Achille Capizzano (Rende 1907 – Rome 1951) was a distinguished painter and decorative artist whose most prolific years coincided with the ventennio fascista. He launched his career with Paolo Paschetto in 1920, contributing to fresco work at the Ministry of National Education in Rome. From 1930 onward, he received various commissions to create frescoes and ceramics, as well as designs for leather goods, postcards, and covers. Together with the architect Luigi Moretti, he founded the ‘Centro d’Arte’ (Art Centre) for promotional and decorative work. Capizzano painted the Casa del Fascio in Monte Sacro, created works for the Fascist youth organization Gioventù Italiana del Littorio in Piacenza, Trastevere, and Trecate, and contributed to the Palazzo del Littorio in Rome. He also designed mosaics at Foro Mussolini and Viale dell’Impero and possibly authored the Latin inscription in the mosaics at the former (Nastasi 2019: 554–56). He was awarded the ‘Premio del Duce’ in Cosenza in 1938 and won the mosaic competition for Palazzo del Congressi at E42 in Rome (the project never materialized due to the outbreak of the Second World War). In 1939, he became assistant to Paolo Paschetto, who held the Chair of Decoration (Cattedra di Ornato) at the Liceo Artistico in Rome (a type of secondary school in Italy aiming to give students the skills they need to proceed to higher education in fields related to art, decoration, and design). After the war, from 1949 until the year of his death, Capizzano taught at the same institution (Campisani 2021; Campisani 2005: 75–86; De Fazio 2020: 71–73, with the bibliography below).

Bibliography

Brunetti, Maria, and Tonino Sicoli, eds. 1998. Achille Capizzano, 1907–1951. Rome: Fratelli Palombi Editori.

Campisani, Ugo. 2005. Artisti calabresi. Otto-Novecento. Pittori – Scultori – Storia – Opere. Cosenza: Pellegrini.

———. 2021. ‘Capizzano, Achille’. In: Dizionario Biografico della Calabria Contemporanea, edited by Pantaleone Sergi.

De Fazio, Antonietta. 2020. La Calabria e i suoi artisti: dizionario dei pittori (1700–1930). Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino.

Nastasi, Antonino. 2019. Le iscrizioni in latino di Roma Capitale (1870–2018). Rome: Edizioni Quasar.

Perugini, Vincenzo. 1966. Achille Capizzano: pittore. Cosenza: Pellegrini.

Sicoli, Tonino, and Massimo Di Stefano, eds. 2010. Achille Capizzano: Arte pubblica e arte privata. Città di Castello: Edimond.

Han Lamers