Room 12

All these artists shared common interests, genuine morality and love for art, which they expressed through different approaches, hand in hand with the artistic renewal adopted by Soffici, Maccari and Rosai. Along with other intellectuals, including Egidio Bellandi and Dino Fiorelli, they used to meet in the workshop of the tailor Zola Settesoldi. The political and cultural debate which there enlivened the discussion were cause for reflection and inspiration for their artistic process.

Ardengo Soffici, whose two paintings Il reduce and Cabine are displayed on the third floor in Palazzo Pretorio Museum, was the constant guide of this group of artists: he encouraged them to study Impressionism, to draw inspiration from Cezanne and from the Paris avant-gardes embodied by Picasso and Braques, without neglecting Tuscan art from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Del Rigo, Martini and Pierucci especially followed this teacher’s lesson, recovering a genuine and popular language, so that Soffici engaged them to participate to the first “Strapaese” exhibition, promoted by “Il Selvaggio” magazine, together with the famous artists Rosai, Maccari, Lega and Morandi. In May 1931 Del Rigo, Martini and Pierucci exhibited again their artworks during the Florentine “Mostra Sindacale”, alongside the “Scuola di Prato”’s artists and Sergio Fiaschi. This was their last gathering occasion before Arrigo Del Rigo’s premature death in February 1932: after that, their intense artistic partnership was interrupted.

The painter and decorator Guido Dolci was close to the “Scuola di Prato” and to the Leonardo School’s students and was a reference point for many artists who started their activity in the period between the two world wars. Thus Pierucci, Tintori, Del Rigo experienced the decoration and mural painting technique next to Dolci, while he was working in Prato’s most important buildings: Politeama Theatre, Cicognini Boarding School, Palazzo Pretorio – where he painted the medieval style decoration in the room on the ground floor.

The small gallery of portraits sculpted by Giulio Pierucci is worthy of attention: these are well-known personalities portrayed with a clever caricature which, according to Alessandro Parronchi, recalls Aristophane’s comedy for its popular freedom of interpretation aiming to show – and destroy – the vanity of each character. Sergio Fiaschi’s artistic production is the reflection of a blunt and sincere art, speaking the same universal language, although with a local accent, having started with the “Scuola di Prato”. As Franco Riccomini points out, Sergio Fiaschi always searched for the intimate nature of things. Other artists including Sanesi, Brogi and Fanciullacci met along with him during the Fifties at “La Posta” bar, to discuss about their common obsession and vital impulse: painting.