Don Angelo Rescalli Biography
Angelo Rescalli (Azzanello, 14 November 1884 - Susa, 10 December 1956) was an Italian priest and painter. Angelo Primo Stanislao Rescalli was born in Azzanello in 1884. He entered the Episcopal Seminary of Cremona in 1897, was ordained a priest in 1909 and sent as vicar to Vescovato and then to Olmeneta. In those years Rescalli's passion for painting was born; in 1915, when Italy entered the war, he was called to arms and sent to San Remo, where he became vice-chaplain in 1916 and chaplain in 1917. Despite the end of hostilities and the requests for his return by the Diocese of Cremona , Rescalli remained in Liguria where his pictorial career became more and more promising: in fact he came under the protection of two local noblewomen, the Baroness Matilde Van Eys, who gave him a house by the sea to be used as a pictorial studio, and the Countess Modesta Dell 'Oro Hermil, who guaranteed him hospitality in his house in Susa, Piedmont, where he had a pagoda built also as a painting studio. Hence the vast production of works on Valsusine subjects. From that moment on, his continuous travels to Italy, France and the Netherlands allowed him to build a very solid clientele and high-ranking acquaintances: among these, General Luigi Cadorna and above all Prince Umberto II, with whom he had a relationship of lively cordiality, being the crown prince resident in Turin. Some of his paintings were in fact purchased for the Savoy collections, although they had not yet been traced, and for years the Prince was a frequent presence at the inaugurations of the priest's personal exhibitions. In the Susa Valley he formed friendships with Federico Marconcini, who became a convinced collector of his works which he exhibited in the Bruzolo Castle, his home. In 1940, on the wave of success, he moved to Rome. The worsening of the political situation led him to take refuge in Susa, where he played a role in the local Resistance. At the end of the war, he attempted to return to Rome, but bitterly discovered that the goods in his accommodation had been stolen, and he was not even able to regain possession of the property. The affair caused him great bitterness: followed by his definitive return to Susa, his withdrawal from public life and the beginning of his human and professional decline. Nonetheless, he was named an honorary member of the Instituto de cultura Americana de Tolosa (La Plata) in Argentina (1943) and a Pontifical Academician by Pope Pius XII (1953).
