annetta, 1,3 , 4,5,57,

13 0 -3 2 ,135,137 , 15 0,193, 213, 238n12; travels, 2-3 ,

179,19° Morandi , Dina,

I,

2, 2, 3,4,7,

31 , 107, 1I2, 179 , 190 Morandi , Giorgio, 2, 4, 24_ 190, 200 ; appearance,

I,

8; a uto­

biograph)', 124-25, 131-32; bedroom studio, 7 - 8,

8, 9, 9,

10,180,193, 10 5,208,223, 226; birth, 2; childhood, 3-5;

29- 30, 70, 218, 219; use of serial imagery, 9 - I I , 180;

N

Kuns!, Berlin, 79 Nazism, 79,123,133,156,167, 168, l78, 181, 189- 90, 2471112

Valori Plastici and , 69-77,

Nenni, Pietro, 61, 223, 242n24,

79-89, 103, 201, 237n2; working methods and

25 211 55 New York, 89, 194, 196,

habits,s, 7- 13; World War II years, 167-91, 193, 201. See also etching; flowers ; land­

207-8 , 213 Novecento, 51, 91-115; exhibi­ tions, 96-98, 107, 110- 15

'-portraits; Iexhibi­

nudes,45,48,63

4 5, 31, 35,

Ojetti, Ugo, 107, III, 112, 123, 138, 15 2, '78, 244 n2 5 Omnibus, 133 Onofri, N. S., ll8, 119 Oppo, Cipriano Ensio, 69-70, 81,86,93,96, 97,99,102,

0

a, I, 3, 5, , 25 2n 58 logna,

IIO, III, Il3-15, [23. 128,

Via lD9 (1918 ,

1te

e Fascista dacato .lorizzaziol1e (1926, l' lohe Scream ,

-na, Sao

Irt,

Irt, New 00, 230; ing exbibi-8 Irr, Rome,

28,48,61, - 99, 102, [17- 2 3. ,147. 179 , 181, 12, 248nr4

oderne

15 6, 167, -90,

:,2421124, 6,

5; exhibi­ ,110- 15

131 , 132 , 136, 138 , 142,143 ,

148,162,164, 238n2,239n25 Ozenfant, Amedee, 74, 129 p

Pagano, Giuseppe, 164 Painting in Post-War Italy, 1945-1957 (1958, New York) , 21 3 Pallllcchini, Rodolfo, 194, 197, 198,230 Papini, Giovanni, 27, 39, 86, 23 611 45 Paris, 24, 27, 39 ,54, 219 PasoLini , Paolo, 153 Pavolini, Corrado, 55, 95, 121, 124, 12 9, 157 Pecci-Blunt, Countess, 158 Pellizzi, Camillo, 29, 120, 122-24, 139, 24 11111 9, 23 Perseo , 156 Persian bottles, 10 , 12, 14, 107, 169,222 Petmcci, Carlo ALberto, 81, 128, 13 6-39 , 149, 194 , 244"24 Piazza della MOl1ta,gl1ola, 20, 21 Pica, Vittorio, 29 Picabia, Francis, 220 Picasso, Pablo, 27,48,55,7°, 74,1 95,196,208 , 245 I1Il ; Composition, 48, 49; Les Demoi­ selles d'Avignon, 23 Piero della Francesca, 65; Dream ofCol1stantine, 170; Resurrection, 149 Pini, Giorgio, 95, 124 Pissarro, Camille, 29 pitUira merafisica, 12, 17, 51-77, 79,87-89, 12 9, 140, 15 8 , 160-61, 176, 195-96, 199-201,207 , 218,220,223 , 234-37,25 011 33,25 111 37 Pollock, Jackson, 199, 249116

Ponti, Giol':mni, 198-99, 200 Popola d'/talta, II, 81, 85, 95, 98, 99 , "3, "7,234 111 7 Portrait of Dina, 31,33,41 [lozzati, Severo, 41 Prarnpolini, Enrico, 66, 70, III Prcltella, Francesco Balilla, 40, 42 -43,88 -89,23 4 nll Premia Bergamo exhibitions, 157, 168,1 77 - 78. 2501110 Premia Cremona exhibitions, 96, 15 7, 168,177,178,247 nI2 , 25 0nlO Prezzo lini , Giuseppe, 27, 98 Prima Mastro del Novecento Italiano (1926 , !v\ilan) , 98-99, 107 Primavrrile Fiorentino (1922), 81-87,9 6,97 Q.

Quadriennalc exhibirions (Rome), 142, 238n2, 243nnlO, ll, 248n17; of 1931, 140-46; Of1935, '4 2, 143, 151-52; Of1939, 142, 146, 15 8 - 65, '77; Of1943, 17 8 -79 Quadril'io, 161 , 2461121 R

Raccolta, La, 53 , 57, ')8, 60-63, 67,69 ,7 1, 126, 233 116 Ragghianti, Cario, 9, 93, 96, II8, 179, 198,216, 238n4, 24 81118 Raimondi, Giuscppe, 23, 53, 55, 60,61 -62,65. 69- 71,93, 95, 120,126 , 168 , 179, 235 nIr Raphael, 31 , 65 , 70 Recchi, Mario, 66-67, 70 Red Vase, 43, 44, 45 Rembrandt van Rijn, 6, 107, 146 Renaissance, 24, 26, 28, 69, 85 Reni, Guido, 65 Renoir, Pierre Auguste , 29 Republic ofSa 1o, 181, 189 , 24 81122 Resto del Carlino, II, 42, 86, 89, 129,147, 197 Ricci, BertO, 121 Rinaldi, Antonio, 167, 179, 245 n4 Roditi, Edouard, 137, 197 Rom:1I1elli , Romano, 160,

245 111 5 Roman Empire, 17, 144 Rome, 14, 16, 17, 29-30, 69-71 , 121,135-3 8,157, 189, 244n24; cinrcitta, 213, 216; Futurist exhibitions, 30, 42-43; March on, 92 -93, Il7, 148; Morandi exhibi­ tions, 70-71. 194, 195; Mastro d'J\rte Independente 91918) , 66 - 69 ; QlIadriennale exhibitions, 140-46, 151-52, 158-65, '78, 238n2, 243nnlo, II, 248nl7 Ronda, La, 61, 69 , 70, 121 Rosai, Ottone, 43 , 45,99, Ill, II.2, 120, 124 , 126 , I3r,

241n8 , 245n15 Rothko, Mark, 230 Round Tabl e, The, 147 Rousseau , Henri, 7, 27, 28, 57 Rozanova, Olga , 42-43 Russia, 39,48,2421143 Russolo, Luigi, 30, 37,39 Ryder, Albert Pinkham, 107 S

Sabatello, Daria, 157-58 Saetti, Bruno, 158 Salmon, Andre, 53 Sao Paulo Bienals, 197, 217, 23 0 -3 1 Sarfatti, Margherira , 81, 85, 96, 98-99, 107,110- 15,13 8, 239111113,24,25,2401137 S;lItorio, Aristide, 26, 27, 29,53 Savinio, AlbertO, 53, 55, 61 Savoia, Cario, 163, 245n4 Scarpa, Carlo, 197 Scbeiwiller, Giovanni, 176 Schmitt-Rotluff, Karl, 140 Schwitters , Kurt, 89 Scorzoni, Alessandro, 31, 33, 220; portrait of Morandi's mother, 35 Secessione Romana (1914), 31, 43,45 ,81 Self-portrait, 99 , 101 se lf:porrraits, 99 , 139, 176 Selva9gio, II, 45 , 60, 97, 99, III-12, "4, 117-33 , 233n6, 23 811ll

serial imagery, 9-11,180

Still Life (fig. 1.1l) , 12, 14, 51, 58

Still Life in all Oval, 151

Seurat, Georges, 7, 21,74

Still Life (fig. 1.13), [3,15

Still Life with Bread and Lemon, 74,

Severini, Gino, 37, 38, 39, 99

Still Life (fig. ~.6), 12,45,47,

shells, 188, 190

49 , 144 Still Life (fig. 4 ..3),58,59

Still Life with Compote Dish an d

Arti, 114, 136- 38, 149, 243 n3 Sironi , Mario, 96, 102

Still Life (fig. 4.6), 63, 66

Still Life with rour Objects, 51

Still Life (fig. 4.7), 63, 67

Still Lift with Pitcher and Portable

Snowfall, The, 31,180

Still Life (fig. 4.8), 65, 72

Sob)" James Thrall, 196 - 97,

Still Life (fig, 4·9), 7 1, 73

Sindacato Nazionale di Belle

20 7- 8

12 5- 26

Drape, 85

Clark, 11 - 12, 45, 47 Still

LUe with Shell, 103 , lOS

Still Life (fig. 5.2), 81 , 83, 144

LUewith Shells, 103, 104 Still LUewith Six Objects, 205

, Still Life (fig. 5.1), 81, 82

Society oHrancesco Francia ,

7 6,102,

Still

Still Life (fig. 5-4), 85, 85

Still Life with Thick Lines, 150, 151

Soffici, Ardengo , 24, 27- 31,38,

Still Life (fig. 6.3), 99, 101

39,48,54 , 56 ,60,86,9 6,

Still Life (fig. 6-4). 102, 101

Still Life with Tiered Cake Dish, 150 Strapaese gro up, 12,97, 117- 33,

26,42

99,102,

III,

114, 124-28,

13 2 ,146,147,162,17 1, 233n8, 235n12, 244 n21 Solmi, Franco, 68

135,145, 196; exhibits, 126-28

Still Life (fig. 6.9), 103, 106

Surreal i,m, 57, 163 , 220

Still Life (fig. 6.13),1°7, JIO

Sutherland, Graham, 63

Still Life (fig. 8.2), 139 , 139

Soutine, Chaim, 113 space and scale , 8,

Still Life (fig. 6.5), 102, 103 Still Life (fig. 6.8), [03, 106, 213

II,

13. 60,65,

99 . 128, 140, 162, 210

Still Life (fig. 8.3), 140, 140 Still Life (fig. 8.4), 140, 141, [52

T

T3nguy, Yves , 57

Sprovieri, Giuseppe, 43

Still Life (fig. 8.5), 142

Tate G3llery, London, 219

St(lmpa, La, 132

Still Life (fig. 8.6), 143

'jempo, II, 60, 62, 65, 68 , 95

Still Life (fig. 8·7), 144, 144, 145

Tennis Courts in th e ,vlar9 herita Pub·

Stanza de l Selvaggio, Florence,

Still Life (ftg. 8.9) , 148, 149, 152

126-28 Sterling, Charles , 21, 197

lic Gardens in Bolo,£JIHl, 74, 76

Still Life (fig. 9.1), 155. 15S , 159

'Ieoere, II , 157, 158

stililife(s), 1, 6, 8-13,17,21,24,

Still Life (fig. 10.1), 169, 170

Thovez , Enrico,

3 1,43,45,49 , 5 1,81,99, 102-3, 107, 128,135-3 6 ,

Still Life (fig. 10.2) , 169 ,171

Tinti, Ma rio, [24

Still Life (fig. 10.3), 169, 172

Tito, Ettore, 29 , 53

139 , 144,149, 150, 152, 160,

Still Life (fig. 10-4), 169, 173

Tosi , Arturo, 81, 96, 99, 102,

162,167, 201,205,2°9-10 ,

Still Life (fig. 10.5), 169, 172

213,222; late, 221-28; light

Still Life (fig. 10.6), [71, 174

and shadows ,

Still Life (fig. 10.7), 171 , 174

Trombadori , Antonello, 195

Still Life (fig. 10.8), 171,175

Troubc[sko)" Paul , 29

ll,

60, 71, 81 ,

102, 136 , 139 , Iso-51, 162,

is

1I4, [28 Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri, 29

168-70, 181; metaphysical,

Still Life (fig. 10.9), 171, 175

Two Trff.l, 51, 147, 180

51,58-60,63 , 71-74,140,

Still Life (fig. 10. [9), 188, 188

Tza ra , Tristan , 55, 60, 62, 88

147, 149, 176, 199, 218, 22.3; modern approach to, 10-11;

Still Life (fig. 10.20) , 188, 189

objects used in , 6, 8, 8,

Still Life (fig. IlA), 204, 205

Uccello, Paolo , 28, 29, 57

91-9 2,12,13 , 14,45,5 8,63,

Still Life (fig. 11.5), 204, 205

Ungaretti, Giuseppe, 37, 61, 95

102-3, 107, 1l2, 135-36 ,

Still Life (fig. 11.7), 205, 206

United States, 80, 89, 137;

140,144 -45, lSI, 152, 162,

Still Life (fig. 11.8), 205, 207

163, 169-71, 180, 205, 205,

Still Life (fig. 11.12),209,211

209; space and scale, 8, 11,

Still Life (fig. 11.13),2°9,211

13,60,63,99, 128, 140, 162,

Still Lift (fig. 11.(4), 210,212

210; tJbles, 8, 8,9, la, 63,

Still Life (fig. 11.15), 212, 213

Still Life (fig. 11.3), 201 , 203

u

Morandi ex hibitions in , 15 8 , 163 , 194, 196, 207-8, 2q, 24snl1 University of Bologna, 152

v

65; wartime, 167-76, 188;

Still Life (fig. lu6), 213, 214

working methods and theo­

Still Life (fig. 11.17) , 213,215

Vallecc hi, Attilio, 96

ries , 8-13 , 58-60, 140 , 145 ,

Still Lift (fig. 11.19),221,222

Valori Plastid , 9, 45, 51, 53-60, 61,

152, 163, 168-70, 216, 223.

Still Life (fig. 11 .2 0), 223, 224

69-77,79 - 89 , 91,103, [21,

See also specific paintin9s Still Life (fig. 1.5), 6, 7, 144

Still Life (fig. lUI), 223,225

123.129,165 ) 201 , 217 , 233 n6,

Still Life (fig. 11.22), 223, 225

234 n1 , 236n45,

Still Life (fig. 1.10), 12 ,13, 45

Still Life (fig. 11.23), 223 , 225

exhibitions, 79-89

2~7nrll-3;

'1,15 1

~ and Lemon. 74,

'26

pate Dish and

Objerts. 51

.fr and Portable

45,47

, 10 3. 105

S, !O3, 104

)bjects. 20'5

, Lines. 150, 151

d Cake Dish, 150

2,97,117-33, I

exhibits.

63. 2.20

i1.1 m, 63

don , 219

65,68,95

l'vlargherita f'ub­

lologn a. 74, 76

f

35 53

96, 99,

102.

t . Henri , 29

iOnelio. 195

tI,29

,180

5,60, 62 ,88

8, 29.57

ppe, 37, 61, 95

,,89. 1 37;

itiolls in, 158,

207-8,213 ,

ogna, 152

96

5,51,53-60.61.

9,9 1. 103, 121,

20I. 217, 233 n6 ,

5,237 nnr -3 ;

9-8<)

Van Doesburg, Theo, 53, 89

Van Gogh, Vincem, 29

Va ri ous Objects on a Round Tablf, 20,21

Vase with Asters, 51

Venice , 14, 17, 21 , 29, 189,

197-9 8

Venice Biennale, 26, 43, 81, 97,

llO -II, 114, 151; Of191O, 29,

31; nf1928, 96, Ill, 128, 132,

239n25 ; ofr930, 138 -40; of

1934,149, 15 1; Of1938, 157;

of1948, 193, 198-201 , 23 0,

249n6,25on32;ofI966,221

Venturi, Lionello, 194,197, 213,

249 n3 Vespignani, Giacomo, 40,41 Villon, Jacques, ISO

Viscomi, Luchino, 216 Vitali, Lamberro, 68, 89, 94, 96, 128, 156, 176, 194 , 195 , 216, 218-19,221,230, 246n25, 252n56; Giorgio Morandi piltarf, 221 Vittorio Emman uele ll, King of [taly, 30, 91, 92, 144, 181 , 189 Vore, La, 24, 27-31, 38, 39, 61, 62,69, '5,121

Volta, Sandro, 96 , 112,124, 193

w Warhol, Andy, 10

watercolors, 8r, 228 , 252n57 Wildt, Adolfo, 102 Wittgenstein, Ludwig , 237n1 Woods, The , 41

World House Gallery, New York, 21 3

World War 1,27,28,39,48,51,

57,58,60,69,77,9 1,130,

237 n3

vVorid War ll, 42, 167-91 , 193,

194,201

\lVright, Frank Lloyd, 18, 21,

197-9 8

y

Young Italians exhibition (1921,

Berlin) ,79- 86

Z

Z;rdkine, 74 , 80

Zurbarin, Lemons, Orange and a

Rose, 218