Roberto Melli

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Roberto Melli
Born 1885
Ferrara, Italy
Died 1958
Rome, Italy
Nationality Italy Italian
Field Painting, sculpture
Movement Scuola Romana
Works Landscapes, portraiture

Roberto Melli (1885 – 1958), was an Italian painter and sculptor, belonging to the Scuola Romana, and active in Ferrara and Rome.

Short biography

Born in Ferrara from a Jewish family of traders, in his twenties Melli moves to Genoa to start an apprenticeship as an engraver and thereby discover his artistic talent.

He begins an activity as xylographer, befriending painter and etcher Giorgio De Vincenzi, also from Ferrara. In 1910 Melli decides to move to Rome, where he will share a studio with sculptor Giovanni Prini. In 1913 he participates in the first exhibition of the Scuola Romana, and subsequently exhibits his work at various shows organised by the Futurism movement, although Melli from then on will pursue his own peculiar style and technique.

In 1915, together with artists Vittorio Costantini, Cipriano Efisio Oppo and Guglielmo Pizzirani, Melli forms the "Gruppo Moderno Italiano" (Modern Italian Group) and in 1918 he contributes to the creation of the magazine and current "Valori Plastici".[1] He becomes friends with Giuseppe Capogrossi and Emanuele Cavalli, undersigns the "Manifesto del Primordialismo Plastico", but after his personal exhibition in 1936, his public activity is interrupted by the Fascist antisemitic laws, which prohibit any Jewish artists to exhibit work in public galleries and teach in schools: this will produce in Melli a profound crisis. His only comfort will be his wife's closeness and love.[2]

Melli resumes his artistic work after World War II, in his Roman flat at Testaccio, where each week he will host a group of young painters, among whom are Renato Guttuso, Enrico Accatino, Fausto Pirandello. In fact, from 1945 he starts teaching Fine Arts at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Rome and participates in some personal and collective exhibitions. By this time, Melli is considered one of the major representatives of the Scuola Romana and in 1950 is finally invited at the Biennale di Venezia, which will honour him with a personale.[3]

In his last years, Melli will continue a parallel activity of painter and art critic. In 1957 he publishes a book of poetry, Lunga favolosa notte (The Fabulous Long Night), and in 1958 the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna in Rome opens a retrospective exhibition of his work, organised by curators Nello Ponente and Palma Bucarelli.
Melli will die soon after.

Assessment

Melli was a painter of great visions, chromatism, and composition — at times, intimate in his pictorial expressions, at others strongly figurative. Exhibited permanently at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna of Rome, two works are especially important in his production: La casa rossa (The Red House) (1923), a figurative painting that seems a precursor of Edward Hopper's style and much of the American production; and the sculpture Signora dal Cappello Nero (Lady with Black Hat) (1913), this too an anticipation of a parallel tridimensional experimentation by Italian artist Umberto Boccioni.[4]

Another work of profound intensity was Melli's last, dramatic self-portrait, painted the same month of his death and currently kept at the Portrait Gallery of Palazzo Pitti, in Florence. Important also are his writings, among which Melli's collection of poems, Lunga favolosa notte (The Fabulous Long Night) of 1957.

Permanent Exhibitions

See also

References

  1. ↑ Cf. P. Fossati, Valori plastici, 1918-22 (Essays), Einaudi (1981).
  2. ↑ Cf. Alfredo Accatino, La veglia del sognatore: poesie e divagazioni di e su Roberto Melli: A 30 anni dalla morte, Rome, 1988.
  3. ↑ Cf. Cinzia Martini, "Roberto Melli (1885-1958): L'artista moderno dei valori tonali. Il critico scomodo della coerenza artistica", MMC Edizioni, 2004.
  4. ↑ Cf. Giovanni Lista, Le Futurisme : création et avant-garde, Éditions L'Amateur, Paris, 2001.

Bibliography

  • Cinzia Martini, "Roberto Melli (1885-1958) - L'artista moderno dei valori tonali. Il critico scomodo della coerenza artistica", Preface by Carlo Busiri Vici (volume with CD incl. complete critical catalogue), MMC Edizioni, 2004. (Italian)
  • Roberto Melli, Catalogo della mostra, G. Appella & M. Calvesi (eds), Macerata, 1992 (with bibliography). (Italian)
  • — , Poesie: Lunga favolosa notte (Poems: The Fabulous Long Night), Editore De Luca, 1957. (Italian)
  • Alfredo Accatino, La veglia del sognatore: poesie e divagazioni di e su Roberto Melli: A 30 anni dalla morte, Sapienza University of Rome, 1988. (Italian)

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