Walther Jervolino (born Valter Iervolino; 1 March 1944 – 12 July 2012) was an Italian painter and artist, mainly known for his

Surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

works.

Early life and education

Walther Jervolino was born in 1944 in

Bondeno Bondeno ( Bondenese: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Ferrara in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about north of Bologna and about northwest of Ferrara. The municipality of Bondeno contains the ''frazioni'' (subdivi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, a small village near Ferrara. His name was in honor of the German doctor who saved his mother's life during his birth. He studied art under Italian realist painters Mario Calandri and Giacomo Soffiantino, favoring oil painting as well as the engraving techniques.

Career

He began his professional career in the late 1960s in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and in

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 lived for several years. He later perfected his technique in the Roman studio of Riccardo Tommasi Ferroni, one of the major Italian artists. Jervolino subsequently increased his connections with countries throughout Europe, and also lived for long periods in the United States, where he exhibited his works at the Art Expo in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Works

Walther Jervolino's early works were deeply influenced by the visual style of

Giorgio de Chirico Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico ( , ; 10 July 1888 – 20 November 1978) was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the '' scuola metafisica'' art movement, which profoundly influ ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarre images in ...

and

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealis ...

which he later combined with that of several Medieval and Renaissance Painters, such as

Hieronymous Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (, ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch/ Netherlandish painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oa ...

and Caravaggio. His technique, derived from years of personal study of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

materials, colours and chemistry together with

Postmodern art Postmodern art is a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such as intermedia, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia, ...

, produced in the 1980s works such as '' Gianduja and Giandujotto'', ''The death of

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

'', ''The Collector'' and ''The Babel Tower''. His works started to be to appreciated outside Europe. Fluent in English, Jervolino lived both in Italy, where his family lived, and the United States, where many of his paintings were exhibited, receiving several positive reviews in magazines. In his later period, becoming even more accurate and perfectionist, Walther Jervolino enhanced his engraving techniques and started experimenting with a singular technique where figures or characters come out from the painting during a sort of art performance. His last works, such as ''The invisible cities'', present a return to the myth and to his first surrealistic oils on canvas. Most of his works are exhibited at galleries in Europe and the United States.

"Pinocchio's death"

His major work remains ''A probable death of Pinocchio'', a project he had been developing throughout his life. Deeply influenced by the main protagonist of the 1883 children's novel ''

The Adventures of Pinocchio ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' ( ; it, Le avventure di Pinocchio ; commonly shortened to ''Pinocchio'') is a children's fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pi ...

'', by

Carlo Collodi Carlo Lorenzini (24 November 1826 – 26 October 1890), better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi (), was an Italian author, humourist, and journalist, widely known for his fairy tale novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio''. Early life Co ...

, he tried to conceive an alternative destiny for

, who was guilty, according to Jervolino, of being a traitor to his father,

Geppetto Geppetto ( , ), also known as Mister Geppetto, is an Italian fictional character in the 1883 novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' by Carlo Collodi. Geppetto is an elderly, impoverished woodcarver and the creator (and thus 'father') of Pinocch ...

. He presented several works depicting Pinocchio being decapitated or murdered with arrows. The hangman who always executes Pinocchio is similar in appearance to Jervolino, thus depicting a personal revenge of the painter against the "devil" Pinocchio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jervolino, Walther 1944 births 2012 deaths Artists from Ferrara 20th-century Italian male artists 21st-century Italian male artists Italian male painters 21st-century Italian painters