Mario Mafai (12 February 1902 – 31 March 1965) was an Italian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

. With his wife

Antonietta Raphaël Antonietta Raphaël (1895 – 5 September 1975) was an Italian Sculpture, sculptor and Painting, painter of Jewish heritage and Lithuanian Jews, Lithuanian birth, who founded the ''Scuola Romana (Roman School)'' movement together with her husband ...

he founded the modern art movement called the

Scuola Romana Scuola romana or Scuola di via Cavour was a 20th-century art movement defined by a group of painters within Expressionism and active in Rome between 1928 and 1945, and with a second phase in the mid-1950s. Birth of the movement In November 192 ...

, or Roman school.

Biography

Mafai left school very early, preferring to attend, with

Scipione ''Scipione'' ( HWV 20), also called ''Publio Cornelio Scipione'', is an opera seria in three acts, with music composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1726. The librettist was Paolo Antonio Rolli. Handel composed ''S ...

, the Scuola Libera del Nudo, or free school of the nude, of the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...

. His influences in those years were Roman galleries and museums, and the Fine Arts Library at

Palazzo Venezia The Palazzo Venezia (; "Venice Palace") or Palazzo Barbo, formerly Palazzo di San Marco ("Saint Mark's Palace"), is a large early Renaissance palace in central Rome, Italy, situated to the north of the Capitoline Hill. Today the property of the ...

. He met painter and sculptor Antonietta Raphaël in 1925, and they married. They had three daughters:

Miriam Miriam (, lit. ‘rebellion’) is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Torah refers to her as "Miria ...

(1926), a journalist, partner of Communist politician

Giancarlo Pajetta Giancarlo Pajetta (24 June 1911 – 13 September 1990) was an Italian communist politician. Biography Pajetta was born in a working-class district of Turin to Carlo, a bank employee, and Elvira Berrini, an elementary school teacher. He attende ...

; Simona (1928) member of the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic (), or simply the Senate ( ), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform iden ...

and author; and Giulia (1930), a scenographer and costume designer.Flavia Matitti (2006).
Mafai, Mario
. ''

Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani The ''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'' () is a biographical dictionary published in 100 volumes by the Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, started in 1960 and completed in 2020. It includes about 40,000 biographies of distinguished Italia ...

'', Vol. 67.

Treccani Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by Giovanni Treccani ...

. Mario Mafai, another critical figure from the 'Scuola Romana', had a deeply personal painting style marked by a certain melancholic sensibility, which was perhaps a reflection of his difficult personal life. Lesser-known aspects of his life include his intense struggle during World War II, where he was forced to hide due to his Jewish heritage, ultimately leading to the destruction of a large portion of his artworks. In 1927 Mafai exhibited for the first time, with a show of studies and

maquette A ''maquette'' is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture or work of architecture. The term is a loanword from French. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', a diminutive of the Italian word for a sketch. Sculpture A maquette ...

s organised by the Associazione Artistica Nazionale in

Via Margutta Via Margutta is a narrow street in the centre of Rome, near Piazza del Popolo, accessible from Via del Babuino in the ancient Campo Marzio neighborhood also known as ''"the foreigner's quarter"''. Mount Pincio is nearby. Via Margutta origi ...

. In 1928 he had a second exhibition, at the XCIV Mostra degli Amatori e Cultori di Belle Arti, as well as a collective with

and other painters, at the Young Painters Convention of Palazzo Doria in 1929. In November 1927, Mafai and Raphaël moved to 325 via Cavour in Rome, and made a

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

there. Within a short time, it became a meeting point for writers such as

Enrico Falqui Enrico Falqui (12 October 1901 – 16 March 1974) was an Italian writer and literary critic. Biography Enrico Falqui was born in Frattamaggiore, a small market town on the northern fringes of Naples. Gaetano and Angelina Carlomagno Falqui, his pa ...

Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experi ...

, Libero de Libero and

Leonardo Sinisgalli Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908–1981) was an Italian poet and art critic active from the 1930s to the 1970s. Sinisgalli was born in Montemurro, Basilicata. His early education and career led to him being called the "engineer poet". In 1925, Sinisga ...

, as well as the young artists Scipione and Renato Marino Mazzacurati.

References

Bibliography

*F. N. Arnoldi, ''Storia dell'Arte'', vol. III,

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

1989 *''I Mafai - Vite parallele'', catalogue edited by M. Fagiolo, with biography by di F. R. Morelli *

Enzo Siciliano Enzo Siciliano (27 May 1934 – 9 June 2006) was an Italian writer, playwright, literary critic and intellectual. Siciliano was born in Rome. He was a collaborator of Alberto Moravia, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elsa Morante and many other famous w ...

, ''Il risveglio della bionda sirena. Raphaël e Mafai. Storia di un amore coniugale'',

Mondadori Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 19 ...

2005 *Fabrizio D'Amico, Marco Goldin, ''Casa Mafai : da via Cavour a Parigi : 1925-193'', Linea d'ombra, 2004 *''Mario Mafai, 1902-1965: una calma febbre di colori'', Skira, 2004 *''Io non sono un altro - l'arte di Mario Mafai (I Am Not the Other - The Art of Mario Mafai)'', DVD, Studio Angeletti &

Archive, 2005, directed by Giorgio Cappozzo

External links

Mafai's works online
on ''Artcyclopedia.com''. ^{Accessed 26 May 2011}
Mario Mafai
on ''Artfact.com''. ^{Accessed 26 May 2011}
Archive of the ''Scuola Romana''
at Villa Torlonia
Archivio Contemporaneo "Alessandro Bonsanti" - The Mario Mafai-Antonietta Raphaël Fund

History of the ''Biennale di Venezia''

Two Exhibitions on Mafai in Rome and Brescia in 2005

* , selected work on ''Settemuse.it'', with biography. ^{Accessed 26 May 2011} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mafai, Mario 1902 births 1965 deaths 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian anti-fascists 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists Italian male sculptors

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links