R. Longhi Biography
Roberto Longhi (1890 - 1970) was an art critic. He graduated in 1911 in Turin with Pietro Toesca (he defended a thesis on Caravaggio). He completed his studies in Rome under the guidance of Lionello Venturi (research on Piero della Francesca and the development of Venetian painting). He collaborated on Venturi's "L'Arte" with essays and reviews, while on "La Voce" he began a militant work as a polemicist, becoming a supporter of futurism (his essay on I pittori futuristi dates back to 1913). His debut as a critic on the Roman scene took place in 1919 with a brilliant review, entitled Il dio ortopedico, at de Chirico's exhibition at the "Casa d'Arte Bragaglia". Between 1920 and 1922 he took a study trip to Spain, France and Central Europe in the company of the Florentine collector Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, of whom he became an advisor. Upon his return he was in Rome where he lived until 1934, returning frequently thereafter. In 1927 he published the monograph on Piero della Francesca for the editions of "Valori Plastici". At the end of the 1920s, Longhi played a dual role, very important in Roman events: on the one hand we have his openings towards the ancients. In this context, the revival of sixteenth-seventeenth-century painting with the exhibition of Spanish painters from the Contini-Bonacossi collection (1930) is also very important, which will be decisive for Scipione. On the other hand, his forays into the critical field contribute to determining a new climate of research. A synthesis of Roman tendencies is the one proposed in "L'Italia Letteraria" on the occasion of the 1929 trade union meeting, with the identification of the so-called "irréalists" and the almost debutants Mafai - Scipione - Raphaël, who are indicated here for the first time with the Joking label "Via Cavour School". Longhi continued to deal marginally with Roman artists, among the various writings we remember, in 1964, the presentation at Alberto Ziveri's solo show at the "Nuova Pesa".
