Felice Casorati as One of the Protagonists of the Artistic Iife in Italy. From Symbolist Iinfluence to Valori Plastici and Novecento

Abstract

This article focuses on the work of the Italian artist Felice Casorati, a protagonist of Italian art in the late 19th — mid 20th centuries. Emphasis is given to the fact that Casorati’s career, which developed in the context of Italian art reasoning, is dominated by an individualist quest and pursuance of detachment. The key focus of this article is on the complicated period between the two World Wars, which can be described as the peak of his art. Certain aspects of Casorati’s life in Turin, a source of his inspiration, from affiliation with metaphysical art, exploration of media with Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi and other members of Valori Plastici group, to the Novecento and departure from neoclassicism, have been identified. The historical-cultural and social factors underlying these trends and schools have been analyzed, and the drivers and peculiarities of the development of Italian art of the period in question have been described. The difference between the fundamental concepts of Valori Plastici and the Novecento proclaiming the so-called “return to order” (“ritorno all’ordine”) as an attempt to “revive” the avant-garde art language and return to traditions is noted. Special focus is given to the analysis of the evolution, poetic style and study of the most popular motives in Casorati’s art, including those typical only for his art and those common to Italian artists of this period. Throughout the artist’s life, his paintings attracted the persistent attention of art critics and historians of culture and art. An analysis of their publications, which, primarily, constituted the methodological framework of this study, Casorati’s letters and articles and analysis of his art practice, suggested a convincing conclusion that Felice Casorati achieved an outstanding position among the leaders of the major art schools of the day and became one of its protagonists.