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A cura di Edvige Castellani e Gualtiero De Santi

Leonardo Castellani was born in Faenza, Italy on October 19, 1986, into a family of cabinet-makers. His father Federico, who was a woodcarver, ran the «Ebanisteria faentina», a cabinet-making company in Faenza, until moving with the entire family to Cesena in 1909, where he had been summoned to direct the Cabinet-making and Woodcarving Department of the local trade school and where Leonardo would earn his diploma in 1913- Upon completion of the Scuola Industrial di Cesena, he immediately enrolled in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts where, together with Osvaldo Licini, he frequented the Sculpture Department. The First World War, however, shattered the world which he had to that point seen as 'built with order and wisdom»; Castellani was called to arms in 1915 and served his country until March of 1920, when he was honorably discharged from the armed services with the rank of second lieutenant. In the same year he published his first book entitled 2 quaderni (2 Notebooks), a sort of diary describing encounters, impressions, and thoughts, which was printed by his uncle's printing company in Forli.

During his stay in Rome, he frequented sculptor Ettore Ferrari's studio, and followed the experiences of the group of futurists led by F.T. Marinetti, although his closest friend was Balla. Upon returning to Cesena, he founded a ceramic art workshop, his "Bottega di ceramica artistica", which closed in 1923 due to the lack of marketability of his innovative products, and as a result of two fires which devastated the workshop. In the same period of time, he organized a personal exhibit of his ceramic art. In that moment of futurist fervor, he also did much painting and sculpture, and out of these efforts came two singular episodes: the exhibition of a handful of works at the Third Biennial Exhibit of Modem Art in Rome in 1925 and, the following year, at the International Biennal Exhibit of Modern Art in Venice. The group Amici dell'arte in Cesena organized a personal exhibit in his honour (with 16 paintings and as many drawings) as early as 1927, the year in which he decided to move to Venice, where he would meet Cardarelli, Ezra Pound, and Virgilio Guidi.

In 1928 Castellani was invited to join the teaching staff of the Art Institute in Fano's Department of Decoration and Ceramics; from this moment on, Castellani served as a teacher for the rest of his working life. It was in Fano that he began, as an autodidact, to study engraving and to engrave. In 1930 he was summoned to Urbino to assume a position in the Chalcography Department at the prestigious "Scuola del Libro", a position which he would hold for the next 38 years. And in Urbino, dividing his time between the vocations of teaching, painting and engraving, he carried out the bulk of his work, which includes over 1500 engravings.

In the dense chiaroscuro of the tree in Castellani's very first engraving (a landscape inspired by Rembrandt's work), one can already sense his taste for the neoclassici-sm of the 19th century which claimed its inspiration from the ancients. Other contemporary Italian graphic artists, such as Morandi, Carrd, Bartolini and Maccari, who were engraving without set projects or plans, had a completely different style. One contemporary journal of note which published drawings, drypoints, etchings, and xylographs was «Il Selvaggio». Beyond these pages and outside the traditions represented by Fattori's work, there were no other artists or journals in Italy of note at the time.

It was upon these foundations that engraving technique was reborn in Italy; and Castellani was, to be sure, among the first to truly understand both the art of engraving and the enormous effort involved in learning and mastering this art form. The city of Urbino itself would determine the successive choices and orientation of Castellani's work; and the city's environment, along with the breathtaking panoramas of the historic duchy of Urbino would be the leading motifs in his work in the graphic arts. First a virtuoso with the bulin, then artist and finally poet (by De Sanctis' definition) Castellani adventurously undertook many, diverse projects, from which emerged not only his spirit of initiative, but also his subtle skill as editor. The journal «Valbona», printed optimistically for the 80 subscribers it never succeeded in attracting, remains today an unsurpassed example of artistic printing. After this experience, Castellani found it easier to publish his other works: he would in fact be able to dust off his old notebooks and join them with the articles of his long, rich journalistic and literary collaborations (in journals such as «Roma futurista», «L'Assalto», «Longanesi's», «Il Popolo», «La Fiera Letteraria», and Pannunzio's «Il Mondo», «La Voce Repubblicana», «La Nazione», «Il Resto del Carlino», and G.B. Vicari's «Il Caffè» among others). He also began to illustrate his own books with etchings, and sent to press Pagine senza cornice (1946), Quaderni di un calcografo (1955), Cronachette d'amore in versi (1968), Giornate lunghe in Sardegna (1969), 13 canzonette (1971), Invito in Sicilia (1973) and Donne donne così sia (1979).

Between 1926 and 1956 Castellani participated not only in many of the Venetian Biennial Exhibits of Modern Art, but also in all of the exhibits abroad organized by the Roman Sindacato del Bianco e Nero (Black and White Union), and those promoted by the Calcografia Nazionale di Roma. Three important anthological exhibits were held during his lifetime: the first in Urbino in 1976, the second in Faenza two years later, the third in Klagenfurt in 1990. He was active up until the last days of his life, before passing away in Urbino on November 20, 1984.