Leoncillo Leonardi (1915-1968) is undeniably Spoleto’s most famous XXth-century artist, as evidenced by his important presence at the Venice Biennale (1954, 1960 and 1968), at the 1967 Montreal Expo, by his personal exhibitions at the most prestigious Italian galleries of the period (La Tartaruga, L’Attico, Odyssia, Modern Art Agency), and by the attention he received from the major art critics and writers of his time, including De Libero, Longhi, Brandi, Arcangeli, Crispolti, Calvesi, Barilli.

Son of vernacular poet Ferdinando, he found a fervent supporter in his elder brother Lionello, who not by chance gave him his first block
of clay from which he would start his sculpting activity, to cross then important stylistic phases: Late Baroque, Expressionism, Neo-cubism, Realism and Informalism.
Creator of ceramic works exclusively (sculptures, balustrades, bas-reliefs, memorial monuments, decorative elements) besides drawings of course, Leoncillo left a bulky body of still partly unpublished reflections on life and art, including Piccolo diario whose first edition curated by his brother Lionello came out in 1969 within the catalogue of an antological exhibition at the Spoleto Chiostro di San Nicolò.

His production can be pretty much divided into two parts: the first up to 1956, that includes the “Spoletan Late Baroque period”, as Longhi would say, and the  expressionist, neo-cubist phase that the artist appeared to move away from in 1957, to head out to the more arduous, tragic road of the Informalism.

The pre- 1956 phase would see the creation of extraordinary painted sculptures, like Still-Lifes, female figures and nudes, self-portraits, musicians, animals, greenhouse features, all gathered in this hall in a sort of anthological outfit that includes the sketch for the tormented, unluckiest Monument to the Venetian
Partizan, whose first version was refused and whose second one would be destroyed by a bomb in Venice.

We can understand Leoncillo’s tormented shifts by reading this excerpt from his Piccolo diario:

“Everything I lose is much pain to me, and everything new always imposes itself against my will after a long struggle and a long defense. Harsh and bad life.”