Giuseppe Maria Alberto Giorgio de Chirico was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His best-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer and of Friedrich Nietzsche, and for the mythology of his birthplace.
Giovanni Leone was an Italian politician, jurist, and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the President of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. He also briefly served as Prime Minister of Italy from June to December 1963 and again from June to December 1968. He was also the president of the Chamber of Deputies from May 1955 until June 1963.
Piazza di Spagna, at the bottom of the Spanish Steps, is one of the most famous squares in Rome, Italy. It owes its name to the Palazzo di Spagna, the seat of the Embassy of Spain to the Holy See. There is also the famed Column of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Romolo Valli was an Italian actor.
Metaphysical Interior with Biscuits is a 1916 painting by Italian metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico. It is one of the earliest editions in a series of works that extended late into Chirico's career.
The Bagutta Prize is an Italian literary prize that is awarded annually to Italian writers. The prize originated among patrons of Milan's Bagutta Ristorante. The writer Riccardo Bacchelli discovered the restaurant and soon he regularly gathered numerous friends who would dine there together and discuss books. They began charging fines to the person who arrived last to an appointed meal, or who failed to appear.
Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti was an Italian academic, literary critic and poet. He taught at the University of Turin from 1967 until his death in 2017. He was considered to be one of the most important literary critics of his time.
Vittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. He is President of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Several times a member of the Italian Parliament, in 2008 he served as Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Sports in Milan's municipal government for six months when Mayor Letizia Moratti terminated his mandate as she saw him 'unfit for the job'. In 2012, he was removed as Mayor of Salemi by the Ministry of Interior after he failed to acknowledge Mafia interferences in his cabinet.
Tullio Altamura is an Italian actor, best known for his roles in spaghetti westerns and action films in the 1960s.
Lino Banfi is an Italian film actor and presenter. He has appeared in more than 100 films since 1960.
The Verzocchi collection or the Galleria Verzocchi - work in contemporary painting is a collection of over seventy 20th-century Italian paintings formed by the entrepreneur Giuseppe Verzocchi from 1949 to 1950. It contains only paintings of 90 by 70 cm and only on the themes of work and self-portraiture. Each painting is marked "V & D", the Verzocchi brand. It now forms part of the Pinacoteca civica di Forlì.
Mario Garbuglia was an Italian set designer. He won the David di Donatello for Best Sets and Decorations, the Nastro d'Argento, and a BAFTA.
Antonio del Massaro da Viterbo, or Antonio da Viterbo, nicknamed il Pastura was an Italian painter.
The Museo del Novecento is a museum of twentieth-century art in Milan, in Lombardy in northern Italy. It is housed in the Palazzo dell'Arengario, near Piazza del Duomo in the centre of the city.
Franco Diogene was an Italian actor and comedian.
Galleria Ca' d'Oro is an international contemporary art gallery curated and organized by Gloria Porcella. The gallery was founded in Rome by Antonio Porcella in 1970, and currently has three locations in Rome, Miami, and New York City.
Born in Rome, Gloria is the latest of a long lineage of curators, writers, and art critics. Beginning with her great-grandfather, Alpinolo Porcella who was a friend of Italian artists Filippo de Pisis and Giorgio de Chirico. The legacy continued with Gloria's grandfather, Amadore Porcella, a writer for the Vatican's newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. In conjunction with writing, Amadore founded Galleria San Bernardo in 1945 at the Piazza San Bernardo. In 1970, Gloria's father, Antonio Porcella established Galleria Ca’ d’Oro first on Via Condotti, and then moved it to the Piazza di Spagna. Galleria Ca’ d’Oro is now located on Via Del Babuino. In conjunction with curating the gallery, Antonio helped to launch La Fondazione Giorgio e Isa de Chirico in 1990, where he is still an active member.
Anna Maria Brizio (1902-1982) was professor of art history at the University of Milan, a member of the Commissione Vinciana and an authority on the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
Daniela Terranova is an Italian composer working in the area of concert music, opera and extended sonic environments. She studied composition with Azio Corghi and Beat Furrer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. Her music is published by Suvini Zerboni (Milan).
Raissa Samojlovna Calza was a Ukrainian dancer who became a prominent classical archaeologist of Roman portraiture. When she was young, she fled to Italy and France following the Russian revolution.
