(b Poggio a Caiano, 29 July 1883; d Rome, 31 March 1925). Italian painter. He studied initially at the Scuola d'Arte Industriale in Florence. From 1898 he frequented the Scuola Libera di Nudo of the Accademia di Belle Arti, where he met Giovanni Fattori, Ardengo Soffici and Adolfo De Carolis. Spadini worked as a decorator of maiolica, an illustrator and a fresco painter. In 1909 he won the Pensionato Artistico Nazionale, and in the following year he moved to Rome. There he became friends with the critic Emilio Cecchi who had also come to Rome from Florence and who introduced him to the informal literary and artistic group associated with the famous third room of the Caff? Aragno. Spadini exhibited initially in 1913 at the first Secession in Rome; his painting was immediately and universally praised, even among the ranks of the avant-garde. Following his initial success he took part in all the most important exhibitions of the day; in addition to the Secessions, the collective show at the Casina Valadier in Rome (1918), the Primaverile Fiorentina of 1922 as part of the group associated with Valori plastici and in 1924 at the Biennale in Venice, where he showed at least 50 of his works. He is generally considered the most important follower in Rome of Impressionism. His painting is, however, influenced to a greater degree by the Munich Secession, which became known in Italy through the magazine Jugend: Illustrierte Wochenschrift f?r Kunst und Leben Jugend and through the participation of German artists at the Venice Biennales. This influence is evident in such paintings as the portrait of Signora De Carolis with her Daughters (1908; Piacenza, Gal. A. Mod. Ricci Oddi) or Music on the Pincio (1913; Rome, G.N.A. Mod.). His innate decorative talent, familiarity with the Old Masters and typically Italian fluency and sensuality made him an important painter in the first quarter of the 20th century.
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