Giuseppe Palanti

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Giuseppe Palanti
Palanti in 1912, photograph by Emilio Sommariva
Born
Giuseppe Palanti

(1881-07-30)30 July 1881
Milan, Italy
Died23 April 1946(1946-04-23) (aged 64)
Milan, Italy
Known forPainter, illustrator, costume and advertising design
MovementImpresionism, Modernism
Signature

Giuseppe Palanti (30 July 1881 – 23 April 1946) was an Italian painter, illustrator, and urban planner, best known for his portraits, notably of Mussolini and Pius XI. He had a long collaboration with Teatro alla Scala in Milan, creating costume, set design and advertising material for multiple opera productions. He was also a major contributor towards the development of the seaside resort Milano Marittima.

Biography

Early life

Born in Milan to Giovanni Palanti, a carpenter and furniture maker and Virginia De Gaspari, a seamstress,

Luigi Cavenaghi,[4] and the Scuola degli Artefici dell'Accademia di Brera (School of Craftsmen of the Brera Academy). He also sought work as a decorator and poster designer, looking to apply his art practically. In 1898, he enrolled in the painting course at the Brera Academy, taught by Bignami, Mentessi, Pogliaghi and Tallone.[4] In 1899, while still a student, he won a competition to design the cover of the Milanese magazine La Promessa, and posters for the Esposizione Floricola di Monza (Monza Flower Exhibition). In 1900, he won the Zogheb competition for best student of the School of Applied Art.[1] Consequently, was awarded a study trip by the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce which sent him to Paris to follow the Exposition Universelle, an experience that would influence his style, notably the exhibition pavilions and their advertising billboards.[3] He wrote a detailed account of his interest in poster design, especially the floral work of Alphonse Mucha,[4] and in the technical solutions of art applied to this industry. On graduating in 1901, he was invited by Cavenaghi[1]
to teach advanced composition at the School of Applied Art (corso Superiore di composizione) at the Brera Academy, which he would continue to do for ten years.

Poster advertising "La Fanciulla del West", 1911

Early career

The Italian pavilion at the Exposición Internacional del Centenario in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Villa Palanti in Milano Marittima, 1920s

Palanti continued to design and illustrate the covers of sales catalogues for Milanese department stores from 1901 to 1912, working for the Italian Cooperative Union. From 1902, he began working with the

Brussels International Exposition
decorating the ceiling the Italian pavilion in 1910.

Milano Marittima

Palanti was heavily involved in the development of the seaside resort Milano Marittima, north of Cervia. Originally an area of uncultivated coastal pine forests, in 1907 the Municipal Administration of Cervia ceded a vast area along the coast to the Maffei company, allowing them to build villas, parks and gardens in order to create a resort town. The Società Milano Marittima per lo sviluppo della spiaggia di Cervia (Milano Marittima Society for the development of the beach of Cervia) was created in 1911 to progress development, which Palanti quickly joined.[8] He was an advocate of the garden city model, influenced by British urban planner Ebenezer Howard.[9] His vision was of an urban project which would create a new city in which tourist accommodation blended with the surrounding nature. Designed to appeal to the middle class, it consisted of a series of decadent art nouveau villas set within the pine forest. In 1912 he drew up the master plan for the new municipality of Cervia[10] and the plans for the first villas on the coast.

WW1

In 1915 Palanti attempted to enlist in the

Ministry of Education (Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione) felt he would be of more use as a teacher.[11] He did however contribute to the war effort, designing illustrated postcards and pamphlets which celebrated Italy and provided a source of anti-German propaganda. In 1917, together with his brother Mario, he developed a project for a naval machine: the 'Invulnerable Destroyer' (Distruttore invulnerabile).[11]

Le vie d'Italia: October 1921 Touring Club Italiano

Later life and death

In 1921 Palanti joined the Chiaro di Luna artistic and literary movement, working against the 'antics' of the avant-gardes.

Monumental Cemetery of Milan
(Cimitero Monumentale di Milano).

Study for female portrait, 1915-1920

Work and themes

Palanti was an eclectic artist, notably producing oil paintings, preferring portraits and nudes,[13] as well as landscapes and waterscapes. He also worked with decorative arts, including fabric design, ceramics, stained glass, wrought iron, metal objects and furniture.[14] He was an illustrator who produced graphics for posters and book covers, in addition to creating sketches for costume and set design for the Teatro alla Scala. In later life, he worked as an architect and urban planner, integral to the design of the seaside town Milano Marittima.[14] His modernity looked to the strength, safety and joy of a middle and upper bourgeois class at the beginning of the twentieth century: industrialists, professionals, ladies of high society, who enjoyed a confident pre-war Italy in economic growth.[3] Almost all of his activity, over the years, was oriented towards applied art, without however encroaching on a purely technical style, as in the case of graphics, inclined as he was instead to decorative solutions expressed in pictorial terms. Rich and multifaceted interventions in the so-called minor arts, from designs for fabrics to ceramics from Faenza, to stained glass windows, to wrought iron, to the applications of leather and metals for Ceruti furniture, to collaborations with the architect Gaetano Moretti. The creation of decorative paintings on bookshelves or furniture doors.

Personal life

Palanti was the older brother of architect Mario Palanti. He married Ada Romussi, daughter of politician and journalist Carlo Romussi,[15] and was father to the architect Giancarlo Palanti and Maria Virginia.[16]

Loreley (soprano), costume design for Loreley act 1, 2, 3 (1905).

Legacy

His pupils included Pina Sacconaghi, Francesco Carini,[17] Carlo Ceci,[18] Augusto Colombo,[19] Goliardo Padova[20] and Sigismondo Martini.[21] Exhibitions recently dedicated to Palanti include the Spoleto Festival in 2001[22] the Civic Gallery Torre Avogadro in Lumezzane in 2003,[23] and Giuseppe Palanti. Pittore, urbanista, illustratore in Cervia in 2012.[3] The street Via Giuseppe Palanti in southern Milan is named after him, as is Viale Giuseppe Palanti in Cervia.

Notable works

Honours and awards

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l PALANTI, Giuseppe: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 80 (2014) www.treccani.it, accessed 21 Feb 2021
  2. ^ [1] Guida turistica di Casalbuttano ed Uniti
  3. ^ a b c d GIUSEPPE PALANTI. Pittore, urbanista, illustratore Italia Liberty, accessed 20 Feb 2021
  4. ^ a b c Biographical information: Giuseppe Palanti RKD – Netherlands Institute for Art History, accessed 20 Feb 2021
  5. ^ [2] IlSole24ORE
  6. ^ a b c d e Eroi dimenticati: Giuseppe Palanti: Biography article, www.galleriarecta.it, accessed 21 February 2021
  7. ^ GIUSEPPE PALANTI AND MILAN’S EXPO 1906 www.italianways.com, accessed 22 Feb 2021
  8. ^ "IL SOGNO DELLA CITTA' GIARDINO – LE ORIGINI DI MILANO MARITTIMA DISEGNATA DA GIUSEPPE PALANTI E VOLUTA DAI PIONIERI MILANESI CHE LA FONDARONO IL 14 AGOSTO 1912". www.milanomarittimalife.it. Archived from the original on 11 May 2012. Retrieved 20 Feb 2021.
  9. ^ E MILANO MARITTIMA COMPIE CENT'ANNI www.famigliacristiana.it, accessed 22 Feb 2021
  10. ^ [3] Viale Giuseppe Palanti a Cervia-Milano Marittima
  11. ^ a b c d Eroi dimenticati: Giuseppe Palanti, arte e propaganda article, Il Primato Nazionale, 28 July 2019
  12. ^ "VILLA NECCHI ALLA PORTALUPA: MOLINO D'ISELLA DI GAMBOLO". www.paviaedintorni.it/. 2 April 2014. Retrieved 20 Feb 2021.
  13. ^ Giuseppe Palanti (1881 – 1946, Italian) LA CONCHIGLIA DI VENERE: The Nude in Art History, accessed 23 Feb 2021
  14. ^ a b c d e Le Raccolte d’Arte dell’Ospedale Maggiore di Milano Lombardia Beni Culturali, accessed 21 Feb 2021
  15. ^ [4] Carlo Romussi
  16. ^ Giancarlo Palanti, Arquivo Arq: profissionais, www.arquivo.arq.br/
  17. ^ Fondazione Cariplo
  18. ^ Comune di Urbania Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ Fondazione Cariplo
  20. ^ Goliardo Padova
  21. ^ Andrea Bombelli (1957). I pittori cremaschi. p. 249. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |agency= ignored (help)
  22. ^ [5] Festival di Spoleto 2001
  23. ^ [6] Corriere della Sera, 29 marzo 2003

Bibliography

External links