Testo letterario e testo pittorico a confronto. Gli Appunti sulla pittura di Renato Guttuso per Il Selvaggio (1939-1941)

During the length of his career, Renato Guttuso showed a particular inclination for writing. More than his talent as a painter, his ability as a writer contributes significantly to define his intellectual profile. This paper analyses a group of six articles that Guttuso published on Mino Maccari’s periodical Il Selvaggio between 1939 and 1941; through the analysis of some key themes, these articles become an important example for evaluating how the image of the artist appears through his writings. The in-depth study of these texts, as presented in this research, opens a new interpretative window into Guttuso’s inner congruence between his image as an artist, and as an intellectual. The second aim of this study is to underscore the complexity of the artist by comparing his writings with the paintings he made in the same period. As a matter of fact, in this phase of his life, Guttuso demonstrates his independent and strong personality in both writing and painting. Moreover, he shows how much his intellectual profile is embedded within the historical and cultural context.