Amedeo Bocchi Biography
Amedeo Bocchi (Parma, 24 August 1883 – Rome, 16 December 1976) was an Italian painter. Born in Parma in 1883, at the age of 12 he was enrolled at the Royal Institute of Fine Arts in Parma. Having graduated in 1901 with top marks, he attended the Nude School in Rome, on the advice of his teacher Cecrope Barilli. In the capital, where he will spend the rest of his life, he meets artists such as Giovanni Costa, Giulio Aristide Sartorio, Giacomo Balla and Duilio Cambellotti. He delves into and studies the works of Matisse, Renoir and Klimt[1]. In 1906 Amedeo married Rita (his fellow student in Parma) and in 1908 Bianca was born, the artist's first and only daughter. The following year his wife dies. In 1910 Bocchi was admitted, for the first time, with two paintings, to the Venice Biennale, where he had the opportunity to admire Gustav Klimt's great solo show. Precisely in that year Bocchi moved to Padua, following Achille Casanova, who was busy decorating the interior of the Basilica of Sant'Antonio, to specialize in the fresco technique. In 1911, at the great exhibition in Rome for the fiftieth anniversary of the Unification of Italy, Bocchi created, in collaboration with Latino Barilli, Daniele de Strobel and Renato Brozzi, the reconstruction of the Golden Chamber, frescoed in the 15th century by Benedetto Bembo, of Torrechiara Castle, reconstructed in the ethnographic exhibition. Also in the same year he went to Terracina for the first time which, with its swamps and the hard life of its people, would be at the center of many of his paintings.[2] In 1912 he received the gold medal from the Ministry of Education for the painting The Three Marys. In 1913, although not officially adhering to the manifesto of the Roman Secession, Bocchi looked with interest at the first exhibition organized by the group. Between 1913 and 1915 he used his knowledge in the field of frescoes for the important commission entrusted to him by the Cassa di Risparmio di Parma for the decoration of the Council Room of the Parma headquarters, dedicated to the theme of savings. The influences of Art Nouveau and Klimt are elaborated by Bocchi who creates a series of frescoes. The work, completed in 1916, received critical acclaim. Since 1915 he has lived in Rome in one of the studio-houses made available to artists by a rich French-speaking Alsatian, Alfred Wilhelm Strohl, inside the park which took its name from him: Villa Strohl-Fern. There Bocchi would spend the rest of his life creating a series of masterpieces[3]. In this context, he is enriched through comparison with Roman painters, but also with the influence of Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and subsequently Renato Guttuso and the Roman painters of the post-World War II period. Developing his own style, he approaches divisionism, symbolism and liberty. In 1919 Amedeo Bocchi married Niccolina for the second time, his young model. Years of happiness and growing success followed: the Biennale again, the nomination as Academician of San Luca, the gold medal for the painting Bianca in evening dress at the Monza exhibition in 1926. The family is the predominant protagonist of his canvases: parents, wives, daughter. Through the investigation of faces he traces a personal diary in his canvases, a common thread of stylistic maturity with paintings such as Niccolina with Guitar (1917) and Portrait of Bianca (1932) in which he enhances light and its reflections. However, other family difficulties hit the artist: in 1923 his second wife Niccolina died and in 1934 his daughter, aged just 26. In 1967 the Accademia di San Luca dedicated the first important retrospective exhibition to him. With the painting In the park, in 1972, he participated in the exhibition of figurative painting in the context of the X Roman Quadrennial. In the same year the president of the republic awarded him the gold medal for merit in culture and art. The following years are dedicated to memories and Bocchi continues to paint even in his mature years, until his death in his home-studio in Villa Strohl-Fern on 16 December 1976. On the easel there is an unfinished painting : The gardener, later transferred to the museum dedicated to him.
