Amos Nattini Biography
Amos Nattini was born in Genoa to a family with a strong seafaring tradition. Although he was enrolled in a technical-administrative institute, he attended the nude school of the Accademia Ligustica, where he followed the courses of Tullio Quinzio, Giuseppe Navone and Pilade Lachi for anatomy. He also joined the Genoese Artistic Association “Compagnia del Bivacco”, which worked to reveal the artistic and literary abilities of its members. In 1912 he presented his figurations of songs by Gabriele D'Annunzio at the Salone delle Compere of Palazzo S. Giorgio in Genoa.
From 1913, Nattini worked in Paris, where he had contacts with D'Annunzio, Four Nery, the publisher Dévanbez and other French exponents of the artistic and cultural world. He began working on watercolors of images of the Divine Comedy in 1915 and exhibited the first three at the Permanente in Milan. In 1921, on the occasion of the VI centenary of Dante's death, he exhibited at the Leonardo Da Vinci Society in Florence. From 1922, he exhibited his first Dante watercolors at the University of Genoa, before transferring them to the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. One of his most important exhibitions was at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan in 1923.
Nattini participated in the first exhibition of the Novecento movement together with Bucci, Dudreville, Funi, Malerba, Marussig, Oppi and Sironi. Furthermore, in Milan, he maintained frequent contact with artists such as Gaudenti, Carpi, Cisari, Comolli and Messina. In 1924, without losing his ties with Genoa, he moved to Milan, where he remained until 1941. In 1927, he exhibited 25 figurations of Dante's songs in Dante's house in Rome, receiving a visit from King Vittorio Emanuele III and the major personalities of the capital. In 1937, he was appointed member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma and in 1938 member of merit of the Accademia Ligustica di Belle Arti of Genoa. Nattini assiduously participated in important collective and personal exhibitions until his death.
