Leonardo Sinisgalli (1908–1981) was an Italian

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

and art critic active from the 1930s to the 1970s. Sinisgalli was born in

Montemurro Montemurro is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demogr ...

, Basilicata. His early education and careers led to him being called the "engineer poet". In 1925, Sinisgalli moved to

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 ...

where he studied engineering and mathematics. After completing his engineering degree in 1932, he moved to

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

where he worked as an architect and graphic artist. He was a close friend of the poet

Giuseppe Ungaretti Giuseppe Ungaretti (; 8 February 1888 – 2 June 1970) was an Italian modernist poet, journalist, essayist, critic, academic, and recipient of the inaugural 1970 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A leading representative of the experi ...

and painter

Scipione ''Scipione'' ( HWV 20), also called ''Publio Cornelio Scipione'', is an opera seria in three acts, with music composed by George Frideric Handel for the Royal Academy of Music in 1726. The librettist was Paolo Antonio Rolli. Handel composed ''S ...

. He worked at

for architecture and graphic design projects. Sinisgalli's early collections such as ''Cuore'' (1927), ''18 poesie'' (1936), ''Campi Elisi'' (1939) focused on themes from ancestral southern Italian myths. Later he explored a more relaxed style in ''I nuovi Campi Elisi'' (1947), ''La vigna vecchia'' (1952), ''L'età della luna'' (1962), ''Il passero e il lebbroso'' (1970), ''Mosche in bottiglia'' (1975) and ''Dimenticatoio'' (1978). He authored prose that analyzed the conflicts of

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

and realism such as ''Fiori pari, fiori dispari'' (1945) and ''Belliboschi'' (1948). He also explored the scientific culture of the day in ''Furor mathematicus'' (1944) and ''Horror vacui'' (1945). Sinisgalli founded and managed the magazine ''Civiltà delle Macchine'' (1953–1959), and was a member of 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 ...

''. He also created two documentaries which consecutively won the

Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

awards and edited radio broadcasting programs. He died in Rome in 1981.

References

* * *Luigi Beneduci, ''Bestiario sinisgalliano. Studio sull'immaginario zoomorfo di Leonardo Sinisgalli'', Aracne, Roma, 2011. *Ferrarelli, Rina, editor and translator (1997). ''Leonardo Sinisgalli: I Saw The Muses: Selected Poems 1931-1942''. Guernica, Toronto/New York/Lancaster. .

External links

Anthology of poems by Sinisgalli with commentary (italian)
1908 births 1981 deaths People from the Province of Potenza Italian male poets 20th-century Italian poets Engineers from Milan 20th-century Italian male writers 20th-century Italian engineers {{Italy-poet-stub