Roman School

A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art | 1999 | 700+ words | Copyright

Roman School (Scuola Romana). A trend in Italian painting centred on the work of Mafai and Scipione, who were opposed to the empty rhetoric prevailing in much Italian art of the 1920s and 1930s (see NOVECENTO ITALIANO). Mafai and Scipione exhibited together in 1928 (this is regarded as the date of the launch of the Roman School) and the term ‘Scuola di via Cavour’ (after the site of Mafai's studio in Rome) was applied to them and the sculptor Marino Mazzacurati (1907–69) by the critic Roberto Longhi in 1929. Although different in temperament and methods, the two painters were close friends and united in the desire to replace the ponderous classicism of the Novecento with a new Romantic Expressionism inspired by artists such as Soutine. The ideals of the Roman School lived on into the second half of the century in the work of such painters as Toti Scialoja (1914– ), Giovanni Stradone (1911– ), and Renzo Vespignani (1924–2001).

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IAN CHILVERS. "Roman School." A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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