Castellani,
Engraver Paolo Bellini Introduction
Only a short time has passed since the death of Leonardo Castellani in 1984, but it is perhaps sufficient to attempt at least a historical if not a critical interpretation of his work. This is true above all for his engravings, as, if it is true that he was a versatile artist in various fields, it is also certain that his greatest attention and his most original and significant contribution was made amongst plates, acids, and chisels. Engraving, then. But not the confused and bungled engraving of many of today's artists, where many painters who have never engraved or acid-treated a plate flow together with impunity. No, not that, but rather an authentic engraving, expressed with a language that is exclusively its own, that of the chisel and its mark. In Castellani the engraver, one will not find any other form of expression, nor, although he was also a painter, does one ever witness a confusion of languages'. All of the above, among other things, I will try to show in the following pages, which hope to be an artistic-historical commentary on his activity from which, in the end, a key to the interpretation of his work, through affirmations and judgments based upon a direct observation and examination of the works and their progressive formal evolution, may be outlined. This will permit, in the end, a recognition of the merits of this very great artist, beyond the gracious and moving 'mythology' of the Urbino period, that until now has often accompanied the artistic literature regarding him, and which has put his artistic merits on a lesser plane, in a favor of a more emotional and friendly key for that interpretation. An attitude which, moreover, is entirely comprehensible in relation to one who was not only an excellent artist, but also a man of the highest caliber.
The artistic itinerary: stopovers and stages
Castellani's debut as an engraver took place at the end of the Twenties, a most difficult period for engraving in Italy. The post-war, the enthusiasm of the second avant-garde and the throbs of that anomalous movement that was the 1900s had created a completely unique atmosphere, in which very little space was reserved for official attention to engravers. There had been and there were in truth a few editorial initiatives, worthy of great interest, but of little weight in the situation of the moment. In 1919 the publication in Milan of Ettore Cozzani's «L'Eroica» had begun again; only a few years later, in 1924, Mino Maccari with Leo Longanesi would found «Il Selvaggio». In 1925, the Benaglia printing of Fattori's engravings had been carried out. Shortly after, Mary Pittaluga had published his fundamental Storia dell'incisione italiana nel Cinquecento (1928), followed a few years later by Benvenuto Disertori, then a professor at Milan's Brera Academy, who sent to press his L'incisione italiana (Milan, 1931). But in truth, notwithstanding the value and real solidity of these initiatives, at that moment they do not appear to have been able to open a breach in the general apathy of the critics and public. And yet, despite the common disinterest, a few of the greatest of the engravers were laboring in the silence of their own studios, caring little about the indifference that surrounded them. It often happens this way — the history of art teaches us this. moments of obscurity have frequently been the best for the great masters, who in the quiet concealment imposed upon them by the disinterest of the mob have carried out in complete freedom engravings that would only much later be recognized in all their precious greatness. Among the names of these great but «hidden» masters where those of Casorati, Morandi, Carra, Viviani, Bartolini, Soffici, Bozzetti, Mauroner, Molin de Ferenzona, and Mezzanotte. Leonardo Castellani made his debut in just such a situation. Establishing oneself in engraving at that time meant, from the outset, an uphill struggle along an impossible road, ignored by the critics and by the art market. Nevertheless, Castellani took the risk. The step was taken in Fano, where he had been called to teach tracery and ceramics. It was 1928. Looking at these works from his beginnings, two solid characteristics already stood out beyond the obvious efforts in chiaroscuro (1); on the one hand, a stable confidence in the use of the tools of his craft, and on the other, a slow, methodical way of working, without giving way to sudden flashes of intuition. Slow and measured works, landscapes and still-life scenes suspended in a silence due more to the meticulous care of the engraver than to the intuitive felicity of a creative moment. It was thus a careful and scrupulous Castellani that was entering the world of engraving on tiptoe. Records tell us that in those years he had seen a few works of Morandi (2), but there seem to have still been no direct influences on the method itself of engraving the plate. And yet, Castellani certainly must have been fascinated by the great solitary Bolognese; if for no other reason, for his slow and meditative pace that so suited him. «mine», he would say many years later, «is a long job, and this makes me skeptical of immediacy-(3). In 1930 Castellani was called to teach chalcography at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino, a prestigious institution that had been founded in 1925. In the beginning, the novelty seemed to be only in the geographical move, in the sense that the artist's first works carried out in Urbino were still marked by studies in light and chiaroscuro. The real turning point, the decisive one, came about 1933-34. It was only the beginning of a passage, then still being attempted and accompanied among other things by regressions, rethinkings and then new thrusts forward. But in 1933 there came forth from the artist's chisel works such as Ca' Quagliotti (The Quagliotti house) (Pozza 45); Casa Coen (The Coen house) (Pozza 46) and Giovane quercia (Young oak) (Pozza 61), and with these one immediately senses something new in the air, something more free and easy and perhaps even more daring. The vision has changed, the planes are more articulated, and the motionless equilibrium of the first compositions seems to have been abandoned. In my opinion it is here that we can begin to sense in some way the influence of Morandi. The transformation is still sharper and more marked in the Paesaggio marchigiano (Marche landscape) (Pozza 71), of 1934. Light ever more invades the composition, and that sort of composed and didactic need to engrave every part of the plate with equal care relinquishes its place to a more free and easy style. The slightly heavy shadows of the first works disappear and here, for the first time, we can say that Castellani begins to do without outlines, while in contrast the shading with diagonal strokes appears even better defined. One senses in some way the presence of Morandi. For that matter, a 1928 etching of his (Vitali 118) could have been an unconscious inspiration to Castellani for the spatial organization of his Paesaggio marchigiano. In any event, the artist in this period moved in many directions. He most likely felt the influence of other sources; how can we not see, for example, in Paesaggio urbinate IV (Urbino landscape IV) (Pozza 122), a glimpse of certain Umbrian panoramas of Disertori ? (4) Here, among other things, Castellani resorts to a raised point of view, in accordance with a scheme which is unusual for him. In this moment also appears a structural and visual device to which Castellani will frequently return in the future, consisting in the presence in the foreground, or at least at a much closer level, of one or two trees, very often cypresses, straight as candles reaching toward the heavens. Paesaggio al tirassegno (Landscape at the shooting-range) (Pozza 116) seems to be the first obvious case of the use of this device, repeated four years later in La casa del cantoniere (Roadman's house) (Pozza 131) and still again in the following years, with modifications which were at times substantial, almost so much so as to no longer permit a recognition of its artistic beginnings. In the period which lasted from the immediate post-war years until I960, Castellani firmly and definitively established himself as an artist. This was presumably his finest moment (5). He had already produced with his chisel very clean and accurate landscape compositions, subtle and elegant proof of the mastery he had achieved in the use of light. These works, observed Neri Pozza, «are among the most refined proof of his skill and elegance in chiaroscuro, where he wields his craft with such mastery as to risk burning the image- (6). Here then are visions inundated by a blinding sunlight, as in Passeggiata preferita (Favourite landscape) (Pozza 117, of 1945), or Paesaggio estivo con pioppi (Summer landscape with poplars) (Pozza 188), or refined and punctilious exercises in the hatching of several still-life compositions. Castellani the artist was growing and his favorite subject, the landscape, was enriched in those years by elements that would remain constants until the end. The characteristic moment, and in a certain sense the realization of a typology of •-surpassing himself", came about in 1948 with Paesaggio al mattino (morning landscape) (Pozza 245), which appears at the glance to be a view much like many others. Yet here for first time, are summed several characteristics that would form from these general lines the specific personal trademark in Castellani's interpretation of the engraver's art. The point of view in the beginning is from below looking upward. The foreground of sparse or single cypresses utilized in the preceding years here is substituted by a more compact detail of vegetation, and a diagonal shading which, with its different gradations, is seemingly disorderly and yet effective, to the point of making the sunlight shine to a maximum in the areas left free of any other marks. Nothing however was left to chance and the artist was constantly conjugating his personal foundation as a landscape artist with a direct observation of nature, employed in and filtered through the preliminary sketches. When they are compared to the corresponding engravings, these sketches document the fidelity of the artist's transfer of the drawing to the plate, without however precluding himself the modifications in the carving phase that he held most opportune (7). This direct observation of nature and the successive adjustments in the creative phase were the bases upon which naturally developed the typological system reached and stably acquired by 1948. It would be repeated, with additional mutations, in a growing number of exceptional works in the period which would immediately follow. Such is the case with Paesaggio al mattino (morning landscape) (Pozza 244) and the stupendous plate that is Mondavio (Pozza 249), both of 1948, through to the arrival of such masterpieces as Paesaggio estivo a Urbania lungo il metauro (Sommer landscape at Urbania by the metauro) (Pozza 256) or Il Borghetto di San michele al Fiume (The Quarter of S. Michele at Fiume) (Pozza 269) in the following year. Other phenomena of lesser importance accompanied the activity of these years, such as the progressive abandonment of the still-life, or a few visual experiments, carried out in a series of small plates of the early 1950s. In these, the point of view appears to be from a closer range, the vision closes in on details, such as solitary groups of trees or clumps of vegetation. The strokes also appear more rapid and sketched, the shading more thin and discontinuous, often without the aid of any outlines. In these works — valid examples being Angolo di bosco (Corner of a wood) (Pozza 278) and Il Palazzone dei Principi (The princes' Palace) (Pozza 280) - the relationships by now acquired between black and white are in part revised. Unexpected human presences also appear in two of these plates: in Paesaggio in Carpegna (Carpegna landscape) (Pozza 282) and Viale a Pian del monte (Road at Pian del monte) (Pozza 288). It was 1950. Castellani had by then lived in the quiet of Urbino for twenty years. He had progressively denuded himself of the more awkward notes in his old-fashioned graphic formation and had by this time completely acquired a personal language of his own. Above all, the technique, having reached the most refined of results, was no longer a barrier to the free and imaginative choice of subject, matter ever more tied among other things to the setting of Urbino, to her walls, homes, fields and hills. The most significant notes of his engraving style in this period were concentrated in particular on choices in the use of chiaroscuro, now bolder, with strong and contrasting shading, with the scope of emphasizing the zones of intense and entirely solar light, the primary concern being the atmospheric result. The examples in this sense are countless, but I limit myself here to citing, for convenience's sake, a single engraving, La villa nascosta (The Hidden villa) of 1952 (Pozza 307), as it is in a certain sense emblematic of the choices that had been put into practice. The system is still the same, but is now enriched by new nuances, untouchable, bright and velvety atmospheres in contrast to the robust shaded areas; contrasts which are intense and no longer angular, a vision that is lasting in time, continually enriching itself with successive visual discoveries within the duration of the vision on the part of the viewer. It is almost as if in these works there were to a lesser degree a single focal point, and as if the eye were induced to follow first here, then there a central point which is never stationary. There are multiple shades of grey (see Le case nuove, (New houses) 1952, No. 310 in the Pozza catalogue), the fruit of an intelligent and varied use of the chisel, and of a differentiated path of the crossings (8). The subject of the tonalities of grey regards above all the year 1953- It is in fact from this year on that Castellani resorts to a device that he will later introduce in many other works. It consists in the progressive elimination of the blacks and in general of the darkest shading, and in the simultaneous brightening of all the other areas, to the point of obtaining a sort of patina or glaze that gives a brilliant and luminous atmosphere to the work as a whole; the rustling of the branches of the trees that, moving, vary the light; the sunny zones of the hills, the houses painted by a defused and decided brightness. Perhaps the first plate carried out in this way then was La casa di Lucio (Lucio's house) in 1953 (Pozza 328), but later this investigation was carried further in many other works, always searching for atmospheric values and the most perfect rendering of the light. In Canale a Mazzorbo (Canal at Mazzorbo) (Pozza 331), for example, an environment which is luminous, tranquil and composed dominates with a superior and evident calm, almost as if repeating the slow movement of the watercourse represented. In other engravings, the artist succeeds in some way in melding the two styles, in the sense that the darkest shadows are bathed in the hot light of midday. The system foresees a visual course which had already been experimented - a hilly panorama looking upward from below, beginning with the darker elements of the foreground, crossing a surface with zones of chiaroscuro, and ending at the top with a very clear, terse sky full of sunlight. La collina di Gadana (The Hill at Gadana) (Pozza 349), of 1954, well demonstrates these achieved aims, and many of the works of the years immediately following are replicas of the results obtained. Toward the end of the 1950s, Castellani began to publish the magazine "Valbona- (9). His etchings, meanwhile, manifested a certain tendency to give a greater space to vegetation. He would follow this path throughout the 1960s, with his works «glazed in light-, and with the foreshortening of towns captured in the most red-hot hours of scorching heat. The skies are in fact empty of all shading, completely white and yet hot, in harmonious consonance with the rest of the composition. (Disertori, too, was depicting white skies, but with other effects.) Then further experimentation, new subjects, and yet all variations on the one true theme that constantly fascinated the artist, that of the atmospheric rendering of light. Thus, in 1964, were to appear a few unedited and surprising subjects, such as Le mura di Cagli(Walls at Cagli) (Pozza 463) or L'isola Lachea (The island of Lachea) (Pozza 464). Other similar works would follow. A few of these are unusual in that they overturn one of the cardinal principles of his basic system, that of the view looking up from below. In fact, in Versante a Ponente (Slope at Ponente) (1965, Pozza 480) or in Plan del melo II (1966, Pozza 505), the observation point changes: but these were isolated episodes. We are now in 1966: in a few engravings from this year, for example in Plan del melo VI (Pozza 509), a further process of slow semplification begins, a sort of progressive stripping down of that which still remains of the actual data, substituted by his translation in an ever more personal key. Neri Pozza, alluding to this new mental attitude of the artist, has come to describe a «loss of reality- (10). Perhaps this is not strictly true, since it is not reality that is abandoned so much as the stable, complete, normal and balanced vision of his pieces, in order to make room' for compositions reserved for more particular and sectorial moments: single pieces of landscapes, more concentrated on the rendering of light and detail. These are engravings dominated by musical cadences and by a sort of antelitteram abstraction. Among other things, there is the insistent return here of the «patina of light» that the artist had presumably already attempted with success in 1953, as is recorded above, with La cam di Lucio (Pozza 328). They are clear prints, luminous compositions, with spaces which are ever more open and wide-ranging. In these the objects of the vision will be reworked, in a process of simplification that leads the artist to limit his attention to just a few things, described irregularly and only in part, leaving the job of defining what the chisel has not traced on the plate to the light. Thus we find ourselves before etchings like La cam sotto il monte (The house under the mountain) (Pozza 523) of 1967, or Nubi a levante (Eastern clouds) (Pozza 588), which are a synthesis of 'much' obtained with 'little'; a house and a field, with the addition at most of a sunny lane (see Pozza 585 and 587) but rendered with almost nothing, leaving the plate integral, to the point of making an intense and luminous white light shine on the page. The production of the last period, that of the 1970s and 1980s, is characterized by an ever greater presence of those etchings which we have described as «glazed in light-, where all the blacks are mitigated in favor of grays. The extreme point of this study appears to be, as has already observed Neri Pozza, Santa Chiara (Pozza 916), with its slender, bare trees and radiant lights, carried to completion with two extremely rapid mordantings (11). In these works, the definition of what is 'real' remains ever more confined to a suggested approximation and in contrast the areas left white in the extremely luminous skies and in the fields bathed in sunlight are enlarged. This production is rather heavy through 1978. From here on, the artist enters into another period of experimentation. In this year he would in fact already attempt a few etchings with a much stronger than usual use of shading, as in Monte alle Vigne (mountain vineyards) (Pozza 891), or in precious unedited aquatic studies as in Case a Mazzorbo (Houses at Mazzorbo) (Pozza 893)- He frequently accompanied etchings with aquatints, but here the results do not seem to be particularly significant. And, in any case, in a pure and extremely able engraver such as Castellani, the mixing of different techniques is felt with greater weight and leaves less cancellable traces. In this phase one seems to also witness a revival of the motifs and subjects of the preceding eras. A few still-life works return, as do typologies of landscapes used more frequently in the past. The use of drypoint also abounds in this last phase, for the most part in plates of small dimensions (12). It is an undeniably curious and interesting practice because with this technique, in many cases, the artist repeats structural systems and composites attempted many times with success in his etchings. This makes the differences readable with a certain ease and security. The pure value of the chisel's mark is lost somewhat in drypoint, while on the contrary the valence of the stroke is amplified, in a rather pictorial key, with a vivid and desirable contrast between the whites and blacks, while for the most part appear to be absent both those indefinite ranges of grays that characterize Castellani's etchings, and the 'patina' of light that is his most characteristic trademark in his most mature production.
Castellani's subjects
Of the two subjects treated preferentially by Castellani in his etchings, the still-life interested above all in the 1930s and 1940s and then had a second moment in the later production. In comparison to the much more frequently used landscapes, the still-life works at first glance would seem to be almost a secondary production in Castellani. But as Valsecchi has rightly pointed out, -these help us to better understand his 'poetics'... Objects of the simple life, perhaps discarded after use ... in these prints, even the strip of sky disappears, a dark density prevails in the bright lights that run above the borders like a sudden ignition of phosphorous and sulfur- (13). Castellani felt the same way about this, writing in the Quaderno di un calcografo that, -The still-life already possesses a solitary life of its own, mute and highly contrary to the opening of a sound or to the extension of space, — the secret of this life, if it can be called that, is circumscribed by inactivity, by a predestination that can never be broken, hidden in the order of a position which is definitely stationary-' (14). From these considerations, the reader may be able to grasp a feeling as to what Castellani thought about nature. This is something that in any event one can consistently read rather well, in his landscapes. It is a sensation in which the artist gives continuous testimony, almost to the point of convincing the viewer that nature, in its most real form, is without human beings and without motion. They are the same 'poetics' of the still-life. When seen in this light, Castellani's landscapes seem vaguely to be a pretext, an occasion for a moment of contemplation, «a poetic spell that is a mixture of truth and grace- (15). moreover, as Volpini observed, Castellani «is a contemplator who passes through an intense meditation, a gathering of the real that, passing through the eyes, fills the heart- (16), and the same identical gaze at the same identical hill is for him the symbol of what it means, something much like the '-infinite hedge- described by Leopardi (17). In truth, the opinions of the critics on this point and on its interpretation, are not always identical. If for example the cited Valerio Volpini finds «a vocation, together with memory and description- (18), in this tendency of the artist, Floriano de Santi contrarily sustains that «there is nothing pathetic in the work of Castellani, no nostalgic effusion of the spirit, even if this work can be collected around only a few themes- (19). Therefore it will be well, in any case, to refer directly to the works themselves, without allowing oneself to be distracted by poetic diversions or literary seductions. To begin with, a fact that emerges with a certain constancy in the landscape etchings of Castellani is that the point of view in which the spectator is always placed is beneath them, and it is as if he were forced to a view from below looking up. Such constancy cannot be casual and therefore reasonably one might ask oneself if this makes any sense. Valsecchi perhaps suggested an interpretation when, underlining the fact that the gaze of whoever might look at the work is deferred ever more 'vertically', he specified that this happens -toward the high space of the clear sky (20). Gastone Mosci (21) has attempted still better and more profoundly to go into this, reporting this continous looking-up-from-below with a sentence that the artist wrote in Vivere nel tuo paese, where he said, «I would teach you to stroll through the fields and to love the land» (22). As if to say: wisdom comes from the consciousness of being below the sky. If these attempts at interpretation respond to the truth, one can easily understand the logic of the scanty variety of subjects treated by the artist. The fundamental point of what he had to say was expressed perfectly through the tracing of the still-life or of the landscape. Or rather, of a particular typology of the landscape, reached, as we have seen, by means of constant mutations. Every representation, although participating in the same compositional structure, is different. Each one says the same thing, but at the same time is trying to better say that which the artist feels to have not yet said completely. The choice reveals the man and his interior, stubborn honesty. The testimony is nearly all in agreement on this point. There are those who remember simply his -'distinguished and affable ways of a country gentleman of days gone by" (23); others who have known and can revoke mixed moments of respect and friendship, as did recently Franco Mazzini (24); and lastly those who have been able to capture much more interior aspects of him, the essence of this person of firm and sweet character, quiet in his lifestyle, resolute in his convictions, capable perhaps of '-observations which could be delimited, but also of acutely regarding aspects of solitary things- (25). The mutual relationship of interchange that Castellani had established between his lifestyle and his engraving is thus evident. As Volpini has already observed, when he wrote that «Castellani took from his engraving a style of life and culture: engraving is punctuality, craftsmanship, and a sense of poetry in the small community, the town where one can live without becoming 'provincialized', obtaining a gift of humanity that elsewhere is all too easily lost- (26). It was an act of continual, assiduous coherence not without difficulty. The subjects of the engravings had that endless study of the same theme, in an attempt to say something that later always remains yet to be said; this is an aspect of that coherence that was feeding in essence upon two things: attention to others and severity towards himself. It is an aspect upon which Leonardo Sciascia has also commented, when he described Castellani with these words: «rigorous in his principles, in his work; full of cordial attention to people and things; affable» (27). And yet he was, in his own way, reserved. This was a side of Castellani which Francesco Carnevali described, saying, «If there is anything to reproach in him, it would seem to me to be his shy reserve, the vigilant self-control, almost as if out of a desire to hide himself, for fear of revealing some secret intimate abandon»(28). But what could he have revealed, he who wrote that «men who know how to make themselves believable to others are those who live the tiring task of high hopes» (29).
About his engraving style
Notwithstanding the great depth if his intentions, the continual reflection on his subjects and a personality so bursting in inner richness, Castellani would not in any event have attained any positive results if he had not been sustained, in the practical exercise of engraving, by an adequate technical skill and by the formidable experience in decades of real and dedicated work. Those peculiarities in his way of engraving also intersect questions of a stylistic nature, such as the presumed nearness to a Morandian style, especially in that which regards a certain type of crossed tracing. In my opinion, if there are resemblances, they rest only in an exterior symbolic consonance, as the actual way of interpreting the act of engraving is different, as are different the relationships that the two establish between their own styles of engraving and painting and those, rather more important, between the natural datum and its artistic translation (30). There is, therefore, I repeat, only exterior symbolic consonance, present only in a certain number of works, and never in the sense of plagiarism or imitation, but rather as the assumption of a formal key that would make possible certain experiments, and which was oriented toward a set of goals rather far from those of Morandi. In any case, an analogous phenomenon also occurred in the works of Lino Bianchi Barriviera. As to these presumed Morandian influences, Luigi Lambertini noted that «Castellani's strokes in the beginning are crossed and become thicker or clearer by means of the insistence of the artist; the crossings frequently are born from an overlapping of the parallel stripes marked by multiple and different inclinations. At a certain point the Morandian lesson will be evident, also. It will be useful to Castellani above all in the last years of the Thirties, in order to attain that free and easy manner and aristocratic elegance that will later become his most personal means of immersing the landscape and the still-life in light- (31). Another technical-stylistic aspect worthy of consideration has been the 'progressive landscape', well described above all by Francesco Carnevali (32): "from the first dark works beaten by a radiant light, that to some have recalled those of Rembrandt, until the acquisition of a range of clear and solar tones-. «Castellani was an engraver of the 'clear' genre», confirmed Sciascia. "Clarity was his gift, the gift in his etchings, in his prose» (33). It is a sort of double clearness, as in every one of his subjects Castellani proposes a vision which is at the same time both clear to the eyes and that has a clearly comprehensible theme. most commentators have dealt above all with the first of these two aspects. For example, in the same passage cited above, Sciascia emphasizes the fact that Castellani's was «an airy and clear rendering of the landscape-, like Segonzac's, and that he did not crowd the plate with marks and imprints as did Bartolini (34). Already in 1951 Petrucci had observed this progressive change, and in that year noted: --Landscapes ever more simple and airy, in which the contrasts were being slightly moderated and the forms being diluted in an ever greater clarity- (35). Neri Pizza is also of the same opinion: «The problem to which, for him, all else is subordinate is that of light; that particular light of the silence of summer, that exalts and persecutes him- (36). And further: «The hour of Castellani is that in which the sun is sinking vertically- (37), and all is stagnant and immobile. The eye effortlessly explores the ample spaces of the perspective, rises following the hills, rests in the shady areas, does not tire in those made golden by the sun. The vision is made calmly and without jerks, as it had in any case been conceived and realised on the plate. A composed and ordered moderation, on the other hand, marked the laborious slowness of Castellani's way of working, of which remain the concordant testimony of friends, critics and acquaintances. Neri Pozza (38) underlined this, for example, as did Franco Mazzini, who emphasized his '-ponderous, rather slow engraving-, adding, <-I never saw him hurry- (39). But even more precious than theirs is the testimony of his wife, Edvige: -my husband was very slow in engraving ... He carried out his preliminary designs in the open air, then brought them back to the plate, and engraved and thought at length until completing the work, maybe changing some small detail to harmonise the landscape- (40). In any event the artist himself, speaking of his work, admitted his point of view with his usual quiet. -I need, not being by nature a very learned person, to reexamine my every work, to correct and rethink it in order to master the idea of slowness, and incredulity. Some engravings go on for months, some for years; others remain forever suspended. I am rather more accepting of the immediate in a certain kind of painting, in drawing, or in watercolors» (41). This laborious circumspection derived from his way of being, which suggested to him several of those behaviors that would later characterize his life — isolation, for example, or his distancing himself from the fashions of the moment or from the critics. It was a sort of double choice; the artist chose the consequences that would necessarily derive from his choices. The first of these is a misinterpretation of his work by the critics, not only obviously in the years in which the engravings did not interest either the critics or the collectors, but also in later years when, that era passed, there was a kind of boom in the graphic arts. Also in this period very few paid any attention to him, but those who did were often the critics of the greatest talent. The others in any event didn't ignore him on purpose. Very often they knew nothing about engraving and, when they casually entered this field, it was almost always to speak of painters who had begun to work in graphics (42). Despite the lack of knowledge on the part of certain critics, the multiple positive aspects contained in the etchings of Castellani in any event slowly came to light: the great skill in his technique; testimony of an order acquired with experience in contrast to the untimeliness of other forms of art; his particular and rich use of light. The decisive year was in a certain sense 1974, when Neri Pozza dedicated to the artist a work which to this day remains unsubstituable: a general catalogue of his engravings through that year. From then on, as if the lid had been taken off of a box, allowing us at last to smell all of the perfume that it contained, there has been a continuing crescendo of exhibits and publications, new editions and articles (43). It will be clear now to anyone reading this text that the writer has arrived on the scene to speak of Castellani when the doors have already been opened, and the secrets revealed. more expert commentators have already expressed all that there is to say in this regard. Nevertheless, I would like to underline, in addition, an aspect which perhaps has been too little observed, and that is the profoundly ethical dimension of Castellani the artist, that moral quality that he consistently conferred upon his work. There are artists in whom reigns a strict coherence between the way of conceiving life and that of conceiving their art. I think of Picasso, or on a totally opposite front of Van Gogh or Rouault. Coherence, as a characteristic of their own seriousness on a human as well as artistic plane, rejecting those not-always-honest extroversions that have at times marked an art in large part free of any stylistic justification. As wrote Valsecchi in a comment which has remained famous (and has rightly again and again been cited), that of Castellaniu was «a creative operation, made of an antique grace and civility so remote from ourselves as to seem timeless. And yet not outsiders because, in the end, they force us to a realization that beyond the violence, the hurried gestures, beyond the strong tastes that this life has accustomed us to, there is still a civil and humane way — antique, I said — for slow discussion, made of anxious thoughts, but expressed with clear and serene images- (44).
1) Many commentators have stressed this aspect, underlining above all the «strong Rembrandt-like effects of light and shadows-. (Angelo Dragone, Leonardo Castellani. Urbino e la sua Scuola, in Annuario delta grafica in 2) Italia, Milan 1986, p. 35.) 3) Compare Neri Pozza, Leonardo Castellani. Opera grafica (1928-1973), Vicenza, 1974, p. 11. 4) Leonardo Castellani, from Un dialogo con Rosario Assunto, Aldina Gallery Catalogue, Rome, April-may 1971. 5) See for example La porta dell'arco delta mandola (The mandola arch Door), (Bellini 22) of 1919 and Perugia, Via dei Priori (Bellini 35) of 1920 (compare Paolo Bellini, Benvenuto Disertori. Catalogo delle incisioni, in «I quaderni del conoscitore di stampe», Milan, Nov.-Dec. 1972, No. 14, pp. 34-49.) 6) According to Mezio, "Castellani's most beautiful etchings began to appear in print in 1945, when the artist frees himself of literary tricks, of optical problems, and of vague metaphysical temptations». (Alfredo Mezio, in AA.W., La Scuola del Libra di Urbino, Urbino, 1986, p. 88.) 7) Compare Neri Pozza, 1974, p. 88. · A few of these drawings are reproduced in Neri Pozza, 1974, pp. 12-13. 8) Regarding this topic, De Santi observed, «If in Castellani's first works the density of the blacks was increasing, now it is the gradual softness of the grays that invades the white of the paper with the same musicality of a rhyme which does not limit itself to the end of a verse, but ascends it and imbues it with perfume-. (Floriano De Santi, L'illimite lirico di Leonardo Castellani, from Il linguaggio dell'incisione, I, 1981, cited in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, Omaggio a Leonardo Castellani, in «Notizie da Palazzo Albank Urbino 1985, p. 134; reprinted in Floriano De Santi, L'illimite lirico di Leonardo Castellani, Milan, 1986, p. 14). 9) From 1957 to 1961 Castellani published the magazine «Valbona» in extremely limited copy (according to Neri Pozza, only 100-150 copies). A total of 20 issues were printed. From these an edited version was reprinted in 1986. For further information, see Floriano De Santi, 1986, pp. 14-15,17 (note 9.) 10) Neri Pozza, 1974, p. 14. 11) And he continues: «The horizontal cut of the image is carried out with complete simplicity: Transversal cuts and a few slightly deeper cuts to render the rows of trees». (Neri Pozza, Leonardo Castellani. Ampliamenti all'opera grafica. (1973-1984), Vicenza 1986, p. 9). 12) On the use of drypoint, begun by Castellani as early as 11950, see Neri Pozza, 1974, pp. 14-15. 13) Marco Valsecchi, introduction to the catalogue for the exhibit mostra Antologica di Leonardo Castellani, at the Collegio Raffaello, Urbino, 1976, p. 8. 14) Leonardo Castellani, from Quaderno di un calcografo, 1955, cited in marco Valsecchi, introduction to the catalogue for the exhibit entitled mostra Antologica di Leonardo Castellani, at the Collegio Raffaello (Urbino, 1976, p. 5.) 15) Ardengo Soffici, «Le Carte Parlanti», Florence, September 1950, cited in Neri Pozza, 1974, p. 16. 16) Valerio Volpini, cited in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 96. 17) Silvia Sassi Cuppini, Leonardo Castellani, in «Notizie da Palazzo Albani», 1,1976, cited in Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 130. 18) Valerio Volpini, cited in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 57. 19) Floriano De Santi, 1986, p. 15. 20) Marco Valsecchi, introduction to the catalogue for the exhibit entitled Mostra Antologica di Leonardo Castellani, at the Collegio Raffaello, Urbino, 1976, p. 5. 21) Gastone Mosci in AA.W, La Scuola del Libro di Urbino, Urbino, 1986, p. 85. 22) Leonardo Castellani, Vivere nel tuo paese, Vicenza, 1964, p. 96. 23) Luigi Lambertini, cited in Neri Pozza, 1986, p. 16. 24) Franco Mazzini, Ricordo di Castellani, in "Grafica d'arte», April-June 1991, No. 6. 25) Francesco Carnevali, mostra personale dell'acquafortista Leonardo Castellani, Rovigo, 1948. 26) Valerio Volpini, Provincia amata da Leonardo Castellani, «Il popolo», Rome, February 27, 1965, cited in S. Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 108. This echoes the opinion of Volpini as expressed by Mosci: «One of the secrets of Castellani is that of the memory of life, which be understands in a happy way, because a life united with art and the realization of his own vocation cannot give anything but joy and happiness. But to this we must add the great labor, the care put into the work, the infinite notes of his itinerary as observer and traveler-. (Gastone Mosci, L'incisore scrive poesie, in «La Voce», march 16,1980.) 27) Leonardo Sciascia, cited in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 105. 28) Francesco Carnevali, mostra personale dell'acquafortista Leonardo Castellani, Rovigo, 1948. 29) Leonardo Castellani, cited in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 75. 30) Mezio, since 1951, had already observed that, «for Morandi, the etching is an exercise in the free translation of one's painting; for Castellani it is instead an experience of the open-air landscapisk (Alfredo mezio, L'ultimo moicano, in «Il mondo-, Rome, 1951, No. 9.) 31) Luigi Lambertini, in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 105. 32) Francesco Carnevali, mostra personale dell'acquafortista Leonardo Castellani, Rovigo, 1948. 33) Leonardo Sciascia, in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, p. 105. 34) Ibid., p. 105. 35) Carlo Alberto Petrucci, Le incisioni di Leonardo Castellani, Calcografia Nazionale, Rome, 1951. 36) Neri Pozza, Le acqueforti di Leonardo Castellani, Calcografia Nazionale, Rome. 37) Neri Pozza, 1986, p. 8. 38) Compare Pozza, 1986, page 7 and note 3. 39) Franco Mazzini, 1991, No. 6, p. 3. 40) Leonardo Castellani, in Franco Mazzini, 1991, No. 6, p. 15. 41) Leonardo Castellani, in Silvia Sassi Cuppini, 1985, pp. 68-69. 42) See among other works about this constant and shameful disinterest among the critics Floriano De Santi's analytical and methodically annotated work of 1986, L'illimite lirico di Leonardo Castellani, (Milan, 1986, p. 17, note 1) where among other things, he says, -Castellani was too remote and shy to defend his own image with the infinite arsenal of artifices and cautions that pay off in the short term». See also Neri Pozza, 1986, pp. 8,10. 43) The last news in this sense, testimony of a fortunate progress in the criticism, are a few posthumous editions of small plates found in the studio of the artist, (compare Appunti ritrovati, a volume including 12 of Castellani's engravings, of which 11 are unedited, save for their presence in the 2 catalogues edited by N, Pozza. The volume was published in Pesaro, in 1989, for the Stamperia della Pergola, that in the following year then printed La Gloriosa mirable natura, with ten unedited poems and 7 etchings of Castellani.) 44) Marco Valsecchi, Ha tradotto ipaesaggi di Leopardi, in «I1 Giorno», Milan, may 16,1970.
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