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Egidio Scardamaglia is an Italian artist who has been deeply influenced by Australian painters. The main influence has been Justin O’Brien who gave Egidio a formal training. Egidio’s first informal lessons were from another australian painter Edgar Ritchards, whose actor-brother Cyril is probably better known.
He met both Ritchards and O’Brien through Jeffrey Smart. Other Australian artists Scardamaglia met in Italy and who in some way influenced his artistic approach were Brian Westwood, Brian Seidel and Brian Dunlop. His experience reverses the traditional idea that artistic influence flows in one direction: from Italy to Australia. Egidio has also found his main market in Australia. Born in Calabria in 1948, Egidio’s first contact with the art world was through posing at the Rome Fine Art Academy and also privately. In 1968 he posed for the Arcagel Gabriel for the mosaic representing the Southern Hemisphere which O’Brien was commissioned to execute for the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel. Not only did Egidio posed but with his nimble mind began to pick up tricks of the trade like an apprentice. “I enjoyed mucking around with colours” he recalled when interviewed in Rome. “But Edgar Ritchards convinced me I should work at it stadily, that I should do systematic training if I wanted to get anywhere”. Egidio did his training with Justin O’Brien. “He criticizes my work in a way which was pointed but helpful” said Egidio. “He could talk for days, but inside and outside the studio, about colour, perspective, artists and art history. From him I learnt to see the essence of things and convey the emotion they give me. Moreover, I imbibed from him a great love for the landscapes”. On a visit to O’Brien’s studio, Mavis Chapman, who had a gallery in Double Bay, admired one of Egidio’s paintings which led eventually to his first exhibition in Australia in 1974. All 28 works were sold. Since then Egidio has had several one-man exhibition in Australia as well as participating in selected group exhibitions such as that for Justin O’Brien’s 70th birthday at the S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney, along with other artist-friends such as Margaret Olley, Jeffrey Smart, Brian Dunlop, Donald Friend and Martin Sharp. The August exhibition will be the Egidio’s first one-man show in Melbourne. It consists of 22 works, paintings in oils, egg tempera and watercolours, plus pen and ink drawings and a few etchings. Mainly Tuscan and Umbria scenes, they show a love of landscapes which in themselves are works of art. That Egidio came to this love through Justin O’Brien , as well as learning from his means to express it , is the most significant aspect of the Australian influence on his art. The works also shows the precision he acquired learning printmaking. He learnt the rare and vanishing craft of making mezzotint etchings which, before photography was invented, were used to reproduce works of art. They could be sent to prospective buyers who lived at a distance. He also took an Arts degree at Rome University and now teaches English at the Roman secondary school while working steadily at his art in his free hours. Egidio is an example of the links between Australia and Italy not only because of the influence of Australian artist on him, but also because in Australia he has over a hundred relatives. He has visited it with his family half a dozen times and may one day settle in Australia. Desmond O’Grady, Correggio Jones and the runaways: The Italo-Australian Connection, Carlton, VIC, CIS Publishers, c1995 |
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Landscapes and still life are the subjects. Nature in repose provides the inspiration. The objects are ordered with calm consideration, composed according to an underlying sense of harmony, balance and decorum. The world created is one of forms, of substantial values that transcend the flashing images of the present.
Born in Dinami, Calabria, in 1948, Egidio Scardamaglia’s artistic development has been marked by fortunate breaks and driven by an irrepressible enthusiasm and an unshakeable determination. Unquestionably the most important colpo di fortuna was his meeting in 1967 with the expatriate Australian painter Justin O’Brien, who was to provide the primary stimulus to his dormant artistic talent. It was under his tutelage and ispiration that Scardamaglia was initiated into the world of the visual imagination and then encouraged to develop his own personal vision. Through O’Brien, he was introduced to the rich artistic heritage that Rome had in such abundance. In addition to this man-made culture, he was also led to see the landscape and the natural world with new eyes. Of equal importance, Scardamaglia learnt the technical skills of painter and draughtsman in the studio and under the guidance of O’Brien, an experienced and gifted teacher. Scardamaglia describes the important role of the older painter: “He gave me endless advice and very sensible criticism about my paintings and drawings. He often carried his teaching out of the studio, talking incessantly for days about such things as colour, perspective, artists, people and schooling system. I also developed from him a great love of the Italian landscape. He taught us to observe form and colour, to look through the exteriors to reach the essence of things and reproduce them in accordance with the emotion I got from them”. The technical processes which provide the vehicle for the expression of the artist’s aesthetic ideas are fundamental determinants of the final product. Scardamaglia reveals in the sheer physicality of the process and has always been fascinated with the means, seeking continually to understand and master the characteristic dynamics and skills of each medium and to experiment with untried ones. Egg tempera, the method used by Fra Angelico and Botticelli, is more difficult to control and master than conventional oil paint yet he has found that, in his still life, it enables him to define and express more effectively the character of the objects. His careful, finally worked drawings demonstrate a familiarity with the burin and the stylus. It is perhaps in this intimate world where light struggles with the dark in the description of forms, where line, alone and in thick combination interacts with the paper support, that we see the most satisfying marriage between idea and form. Scardamaglia combines a very Italian sense of the visual with a rationality that reflects the Greek ancestry of his native Calabria, once part of Magna Grecia. DUGALD McLELLAN “Artist Profile – Egidio Scardamaglia” , in “State of the Art, a guide to art galleries & museums in Australia”, issue 9, July to Sept. 1994 |
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For many years there has been a warm relationship between Italy and Australia: Italians have come here to live, Australians have lived or travelled in Italy. In fact at times it seems that everybody one knows is either living in Tuscany or about to rent a villa there.
Egidio Scardamaglia does not come from Tuscany, though he has often painted that beautiful landscape: he is a Calabrian, born in Dinami, 42 years ago. Though always interested in art he did not originally intend to be a painter – when he entered Rome University he meant to become a teacher; yet though his principle subjects were Modern languages (English and French) and Byzantine History, he also studied the History of Art. One might say he began painting by accident, though so devoted an artist was bound to take to it sooner or later. It was when he met Justin O’Brien in 1967 and became first his model (for the Archangel Gabriel!), then his pupil, that Egidio started on the path he has since so faithfully followed. In 1982 he graduated from the University and in the same year married a fellow student, Daniela Ciccarelli. He and Danny are now Justin’s family and Justin and become a doting ‘grandfather’ to their two beautiful little daughters Flavia and Giulia. As well as his years of working and learning with Justin, he studied engraving and print-making at the Calcografia Nazionale in Rome, where under Massimo Rossetti, he specialized in mezzotints. He has travelled widely in Europe, always seeking to deepen his knowledge of the great paintings in the galleries. He has also visited Turkey, North Africa and South East Asia. He has become a regular visitor to Australia, for both he and Danny love this country and say they would like to live here. His work has been included in Group Exhibitions in Italy and Australia, and the present one-man show is his fifth in this country. In previous years he has exhibited drawings, oils and water-colours, all of which where most favourably received and attracted encouraging critiques. This time, among the paintings there are some mezzotints, a medium which greatly appeals to him and over which he has attained considerable mastery. The elegant, subtle and delicate prints in this exhibition will delight the discriminating and add to Egidio’s growing reputation. Nancy Phelan, Text of Introduction to Painters Gallery Exhibition Catalogue of Egidio Scardamaglia, 1990 |
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.Egidio Scardamaglia was born in Dinami, Italy, in 1948. He began to paint and draw 14 years ago, and though he has not attended any art schools he has had a formal art training in my studio in Rome.
In Europe he has visited Germany, France, Holland, England, Scotland and Greece to further his studies in the famous galleries of these countries. He studied the English and French languages, also Byzantine History and the History of Art at the Rome University, and has an Arts degree from that university. He is a teacher at a secondary school in Rome. This is his third visit to Australia and he is accompanied by his wife Daniela. On his last visit in 1974, Egidio held a sell-out one-man exhibition at the Mavis Chapman Gallery in Sydney. He is a very serious and hard working painter and these landscapes and still-lifes, both in water colour and oils show a very keen observation of form and colour and a great love for the Italian landscapes with its inimical hill-towns, olive groves and cypress pines. Egidio Scardamaglia is represented in collections in America, Canada, France, Italy, Holland, England and Australia. Artist Justin O’Brien, presenting Egidio at his Painters Gallery exhibition in 1984. |
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