Giuseppe Ungaretti, 2020 (digital coloured pencil drawing)

Giuseppe UNGARETTI (8 February 1888 - 1 June 1970) Italian poet and writer, considered the precursor of hermeticism; born in Egypt where his family had moved to work, he spent his childhood and youth there, attending schools and friendships that nourished his love of literature. Later he moved to Italy and then to Paris where he attended the Sorbonne, poets and writers of international renown including Guillaume Apollinaire, to whom he remained particularly attached. He collaborated with the Italian magazine Lacerba and was then called back to the front; with the end of the war he settled in Italy and his first recognition of the "Il gondoliere" prize (1932) opened his doors to publications with large publishers such as Vallecchi and Mondadori. He was invited to Brazil to hold the chair of Italian literature and remained in Sao Paolo until 1942. On his return home he was appointed Academician of Italy and was assigned a university chair in Rome. Publish numerous collections of poems, essays and translations. A very active academic, he traveled extensively until the last years of his life. Portrait, illustration by Dariush Radpour, digital colored pencil drawing, 2020.