Domenico Gnoli (3 May 1933 - 17 April 1970) was an Italian painter and stage designer, born in Rome. He studied stage design at the

Accademia di Belle Arti This is a list of the tertiary-level schools or academies of fine art in Italy that are recognised by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of higher education. Accademie di Belle Arti The offic ...

, and began a short stint designing stages, for which he was well received. Following this, he spent the better part of his life in New York City, working for magazines such as ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', and '' Fortune'', where he found favour with art director Leo Lionni. He is known most for his work "Orestes or The Art of Smiling".

Biography

Son of ceramicist Annie de Garrou (1900–1994) and Umberto Gnoli, who was an art historian and superintendent of arts in Umbria, Domenico Gnoli was born in Rome in 1933. His sister Marzia was born the following year. Gnoli's paternal grandfather was the poet and historian of the same name – Domenico Gnoli. His great-aunts were also poets, Teresa and Elena Gnoli. His paternal uncle, Tommaso (1874–1958) was a literary critic and expert on German culture. The cultural influence of his family created in Gnoli, as he grew up, a passion for drawing and painting. Illustrating this, his father sent him a letter, when Gnoli was just 10 years old, that contained architectural lessons. Gnoli spent his first years in Rome and

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

. He made a series of surrealist drawings, one of which – depicting a fish in a snail's shell on a couch – is often confused with

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. Hi ...

's work.

References

Sources

artnet.com: Resource Library: Gnoli, Domenico (ii)
artnet.com, (reproduced from The Grove Dictionary of Art (Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2000.) (Retrieved 2 March 2011.)
ULAN Full Record Display (Getty Research)
J. Paul Getty Trust. (Retrieved 2 March 2011.)

Chris Mullen. (Retrieved 2 March 2011.) (Retrieved 2 March 2011.)

External links

* – as of 2016-06-22 not including the picture book that is Gnoli's work most widely held in WorldCat libraries (below) Italian illustrators Italian surrealist artists 20th-century Italian painters Italian male painters Italian contemporary artists Italian scenic designers 1933 births 1970 deaths 20th-century Italian male artists {{Italy-artist-stub