Riccardo Benvenuti biography
Riccardo Benvenuti
Riccardo Benvenuti was an Italian painter. He was born in Lucca in 1939 and began his career as an artist at a very young age.
He graduated from the Passaglia Institute where he would return years later as a teacher of Painting, Art History, and Costume Design. He continued to teach in various schools in the province of Lucca until 1985, and it was precisely during these years that his activity as an artist became prolific and recognized in different parts of the world.
In 1958 he organized his first solo art exhibition at the Circolo Ufficiali di Lucca. From there many paths opened for the artist, leading him in 1974 to organize and set up an exhibition for the fiftieth anniversary of Giacomo Puccini, commissioned by the Puccini Foundation and held at the Lincoln Center Metropolitan in New York, Chicago, and Madrid. Riccardo Benvenuti collaborated with Salvador Dalì in the creation of the Medaglia dell'Augurio, later minted by the Gold Market of Milan.
The artist was also the author of several posters created for various sporting events such as the Boxing Championships, the Football World Cup, the Los Angeles Olympics, and the Giro d'Italia.
In 1980 he created many liturgical paintings in various Tuscan churches, the most famous of which is Santa Rita a Margine Coperto (Montecatini Terme), where he oversaw the restoration or modification of many murals inside.
From the 1990s, Riccardo Benvenuti began collaborating with the publishing house Einaudi, for which he created the illustrations for the book Gnenco il pirata, a work by Vincenzo Pardini.
The publishing house Mondadori Associati dedicated a monograph to him in 1991, with a preface by Paolo Levi, tracing his entire artistic career up to that point.
Riccardo Benvenuti was also an excellent Italian set designer. In 2000 he created the sets for the film Metronotte, starring Diego Abatantuono.
The following year, on the occasion of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's death, he organized a solo exhibition dedicated to the musician, sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Italian Embassy, which invited him to Kenya to attend the event.
As a representative of Puccini, Riccardo Benvenuti exhibited at the National Museum "Oficina del Historiador" in Old Havana, in May 2003, his artwork dedicated to "The Women of Puccini and the Landscapes of Music".
That same year, in September, he presented the solo exhibition "Fado, Faces and Landscapes" held at the Museum Casa do Fado and da Guitarra Portuguesa in Lisbon.
Between 2003 and 2004 he was commissioned by the Costa Cruises Company to create some decorative panels to furnish the largest ships in the fleet: Costa Fortuna and Costa Magica.
In the same year Riccardo Benvenuti was also the Italian representative at the European Football Championships in Portugal, an honor awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Portugal, he also organized a series of artistic events titled "Italy of Culture Enters the Field" and "The Dream of Football in the Casa Azzurri", both held in Lisbon.
In September 2004 he was responsible for the exhibition "Butterfly", dedicated to the centenary of the artwork Madama Butterfly by the master composer Giacomo Puccini, of which Benvenuti was by then the official representative. The exhibition was first set up at the Museum of the Cathedral of Lucca, then moved to Palazzo Panciatichi in Florence.
In 2006 Riccardo Benvenuti was invited by the Consortium of Brunello di Montalcino Wine as the artistic representative of the event Benvenuto Brunello, for which he created the celebratory image still present on the facade of the Palazzo Civico di Montalcino.
In June 2006 he held the solo exhibition The Emotion of Football at the Casa Azzurri in Duisburg, Germany. On that occasion, he also created the poster celebrating the victory of the Italian National Football Team at the World Cup held that year.
On the occasion of the Bicentenary of Giuseppe Garibaldi's birth, Riccardo Benvenuti was commissioned to create the portrait dedicated to the figure of the leader, for the traveling exhibition "Garibaldi between history and myth", which displayed various historical relics, paintings, and objects from that period.
In 2009 he was commissioned to paint the banner for the Palio della Balestra, thus celebrating the two allegories of the cities of Sansepolcro and Gubbio.
Riccardo Benvenuti was again commissioned to organize an exhibition dedicated to Puccini, celebrating the centenary of the musician. The exhibition was held at the Museum of the Cathedral of Lucca, sponsored by the Municipality. Later, thanks to the sponsorship of the Tuscany Region, the same exhibition was set up at Palazzo Panciatichi in Florence in December 2004.
Also in 2004, he created the portrait of Varenne, a painting used by SNAI as a logo to print tickets for the Gran Premio di Agnano Lottery, held in 2005.
On the occasion of the Information Day held in September 2007, the artist was received by the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano, to whom he donated one of his paintings, commissioned by UNCI (National Union of Italian Journalists).
Riccardo Benvenuti was a versatile artist who worked in various parts of the world, mainly in Lucca but also in New York, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles, where he traveled several times during his career. His artwork is mainly remembered for the women he portrayed, beautiful, enigmatic, elegant, seductive, made splendid by the skillful use of light and shadow that create an almost magical atmosphere.
Riccardo Benvenuti died in 2018.