Italian Writers

Society of Young Nigerian Writers Michelangelo Antonioni Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007), Italian avant-garde motion-picture director and screenwriter, whose films are known for their haunting images of human isolation. Antonioni was born in Ferrara and educated at the University of Bologna. In 1939 he went to Rome, where he worked as a film critic and for a short time attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He entered the film industry in 1942 as a screenwriter and then became an assistant director. In 1943 Antonioni began work on a documentary film of his own, Gente del Po (People of the Po, which he was unable to complete until 1947). From 1947 to 1950 he directed six brief documentary films. Antonioni’s first feature film was Cronaca di un Amore (Story of a Love, 1950). Antonioni’s best-known films, all of which were released internationally, are his trilogy on the theme of alienation, formed by L'Avventura (The Adventure, 1960), La Notte (Night, 1961), and Eclipse (1962); Red Desert (1964), his first color film; Blowup (1966), his first English-language film; Zabriskie Point (1970), filmed in the American West; and The Passenger (1975), a return to his earlier enigmatic style. Later he directed Il mistero di Oberwald (The Mystery of Oberwald, 1979), an experimental film shot on videotape, Identificazione di una donna (Identification of a Woman, 1982), and Beyond the Clouds (1995). Antonioni wrote or cowrote the screenplays of most of his films, which deal in highly personal terms with themes of alienation, boredom, loveless eroticism, and human failure to communicate. Antonioni was known—especially in his work of the early 1960s—for a unique cinematographic style that often employs lengthy tracking shots that transfix human figures against a barren natural landscape or a scene of urban sterility, or that otherwise emphasize human isolation. The narrative line is so vague and mysterious that his films sometimes seem virtually plotless, using characters more as visual objects or symbols than as real people. Antonioni’s reputation diminished considerably after the 1970s and few of his later films were released in the United States, but in 1994 he received a special Academy Award for his achievement in film. Pietro Aretino Pietro Aretino (1492-1556), Italian poet, born in Arezzo. Banished from his native town for having written a satirical sonnet on papal indulgences, he moved to Rome, where he won the favor of Pope Leo X for his brilliance and wit. Aretino's vicious satire won him many enemies, who were able to force him to leave Rome when he published some lewd sonnets. He was supported for a time by the Italian patron of the arts Giovanni delle Bande Nere. In 1527 Aretino settled in Venice. Known as the Scourge of Princes, he was feared by those who wished to avoid his ridicule and fawned upon by those who wished to gain his favor. Among the rulers who showered fortunes on him were Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France. Aretino's poetical works include five comedies and a tragedy. Ludovico Ariosto Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), Italian poet, born in Reggio nell’Emilia. At an early age he wrote comedies that were favorably noticed by Ippolito I Cardinal d’Este. From 1503 to 1517 Ariosto was one of Ippolito’s courtiers. He then entered the service of the cardinal’s brother, Alfonso I, duke of Ferrara. Aristo’s greatest poem, the Orlando Furioso (1st version, 1516; final version, 1532), is ostensibly a continuation of the unfinished epic poem Orlando Innamorato (1487), by the Italian poet Matteo Maria Boiardo. Actually, the poem is a tribute to the patrons of Ariosto, the Este family, and its real hero is Ruggiero d’Este, the legendary founder of the house. Many critics consider it among the finest epics written because of its vigor and exalted style. Ariosto’s other works include comedies such as La Lena (The Wind, 1529), as well as odes, satires, and sonnets. Matteo Bandello Matteo Bandello (1485-1561), Italian writer, born in Castelnuovo Scrivia. He is one of the best-known Italian Renaissance writers of tales. His stories are similar to those of the earlier Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Bandello narrated, among others, the story of Romeo and Juliet, and it is thought that through an intermediate source, a number of Elizabethan playwrights, including Shakespeare, made use of Bandello's plots. Giambattista Basile Giambattista Basile (circa 1575-1632), Italian writer, born in Naples. Written in his native Neapolitan dialect, his most important works include a well-known collection of 50 fairy tales and folktales entitled The Tale of Tales (1634; trans. 1932). Among them are versions of the familiar stories “Cinderella,””Puss in Boots,””Snow White,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Ugo Betti Ugo Betti (1892-1953), Italian writer, born in Camerino. A judge by profession, he wrote several plays, as well as poetry and fiction in his free time. A volume of verse, Il re pensieroso (The Thoughtful King), written while he was a prisoner of war (1917-18), was published in 1922. It is for his plays, however, that Betti is best known. Most of them are concerned with the themes of responsibility and guilt, justice and compassion. Occasionally he displayed a talent for comedy, as in Summertime (1937; trans. 1957). Scrutinizing his own profession, he wrote what is considered his major work, Corruption in the Palace of Justice (1944; trans. 1962), a drama in the form of a judicial inquiry. Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), Italian writer and humanist, one of the great authors of all time. Boccaccio was perhaps born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a Florentine merchant and a French noblewoman. Reared in Florence, he was sent to study accounting in Naples about 1323. He abandoned accounting for canon law and gave that up for classical and scientific studies. He took part in the life of the court of Robert d’Anjou, king of Naples. The king is supposed to have had an illegitimate daughter, Maria de Conti d’Aquino. Although proof of her existence has not been established, she is said to have been Boccaccio’s mistress and to have inspired a great deal of his work. She is, perhaps, the Fiammetta immortalized in his writings. Returning to Florence about 1340, Boccaccio performed various diplomatic services for the city government, and in 1350 he met the celebrated poet and humanist Petrarch, with whom he maintained a close friendship until Petrarch’s death in 1374. In 1362 Boccaccio was invited to Naples by a friend, who promised him the patronage of Queen Joanna of that city. A cold reception at the court of the queen led him to seek the hospitality of Petrarch, who was then in Venice (1363). Rejecting Petrarch’s offer of a home, however, he returned to his estate in Certaldo (near Florence). Boccaccio’s last years, in which he turned to religious meditation, were brightened by his appointment in 1373 as lecturer on Dante. His series of lectures was interrupted by his illness in 1374, and he died the next year. Boccaccio’s most important work is Il Decamerone (Ten Days’ Work), which was begun in 1348 and completed in 1353; it was first translated into English, as The Decameron, in 1620. This collection of 100 witty, high-spirited stories is set within a framework. A group of friends, seven women and three men, all “well-bred, of worth and discretion,” to escape an outbreak of the plague have taken refuge in a country villa outside Florence. There they entertain one another over a period of ten days (hence the title) with a series of stories told by each member of the party in turn. Each day’s storytelling ends with a canzone; these canzoni represent some of Boccaccio’s most exquisite lyric poetry. At the conclusion of the 100th tale, the friends return to their homes in the city. The Decameron is the first and finest prose masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. It is notable for the richness and variety of the tales, which alternate between tragedy and earthy humor, for the brilliance of the craftsmanship, and for its penetrating character analysis. In this work Boccaccio gathered material from many sources: the French fabliau, Greek and Latin classics, folklore, and observations of contemporary Italian life. Boccaccio’s other writings include three works thought to be inspired by his love for Maria d’Aquino: his first long prose romance Il filocolo (circa 1336), L’amorosa Fiammetta (Amorous Fiammetta, 1343-44), both stories of rejected lovers; and Il corbaccio (The Old Crow, c. 1354). His Il filostrato (c. 1338) and Teseida (1340-41) are poems in ottava rima, a verse form he brought to perfection (see Versification). He also wrote a life of Dante, with a commentary on the Divine Comedy, and a number of scholarly, scientific, and poetic works in Latin, including De Claris Mulieribus (Concerning Famous Women, 1360-74). Matteo Maria Boiardo Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441?-94), Italian poet, born in Scandiano, and educated at the University of Ferrara. The dukes of Ferrara were his steadfast friends and patrons. Boiardo began his career by writing some Latin poems in imitation of Virgil. His greatest work is Orlando Innamorato (Roland in Love, 1487), an unfinished epic about the hero of the Charlemagne legend, Roland. This poem inspired Orlando Furioso (The Madness of Roland, 1516), the masterpiece of the 16th-century poet Ludovico Ariosto. The distinctive contribution of Boiardo is the introduction into poetry of the romantic and chivalrous spirit of the Arthurian legends and of classical elegance.

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