Matteo Marangoni (12 July 1876 – 1 June 1958) was an Italian art historian, art critic and composer. Marangoni's art criticism aimed at identifying pure figurative values, in which an artwork's poetic values are identified. His books are positively influenced by the school of

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce, ( , ; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography, and aesthetics. A Cultural liberalism, poli ...

and

Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles (" painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ...

, clarifying their concepts on the basis of observation and following logic as a science of pure concept.

Life

Born in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy, to Maria Augusta Malvisi and her physics-teacher husband Carlo Marangoni, he took his secondary school diploma in 1896 but did not continue with his studies straight away, instead moving to London to indulge his passion for music. There he performed as a pianist and composed short pieces for voice and piano – ''Barcarola'' in 1897, ''Serenata'' in 1900, ''Le pastorelle montanine di Franco Sacchetti'' in 1901, ''Tre canti di Giacomo Leopardi'' in 1902 and ''Gavotta'', also in 1902. He later returned to Florence and attended the Facoltà di scienze, graduating in 1905 in anthropology. He then moved to Paris and back to London as well as travelling in Germany, becoming interested in the figurative arts. On his second return to Italy in 1909 he took an art history course in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and in 1910 married Drusilla Tanzi, with whom he had a son, Andrea. In the same year as his marriage he became a volunteer at the Superintendency of Arts in Florence, later becoming its inspector (1913) and director. He also taught art history at the Collegio della SS. Annunziata on Poggio Imperiale from 1916 to 1925 and was briefly director of the

Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...

(1920) and the

Galleria nazionale di Parma The Galleria nazionale di Parma is an art gallery in Parma, northern Italy. Painters exhibited in the museum include Beato Angelico, Fra Angelico, Canaletto, Ludovico Carracci ('' The Funeral of the Virgin Mary''), Agostino Carracci ('' Madonna ...

(1924). During this period he became particularly interested in 17th century art, publishing several articles on that era in the "L'Arte", "Bollettino d'arte", "Dedalo", "Rassegna d'arte", "Rivista d'arte" and " Vita d'Arte" arts reviews. In 1925 the

University of Palermo The University of Palermo () is a public university, public research university in Palermo, Italy. It was founded in 1806, and is currently organized in 12 Faculties. History The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although it ...

commissioned an art history course from him and the following year became a visiting lecturer at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

. In 1927 he published ''Arte barocca'' (''Baroque Art'') and ''Come si guarda un quadro'' (''How to look at a picture''), followed in 1933 by ''Saper vedere'' (''Knowing how to look''). From 1938 he taught art history at the

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

, returning to Pisa from 1946 until his retirement in 1951. In 1953 he published ''Capire la musica'' (''How to understand music''), spending his final years in Pisa, where he also died and where a street is named after him. His last work, a monograph on

Guercino Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (February 8, 1591 – December 22, 1666),Miller, 1964 better known as (il) Guercino (), was an Italian Baroque painter and draftsman from Cento in the Emilia region, who was active in Rome and Bologna. The vigorous n ...

, was published in the year after his death.

Works

*''Il Guercino'', Firenze, Fratelli Alinari, 1920 *''Il Caravaggio'', Firenze, Battistelli, 1922 *''La Basilica di S. Lorenzo in Firenze'', Firenze, Battistelli, 1922 *''La Villa del Poggio Imperiale'', Firenze, Fratelli Alinari, 1923 *''I Carloni'', Firenze, Fratelli Alinari, 1925 *''La Galleria Pitti'', Milano,

Fratelli Treves Fratelli Treves was an Italian publishing house based in Milan. Founded in 1861 by Emilio Treves from Trieste, it was active under its own name until 1939. History The publishing house was born on 1 January 1861 with the name of the founder: Em ...

, 1926 *''Arte barocca'', Firenze, Vallecchi, 1927 *''Come si guarda un quadro'', Firenze, Vallecchi, 1927 *''Saper vedere'', Milano-Roma, Fratelli Treves, Treccani, Tumminelli, 1933 *''Capire la musica'', Milano,

Garzanti Garzanti s.r.l. is an Italian publishing company founded in Milan, Italy, in 1938. It is known for publishing school textbooks, dictionaries (such as the ''Dizionari Garzanti''), and encyclopedias (''Le Garzantine''). History The company was fo ...

, 1953 *''Guercino'', Milano, Aldo Martello, 1959 *''Carteggi (1909–1958''), a cura di Luca Barreca, Palermo, Editrice Mediterranea, 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marangoni, Matteo Italian male pianists Italian anthropologists Musicians from Florence Italian essayists Italian male essayists 19th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century male composers 1876 births 1958 deaths Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the University of Palermo Academic staff of the University of Milan Italian art critics Italian art historians Italian male non-fiction writers Writers from Florence 19th-century Italian male musicians 20th-century Italian male musicians