Riccardo Benvenuti biography

Riccardo Benvenuti was an Italian painter. He was born in Lucca in 1939 and began his career as an artist very young.
He graduated from the Passaglia Institute where he returned years later as a teacher of Painting, Art History and Fashion Design. He will continue to teach in various schools in the province of Lucca until 1985, and it is precisely during these years that his activity as an artist becomes prolific and recognized in different parts of the world.
In 1958 he organized his first personal art exhibition at the Circolo Ufficiali in Lucca. From here, many paths opened up for the artist which led 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 Ciclistico d'Italia.
In 1980 he was the author of many liturgical paintings in various Tuscan churches, the most famous of which is Santa Rita a Margine Coperto (Montecatini Terme), for which he oversaw the remaking or modification of many paintings murals inside.
Since the 90s, Riccardo Benvenuti began collaborating with the Einaudi publishing house, for which he created the illustrations for the book Gnenco il pirata, by Vincenzo Pardini.
The publishing house Mondadori Associati dedicated a monograph to him in 1991, the preface of which was edited by Paolo Levi, which retraced his entire artistic career up to that point.
Riccardo Benvenuti was also an excellent Italian set designer. In fact, 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 set up a personal exhibition dedicated to the musician, sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Italian Embassy who invited him to Kenya to attend the event.
As a representative of Puccini, Ricardo Benvenuti exhibited his work dedicated to "Puccini's women and the landscapes of music".
The same year, in the month of September, he presented the personal exhibition "Fado, Faces and Landscapes" in Lisbon, an exhibition held at the Museo Casa do Fado and Guitarra Portuguesa .
Between 2003 and 2004 he was commissioned by the Costa Crociere Company to create some decorative panels to furnish the largest ships in the fleet: the Costa Fortuna and the Costa Magica.
In the same year Riccardo Benvenuti was also the Italian representative at the European Football Championships in Portugal, an honor awarded to him by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Portugal he also held a series of artistic events with the titles "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 opera Madama Butterfly by the master composer Giacomo Puccini, of which Benvenuti is now the official representative. The exhibition was first set up in the Museum of the Cathedral of Lucca, to be subsequently moved to Palazzo Panciatichi in Florence.
In 2006 Riccardo Benvenuti was invited by the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino as artistic representative of the event Benvenuto Brunello for which he created the celebratory image still present on the façade of the Civic Palace of Montalcino.
In June 2006 he created the personal exhibition L'Emozione del Calcio, held in the Casa Azzurri in Deisburg, Germany. On that occasion he then created the poster celebrating the victory of the Italian national football team at the World Cup played that year.
On the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Riccardo Benvenuti was commissioned to paint the portrait dedicated to the figure of the leader, on the occasion of the traveling exhibition "Garibaldi tra storia e mito - 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 of the Palio della Balestra, thus celebrating the two allegories of the cities of Sansepolcro and Gubbio.
Riccardo Benvenuti is once again commissioned to set up an exhibition dedicated to Puccini, which celebrates the musician's centenary. The exhibition is set up in the Museum of the Cathedral of Lucca, with the patronage of the Municipality. Subsequently, thanks to the patronage 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 that was used by SNAI as a logo to print tickets for the Agnano Grand Prix 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 Reporters).
Riccardo Benvenuti was a multifaceted artist who worked in various parts of the world, mainly in Lucca but also in New York, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles, where he went several times during his career. Of his work we mainly remember the women he portrayed, beautiful, enigmatic, elegant, seductive, made splendid by the skilful use of lights and shadows that create an almost magical atmosphere.
Riccardo Benvenuti dies in 2018.