L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 4 FRANCESCA BEZZONE NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS M y great un- cle was a p a i n t e r . Class 1918, t h e youngest of three, he had blond hair and the looks – I am told – of an old Holly- wood actor. Left-handed and extraordinarily talented, he had always been an artist at heart: the earliest drawing of his we have at home dates back to 1931, when he was a teenager, but with the hand and the visual cognition of someone twice his age. As you would expect from an artist in the '30s, great uncle Dino was a bit of a hot h e a d , b u t i n a c h a r m i n g , fully bohemian manner: he liked women and had a spe- cial way with them, disliked school and was prone to get himself into trouble. It was m y g r a n d f a t h e r , m i d d l e c h i l d a n d a c c u s t o m e d t o military life, who'd usually fixed the mess for him: nev- ertheless, he always loved his younger sibling, whom he protected and supported until the war took him away from his family forever. We love great uncle Dino in my family, because he remained the same through- out his life: unapologetically free, in love with beauty. We have a series of cool stories about him, too, that say a lot a b o u t h i s c h a r a c t e r , l i k e w h e n h e w o u l d s e l l h i s school books to buy colors and brushes to paint, some- thing my great grandpar- e n t s w e r e n ' t , a s y o u c a n imagine, too happy about. Not that he went to school much, really, as he appar- ently had brought the art of s k i p p i n g c l a s s t o n e w heights, preferring to spend his mornings kneeling in front of one of the town's trendiest cafés, painting Madonne on the ground with colored chalk. A hat next to his work, perhaps the box where he kept his c h a l k s , w e r e r e a d y t o receive passersby's offers to his talent. Yes, great uncle Dino had also been a madonnaro. M a d o n n a r i a r e I t a l y ' s most quintessential street artists, as they embody so much of our culture: their art is ancient and steeped in history, their subject – tra- ditionally religious – is a s y m b o l o f t h a t C h r i s t i a n Catholic heritage that influ- enced so much our coun- t r y ' s a r t a n d t h i n k i n g throughout the centuries. T h e i r w o r k i s c o l o r f u l , b r e a t h t a k i n g a n d , s o m e - t i m e s , u n e x p e c t e d , a s i t tends to appear anywhere there is enough space for them to kneel and create; thanks to their chalk and a r t i s t r y , g r a y p a v e m e n t s turn into colorful images filled with meaning, deli- cate, lively and ephemeral, just like beauty itself. Sources say that the his- tory of madonnari starts in the 16 th century, during the Renaissance, when special- i z e d a r t i s t s w o u l d t r a v e l from town to town and help develop buildings' façades and interiors by drawing potential images and deco- r a t i o n s o n t h e g r o u n d , w h e r e t h e r e w a s e n o u g h space to present their ideas accurately. Very likely, the first madonnari worked in central Italy. W h e n t h e i r w o r k f i n - ished, they often remained in town for a while, earning their living by reproducing on pavements and squares famous paintings, especially those kept in local churches. As their name testifies, the Virgin Mary was a favorite subject. T h e s e f i r s t m a d o n n a r i were i t i n e r a n t a r t i s t s , who would move from town to town, following the sea- sonal rhythm of traditional r e l i g i o u s f e s t i v a l s , w h e n their art would be appreci- ated by more people and the l i k e l i h o o d o f r e c e i v i n g a coin or two for their effort w a s h i g h e r . T h e y w e r e l i k e n e d , b y m a n y , t o Byzantine iconographers who, since the late Middle Ages, had been reproducing famous holy images, using s i m p l e c o l o r s a n d l o c a l materials. Most madonnari of the past remained anonymous and nothing is left of their work, which is intrinsically as fleeting as youth. Yet, there are some important n a m e s w h o s t a r t e d a s m a d o n n a r i , j u s t l i k e E l Greco, immense artist of the Spanish Renaissance, known for his dramatic and expressionistic style. The role of madonnari, though, wasn't only esthetic, i t w a s d i d a c t i c . T h o s e a m o n g y o u f a m i l i a r w i t h Christian iconography know that the beautiful paintings adorning our churches did not only have decorative or contemplative functions, Continued to page 6 A madonnaro at work (Photo: Starman963/Dreamstime) Madonnari: Italy's own street artists

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