"Untitled" by Renzo Vespignani.

Etching
Cm. 55,5 x 76
Year: 1965
Print run: 22/25

Renzo Vespignani was born in Rome on February 19, 1924 to Guido Vespignani and Ester Molinari, great-grandson of the renowned architect, Virginio Vespignani. Following the death of his father (esteemed surgeon and cardiologist) at a very young age he found himself moving with his mother to the proletarian area of Portonaccio, next to the San Lorenzo quarter, where he spent his childhood.   

His art was not limited to mere pictorial experience: he also illustrated a number of literary masterpieces as well as working as a set designer. He worked on Elio Petri's “His Days Are Numbered” and “The Assassin”, “Maratona - Dance” and “The Bassarids” by Hans Werner Henze, “The Seven Deadly Sins” and “The Mother” by Bertolt Brecht, and “Jenufa” by Leoš Janáček. He also produced more than four hundred pieces in etching, soft-ground etchings and lithographs. 

In 1963, one of his works was put on display in the Contemporary Italian Paintings exhibition that was set up in some Australian cities. 

In 1963-64 he was displayed in the Peintures italiennes d'aujourd'hui exhibition organised in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Vespignani also had a very close relationship with literature, illustrating Boccaccio's Decameron, poetry and prose by Leopardi, the Complete Works of Majakowskij, Eliot's Four Quartets, the Tales of Kafka, Belli's Sonnets, Poetry by Porta, the Testament of Villon and The Question by Alleg.

In 1999 he was elected Chairperson of the National Academy of San Luca and appointed Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.