ERCOLANI ERNESTO

He was born in Ascoli Piceno on February 18, 1909, to Giuseppe, a lawyer, and Teresa Salviati. In 1926, despite a brilliant start, he dropped out of the classical high school "Stabili," where he was enrolled, to devote himself to painting, taking lessons from Professor P. Nardini. In 1928, he took the entrance exams to the Industrial Art Museum and the Free School of Nude Drawing in Rome, which he attended starting the following year, together with G. Bonichi, known as Scipione, under the guidance of F. Ferrazzi and G. Rosso. He also became friends with M. Mafai and during the same period frequented the artists of the Villa Strohl-Fern. After an interruption for military service, in 1930 he was admitted to the Academy of Bologna, where he studied figure painting under A. Majani and F. Giacomelli, and engraving under G. Morandi. He attended the final two years of the course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, taking lessons from U. Coromaldi and P. Rizzo. Memories of his early teachings, albeit subtly ironic, remained in his painting for a long time, as shown by the accumulation of old coffee pots, kerosene lanterns, jugs, bottles and pitchers in his compositions; evidence of this are the numerous still lifes and the drawing with the emblematic title: Bottiglie morandiane , from 1932 (Papò, 1984, p. 18, n. 117). Despite his scholastic association with Scipione and his association with the "Roman School" circle, he remained isolated and shy (Melloni, 1970). On the other hand, from the beginning he immediately stood out for the sarcastic and humorous nature of his painting, sensitized by his reading and by the authors he favored, such as H. Daumier of Charivari and Caricature , but also Goya, Ensor, Permeke and Chagall. What most interested him was man and his relationship with society. Beginning in 1933, at a very young age, he contributed illustrative drawings to the Literary Fair . Between 1932 and 1939, he participated in almost all the trade union exhibitions in the Marche region and in 1935 in the First Interregional Trade Union Exhibition of Fine Arts in Florence, where he won the Guilds' Prize. In 1936, following his father's death in April of the previous year and his mother's onset of illness, he was forced to accept the post of municipal librarian in Ascoli Piceno. In June of the same year, he was appointed a member of the jury for the Interprovincial Exhibition of the Marche Artists' Union. In 1939, one of his etchings, Composizione , was exhibited at the Third Quadriennale in Rome (catalogue, p. 273). The following year, he left for the Western Front, where he carried out important work as a cartographer and photographer. After the armistice, he was taken prisoner by the Germans and spent nine months (September 1943–June 1944) in various prison camps (see Papò, 1984, p. 18), where he produced numerous pastels and drawings charged with the impressions derived from this tragic experience. Only in 1945 was he able to resume his normal artistic activity. In 1949 he participated in the Marche Art Exhibition held in Ascoli Piceno, where he won first prize. In March of the same year he held his first solo exhibition at the L'Obelisco gallery in Rome, where he exhibited a selection of twelve watercolors, mostly with intimate subjects, such as Canzone nostalgica , Malinconia , Idillio , two drawings, and an oil painting. Also in December 1949, a selection of ninety-eight works was presented by R. Papò at the University Library of Cagliari. A characteristic of his work as an engraver was the creation of monotypes derived from a glass matrix that he called "fumages," reviving a term used by Renaissance silversmiths and achieving with this technique a heightened luminous preciousness through a close dialogue of black and white. Three of these "fumages," Hermit Tempted by Demons , Frightened Arabs , and Peasants Surprised by the Ghost of Pulcinella , were exhibited at the XXVIII Venice Biennale in 1956 (catalogue, p. 151). In 1958, a serious retinal hemorrhage manifested itself, the first crisis that would later lead to blindness. A brief period of abstract art lasted about a year in 1959, which was then abandoned to return to more open figurative work (Gagliardi, 1971). In 1963, he suffered another serious eye hemorrhage, forcing him to be hospitalized at the San Camillo Hospital in Rome. A series of hospitalizations for eye care followed between 1965 and 1970. Since 1950 he had held the position of curator of the Civic Art Gallery of Ascoli Piceno and in 1970 poor health forced him to retire. In the same year, he published a volume of sixty-five drawings titled Poesie (Poems) , printed in three hundred numbered and signed copies, not for sale and given as a gift, currently unobtainable. The G9 and Nuove Presenze cultural groups of Ascoli Piceno organized an exhibition dedicated to him in 1971, as part of the Rassegna nuove presenze in Acquasanta Terme. The exhibition consisted of eleven paintings titled Composizioni (Compositions ), all from 1959, which consisted of a reworking of the experiences of the avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century. In October 1973, he held his second solo exhibition at the 8G gallery in Ascoli Piceno, presenting around twenty works created between 1950 and 1970. He died in Ascoli Piceno on January 23, 1974. Two years after his death, the city council organized a commemorative exhibition featuring fifty-four works owned by his widow. Among these, almost all painted between 1965 and 1970, were a Spanish-influenced St. Lucia , several landscapes with realistic inspiration and fantastical development, and several portrait busts. Sources and Bibl .: Obituaries in Il Resto del carlino , 24 Jan. 1974; La Voce repubblicana , 26 Jan. 1974; D. Pettinelli, The exhibition of painters and sculptors from the Marche , in Il Messaggero , 10 July 1932; Primavera fiorentina (cat.), Florence 1933, p. 120; M. Longarelli, Third trade union art exhibition from the Marche , in Corriere adriatico , 13 July 1935; R. Strinati, Three painters from Ascoli : Flajani , Castelli , E. , in Il Giornale d'Italia , 30 Dec. 1937; S. Mattioli, Where E. E. lives his fantastic and mysterious dreams of art , in Il Messaggero , 18 Apr. 1940; G. Armandi, E. , in Literary Fair , 24 Oct. 1946; Gall. dell'Obelisco, E. E. (with introduction by N. Ciarletta), Rome 1949 (see review in Il Quotidiano , Rome, 15 Apr. 1949; Literary Fair , 17 Apr. 1949); R. Papò, Exhibition in Cagliari , in Il Giornale del Mezzogiorno , 10 Apr. 1950; G. Armandi, Italian Artists : E. E. , in Literary Fair , 13 Aug. 1950; LS, The Painter E. E. , in L'Appennino (Ancona), 22 Dec. 1957; C. Melloni, E.'s " fumages ", in Voceadriatica , March 18, 1958; G. Armandi-C. Melloni, Homage to E. , ibid ., February 21, 1971; G. Gagliardi, Homage to E. , in Il Resto del carlino , September 3, 1971; C. Melloni, A dutiful homage to E. E. , in Il Messaggero , September 15, 1971; E. , the painter who avoids popularity , in Il Resto del carlino , October 19, 1973; A. Centinaro, E.'s " First " in Ascoli , in Il Tempo , October 20, 1973; The first Ascoli exhibition of E. E. opens today , in Il Messaggero , October 20, 1973; G. Armandi, The painter friend , in Corriere Adriatico , February 2, 1975; R. Papò, E. commemorated , in Fieraletteraria , February 15, 1976; In memory of the painter E. E. , in Il Tempo , February 28, 1976; G. Malatesta, A space to remember the personality of E. E. , in Il Resto del carlino , January 10, 1978; R. Papò, E. E. , painter , engraver , and sculptor from Ascoli Piceno, Ascoli Piceno 1984.