John Colacicchi (Anagni, Frosinone, 1900-Florence, 1992), a painter, completed his early studies in a seminary, attended high school in Rome, and then moved permanently to Florence in 1918. Already in high school, he devoted himself to poetry, coupled with a passion for painting. From the 1920s onward, he frequented the "Giubbe Rosse" café, where he met, among others, Aldo Palazzeschi, Libero Andreotti, and his teacher Francesco Franchetti. He also met Onofrio Martinelli, with whom he developed a fraternal bond and a very intense artistic exchange. Later, he met Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, for whom he designed the sets for the opera "La Giubbe Rosse" (The Red Coats). Dithyramb of Bacchus, staged at La Scala in 1931. After the war he participated in the city's literary life and in 1924 was among the founders of the «Rivista di Firenze»; two years later, with Alberto Carocci, Raffaello Franchi, Leo Ferrero, Bruno Bramanti and Bonaventura Tecchi, he created «Solaria».
Flavia Arlotta (Sorrento, Naples, 1913-Florence, 2010), an artist and painter, spent her childhood in Sorrento and attended secondary school in Naples for a year, before moving on to art high school and beginning to paint with the master Ezechiele Guardascione. In 1930, at the age of seventeen, she followed her father to Florence and the following year met Giovanni Colacicchi, who gave her private painting lessons. After graduating in 1935, she began frequenting Colacicchi, whom she married in 1952 and with whom she had two sons: Piero and Francesco.
The Giovanni Colacicchi and Flavia Arlotta Collection, consisting of printed materials, was donated to the Foundation in 2017 by their son Francesco. The collection is divided into the following sections: Journals e Magazines, consisting of a rich collection of twentieth-century magazines such as: «Il Ponte», «Letteratura», «Argomenti» and «Nuovi Argomenti», «La Riforma Letteraria», «La Critica», «Botteghe Oscure», «La Ronda» and «La Critica d'Arte», just to mention some of the most important and complete; Library, consisting of over sixty volumes, collects catalogues of group exhibitions and solo exhibitions by Giovanni Colacicchi, catalogues of exhibitions by Flavia Arlotta and catalogues of exhibitions by various artists and painters.
