Rape of Europe, 1933

Antonio Feltrinelli  

Antonio Feltrinelli was born in Milan on June 1, 1887 to Giovanni Feltrinelli, the nephew of Giacomo, who was the founder of the Feltrinelli partnership. Feltrinelli was not only a prominent figure in the Italian economic and financial field, but he was also a painter, who was characterized as a strong, impetuous hot colorist, and preferred still lifes, portraits and landscapes. He started his career in 1930 at La Permanente (Milan), where he exhibited a portrait and a still life that won him the Fornara award.

That same year, Feltrinelli exhibited his work at the Venice Biennial and at the Pesaro Gallery in Milan. Together with other prominent avant-garde artists, he participated in various foreign exhibitions on modern Italian painting. He was varied and eclectic, full of inspiration and attracted to all art, history and life that which he believed could become a colorful painting, and for this reason he took on the most difficult subjects to paint. These paintings portrayed his admiration and deepest worship through his uses of raging colors, which matched his exceptional temperament.

He chose risky themes, and his drawings were disorderly, violent and full of color. Feltrinelli’s artistic person openly opposed his physical and social person. He was well educated, reserved and quiet, and had a prominent social position in society. This artist, who was both observant and a thinker, would come down from his luxurious studio as if he was coming down from an attic. He was enthusiastic and tormented by the art that seemed to want to take his life.

His love for the arts and sciences pushed him to use his personal fortune to fund a great Italian cultural institution “similar to the Nobel Foundation”. In addition, Antonio Feltrinelli made the Italian Academy the heir of his possessions and ordered that an inalienable and perpetual fund be created to reward work, education and intelligence.