Roberto Rossellini - film director
Roman movie pioneer whose 'neorealism' had lasting influence
Film director Roberto Rossellini died on this day in 1977 in Rome, the city that provided the backdrop to his greatest work and earned him the reputation as the 'father of neorealism'. Rossellini had been associated with the Fascist regime during the early part of the Second World War, in part due to his friendship with Vittorio Mussolini, the film producer son of the dictator, Benito Mussolini. His three wartime movies, The White Ship, A Pilot Returns and The Man with a Cross, all had elements of pro-Fascist propaganda. But after Mussolini’s government was ousted in 1943, Rossellini began work on the anti-Fascist film Rome, Open City, which he described as a history of Rome under Nazi occupation. It starred the popular actor Aldo Fabrizi in the role of a priest and the actress Anna Magnani as the heroine, Pina, but also featured footage of real Roman citizens originally intended to be used in documentary films. Read more…
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Pietro Paolini – artist
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Follower of Caravaggio passed on his techniques to the next generation
Pietro Paolini, a painter in the Baroque period in Italy, was born on this day in 1603 in Lucca in Tuscany. Sometimes referred to as Il Lucchese, Paolini was a follower of the controversial Italian artist Caravaggio. He also founded an academy in his native city and taught the next generation of painters in Lucca. Paolini’s father, Tommaso, sent him to Rome when he was 16 to train in the workshop of Angelo Caroselli, who was a follower of Caravaggio. Paolini had the opportunity to study various schools and techniques, which is reflected in the flexible style of his work. He was exposed to the second generation of painters in the Caravaggio tradition such as Bartolomeo Manfredi, Cecco del Caravaggio and Bartolomeo Cavarozzi. The principal themes of Paolini’s work were the subjects popularised by Caravaggio around the turn of the 17th century. Read more…
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Domenico Antonio Vaccaro - painter, sculptor and architect
Creative genius whose legacy is still visible around Naples
The painter, sculptor and architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, who created some notable sculptures and designed some of the finest churches and palaces around Naples in the early 18th century, was born in the great southern Italian city on June 3, 1678. Vaccaro was also an accomplished painter, but it is his architectural legacy for which he is most remembered. Among the famous churches attributed to Vaccaro are the Chiesa di San Michele Arcangelo, which overlooks Piazza Dante, and the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Concezione a Montecalvario, which can be found in the Spanish Quarter, while he completed the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Stella in the district of the same name. His notable palaces included the Palazzo Spinelli di Tarsia, just off Via Toledo, and the beautiful late Baroque palace, the Palazzo dell’Immacolatella, built on the water’s edge in the 1740s. Read more...
Boldrino da Panicale - condottiero
Fierce fighter murdered in act of treachery
The soldier of fortune known as Boldrino da Panicale, one of the most feared yet respected of Italy’s many condottieri in the second half of the 14th century, was killed on this day in 1391 near the town of Macerata in what is now the Marche region. He had been lured to a banquet, thought to have been staged at the Castello della Rancia, a castle about 13km (8 miles) west of Macerata, by Andrea Tomacelli, brother of Pope Boniface IX and Rector of the Duchy of Spoleto. During an era when towns and neighbouring land changed hands regularly as rival leaders fought for territorial gains, Boldrino had been employed by Boniface IX to retake some captured parts of the Marche for the Papal States. He handed back some of the papal territory but decided to keep other areas for himself, using the threat of violence to extract payments from local governors. Read more…
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The Blessed Vincent Romano
Priest who devoted himself to helping the poor
The Blessed Vincent Romano, a priest from Torre del Greco on the Bay of Naples who became known for his tireless devotion to helping the poor, was born on this day in 1751. Admired for his simple way of life and his efforts in particular to look after the wellbeing of orphaned children, he was nicknamed “the worker priest” by the local community. His commitment to helping poor people extended across the whole Neapolitan region. He would demonstrate his willingness to roll up his sleeves in a different way in 1794 after his church – now the Basilica of Santa Croce – was all but destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius. Not only did Romano devote many hours to organising the rebuilding he actually cleared a good deal of rubble with his own hands. He was born Vincenzo Domenico Romano to poor parents in Naples. He developed a strong faith as a child. Read more…
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Book of the Day: The Films of Roberto Rossellini, by Peter Bondanella
Until his retirement in 2007, the late Peter Bondanella was Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Film Studies, and Italian at Indiana University. Bondanella wrote numerous books and articles on Italian literature and cinema, notably his acclaimed History of Italian Cinema, and translated or edited a number of Italian literary classics, including works by Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Cellini and Vasari.
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