Alfredo Filippini (sculptor)

Born from Adolfo and Pasquarosa Contri[1] as a teenager he worked as a craftsman at Donato Santini, a manufacturer of wooden toys from Ferrara. He was forced to leave his job following a tuberculous infection and to be hospitalized in Valtellina in a sanatorium. Here he met the painter from Cuneo Ego Bianchi, who gave him his first drawing and painting lessons. Having recovered and returned to Ferrara, he was one of the founders of the CAD artistic circle, with which he began to exhibit in the first group exhibitions starting from January 1946 at the foyer of the Municipal Theater.

As a painter, he particularly cultivated the landscape genre, not neglecting sacred or mythological subjects of figure. Attracted by the chromatism that descended from the Venetian tradition, he performed numerous views of the Dolomites, the Romagna Riviera and the Ferrara plain. Between 1968 and 1971 he attended the Free School of Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna following the courses of Mascalchi and Montanari.[1]

In 1971 he painted, together with the painter Paolo Fabbri, the altarpiece of Blessed Michele Rua, destined for the Church of San Benedetto (Ferrara).

He also dedicated himself to copying various classical paintings by Titian, Paolo Veronese, Zurbaran and Tiepolo: the replica of Michelangelo's Doni tondo is still famous, enriched by a fine wooden frame in lime tree sculpted by him, with oak leaves and medallions of the eight districts of the Palio of Ferrara. For some works it reduces the measurements compared to the original, as for the Venus and Adonis by Paolo Veronese, while in others it keeps the scale 1: 1, as in the Baccanale degli Andrii by Titiano.[2 1]

As for the restorations, he devoted himself to sculptures and paintings, both ancient and modern.[2]

One of the founders of the Amici dell'Arte Club, in 1982 he began attending the sculpture workshop held by his fellow citizen Laerte Milani at the private school in the former church of San Nicolò. Since then he alternated the exercise of sculpture with easel painting, holding various personal exhibitions in many regions of Italy.

Attracted by mythological, sacred, sporting and symbolist themes, his production descended from the lesson of the Renaissance contaminated by the style of Milani with influences ranging from Arrigo Minerbi to Francesco Messina, also acquiring lessons that go beyond the purely naturalistic representation, admiring Canova but also the Verismo of Vincenzo Gemito or the multifaceted Giuseppe Virgili but also from the personal attendance of the colleague Ulderico Fabbri.[2]

As proof of how deeply rooted he was in the Ferrara fabric, in the nineties he created the banners of some districts of the city Palio (Saint Giorgio, Saint Maurelio, Saint Romano) and the tomb of the young Adamo Toselli, flag-waver who died tragically, where he resumed the figure of the unicorn, dear to Borso d'Este and to the district of Santa Maria in Vado.

As an illustrator he has collaborated on various issues of the Ferrara magazine La Pianura and has created dozens of drawings for Gianoberto Lupi for the book-strenna Capolavori per la caccia (Florence, 1994) and the cover of the volume Cani exteriors (Florence, 1998).[2]

• For the 90th anniversary of Alfredo Filippini - Ferrara painter and sculptor by Lucio Scardino, Sala Mediolanum, Ferrara, 11/28 - 12/31/2014[8][9]

• Puerto Sebastian - The myth of San Sebastiano in contemporary art, Renazzo di Cento, Sandro Parmeggiani Museum, 23/1 - 11/4/2010[10]
• Galleria Carbone, Ferrara, 15/6 - 7/7/2013[11]
• Sebastiano Ferrarese - 25 artists tell about the saint with arrows, curated by Lucio Scardino, Sala Mediolanum, Ferrara, 12/2 - 21/3/2016[12]
• Lost Leda - 25 artists evoke Michelangelo's painting for Ferrara, curated by Lucio Scardino, Sala Mediolanum, Ferrara, 16/12/2016 - 10/1/2017[13]
• Sebastiano inedito, curated by Lucio Scardino, Gate | Porta, Ferrara, 7-17 / 4/2017[14]
• In the month of San Sebastiano, curated by Lucio Scardino, Galleria Cloister, Ferrara, 8-31 / 1/2019 2019[15][16]
• Modern devotions - The cult and myth of St. George with the Dragon, curated by Lucio Scardino, Sala Mediolanum, Ferrara, 1 ° / 3 - 26/4/2019[17]
• Water landscapes. Eighty years after the "Mulino del Po", curated by Lucio Scardino, FabulaFineArt Gallery, 27/9 - 15/10/2019[18]
• Landscapes of Ferrara - With and without figures. 1900–2020, curated by Lucio Scardino, Mediolanum Room, Ferrara, 21/2 - 31/3/2020[19]
• Exhibition curated by The Friends of Art, September 2020[20]