Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

LUIGI RATINI (Trento 1880 - 1934) AENEID, BOOK II Frontispiece (1925); plate I, The wooden horse-Laocoonte (1926); plate II, Cassandra (1927); plate III, Priam's death (1928); plate IV, The burning of Troy - Pallas (1928); plate V, The apparition of Creusa, (1927); plate VI, Escape of Aeneas (1929).
The complete set of six photogravures and frontispiece, printed in sepia ink, by Calcografia Cavadini, Verona. Each sheet 36 x 28,5 cm., to the plate ca. 19,5x18,5 cm. Each sheet signed in pen 'LRatini'. In the twenties Ratini has been a sensitive interpreter of the legends of the Greek and Roman world, working on the illustrations of the Iliad and the Aeneid. Ratini started working on Aeneid in 1925; 72 plates were planned, to be ended for the Virgilian celebrations in 1930. Due to health and economical reasons Ratini stopped working at the twenty-ninth. Many of the original drawings by Ratini for the project are known; several of them are at the MART, Rovereto. Another one, in private collection and not for sale, is exhibited here on my web site.

The son of a printer's pressman, Luigi Ratini studied in the Technical Institute in Trento, specializing in the technique of marble processing. He continued his artist education in Monaco (1899-1901) and in Vienna (1901-02), absorbing the culture of the two Secessions and the examples of Franz von Stuck and Gustav Klimt. In Rome Ratini enrolled in the 'Scuola libera con modello vivente', attached to the 'Reale Istituto di Belle Arti'. Already as a student he received awards and senior positions, executing portraits for wealthy private clients and public institutions. In the twenties Ratini has been a sensitive interpreter of the legends of the Greek and Roman world with his designs for the illustrations of the Iliad and the Aeneid. See M. Lupo, 'L’Eneide di Virgilio illustrata da Luigi Ratini, exhibition catalogue, Trento, 1982. See also A. Tiddia, 'Mito e allegoria nell'opera di Bonazza, Ratini, Disertori', exhibition catalogue, Trento, 2004.