Dante Montanari was an Italian painter .
He was born in Porto Sant'Elpidio, in the province of Fermo, on July 19, 1896. After graduating from the Technical Institute of Osimo, where his father was headmaster, he moved to Milan, initially thinking of attending the Academy of Fine Arts . Abandoning the project, he moved to Ascoli Piceno, where he learned to paint in the studio of a maternal uncle, Salvatore Ferrante, an art teacher.
He took part in the 1915-1918 war , at the end of which he settled in Bergamo , where he lived until 1939 together with his wife Pia (faithful companion, who died in 1985 ), initially sharing the studio with his brother Giuseppe, also a painter. In this period he collaborated with some local newspapers, such as the "Gazzettino Bergamasco" and the "Penna", as a cartoonist and caricaturist, revealing himself to be an attentive and caustic observer, with a fast and concise stroke.
"The city of Bergamo represented the moment of debut of the painter from the Marches: after an initial training essentially as a self-taught one, in 1920 the artist in fact set up his first solo show at the "Scuola dei Tre Passi", reviewed by Pier Maria Bardi ", critic and inseparable friend. "When Dante Montanari arrived in Bergamo, immediately after the First World War, he found a very lively and active artistic environment. The difficult moments for" the troubled class of artists "were over". He considered Bergamo as his second hometown, cultivating lasting friendships, such as the one with Giacomo Manzù .
In 1925 he achieved his first success, with the first prize in the Competition for the VII Franciscan Centenary, organized by the Angelicum of Milan. In this period you temporarily approached the artistic movement known as the " Novecento ". Among other things, he participated in the Venice Biennale from 1924 to 1950 , appreciated by the critics. In 1932 Ugo Ojetti wrote: "Montanari is part of the group of colorists of lively skill, easy, pleasant and ready to grasp reality directly."
Among the favorite themes of his painting we remember the landscape: "It is one of the artist's favorite genres for his love for nature which he perceives with acute sensitivity in translating the "memory", the "memory" of the Marche and Umbrian hills into forms , of the valleys and mountains of Bergamo and finds a response in the favor and appreciation of the public...". Another theme is motherhood "...in its various phases, from waiting in which the woman is caught with that typical expression of sweetness, amazement and complacent immobility, to the tenderness of the relationship between mother and children, to children's games outdoors, on the beach and on the street: the early death of his mother and the lack of children make him particularly sensitive, and he tackles these issues with careful study from life, reaching images of great poetry...".
He participated in the cultural and artistic life of Bergamo, also collaborating at the Teatro delle Novelties between 1938 and 1939 , as a set and costume designer, and on that occasion making friends with the maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni . His exhibition activity also extended abroad in those years, to Athens , Birmingham , Budapest , Victoria, Berlin , Stuttgart , Leipzig , Cologne and Dresden. "During these years, his feeling for art was becoming clearer...as an intuition and emotion of truth, art as religiosity, art as an operation of synthesis and elimination of any decorative detail to obtain sincerity."
As far as his position towards fascism is concerned , his letter to his dear friend Fedele Giacobone, dated August 11, 1957 , is illuminating, regarding the events linked to the canvas " San Francesco between the wolf and the lamb", winner of the aforementioned competition for the VII Franciscan Centenary, given by the Friars to Mussolini : "I think back for a moment without rancour on that painting of mine, which marked the beginning of my sorrows for having refused to be present at its delivery into Mussolini's hands. Much more was expected my soul, after a competition was born to allocate the winning work to a religious institute..."
In 1939 he moved to Milan, but settling in with difficulty; while cultivating new and lasting friendships, he remained extraneous to all worldliness: in an interview given to Mormino, in the 1981 Giornale , he said: "I don't like conventicles, I never come to terms. As a young man I spent hours talking about art and philosophy. But today people are different, the artistic world boasts more jugglers than painters. Frankly, I don't like all of this".
He collaborated as an art critic with Corriere della Sera and with the Novara magazine Glauco, also participating in numerous exhibitions in private galleries, such as the Milione, the Gianferrari, the Cairola and the Gussoni in Milan , the Permanente in Turin , the Tower of Bergamo and the Art Gallery of Ancona , to mention the main ones. The recognitions continued, such as the first prize at the Biennial of the Marche Region , in Ancona , in 1964 and the Golden Ginestra del Conero , in 1969 ; also awarded in Salsomaggiore ( 1953 ) and inMonferrato (gold medal in 1965 ), obtained in 1976 the medal of the President of the Republic at the Lario Cadorago Prize, in Como .
In Milan he came into contact with the circle of the Bagutta Prize , wanted among others by Orio Vergani , Riccardo Bacchelli and Paolo Monelli . After the war, sacred art occupied a prominent place in his work: we recall the important "Via Crucis" in this regard.
From 1956 his style changed substantially: "The modelling, so well constructed in previous years, becomes soft with a sinuous trend, dissolved in a luminous atmosphere made up of delicate passages...we can speak of fluid modeling or a process of transfiguration... it can be hypothesized about the last Montanari that he was obsessed with the fragility of nature and man...".
He died in Milan on April 16, 1989.
