CAMPIGLI, MASSIMO (EIGTL. IHLENFELD, MAX) "La... Lot 419

CAMPIGLI, MASSIMO (EIGTL. IHLENFELD, MAX) "La Sposa". Fresco painting on Lwd., sig. u.r., 100x64,5 cm Surface in places somewhat brittle and with traces of restoration. Photo certificate: Massimo Campigli, Mercurio, Milan, June 28, 1968. Provenance: Bottega d'Arte Egisto Marconi, Milan (label on verso); Collezione Castellano, Milan; private property, Ticino. According to the certificate, the work dates from 1938. Massimo Campigli was born in Berlin, but spent most of his childhood in Florence. As early as 1909, he made his first contacts with Futurist circles in Milan. In 1914 he was called up, and two years later he was taken prisoner in Russia. In 1919 he went to Paris as a foreign correspondent for the "Corriere della Sera", where he began to paint under the influence of modern French art. The confrontation with Egyptian art in the Louvre brought him to the archaic language of forms. In 1927 he gave up his work as a journalist and from then on devoted himself exclusively to painting. He received decisive impulses for the further development of his idiosyncratic world of motifs, characterized by idol-like female figures and cipher-like symbols, during a trip to Italy in 1928, when he encountered Etruscan art. Participation in numerous international exhibitions made him known in the art world since the late 1920s. In 1933, together with Mario Sironi, Carlo Carrà and Achille Funi, he signed the "Manifesto della Pittura Murale" and subsequently created several large murals. At the beginning of World War II, Campigli left Paris and moved to Venice, where he devoted himself primarily to printmaking. After the end of the war, he first returned to Paris, moved to Rome around 1951 and finally to St-Tropez in 1963. During the interwar years, many Italian artists became interested in the Italian art of the 14th and early 15th centuries. This was also the case with Massimo Campigli, who executed the present painting in fresco technique. Unlike other artists such as Mario Sironi, Campigli used the technique not only for large-scale murals on public buildings, but also - as in the present case - for smaller formats. At the same time, he combined his interest in ancient painting traditions with a fascination for Etruscan art in the sense of an archaic, simplified reproduction of motifs. For an english translation and more illustrations of this lot please refer to our online catalogue www.dobiaschofsky.com. http://www.dobiaschofsky.com/d106--10419.html