Home Anthology Biography Critics Catalogs Paintings Norberto Opera Graphics Sculpture Norberto Contacts Galleria Norberto Non è certo per dovere didattico che si ripercorre la vicenda umana di un artista, anche perché la sua opera vive di un'autonomia propria, alimentata unicamente da quegli elementi estetici che in essa emergono. Le sensazioni e le emozioni che l'opera stessa fa nascere in noi, ci legano al suo autore con una sorta di riconoscenza e di affetto che inducono a conoscerlo meglio, a indagare tra le alterne vicende della sua vita, per coglierne i momenti e gli aspetti che più decisamente aiutano a scoprire nell'uomo il personaggio e l'artista. Alla luce di queste considerazioni e confortati da tante confidenze, ricordi, sfoghi e anche pettegolezzi, di cui ci ha gratificati in tanti anni di amicizia...... we follow the unfolding of the events that have characterized Norberto's life up to now, trying to underline his links with his pictorial adventure. It is not important, for example, to know that he was born on 18 September 1927, in Spello. He could have been born at any time of any era because the moods that interest him are common to men of all times. Of greater interest is to know something about his parents. The father mediated the buying and selling of livestock and traded in the grain and olive trees of the peasants. However, he also had a trattoria, where, trade permitting, he felt the need to be a cook to satisfy his dormant creative and artisan needs. The mother, who looked after the house, the five children and the restaurant, also found the time to be appreciated, for the harmony of the models and the skill of execution, sewing the First Communion dresses of the children of Spello. Norberto carries this familiar climate of attention directed, as far as possible, to inner needs by attending lower school. In fact, he has singular memories of that period, such as that, for example, of recognizing the much desired hour of exit from the position of a ray of sunshine entering through the window. It may seem like a trivial interest in the phenomena of nature, but it is not that simple. In reality, the observation is aimed at the ray of sunshine that creeps between objects, therefore, not only at nature, but at the relationship that man has with it. As well as the overwhelming fascination that the urban context where he lives exerts on him, is always measured with the careful interest in the quiet lavishness of those characters who populate its living space. His family, as we have already seen, does not live the atavistic misery of those who cultivate the land, but neither does it have those resources that qualify the wealthy of the province as "lords". The dignity of the poor is a great virtue, unknown to most, but it costs sacrifices and requires the collaboration of the whole family. It is also time for Norberto to choose how to collaborate. A little more than twelve we find him in Rome, in Trastevere, at his tailor's uncle. And it is certainly no coincidence that the choice fell on a craft of the creative manual ones. The impact with Rome is of great interest for the boy Norberto and here too, to the obvious tourist-cultural wanderings, he joins the careful observation of that very rich gallery of characters that could have been Trastevere at the time, in those dramatic times around 1940. For him, accustomed to the methodical tranquility of healthy family life, entering this difficult world was very hard. Just think of the resolve, for example, with which one had to keep one's distance from a certain delinquency that was at home in Trastevere. It seems like literature and instead there are many dramatic episodes experienced firsthand and overcome by appealing to inner resources that he did not even think he possessed. And if the impact with Rome, especially with Trastevere, did not turn from experience into trauma, it is only due to its precocious maturity and to the great balance shown in the evaluation of the episodes. In any case, events precipitate and in 1942 he is forced to return to his Spello. This period, at home, has a new flavor for him. It is a continuous confrontation between the Roman experience and its land, its people, the different ways of living and facing problems. The wealth of increased knowledge was useful above all to revisit the frescoes of Assisi and the Baglioni Chapel in Spello with new interests. It is 1946. The return to normality after such dramatic events is always hard, but it must be faced. Norberto, always tailoring and always behind his uncle, goes to Bergamo, and exactly to the splendid Bergamo Alta, so rich in architecture and atmospheres so different as to arouse intense and continuous emotions. Meanwhile, the years in Rome and Bergamo were enough to make him, very young, a very good tailor. Everyone marvels, he doesn't. For a long time now he has been aware of his extraordinary manual ability and the ease with which he can face and solve any job. And all this, for Norberto, is a reason, if not really for anguish, at least for disturbance. He is unable to establish the precise terms of a relationship, which must exist, between this ease of doing and the incessant force that drives him to know, observe, evaluate, compare men and things in their deepest depths. Realizing the desire to open one's own workshop was joined, in 1950, by the joy of returning to Spello. But if the external aspects of life tend to be planned and inserted into everyday life, the interior problem, now that there is more time to devote to reflection, reappears with ever increasing intensity, accompanied by the usual anxieties and doubts. Confusion risks giving way to anguish, so Norberto, who has now understood that he still has something to say, decides, in 1951, to paint a picture. The work arouses the admiration of the small court of patrons who roam around his shop every day. But Norberto is deeply disappointed. That painting, and the few others who followed it, did not unravel the tangle of his thoughts. SEE NEWSLETTER See our Newsletter © - Luigi Proietti Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art Spello Cortina Venice Artitalia srl © 2010 via Cavour 61 Spello -PG- VAT number 01950110542 Tel. + 39.0742652044 powered by e107 - Kreos Solutions Staff@serverkreos.com If you want more news on the management of personal data, view our privacy policy. click on the button below and this warning will no longer be shown. If you do not accept, you will browse the site without any limitation but you are warned about the use of cookies and this notice will always remain visible.