Mario Salmi (

San Giovanni Valdarno San Giovanni Valdarno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Arezzo, Tuscany, central Italy, located in the valley of the Arno River. History According to the Italian medieval historian Giovanni Villani, the town was founded in 1296, by ...

, 14 June 1889 –

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, 16 November 1980) was an Italian

art historian Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

who specialized in

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe characterized by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque style, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 11th century, this lat ...

, Tuscan sculpture and the early

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

Life and work

After completing his laurea thesis in

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

in 1910 on the problems of the protection of the artistic heritage in Italy, Salmi specialized in

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

at the University of Rome under

Adolfo Venturi Adolfo Venturi (3 September 1856, Modena – 10 June 1941, Santa Margherita Ligure) was an Italian art historian. His son, Lionello Venturi, was also an art historian. Biography He received his education in Modena and Florence, and in 1878 ...

. He was appointed professor of art history first at the

, where he established the ''Istituto di Storia dell'Arte'', which opened in 1929, then at the

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

, where he founded the ''Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento'' in 1937.Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento
From 1950 to 1964, he was professor of art history at the University of Rome, where he primarily taught Renaissance and

Medieval art The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, gen ...

but also, for some years,

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

. Salmi's work was mainly focused on

Romanesque art Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art, Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 1 ...

and

Renaissance art Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

, with a particular fondness for the work of

Piero della Francesca Piero della Francesca (, also , ; – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca i ...

. However, apart from these main areas of interest, he ranged over a much wider field of art historical studies, from

early Christian art Early Christian art and architecture or Paleochristian art is the art produced by Christians or under Christian patronage from the earliest period of Christianity to, depending on the definition used, sometime between 260 and 525. In practice, id ...

Baroque art The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including th ...

, even managing to focus his interest on areas and periods hitherto neglected or undervalued by most other critics, such as

Coptic art Coptic art is the Christian art of the Byzantine-Greco-Roman Egypt and of Coptic Christian Churches. Coptic art is best known for its wall-paintings, textiles, illuminated manuscripts, and metalwork, much of which survives in monasteries an ...

. In 1952, he founded the " Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo". Always critical in his approach, he also put his attention to the so-called minor arts. In 1949, Salmi established the art review journal ''Commentari''. He was also supervisor of the 15-volume ''Enciclopedia Universale dell'Arte'', published from 1958 to 1967, which was soon translated into English as ''The Encyclopedia of World Art''. Salmi influenced many of his students at the universities of Pisa, Florence and Rome, including Alessandro Marabottini, Enzo Carli, Umberto Baldini, John Carandente, Mirella Levi D'Ancona, among them. His papers and photographs collection are held at the

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Select publications

*(with Basile Khvoshinsky), ''I pittori toscani dal XIII al XVI secolo'', 2 vols. (1912–14) *''The "Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci and the church of "Le Grazie" in Milan'' (1926) *''L'architettura romanica in Toscana'' (1928) *''La scultura romanica in Toscana'' (1928) *''Romanesque sculpture in Tuscany'' (1928) *''Masaccio'' (1935) *''

Paolo Uccello Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italians, Italian (Florentine) Florentine painting, painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. ...

Andrea del Castagno Andrea del Castagno () or Andrea di Bartolo di Bargilla (; – 19 August 1457) was an Italian painter from Florence, influenced chiefly by Masaccio and Giotto di Bondone. His works include frescoes in Sant'Apollonia in Florence and the painte ...

Domenico Veneziano Domenico Veneziano (c. 1410 – May 15, 1461) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mostly in Perugia and Tuscany. Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. He then moved ...

'' (1936) *''L'Abbazia di Pomposa'' (1938) *''Il Palazzo dei Cavalieri e la Scuola normale superiore di Pisa'' (1932) *''L'arte italiana'', 3 vols. (1940-1942) *''

e il Palazzo ducale di Urbino'' (1945) *''Masaccio, Masolino, Filippino Lippi'' (1945) *''Disegni di

Francesco di Giorgio Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501) was an Italian architect, engineer, painter, sculptor, and writer. As a painter, he belonged to the Sienese School. He was considered a visionary architectural theorist—in Nikolaus Pevsner's terms ...

nella collezione Chigi Saracini'' (1947) *''Luca Signorelli'' (1955) *''Grandi maestri del'400'' (1950) *''Lezioni di storia dell'arte medievale'' (1950) *''La Basilica di San Salvatore di Spoleto'' (1951) *''Masaccio'' (1951) *''L'arte italiana'' (1952) *''La miniatura fiorentina gotica'' (1954) *''San Domenico e San Francesco in Arezzo'' (1954) *''Italian miniatures'' (1954) *''La miniatura italiana'' (1956) *''Italienische Buchmalerie'' (1956) *''L'enluminure italienne'' (1956) *'' Cosmè Tura'' (1957) *''Enciclopedia universale dell'arte'', 15 vols. (1958-1967) *''Encyclopedia of World Art'', 15 vols (1959-1968) *''La chiesa inferiore di San Francesco di Arezzo di Mario Salmi'' (1960) *''

'' (1961) *''Romanische Kirchen in der Toskana'' (1961) *''The Abbey of Pomposa'' (1965) *(with

Charles de Tolnay Charles de Tolnay, born Károly von Tolnai (May 27, 1899 – January 17, 1981), was a Hungarian art historian and an expert on Michelangelo. According to Erwin Panofsky, he was "one of the most brilliant art historians" of his time.Ulrike Wendla ...

), ''Michelangelo: artista, pensatore, scrittore'', 2 vols. (1965) *(with Charles de Tolnay) ''Drawings of Michelangelo: 103 Drawings in Facsimile'' (1965) *(with Raffaello De Ruggieri), ''Le chiese rupestri di Matera'' (1966) *''Michelangelo'' (1966) *''The Complete Work of Michelangelo'', 2 vols. (1966) *''Civiltà fiorentina del primo Rinascimento'' (1967) *''Enrico Barfucci'' (1968) *''Mito e realtà di Leonardo'' (1968) *''Civiltà artistica della terra aretina'' (1971) *''Grimani Breviary'' (1974) *''La pittura di Piero della Francesca'' (1979) *''Parvae Favillae. Scritti di storia dell'arte dal Tardo Antico al Barocco''. Edited by Maria Cristina Castelli and Maria Grazia Ciardi-Dupré Dal Poggetto (1989) *''Storie di Bizzoche: tra Umbria e Marche'' (1995) *(with Luisa Becherucci, Alessandro Marabottini and Anna Forlani Tempesti), ''Raffaello (Raphael)'' (1999)

References

External links

Dictionary of Art Historians: Salmi, MarioA. Fatucchi, "MARIO SALMI"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmi, Mario 1889 births 1980 deaths Italian art historians Italian art critics University of Pisa alumni Academic staff of the University of Pisa Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome