55 Facts About Emilio Cecchi

Emilio Cecchi was an Italian literary critic, art critic and screenwriter.

Emilio Cecchi was made artistic director at Cines Studios, Italy's leading film company, in 1931, remaining in the post for slightly more than a year.

Emilio Cecchi directed two short documentaries in the late 1940s.

Emilio Cecchi was born in Florence, second of the six recorded children of Cesare and Marianna Sani Cecchi.

The family had their home in the city center among the narrow streets between the Porta San Gallo and the cathedral, but Cesare Cecchi came originally from the countryside: he worked in an Ironmonger's store.

Emilio Cecchi later wrote of how, when his father left his work, they would meet up and walk to the church where for long hours they would kneel together side by side working through their grief and - at least in the case of the boy - studying the detail of building's elaborate interior architecture.

Emilio Cecchi attended the middle school run by the Piarists, receiving his school diploma in 1894.

Emilio Cecchi had already embarked on a serious attempt to teach himself how to paint when he was just twelve, and he was now inspired by the Senese countryside to resume his artistic studies through both practical endeavour and reading.

Emilio Cecchi discovered the works of Gabriele D'Annunzio, a dominating presence in early twentieth century literature.

Emilio Cecchi ingested parts of the multi-volume compendium "la Storia della pittura in Italia", by Cavalcaselle and Crowe.

Emilio Cecchi made sketches of a number of pictures that particularly interested him and took the opportunity to make the acquaintance of Giani Stuparich and Diego Garoglio, who were teachers of Giovanni Papini, and who provided him with advice on his further reading.

Emilio Cecchi was appreciative of this, even though he continued to be dogged by family tragedy.

In 1903 his brother Guido fell ill with the tuberculosis that had killed their sister, while Emilio Cecchi himself was suffering from bouts of serious illness.

Emilio Cecchi connected with a circle of students from the "Florence Institute of Higher Studies" which included Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, Giuseppe Prezzolini and Ardengo Soffici.

In 1906 Emilio Cecchi finally left Florence and relocated to Rome.

Emilio Cecchi wrote for various Roman literary publications including, notably, Athena and Nuova Antologia.

Emilio Cecchi did not pursue his studies to the point of graduation.

In 1911 Emilio Cecchi married Leonetta Pieraccini, an artist and the daughter of a physician from Poggibonsi a little town set in the wine country approximately midway between Florence and Siena.

Emilio Cecchi's circle included erudite scholars such as Roberto Longhi and Grazia Deledda.

Emilio Cecchi was an enthusiastic admirer of Dino Campana, "the best poet we have".

On 10 May 1915 Emilio Cecchi was mobilised and sent to join thousands of others in the newly enlarged army.

Emilio Cecchi gave careful thought to the question of which newspapers or journals should benefit from his written reports, but evidently decided to stay faithful: on 28 June 1915 it was "Tribuna" that printed the first in a succession of reports by Emilio Cecci from the Austrian front.

Emilio Cecchi even passed some exams at the university during this period.

On 13 November 1918 Emilio Cecchi arrived in London, sent by Olindo Malagodi to work as a correspondent for "Tribuna".

Emilio Cecchi had been inclined to treat newspaper work as a distraction from serious scholarship, but it was a distraction that was frequently necessary to put food on the table.

Emilio Cecchi later helped promote Chesterton's work to Italian readers: his contribution included translating some of the texts into Italian.

Emilio Cecchi became a regular correspondent for The Guardian from Italy between 1919 and June 1925.

Indeed, during the first half of 1919 Emilio Cecchi contributed a thoughtful piece entitled "Ritorno all'ordine".

Emilio Cecchi was by temperament a cautious and conservative man, but he was driven by intellectual rigour which was reflected in a determination to apply a scholarly and evidence-driven approach in his articles.

Emilio Cecchi felt that intellectuals - especially intellectuals with access to the power of the published word - a strong duty to acknowledge and participate in the developments in public life, and not simply to deny the nuances in the shifting realities of the age.

Emilio Cecchi contributed a number of essays and reviews on English and American authors in which he demonstrated a new level of structure and clarity.

Emilio Cecchi continued to expand his own horizons by discovering new authors such as Carlo Cattaneo along with new works by authors whom he already knew well, such as Chesterton.

At Ronda Emilio Cecchi was able to contribute almost entirely on his own terms: in the process he acquired and demonstrated a well-rounded and well defined voice that was very obviously his own.

The approach works best where the critic Emilio Cecchi controls the author Emilio Cecchi, and the quality of the prose is a function of the constructive tension between the two.

The simple power and beauty of Emilio Cecchi's writing style are themes to which sources return again and again.

Emilio Cecchi's writing style triggered discussion among contemporaries, with which he himself was willing to engage.

Emilio Cecchi fought, with his pen, to defeat this prejudice, using nothing more deadly than the careful precision and euphony of his own writerly artistry.

Emilio Cecchi was now pursuing two parallel but closely intertwined careers as both a literary critic and an arts critic.

The regular column gained for Emilio Cecchi growing and widespread respect, as he transitioned from the status of "another critic" to that of a cultural and literary authority.

In 1925, as Mussolini's polarising tendencies had their effect, Emilio Cecchi was among those who added his signature to Benedetto Croce's Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, a somewhat reactive - and in the context of subsequent events cautious - document which nevertheless represented a reproach to the populist enthusiasm that had carried the Fascists to power.

That year Emilio Cecchi, entrapped according to one sympathetic source by the seductive lure of political power, agreed to accept the Mussolini prize for literature, which he was awarded the next year.

Emilio Cecchi teamed up in 1927 with his old friend Roberto Longhi, becoming co-editor of "Vita Artistica".

Several sources mention the delight that Emilio Cecchi took in international travel, notably to Great Britain and the Netherlands.

Emilio Cecchi travelled further in 1930 when he accepted an invitation to spend a year in California as "Chair of Italian Culture" and teach at Berkeley.

Emilio Cecchi was able to explore the cultural life San Francisco in some depth and, before returning to Europe, satisfy a "longstanding desire" to get to know Mexico.

Emilio Cecchi contributed extensively to regional arts and cultural magazines in the Ugo Ojetti stable, such as Dedalo, Pegaso and Pan, with a particular focus on the modern American classics.

In 1942 Emilio Cecchi used his literary celebrity to endorse the publication of "Americana", a compilation from contemporary American "narratori" that had been put together by Elio Vittorini, an outspoken Milanese critic of Mussolini.

Emilio Cecchi adapted the book to the political and military situation of the times by substituting for Vittorini's original an introduction denouncing the "letteratura impegnata" and "democracy" of the United States.

Admission in May 1940 to the Royal Academy no doubt reflected the skill and energy Emilio Cecchi was devoting his work in promoting and sustaining Italy's cultural and artistic heritage, though the fact that he was at the time working closely on the encyclopaedia project with Gentile, a philosophical mentor of Italian Fascism, may have played its part.

Emilio Cecchi had only recently returned from a year in California, where he had seized the opportunity to study at close hand the latest developments in Hollywood.

Emilio Cecchi had been using his newspaper columns in Italy to write about the cinema, recognising the potential of the new art-form, and commending in particular the work of the young Italian movie directors Alessandro Blasetti and Mario Camerini.

Emilio Cecchi surrounded himself with "writers and artists" and moved decisively towards a greater emphasis on "arts films", but without neglecting the popular end of the market.

Emilio Cecchi left his job at Cines very soon after Toeplitz, but he sustained an interest in cinema through and beyond the 1930s, producing for the appropriate specialist magazines lucid and critical movie reviews and related articles, with a particular focus - as before - on American movies.

Emilio Cecchi was frequently singled out for commendation both on account of his vast knowledge and intensive scholarship and because of his meticulously crafted prose style.

Emilio Cecchi was a recipient of the Order of Merit from the government in 1959.