"Verso un uomo concepito come entità spirituale completa ed unitaria": le matrici primordiali e spirituali della scultura di Francesco Somaini

Many aspects of the Italian artistic culture of the 1930s and 1940s, the years of\r\nFrancesco Somaini’s formation, are reflected in his early works dedicated to sacred\r\nand religious themes. The text investigates a few of the direct and indirect influences\r\nthat were decisive for the definition of his early works, especially those on sacred\r\nthemes. Somaini’s sculpture is figurative, expressing an elementary and universal\r\nstyle, influenced by the example of sculptors such as Arturo Martini or Marino\r\nMarini. He was also influenced by the context in which he lived and in particular by\r\nthe primordialist thought of Franco Ciliberti, a philosopher from Como, where Somaini\r\nfrequented in the 1940s. Ciliberti was the founder of the magazine Valori\r\nPrimordiali in 1938 and of the Sant’Elia Futurist Primordialist Group in 1941,\r\nwhich brought together figurative and abstract artists as well as rationalist architects\r\nunited by a desire to search for the original. The comparison between Ciliberti’s\r\ntexts and Somaini’s youthful writings, in particular those published in the magazine\r\nSentimento, which was linked to the Como-based Cerchio group, allows theoretical\r\naspects of his thought to emerge that are useful for understanding the complexity of\r\nhis spirituality, expressed both in his youthful works and in those of his maturity.