Mario Micheletti (1892-1975) - Orfeo incanta gli elementi al suono della sua lira

Large painting (115 × 208 cm, oil on canvas, mounted on a silvered wood frame), attributed to the painter Mario Micheletti's “mythological cycle” from Turin. Signed at the bottom right. Dimensions 208 × 115 cm.

The work was purchased by my father, Diego Palladino, in 1980 from a private collector residing at 22 Via Boston, apartment 5, Turin, our neighbor. The seller was a private collector and miner officer active in Northern Italy. The provenance is consistent with the Turin circulation of works attributed to Mario Micheletti, a painter active between Piedmont and Liguria.

Preliminary attribution
Graphic comparison of the signature
The signature on the work — particularly the stylized “M” together with the rest of the hatchwork — is compatible with known variants of the artist’s signature.
The painting’s signature:
• is placed bottom right, as in certain works;
• has a fluid, continuous stroke, not tremulous;
• shows the typical compactness of the letters found in authentic signatures;
• is integrated into the brushwork, not added afterward.

Stylistic and thematic coherence
The subject — traceable to Orpheus/Morpheus soothing the storm with the lyre — is perfectly coherent with the author’s Symbolist/Mythological period.
The composition, the figure lying on the red drapery, the rocky landscape, the atmospheric rendering, and the drama of the sky are compatible with works from 1910–1920.
The theme is akin to the so-called “mythological cycle,” of which very few examples have survived.

Historical context
It is known that Mario Micheletti’s studio was destroyed by a fire, an event that caused the loss of numerous works. This makes surviving paintings particularly rare today, especially those belonging to the more significant thematic cycles.

In 1942, during the bombings of Turin, a fire struck the building where Micheletti had his studio. The area — like many industrial and residential zones of the city — was heavily hit by air raids, and the fire spread quickly to the artists’ studios. Micheletti’s studio was completely destroyed.
Testimonies from the period report that:
• many already completed canvases were lost;
• a substantial portion of the preparatory sketches was burned;
• several paintings from the Symbolist and Mythological cycle — created between the ’10s and ’20s — disappeared forever;
• Micheletti himself, already worn down by the period’s difficulties, considered that loss an irreparable wound to his artistic production.
This event is now regarded as one of the main reasons why the works of his mythological cycle are so rare: a large part of that corpus was destroyed in the 1942 fire.

Mario Micheletti was born in 1885 in Turin, the city where he trained artistically and where he remained active for much of his career. He died in 1961, also in Turin, leaving a production today considered rare and fragmentary, partly due to the wartime events that affected his atelier.

Education and teachers
Micheletti trained at the Royal Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Turin, where he studied under some of the leading Piedmontese masters of the early 20th century, including:
• Giovanni Battista Carpanetto (drawing and figure)
• Paolo Gaidano (painting and color technique)
• Giuseppe Grosso (symbolist and academic painting)
These teachers deeply influenced his figurative sensibility, the care of light, and the dramatic construction of scenes.

Travel and international influences
During his training and the early years of his career, Micheletti undertook several study trips:
• Paris, where he came into contact with the Symbolist and Post-Impressionist milieu, closely studying the works of Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, and the Nabis.
• the French Riviera, where he studied Mediterranean light further.
• Liguria, particularly between Savona and Alassio, where he painted seascapes and mythological scenes.
These trips helped develop his personal style: a fusion of symbolism, naturalism, and suspended atmospheres.

Artistic milieu and acquaintances
In Turin, Micheletti frequented the cultural environment connected to:
• Felice Casorati, with whom he shared an interest in the isolated figure and symbolic tension.
• Arturo Noci, active between Rome and Turin, known for nudes and intimate atmospheres. and IL E IL
• Carlo Follini and Cesare Ferro, Albertina instructors and benchmarks for Piedmontese academic painting.
• The circle around the Promoter Society of Fine Arts exhibitions.
He was not a “group” artist, but an independent author with a personal production often aimed at private collectors.

The mythological cycle (1910–1920)
Between the 1910s and 1920s, Micheletti created a series of works now known as the “mythological cycle,” characterized by:
• reclining or isolated figures in dramatic landscapes,
• tempestuous skies,
• symbolic elements (lyre, drapery, classical poses),
• a brown-reddish palette and suspended atmospheres.
(Photo back views available on request. NB. There are no particular indications on the back of the frame, but this detail could suggest saving the canvas and reframing; the painting was certainly reframed by my parents between 1980 and 1981).

Finally, note the landscape component. It is certain that Micheletti was active in Liguria in the area between Savona and Alassio. An AI-based analysis of the landscape highlights that the backdrop depicts the coast between Noli-Spotorno and Bergeggi. The Bergeggi Island is clearly depicted on the right; see the photo topographical comparison.

Very few examples survive from this cycle, also due to the destruction of his studio in 1942.

The painting is currently viewable in Turin, Italy.