Alessandro Morani e il passato

Abstract

Alessandro Morani is one of the leading figures of the artistic world of the late 19th century in Rome. A landscape painter who had trained in the entourage of Nino Costa, he is better known as the founder of the ‘In Arte Libertas’ group in 1886 and for his connection with Gabriele D’Annunzio. Furthermore, Morani was one of the leading Italian decorative painters who was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. He also taught ornament art and design at the School of the Museum of Industrial Art in Rome. Thanks to his talent in copying, in 1896 his father in law, the archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig, appointed him and a group of painters to the task of reproducing some Etruscan tomb paintings in Tarquinia for the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek of Copenhagen. The reconstruction of the connections between the different parts of his career, with a focus on the past five years of the 19th century, allows us to outline the historical context of the time, in which copies, conservative needs, revival of the arts of the past and decoration elements were intimately intertwined.

Keywords

• Alessandro Morani. Applied arts. Arts and Crafts. Calco. Copy. Decorative arts. Etruscan painting. Facsimile. Gabriele D'Annunzio. Giacomo Boni. Industrial arts. Nino Costa. Revival. Wolfgang Helbig