The Roman School
The Museum, located on the top floor of the Casino Nobile, was open to the public in 2006 thanks to the support of Netta Vespignani, Miriam Mafai, Enzo Siciliano and Claudia Terenzi.
The works of art exposed in the rooms of the Museum offer a complete view on one of the most beautiful and interesting moments of the twentyfirst century arts, the figurative research in Rome between the first and the second world war.
From the characters of the magic Realism such as Antonio Donghi, Francesco Trombadori, Riccardo Francalancia, Ferruccio Ferrazzi, to that particular moment known as “Scuola di Via Cavour”, with Mario Mafai’s works of art, Antonietta Raphaël, the painters of the Thirties - Corrado Cagli, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Emanuele Cavalli, Roberto Melli, Guglielmo Janni- and those who, around the second world war, created a new “Realist language”, such as Alberto Ziveri, Fausto Pirandello, Renato Guttuso, the young Renzo Vespignani. To not forget some others who in sculpture such as Pericle Fazzini, Mirko Basaldella, Leoncillo Leonardi and of engraving such as Luigi Bartolini, a master of engravement.
The name “Roman School” is based its on some elements of determinant continuity: the relation with the city and its myth of antiquity, the ritual of “crafts”, the experimentation and, especially, a deep intolerance towards arts as the expression of a regime. Maybe as a reaction to the rhetorics, the works of art of these artists are an expression of the inner realities, of some looks full of anxiety, of a town in its hidden places or in those ones disappearing.
Among the most important masterpieces we can find a collection of portraits, among which Ferrazzi’s portrait (San Bernardino, 1943) and Roberto Melli’s one (1936) and some portraits such as, Ziveri’s one (painted by Guglielmo Janni, 1936), the landscapes (and the roman visions) Francalancia’s ones, Bartoli’s, Socrate’s, Vespignani’s portraits, the precious Francalancia’s still lives (Tea pot and caki, 1925) and Trombadori’s (Still life, around 1940).
Among the sculptures we can find the wonderful “Fuga da Sodoma” by Antonietta Raphaël (1935-1936), Dario Sabatello’s portrait by Fazzini (1934) and Furore by Mirko (1944).
The works of art in the Museum were given or loaned for use by Accademia Nazionale di Danza, Associazione Archivio della Scuola Romana, Luciana Bartolini, Giuseppe Bertolami, Giorgio Di Raimondo, Ilaria and Ninetta Ferrazzi, Fabiola Ferrazzi (heirs Castellet) Fondazione Carlo Levi, Elena Francalancia and Gustavo Francalancia (heir Marco Francalancia), Luciana Gentilini, Loredana Guarnieri, Giulia Mafai and Miriam Mafai (heirs Sara and Luciano Scalia), Carla Marchini, Paolo Nasso, Dora and Pierluigi Pirandello, Redini heirs, Claudia and Flaminia Terenzi, Donatella Trombadori, Netta and Marta Vespignani.
The second world war art is represented in Francesco Ingrao and Ksenija Guina’s collection, given to the heirs by Roma Capitale and permanently exposed in the Museo della Scuola Romana in Casino Nobile di Villa Torlonia.
After Francesco Ingrao’s death, on 27 september 2003, and Ksenija’s art work, in february 2010, Mirjana Jovic, Ksenija’s sister, gave to Roma Capitale, thirtyfive works of art of the Ingrao – Guina collection. Part of the collection is in the Museo della Scuola Romana in Casino Nobile di Villa Torlonia from 2011.
As a symbol of an inner and amatorial collectionism, the art works here exposed are signed by some of the main artists of the Italian and International twentieth century: from Mario Mafai, Mirko Basaldella, Corrado Cagli, Renato Guttuso, Luigi Bartolini, Mino Maccari, Nino Bertoletti, all representatives of those masterpieces according the subjects and the languages of the Roman Schoool, to Alberto Burri, Giulio Turcato, Sebastian Matta, Pietro Consagra, the youngest protagonists of the artistic scene of the second world war.
In this precious collection you can find a particular aspect of the twentyfirst century which takes its origin from the passion for arts and the humanity towards the artist. An important heritage of that sinergy between the private and the public institution which allows to not loose and resume the history of the roman collectionism during the years of our postwar and its extraordinary and wide artistic season.
