the history
.png){kind=icon}
The street was already a gathering place for artists in the second half of the seventeenth century, however, it became a national and international center at the unification of Italy with the creation of the artists' studios built by 1858.
our
history
Via Margutta first appears in a 1577 map in the pontificate of Gregory XIII, who gave an impetus to the urban definition of the area between Piazza del Popolo, Via Ripetta and the Pincian Hill.
In the following years artists arrived, especially from Northern Europe taking advantage perhaps of tax breaks already in vogue. Prominent were names of great landscape painters such as Paul Bril and one of his pupils Willem can Nieulandt who lived 'in Paulina versus Marguttam.'
The name 'Margutta' was born-a street destined over the centuries to welcome artists from all over the world who would give that 'bohemian' atmosphere known to this day.
Buy the book'Via Margutta'.
The artist's
studios
Marquis Francesco Patrizi Montoro at only 28 years of age built the first building in 1858 for Artist Studios at No. 53, where Pablo Picasso had a studio in 1917.
But the Patrizi Studios are not the only ones on the street; here are the Rasinelli Studios at 51a where Gino Severini had a studio and later Cy Twombly. The Nardi Studios at 48 housed Giulio Turcato, the Marinelli Studios at 42 the poet Sibilla Aleramo and the painter Antonio Mancini, and the Dovizielli Studios at 33 Nino Costa. Given the success of these studios, Marchese Patrizi would complete his project by building new studios at 54 and 55, where there was the famous International Artistic Association, a club for all the scholars from foreign academies who came to Rome to meet, exchange ideas, show their works and even have fun! Events with Giacomo Puccini, the Futurists, Emile Zola and existentialists Jean-Paul Sarte et Simone de Beauvoir stand out in addition to the famous carnivals. Purchase the book'Atelier a Via Margutta'.
During the Dolce Vita years, the street would become populated with film personalities such as Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina at 110, Anna Magnani at 78 and Truman Capote at 33, and the Mastroianni family at 51a. Via Margutta would also become a center for Italian fashion with Johnny Moncada's photography studio where the most famous models of the 1960s posed. See www.johnnymoncada.com and buy the books'From Vera to Veruschka' and'Moncada Novelli Perilli."
memories
Perhaps it is the anecdotes that give color to the legends of the street, thus making the appearance in 1917 of Picasso's basket coming down from the window of his studio hanging on a string in demand of eggs and bread as he feverishly worked on sets and costumes for the ballet Parade. Buy the book'Picasso in Rome'.
It may be Federico Fellini's famous red scarf that accompanies him down the street to Johnny Moncada's studio where model Christa Päffgen, known as Nico poses for Luisa Spagnoli. We will see her again in 'Dolce Vita' call 'Marcello,' the great Marcello Mastroianni also linked to the street see.
Here comes Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, a living national treasure, now featured in all the vitrines of Louis Vuitton stores. In 1993 she exhibited at Via Margutta arriving from Japan with her gallerist and psychiatrist. For the occasion of the vernissage many kimono-clad guests arrived. Buy the book'Yayoi Kusama'.
What about instead the procession and Luigi Ontani's Tableaux Vivant animating the street with the memory of the artists and the papier-mâché masks? It was a magical evening where the soul of a lived magically came to life. Buy the book'Luigi Ontani'.