Romeo Mancini (Perugia, 28 May 1917 – 19 March 2003) was an Italian painter and sculptor.
Early life Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Mancini attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia, where he met future artist Leoncillo Leonardi, who later wrote: "We talked down our professors passionately… and our friendship dates back to that. The years have passed… (and) Mancini has continued to fight against a narrow figurative culture, to criticise and to seek"...L. Leonardi, Presentazione della mostra del Pittore Romeo Mancini (lit. Presentation of the exhibition of the painter Romeo Mancini) Galleria Lo Zodiaco, Roma 1950.
During the early 1930s Mancini appeared to be seeking examples to follow in the nearby Scuola Romana.C. Zappia, Romeo Mancini, 1989, Electa Editori Umbri Associati, translated into English by Liam Boyle
Leonardi and Mancini both had an aversion to fascism and both later joined the partisans: Leonardi in Rome, and Mancini in Umbria, in the Colfiorito mountains, where he joined the Innamorati Brigade with Enzo Rossi.R. Mancini, La Banda, in Antifascismo e resistenza nella provincia di Perugia, a cura di L. Cappuccelli, Perugia, 1975 When the war ended, Mancini returned to Perugia.
The early works of Giuseppe Capogrossi and Mario Mafai appear to have been his points of reference for the Autoritratto (lit. Self-portrait) dated 1943, followed by Paul Cézanne in such works as the Gilet Rosso (lit. The Red Waistcoat).
In 1948, his sketch presented as part of the competition organized by the Sagra Musicale Umbra, along with three other contenders, was chosen as the official poster for the music festival that year."Il Nuovo Corriere", s.a. Questo sarà il cartello della Sagra, 1948 In the same period, Mancini obtained a notable commission: a fresco to be painted using the technique of the ancient masters, “on fresh plaster, using first a cartoon and then pouncing”, in Luisa Spagnoli's former headquarters.
After that, he travelled to Paris. Mancini left Perugia taking with him some photos of his recent works. While in France he immediately came into contact. with Édouard Pignon, heir to the tradition of Cézanne and Picasso.
Villa Massimo When he came back to Italy, Mancini decided to leave Perugia that not only Leoncillo, Rossi and Brunori, had also done. He chose to follow his group of friends and colleagues to Villa Massimo in Rome. Here, from 1948, a small group of left-wing Italian painters and sculptors had settled and arranged their own home-atelier in the building that had hosted the German Academy in Rome before the war.Joachim Bluher e Angela Windholz Si torna all'arcadia! La “guerra fredda” per Villa Massimo e la sua consegna alla Repubblica federale di Germania nel 1956, Accademia tedesca di Roma, 2006
Mancini had his first exhibition in Rome at Lo Zodiaco Gallery in 1950. He exhibited about twenty paintings at Lo Zodiaco.
The exhibition also included the Minatore (lit. The Miner), that the following year the painter also sent to the “Premi per la Pace” (lit. Peace Prize) contest organized by the “Rinascita” and “Vie Nuove” magazines. The panel was composed of the communist editors of the magazines that promoted the event, Palmiro Togliatti and Luigi Longo, and Pietro Nenni, the President of the National Liberation Committee representing the partisans, and technicians, Giulio Carlo Argan, Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, Roberto Longhi, Libero De Libero, and Mario Penelope.
The jury appreciated Mancini's work, but were opposed by Togliatti, who was known to caution artists against supporting neo-cubist ideas from the pages of “Rinascita”.
In 1950 the Italian Communist Party invited a group of ten young left-wing artists to the Comacchio valleys, which at the time was one of the most deprived areas in the country. Romeo participated, together with Treccani, Turcato, Scarpitta, and the Neapolitan artist Ricci. The resulting works were exhibited during the Sagra della Fioritura Festival in Vignola, where a jury which included Mazzacurati awarded Mancini with the third prize, consisting of a wheel of Grana Padano cheese. Back in his atelier in Villa Massimo, Romeo re-elaborated the sketches made in Comacchio, and transformed them into large oil compositions. Of this group of works, the artist kept two temperas, Pescatori in riposo (lit. Fishermen at Rest) and Gioco della morra (lit. Game of Morra). These two fishermen are the predecessors of the two robots placed side by side that the artist calls Cattedrali (lit. Cathedrals).
The 1950s were the central years of Romeo's activity, including abroad. In 1953 he participated in the International Youth Festival in Warsaw with his work the Fiocinatore (lit. Harpooner) which earned him the second prize.Articolo di giornale s.a., Vivo successo ottenuto alla mostra di Mancini, 1953
In 1951 Minatori was the painting chosen by Mancini to participate in the VI Rome Quadriennale .
In November 1956 Romeo was invited at the XXVIII edition of the Venice Biennale.Catalogo generale della XXVIII Biennale di Venezia, Venezia, 1956
Here Mancini was presented with two ceramic high reliefs: Fiocinatori (lit. Harpooners) n. 2 and Fiocinatori n. 3, both created in 1956 and exhibited in Venice in a pavilion designed by Carlo Scarpa.
In 1956, partially as a result of a smear campaign led by the German press against the artists of Villa Massimo, along with their way of life, the government of that country was able to evict the Italians and reorganize the academy within the villa. Mancini was already no longer living there permanently, due to the many commissions he received in Umbria.C. Zappia, Romeo Mancini, Electa/Editori Umbri associati, 1989.
The Fishermen Mancini married in 1956 with Franca Ottalevi and moved back to Perugia.
In 1957, Mancini became professor of sculpture at the local Academy of Fine Arts, a position he would hold for more than twenty years. In 1973 Professor Mancini was also appointed director, which saw him undertake the revision of the nineteenth century statute of the Perugia Academy, creating new courses and reorganizing, with the help of the conservator Pietro Scarpellini, the drawings and prints still preserved at the Pietro Vannucci Academy.This work resulted in the exhibition at Lungara in Rome, which was transferred first to Perugia (Palazzo dei Priori), followed by Spoleto (Municipal Art Gallery) and then Canada. This exhibition was recorded the precious booklet Cento Disegni dell'Accademia di Belle Arti di Perugia XVII-XIX sec (lit. One hundred XVII-XIX Century Drawings At The Academy of Fine Arts in Perugia), by M.V. Cresti, F. F. Mancini, G. Sapori, Rome 1977.
Returning then to Perugia in the mid 1950s, Mancini again began to frequent the studio in Via Baldeschi that he had shared with his brother the conservator, before his time in Rome. He remained there preparing the sketches for the monuments to those who died in the war, and also returned to his paintings of fishermen, some Cubist, some realistic.C.Zappia, Romeo Mancini, Electa/Editori Umbri Associati, 1989
Mancini, however, did not break off all contacts with Rome, organizing regular exhibitions in the capital. In the spring of 1958 he organized a personal exhibition at the Galleria La Salita. In Umbria, where Mancini now resided, in 1959 he participated, resulting in significant recognition, in the first edition of the "Premio Perugia" (lit. Perugia Prize).The jury was composed of G. C. Argan, F. Bellonzi, M. Penelope, B. Saetti, G. Breddo and F. Menzio. The first prize was jointly awarded to G. Zingaia and G. De Gregorio, while among the other winners of smaller prizes, apart from Mancini, were E. Brunori, V. Ciardo and P. Raspi.
In 1961 Romeo presented himself to the public in Perugia with twenty-seven recent paintings, exhibited between March and April in the Palazzo dei Priori.G. Angeletti, Successo della personale al Palazzo dei Priori, in "Il Messaggero", 1961
In 1963 Romero organized personal exhibitions in several U.S. states (Michigan, Indiana, Ohio).
Mancini supervised the scenery for The Firebird by Stravinsky at the Teatro MorlacchiArchivio della Sagra Musicale Umbra che riporta l'anno e la data dell'evento, il 10 agosto del 1958. in Perugia. The artist found inspiration for this work in the painting Antibes from the 1950s.
In 1966 Romeo was also invited to exhibit at the IX Quadriennale, where he presented two worksS.a. Le nostre regioni alla IX Quadriennale di Roma, in "Paese Sera", gennaio 1966 on his usual theme of fishermen, called Tempi del lavoratore del mare (lit. Temples of the Workers of the Sea) and II.
Monuments Many monuments were commissioned to Mancini in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the municipalities of Umbria.
The municipality of Pietralunga commissioned a plastic and dense bronze monument with figures to commemorate their dead (1948). Here the artist seems to have been heavily influencedC. Zappia. Romeo Mancini, Electa/Editori Umbri Associati, 1989 by Mazzacurati, following the outline already established in 1942 with la Strage degli innocenti (lit. the Slaughter of the Innocents), which he would continue to repeat during the same period.
A reminder of Cubism emerges again in the large Monumento ai Caduti di tutte le guerreS.a., Domenica si inaugura il monumento ai Caduti di Passignano opera dello scultore Romeo Mancini, 1957. (lit. Monument to the Fallen of All Wars)1956, in Passignano, Perugia, which consists of a colourful ceramic frieze, mounted in a grey stone frame.
The study and construction of this monument took Mancini at least two years of work. A group of studies for the various component parts was presented at the Brufani exhibition in Perugia of 1953.
Castiglione del Lago also wanted a monument to their dead, and Romeo created a large composition in bronze bas-relief in which, on a barely sketched background of the city,Palazzo della Corgna, which stands on the square in Castiglione del Lago, is however recognizable. there stands a turreted figure of Italy, that observes the scene of a mother bent over the body of her son, who has died for his country. The sculpture, cast in Verona, was inaugurated with a solemn ceremony in November 1956, by which time Romeo was already officially and internationally recognized as a sculptor, presenting himself as such at the XXVIII edition of the Venice Biennale.
In 1958 he realized the monument to the Partisan of Montebuono,s.a., Inaugurato il monumento ai partigiani di Agello, in "L'Unità", 10 giugno 1958 Agello, Perugia.
In 1961, when he was asked to create a visualization of Perugia for the great exhibition in Turin, “Italia '61”. The work modelled in ceramic with an operation of synthesis and abstraction, recalls, thanks to the precious material, the golden glow of ancient sun baked Etruscan stones and, through synthetic and sharp forms, suggests the idea of the urban development of the medieval city. The sculpture was prepared by Mancini for the stand designed by the architects representing Umbria, Astengo, Zanetti and Campus, at the great Turin exhibition.G. Angeletti, Sono quasi pronte le imponenti opere per lo stand umbro alla mostra "Italia '61", aprile 1961
In 1962 he realized the sculpture Dedicata al lavoratore (lit. Dedicated to the Worker), executed for the fountain in Piazza d'Anni at S. Giuliana in Perugia.
In 1967 he created the great Scultura in acciaio (lit. Steel Sculpture) for Città della Pieve and the Aerei (lit. Aircraft), also in steel, to commemorate the dead in Passignano, on lake Trasimeno.