Luigi Magnani Biography
Luigi Magnani was born in Reggio Emilia in 1906. During the 1920s, while still a university student, he received the "Campanini" prize from the Royal Deputation of Homeland History for a memoir presented on Gerolamo Toschi and the Roman Academy of Natural Philosophy. In 1929 he graduated in Modern Literature, presenting a thesis on the history of art concerning the sixteenth-century Modenese sculptor Antonio Begarelli. In the same year, demonstrating his interest in sculpture, he compiled a study on the Renaissance sculptor Clemente from Reggio Emilia for the "Cronache dell'Arte", a publication directed by Francesco Malaguzzi.
During the 1930s, Luigi Magnani collaborated with the Pontifical Roman Academy and provided artistic consultancy. In 1938 he obtained the qualification to teach in the history of medieval and modern art. In 1941, the Magnani family purchased the Mamiano villa from the Zileri-Dal Verme counts, which now houses Luigi Magnani's entire art collection. It was during this period that he met the painter Giorgio Morandi, a meeting that would be fundamental to his work as a collector.
Throughout his life, Luigi Magnani maintained interests in art history, music and literature. In the 1950s, while he resided mainly in Rome for university reasons, he organized concerts by inviting prestigious performers to his home. In 1960 the ERI of Turin published The Frescoes of the Basilica of Aquileia, frescoes from the 11th century. The volume was offered by RAI to the delegates of the Radio and TV organizations participating in the Prix Italia, meeting in Trieste, in September 1960. In 1970 he participated in the symposium on Beethoven in Vienna. In the same year he collaborated with the "International Journal of Aesthetics and Sociology of Music". In 1983 he exhibited his collection of contemporary art in the exhibition "From Cézanne to Morandi and beyond", hosted in the Mamiano villa. Luigi Magnani died in his villa on 15 November 1984.
