Giovanni Colacicchi

Figurative drawing 20th century Italian female nude portrait on paper

1959

The origins of Giovanni Colacicchi are tied to a rather important family: his grandmother Germana was a descendant of Caetani della Torre (in fact the artist signed his first works with the double surname Colacicchi Caetani) while his grandfather was the painter Scipione Vannuttelli. The radically catholic environment in which he grew up and the classical studies undertaken in his youth were fundamental, permitting him, in fact, a profound knowledge of religious texts and developing in him a strong interest in literature which accompanied him throughout his entire career. Of Latium origins, he approached painting after his move to Florence in 1916 entering into contact with Garibaldo Cepparelli, Raffaello De Grada and frequenting the Caffe Giubbe Rosse, meeting place for the intellectual elite, where he met the man he would deem his real master, Francesco Franchetti. Many were his suggestions regarding painting, which ranged from Renaissance artists to Futurists, from Cézanne to Hans von Marées. Colacicchi was endowed with a multifaceted personality and was always in search of new stimuli, engaging himself in various cultural and social activities. He took part, in fact, in many exhibitions in Italy and abroad, taught at the Academy of Fine Arts and many times fought in defense of the art and of its respect. He maintained friendships with prominent personalities in the art world and critics including Giorgio De Chirico, Libero Andreotti, Renato Guttuso, Carlo Del Bravo and Bernard Berenson, but also of literature like Giuseppe Ungaretti and Eugenio Montale. This inclination of his towards writing, manifested already in adolescence with his choice of a classical high school, accompanied the entire lifetime of Colacicchi, he dedicated himself also to poetic activity and founded in 1924 “La Rivista di Firenze” and in 1926 “Solaria”.