Romanico picassiano. Testori 1948-1949

The essay investigates the relevance of the reception of Picasso's art by the art critic and intellectual Giovanni Testori in the late 1940s, at a time when he mostly concentrated on his practice as a painter. The interest in Picasso needs to be positioned within the broader attention that European artists in the postwar years paid to the work of the Spanish artist as an artistic as much as moral reference for anyone who wanted to be intransigently modern and thoroughly committed to the social and political cause. Testori's perspective is especially relevant as he was substantially focusing on sacred art and religious subjects, thus merging Picasso with the history of medieval and early modern art.