Raffaele Frumenti (1922–2002) - Suonatori

Oil painting on canvas 50x40 signed with a dedication

Raffaele Frumenti (1922 – 2002) was born in Rome in Borgo Pio, a former papal district. A painter by vocation, he demonstrated his ability to express himself artistically from a young age, when he would build small theaters for pure enjoyment, designing the sets and painting the backdrops. His painting is a colorful, melancholic, ironic, and captivating world that explodes in the representation of human comedy. His paintings depict characters resembling cardinals yet also reminiscent of circus clowns, in a world of ghosts that spring from his subconscious, perhaps a legacy of a childhood spent snooping around St. Peter's Basilica.

Raffaele Frumenti's painting is, formally, essentially a painting of color: a precious color experienced as a sort of visual music that is orchestrated in variations of timbres and tones, in a riot of sparkling brushstrokes. A painting of pleasant sensations. He also had the honor of creating a triptych mural in the atrium of the San Basilio Middle School in Rome, commissioned by the Fine Arts Office. He designed the cover for the book Polizia in azione. He taught Artistic Drawing at the "Benvenuto Cellini" State Middle School.

His works have been exhibited on various occasions, including a commemorative exhibition in 2005 in Rome, a tribute to the painter of the 'Commedia umana,' in collaboration with poet Franca Mancini, who paired her lyrics with Frumenti's paintings.