Gino Bonichi (February 25, 1904 – November 9, 1933), known as Scipione, was an Italian painter and writer. He was born in

Macerata Macerata () is a city and ''comune'' in central Italy, the county seat of the province of Macerata in the Marche region. It has a population of about 41,564. History The historical city centre is on a hill between the Chienti and Potenza (ri ...

. In 1909 he moved to Rome, where he later enrolled at the Scuola Libera di Nudo of the

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...

. He founded with Mario Mafai and Antonietta Raphael the

Scuola romana Scuola romana or Scuola di via Cavour was a 20th-century art movement defined by a group of painters within Expressionism and active in Rome between 1928 and 1945, and with a second phase in the mid-1950s. Birth of the movement In November 192 ...

, a group of artists active in Rome who were influenced by

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

, and opposed the officially approved art of the

Fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

period. He exhibited his work for the first time in 1927. At about this time, he also began publishing his poetry and essays. Scipione's interest in art history led him to study the Italian old masters, as well as

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

and

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

. Expressionists such as

Chaïm Soutine Chaïm Soutine (; ; ; 13 January 1893 – 9 August 1943) was a French painter of Belarusian-Jewish origin of the School of Paris, who made a major contribution to the Expressionist movement while living and working in Paris. Inspired by clas ...

James Ensor James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic ...

and

George Grosz George Grosz (; ; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß; July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Obj ...

influenced the development of his style, which was characterized by mysticism and a personal symbolism. His period of greatest activity was between 1927 and the autumn of 1930; during these years he produced his most important works, such as ''Still-life with a Bowler Hat'' (1929) and ''Still-life with a Feather'' (1929).Lucchesi, "Scipione onichi, Gino, Oxford Art Online. His unique style combined elements of symbolism, surrealism, and expressionism, evoking an intense emotional impact through his vivid color palette and distorted figuration. He exhibited in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1930, and at the first

Rome Quadriennale The Rome Quadriennale ( Italian: La Q''uadriennale di Roma'', also called in English the ''Rome Quadrennial'') is the Italian national institution entrusted with the task of researching about and promoting Italian contemporary art. It is a foun ...

in 1931. In the last two years of his life, the

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

from which he had suffered for years forced him to abandon painting in favor of drawing.Pinto 2002, p. 165. He died in

Arco Arco may refer to: Places * Arco, Trentino, a town in Trentino, Italy * Arco, Idaho, in the United States * Arco, Minnesota, a city in the United States * ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California, home of the Sacramento Kings Companies * ARCO (b ...

on November 9, 1933. The Italian painter Claudio Bonichi (born in 1943) is Scipione's

nephew In the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a niece or nephew is a child of an individual's sibling or sibling-in-law. A niece is female and a nephew is male, and they would call their parents' siblings aunt or uncle ...

Works

Notes

References

*Lucchesi, Sylvia. "Scipione onichi, Gino, Oxford Art Online *Pinto, Sandra. 2002. ''A history of Italian art in the 20th century''. Milano: Skira Editore. *Scipione, and Giuseppe Marchiori. 1944. ''Disegni di Scipione''. Bergamo: Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche.
''Scipione(Gino Bonichi)''
Scuola Romana

External links

1904 births 1933 deaths People from Macerata 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters 20th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-painter-20thC-stub