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Marinetti (F. T. and Benedetta Cappa) papers
920092
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Title: F.T. Marinetti and Benedetta Cappa Marinetti papers
Date (inclusive): 1902-1965 (bulk 1920-1939)
Number: 920092
Creator/Collector:
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso
Physical Description:
60 Linear Feet
(145 boxes, 5 flat file folders)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The founder and leader of the futurist
movement. Married Benedetta Cappa, a futurist writer and artist, in 1923. Collection
includes minor manifesto manuscripts, generally typewritten, sometimes translated or
excerpted; a number of minor literary manuscripts; and 20,000 slides that reproduce the
contents of Marinetti's five scrapbooks. Material on Benedetta includes handwritten
corrected drafts of her three novels, and a number of essays and speeches. Some
correspondence suggests the central role that Marinetti and Benedetta played relative to the
other futurists, whose activities the collection selectively documents via manuscripts,
photos, clippings, slides, posters, scrapbooks, and musical scores
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Language: Collection material is in
Italian
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, born in Alexandria in 1876, attended secondary school and
university in France, where he began his literary career. After gaining some success as a
poet, he founded and edited the journal
Poesia (1905), a forum in which the
theories of Futurism rather quickly evolved. With "Fondazione e Manifesto del Futurismo,"
published in
Le Figaro (1909), Marinetti launched what was arguably the first
20th c. avant-garde movement, anticipating many of the issues of Dada and Surrealism. Like
other avant-garde movements, Futurism took the momentous developments in science and
industry as signaling a new historical era, demanding correspondingly innovative art forms
and language. Like other avant-garde movements, Futurism found a solution in collage, which
Marinetti called "parole in libertà" when applied to literary forms. Between 1909 and 1920,
the period known as Futurism's heroic phase, Marinetti energetically promoted his own work,
and that of fellow Futurists, through numerous manifestos, speeches, essays, meetings,
performances and publications. Following WWI, in which he served, Marinetti became an active
member of the Fascist party; on April 15, 1919, he and Ferruccio Vecchi led the "battle" of
piazza Mercanti against socialists, communists, and anarchists, which was Italian Fascism's
first decisive victory. In 1929 he was elected to the Academy of Italy. Throughout the 1920s
and 30s and until his death in 1944, Marinetti sought to reconcile the theories of Futurism
with the ideology of state Fascism and to serve as impresario for both.
In 1923, Marinetti married Benedetta Cappa. The author of three critically acclaimed
Futurist novels, a sizable body of art work, and the mother (with Marinetti) of three girls,
Benedetta wrote essays and gave speeches on women and art and women and Fascism, and was
presented in the press during the 1930s as a role model for Italian women. After her
husband's death, Benedetta continued to correspond with fellow Futurists and to promote
Futurism by organizing exhibitions, selling the Marinetti art collection to prominent
American collectors and museums, and writing catalog essays.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Papers of F.T. Marinetti and Benedetta Cappa Marinetti, 1902-1965 (bulk 1920-1939), Getty
Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. 920092.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa920092
Acquired in 1992.
The papers were quickly assembled for scholarly perusal using the dealer's box guide. Brent
Sverdloff wrote temporary a RLIN record and began writing a Finding Aid. Annette Leddy and
Jeremy Parzen processed the papers in late 1994. Annette Leddy, with the help of Jeremy
Parzen, wrote the current Finding Aid, integrating some of Visiting Scholar Esther Cohn's
comments written on the dealer's box guide.
Polemica Carducciana by Ettore Romagnoli (Item #165), is catalogued in the Getty Research
Library's general collection.
Scope and Content of Collection
This archive of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Benedetta Cappa Marinetti papers consists
primarily of material from the 1920s and 30s, though correspondence and newspaper clippings
date from before and after those decades. It offers a view of FTM in the ceremonial rather
than incendiary role that he played during Futurism's second phase. Pieces such as "Ritratti
futuristi del Duce" suggest the extent to which he served as a propagandist for the Fascist
government and adapted the tenets of Futurism to that purpose. There are a number of minor
manuscripts on art and Futurist artists, generally typewritten, occasionally with
corrections, and some minor literary manuscripts as well.
The material on Benedetta includes handwritten corrected drafts of her three novels and a
number of essays, speeches and notes on women and art, women and Fascism, Futurism, and FTM.
Benedetta's letters to her brother, Alberto Cappa, and to FTM at the Russian Front, offer an
intimate view of this woman who, as clippings in her Librone document, was presented in the
1930s Italian press as a role model for Italian women. Her correspondence with fellow
Futurists and with American collectors and institutions after FTM's death show her active
role in preserving the accomplishments of Futurism for posterity.
Various media comprise the archive, including manuscripts, photos, clippings, slides,
posters, scrapbooks, and scores. Through all these media in combination the archive
selectively documents the activities of the inner circle of the Futurist movement.
The Archive is organized in nine series:
Series I: Manuscripts and Correspondence of Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti;
Series
II: Manuscripts and Correspondence of Benedetta Cappa Marinetti;
Series III: Assorted
Manuscripts and Correspondence;
Series IV: Futurist music;
Series V: Newspaper clippings;
Series VI: Lantern slides;
Series VII:
Photographs;
Series VIII: Libroni;
Series IX: Posters and oversized items.
Amendola Kühn, Eva
Boccioni, Umberto
Balla, Giacomo
Campanini, Gustavo
Brizzi, Carlo
Cappa, Alberto
Cangiullo, Francesco
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso
Mascagni, Pietro
Masnata, Pino
Mix, Silvio
Mussolini, Benito
Prampolini, Enrico
Cappa, Amalia
Pratella, Francesco Balilla
Casavola, Franco
Sciorilli, Eros
Severini, Gino
Chio, Ada
Tato
Cioffi, Giuseppe
Windisch, Käthe
Farfa
Giuntini, Aldo
Marinetti Cappa, Benedetta
Fascism and literature -- Italy
Fascism and art -- Italy
Fascism in art
Fascism and women -- Italy
Italian literature -- 20th century
Art, Italian -- 20th century
Futurism (Literary movement)
Futurism (Art)
Futurism (Art) -- Collectors and collecting
Futurism (Art) -- Exhibitions
Futurism (Music)
Photographic prints -- 20th century
Posters -- 20th century
Scores -- 20th century
Scrapbooks -- 20th century
Slides (photographs) -- 20th century
Photographs, Original
Clippings -- 20th century
Manifestoes -- 20th century
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso
Marinetti Cappa, Benedetta