Scipione

Gino Bonichi, known as Scipione, was born in 1904 in Macerata and died in November 1933 in Arco di Trento. A voracious reader, Scipione's engagement with literature profoundly enriched his imagination, enabling him to “provoke and identify his own ghosts, organize a shattered reality, and solicit continuous variations on themes, purging them each time—sometimes as metaphor, sometimes as allegory, sometimes as evocation, sometimes as provocation.” This need to translate what he read into images inspired the creation of a personal universe populated by symbols and allegories.

Far from any illustrative intent, Scipione “relies on imagination, letting fantasy run wild.” As Giuseppe Iannaccone noted, “I have always admired those capable of strong emotions, especially those who can express them. Scipione was one of them. He had no limits, no taboos. In his works, we recognize not only the great painter and poet he was but, above all, his vitality as a man, his enthusiasm for existence in all its manifestations, despite the looming death. He expresses his love for life through its opposite, through the fear of losing it.”

Throughout his life, Scipione accumulated a significant collection of drawings, showcasing his extraordinary immediacy of invention. Among these is a youthful piece depicting an Angolo di Collepardo, a place he frequented during summers for health reasons, alongside Il Profeta in vista di Gerusalemme (The Prophet in Sight of Jerusalem). The latter work illustrates a red horse, representing power over war, and features a prophet with hands clasped towards the sky, seemingly imploring God as the artist did in his final days: “Chasten me, that I may feel my sins while alive; but I seek salvation. I wish to sleep pure as bread. I want to throw myself on the earth without contaminating it. Grant me the strength to win.”

The few elements scattered throughout the arid, desert-like landscape—the skull, the serpent slithering between the horse's legs, the withered tree—symbolize the pain the artist strives to conquer. Scipione “seeks resurrection, dreams of a new age, and wishes to escape the dark atoms of evil that bind him.” In this particular painting, he emphasizes the use of “scratches,” created by scraping the surface with the brush handle. These grooves in the freshly laid color amplify the harshness of the scorching landscape.

The work was first presented in November 1930 at the Galleria di Roma, where Scipione exhibited alongside Mafai. The show, organized by Pier Maria Bardi, was a “true revelation” for both artists, marking a significant moment in their careers. Through his unique visual language and profound thematic explorations, Scipione's work continues to resonate, reflecting the complexities of human emotion and the pursuit of identity within a turbulent historical context.