(Rome 1915 – Rome 2002). The Fund Marcello Venturoli, consisting of an archive, library, and photo library, was donated by the writer's heirs, his sons Francesco and Paolo, to the Primo Conti ETS Foundation in Fiesole in March 2013. The documentation, previously kept in the homes of Rome and Ostia, is held by the Foundation and, thanks to the awarding of two scholarships by the Tuscany Region, it was possible to proceed with the organization of the entire documentary corpus, currently accompanied by detailed lists of contents, and the partial cataloguing of the Library in SBN.
Born in Rome in 1915 and graduated in Law in 1940, Venturoli also turned his interests to the literary and especially artistic scene: he was in fact an art critic, journalist, essayist, poet and novelist.
With the essay “Le acqueforti di Bartolini” (1941) followed by “Viaggio intorno alla Quadriennale” (1943) Venturoli inaugurated his activity through a new method of art criticism, thanks to the daily contact with the artists, observed and known in their creative phase, in their studios or in the gallery, he developed a direct and immediate style of reading, in which the daily life of the artists and the analysis of the quality of their works are intertwined; in this regard we recall “Interviste di frodo” (Sandron, 1946) in which the criticism is connected to the chronicle of the Roman artistic activity of the years 1944-1945 with a journey through the painters' studios.
He then collaborated with numerous magazines, in particular he edited, since its foundation (1948), the art criticism pages of the daily newspaper «Paese Sera», maintaining a strong autonomy of judgement which led him to distance himself from the newspaper in 1963. Among the publications born from the collection of his articles we remember: “From the Impressionists to Picasso” (Nistri-Lischi 1953), “Characters and events of modern art” (Nistri-Lischi, 1965), “The traveller in art” (Rizzoli, 1966), “All the men of art” (Rizzoli, 1968), “The Biennials told” (Riccitelli, 1986).
In the mid-1960s he retired to his home in Ostia where he resumed his literary activity, which had already begun with “I giorni di Ignazio” (Sandron, 1945), the story of a rebellion during the German occupation of Rome. The novels “Lo sprecadonne” (Rizzoli, 1965) and “Dietro il silenzio” (Rizzoli, 1968) were then published, while his most challenging novel, “Il libro di Giona” (The Book of Jonah) dates back to the 1970s. He resumed publishing novels with Newton Compton, including “Io, Saffo” (1992) and “La stella di Giuditta” (1994), both finalists for the Strega Prize.
In 1951, he published "Dizionario della paura," which won the Viareggio Prize. Focusing on an exchange of letters with Ruggero Zangrandi from 1949 to 1951, the exchange explores an ideological dispute between liberalism and communism. In 1957, he won the Viareggio Prize again with "La patria di marmo – 1870/1911," an essay that satirically recounts the colorful history of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele in Rome, set against the backdrop of forty years of national life. His last work on the political sphere was an essay on the history of Italian parliamentary customs in the volume "Montecitorio: uomini e fatti" (1970), which brings together contributions from leading Italian historians.
His poetic debut dates back to his university years, when Venturoli published some poems in «La Fiera letteraria»; he returned to publishing collections only in the seventies, we remember “Canto plurale” (1976), “Il fiore buio” (1979) Pisa prize, “Il filo iridato” (1982) Circe Sabaudia prize, “Racconti in versi” (1985) Rhegium Julii prize, “Come dal giorno prima” (1988) Camaiore prize; all published by Edizioni L'Astrogallo of Ancona.
In his work as a curator and promoter of exhibitions, Venturoli has also published important monographs on leading contemporary art artists. In 2007, his son Paolo published the posthumous volume "Il critico a domicilio" (Campanotto), completed in January 1996. It is a detached and calm reflection on artmaking by a critic who always firmly believed in the close relationship between art and life. The last volume he edited was "Lettere alla postina" (L'Astrogallo, 2002).
He died in Rome in 2002. (Biographical profile by Eleonora Pancani).
