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PIER LUIGI CALDANZANO
(Cagliari 1880 – Genoa 1928)

He fulfilled his education in  Rome and  Paris. He worked at Ricordi Graphic Workshop  between 1912 and  1915, where he designed posters and book covers of musical works. His most famous and oldest poster is the one for  “Cuisiničres en tous genres” in  1907, while in  1912 he signed the one for “Lenti Radio Attive”. In the field of  affiches, he devoted mainly to motion film subjects, such as for example, the series of posters meant for “Cabiria”by  Pastrone in 1914, realized together with  Metlicovitz, with whom he established a  special relationship. For the opera he produced an interesting poster for “L’amore dei tre re” by Montemezzi (1913). During the war he realized a  series of lively sketches, he dedicated, moreover, but without a great success, to renovation of the ceramics from Sardinia.  He went on with his poster designer activity in the 20s, even though he didn’t reach quite interesting results. After some years he designed two posters with a burlesque taste and with daring compositional technique cuts, one for “Bitter Pastore” in 1910 and the other for  “Cordial Campari. Also the only poster realized for  Mele is burlesque in genre , but the characteristic of  Caldenzano is about being able to use different languages and tones, in contraposition too. His great skill consisted in mixing up elements, like in the posters for  “Cabiria”  till the “smothered  dramatic force” and the “funereal musicality” (R.Curci 1983)in the poster for “L’amore dei tre re”. In addition to the light-hearted tune and subtle irony in the posters for  Mele and  Campari.

( Translation by Irene De Angelis  Curtis )