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Anchise PICCHI (Crespina, Pisa, 1 Aprile 1911 - Collesalvetti, Livorno, 13 Novembre 2007)

Anchise Picchi was born in Crespina (Pisa) on 1st April, 1911, to Gaetano Picchi and Isolina Cappagli. Still a very young child, he turned his hand to drawing. From the age of five he drewanimals and people on the walls of his farm house, using charcoal. At around ten his father died in the First World War. His family moved to Fauglia ( Pisa ) where the young man met Francesco and Luigi Gioli, valued macchiaioli artists with whom he formed a friendship. Luigi often invited Anchise to his study in his villa in Fauglia.Later in life, Anchise sculpted a beautiful head of an old man for Luigi who in turn rewarded the young sculptor with a painting of a fair in Tuscany (Maremma). Near twentieth years the family moved back to Collesalvetti and around 1923/1924 Anchise met Carlo and Luigi Servolini. He became associated, at that time , to the Art School in Pisa where he met the sculptor Alvio Vaglini and became his good friend. In Pisa he also met the painter Pizzarello, Bellonzi (next President of the Quadriennale in Rome ) and Bertini, the sculptor. During his frequent visits to Rigacci's shop in Florence he met Pietro Annigoni (see walnut portrait in the sculpture section). In the year 1936 the family moved back to Grosseto where Anchise starts again his studies to acquire the Diplome for Teaching History of Art and Drawing, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome . There he met the physicist Oreste Piccioni from Enrico Fermi's team. He also met the painter Faccenda and Gentili, the engraver, and the musician Alberto Montanari. In 1938 his family is in Pisa again and in the same year Anchise moved in Grecia, in Salonicco, to teach in Italian Schools abroad. In 1941 he tought in Siena and in 1942 back in Collesalvetti starting to frequently visit the old Luigi Gioli. In the following years he workd in his study in Collesalvetti. In 1965 he opend a new atelier in Leghorn where he remaind until 1980. During the Leghorn period Anchise enjoyed the friendship of the most important artists of the “Labronico Group”, particularly Renato Natali (see walnut portrait in the sculture section), Gino Romiti, Filippelli, Michelozzi, Landozzi, Lomi, Rontini, etc. In 1961 his mother died. In April 1978 he exhibited in Palazzo Strozzi, in Florence , with a great Anthological of painting and sculpture, under the sponsorship of Florence Municipality . In October 2001 the Collesalvetti Municipality put on a beautiful exhibition in the Exhibition Center at Villa Carmignani in Collesalvetti ( Livorno ). In 2005 Crespina Municipality gave him honorary citizenship for his artistic merits and the gold medal. Since 1970 the artist retired to his study in Collesalvetti where he died on 13 November, 2007.

Note

Here we haven't reported, as usual, the long list of exhibitions, prizes, titles and acknowledgements, that nobody normally reads. The artist, however, remaining external to any movement , tendency or group, always refused the marketing of his artworks via normal commercial channels and his artworks were sold to collectors and estimators quite directly by the author. So even the important and numerous artworks in public collections were directly assigned by the artist himself.