Venturi, Lionello

Born Apr. 25, 1885, in Modena; died Aug. 14, 1961, in Rome. Italian art scholar. Son and student of Adolfo Venturi (1856-1941), who was the author of the major work History of Italian Art (11 vols., 1901-40).

Venturi was a professor at the University of Turin (1915-32) and the University of Rome (from 1945). After refusing to take an oath of allegiance to fascism, he lived in France (1932-39) and the USA (1939-44). Venturi’s works on art history and art studies (Giorgione, 1913; History of Art Criticism, 1936; Cezanne, 1936; Painting and Painters, 1945; Italian Painting, three vols., 1950-52) are distinguished by clarity and accuracy of criticism and a bold presentation of broad historical problems. At the same time, the idealist methodology of Venturi, who was a follower of B. Croce, led him to acknowledge absolute freedom of individual self-expression as a fundamental artistic criterion.