PIETRASANTA - "Marc looked like a English hidalgo, was not a man prone to compromise and half measures. A man in one piece, a man all man, who lived on a daily tragedy with great dignity. A character outdated for the modern world, a dinosaur existence that expresses itself through a great art. Unfortunately, men and artists so there are not any more. " Manlio Cancogni Marcello Tommasi knew as a child. Relatives and friends of the family, the writer recalls long conversations Versilia, the works, the language and grammar used in the art that the artist Pietrasanta halved between Florence and Pietrasanta, between the great cities of the Renaissance and Little Athens, where he returned every summer in the villa of Fiumetto, right next to her on the waterfront. What has meaning in her life the presence of Thomas?
"For me it was above all a dear relative. I still remember the first time I saw him. Was born five months. It was in June 1928, his father holding him in her arms Leone who had returned home on leave to Fiumetto to celebrate the birth of their first child. I've seen it grow and when it became a young man began our long conversations. We talked about art and literature. It was not only a great artist, but also a man with a great wealth of culture, ranging from classical to the contemporary world. "
was the last of a dynasty of artists among the most important in Italy. The art was a spark registered in the genetic code?
"Well, yes. From his father he inherited his passion for the great of past ages, there is much in Marcello Leone. But one should not think that his works have been a reproduction of those of his father. Even before being a sculptor, Marcello devoted himself to painting also becoming one of the best students of Annigoni. Perhaps for a subconscious desire to create their own creative identity, he chose a path that he untied him from his father, but undoubtedly has learned a lot from him. So much so that when he died Leo, Marcello took his true path, which was that of sculpture. "
Tommasi's life was marked by so many dramatic moments, how they changed?
'Deeply. The deaths of the brothers, nephew and then his wife, who loved tenderly and passionately to the end, they upset. Life made him scorched earth around, now lived for his daughters and grandchildren. Marcello Yet, as Richard, was a man of exuberant, anarchic character in some ways. He loved to surround himself with ordinary people, a company made merry of ordinary people, which traced a humanity that he preferred a certain aristocratic pose. A true character and life than a little 'has penalized. "
In what way?
"For example, never had a merchant involved in promoting its image with the critics, as he had been able to do Richard. And you know, the art market, these aspects also count, but he could see a bigger fame, thought that History would have redeemed. I do not know if it will. Today the art no longer exists. Today, all call themselves artists: advertisers, rock singers, even a chef has become an artist. That is why Marc did not like most of the world today. "
But his bronzes are not only a tribute to and imitation of ancient art.
"Of course not. Marcello was not a survivor, an artist who lived in the sinking of the past. The Greeks, like the Mannerist Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, Bernini, which he considered paradoxical spirit with the greatest sculptor universal, they felt as deposits of moral strength for his reflection. At the center was the figure human, modern man with his bait, and to represent you had to spend effort, study, cultivate the technique. I think this is the message that now leaves to his students and anyone thinking of taking the path of art. And I hope that this also Pietrasanta, contrary to what he thought he still loved her very much, will be grateful to him, you dedicate a fitting tribute. "
Posted by Mario on Blacks ilTirreno (30/09/2008)
ps public now this interview with Manlio Cancogni as we approach the anniversary of the death of Marc Tommasi. Against Marcello I owe a debt of knowledge and affection that I can not estingure it on to, even with a thousand of these fitting tribute to his memory.
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