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Silvano Campeggi
Campeggi.jpg
Campeggi in 2011
Born (1923-01-23)23 January 1923
Died 29 August 2018(2018-08-29) (aged 95)
Florence, Italy
Nationality Italian
Occupation Poster designer
Years active 1945–2015

Silvano "Nano" Campeggi (born January 23, 1923 – died August 29, 2018) was a famous Italian artist. He designed the amazing posters for many classic Hollywood movies. His pictures are linked to the exciting "golden era" of Hollywood films. Many people think Campeggi was the most important graphic artist and poster designer in American movie history.

Early Life and Art Training

Silvano Campeggi's father was a printer. This helped Silvano learn about graphics and design from a young age. He went to an art school in Porta Romana, Florence. There, he studied with talented painters like Ottone Rosai and Ardengo Soffici.

Hollywood Movie Poster Career

Campeggi's big break came during World War II. The American Red Cross asked him to paint portraits of American soldiers. This helped him learn a lot about American music, movies, and culture.

After the war, he moved to Rome. There, the movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) asked him to create a poster. It was for the famous movie Gone with the Wind. This poster showed Clark Gable holding Vivien Leigh with Atlanta burning in the background.

Designing for Major Studios

Over the next few decades, Campeggi designed posters and ads for more than 3,000 films! He worked for many big movie studios. These included MGM, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, RKO, and Twentieth-Century Fox.

Many of the movies he worked on won Oscars. Sixty-four of them, in fact! Some of these famous films were Casablanca, Ben-Hur, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, West Side Story, Exodus, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Gigi.

Famous Faces in His Art

Campeggi's images of Hollywood stars are easy to recognize. He drew Liza Minnelli in a derby hat and black stockings. He also painted Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, and Sophia Loren.

He also captured the male stars perfectly. He showed Marlon Brando on his motorcycle as "The Wild One." He drew a bare-chested James Dean and John Wayne in his cowboy hat. Humphrey Bogart was often shown in his white dinner jacket.

Many of the stars Campeggi drew became his friends. Ava Gardner even asked him to walk with her on the red carpet at a movie premiere. His wife shared a story about Elizabeth Taylor lending her maternity clothes. Campeggi described Marilyn Monroe as "my icon and surely the most enchanting woman I have ever met." He first painted her in the early 1950s.

Return to Italy and New Art Projects

In the 1970s, movie posters became less important. Television and newspaper ads took over. So, Campeggi moved back to Florence, Italy.

There, he painted a series of 50 pictures. These showed Siena's exciting Palio horse race (in 2001). He also created another series of 50 images called "I Have Seen the Rush of Jousts" (in 2003). The city of Arezzo asked him to make these to celebrate their Jousting Tournaments. The title came from Dante's Inferno.

Other Important Italian Works

Campeggi had many other important art jobs in Italy.

  • He painted five large battle scenes from the Risorgimento. This was for the Carabinieri police force in the early 1970s.
  • He created a portrait of Salvo D'Acquisto, an Italian Resistance hero. This picture was even used on an Italian postage stamp in 1975.
  • He made 35 images for the City of Florence. These showed their traditional "Calcio Storico" soccer match (in 1997).
  • He created one of the Stations of the Cross for the city of Assisi in 2004.
  • One of Campeggi's most famous works in Italy is his portrait of Garibaldi.

In 2008, Campeggi made a special tribute called "The Girls of Puccini." This was for the 150th birthday of the composer Giacomo Puccini. Also in 2008, he started a Napoleon series. It celebrated 200 years since Napoleon was on the island of Elba. The "Napoleon at Elba" exhibition opened in September 2008 in Portoferraio.

His most recent exhibition was about a big battle in Italy. It was called The Battle of Campaldino. This battle happened between Florence and Arezzo on June 11, 1289. The exhibition showed large battle scenes and portraits of knights.

Silvano Campeggi passed away on August 29, 2018, when he was 95 years old.

Major Exhibitions

  • The Movies Through the Posters of Silvano Campeggi - The Medici Riccardi Palace, Florence (1988, then shown in Paris and New York)
  • 3000 Times – The Art of the Movie Poster - Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York (2007)
  • Elba – Island of the Emperor – Portoferriao, Italy (2008)
  • The Women of Puccini – Rive del Lago, Italy (2009)

Awards

  • Fiorino D'Oro (2000) – This is Italy's top award for artistic achievement.
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