via Paratici, 21 - 27100 Pavia (PV) - Italy
Franciscan and artistic education
Fra Carlo Cavallari
When he entered the Saiano friary as a friar, Costantino was a child like all the others. His family had supported his desire to become a friar, and after his failure with the Carmelites just outside his home, he was sent to the Minor Seminary of Saiano. Community life and the regular curriculum were enriched by liturgy, games, and farm work. Some magazines and period photographs speak of this simple, austere, and joyful Franciscan life, of sacrifices and fraternal joy within the walls of the friary, including the church, refectory, classrooms, common rooms, courtyards, stables, and grounds extending up to the surrounding wall. Sometimes the friars’ horizons extended beyond the hill: in groups, they went on trips to nearby sanctuaries, to help a farmer, or, lined up, to the funeral of a benefactor. These were opportunities to reconnect with the world they had left behind. Forests, farmhouses, church paintings and frescoes, liturgical vestments and decorations, the landscape and surrounding villages all informed the young Costantino’s vivid imagination.
Some tempera drawings, preserved in the archives of the Frate Sole Foundation, testify to his precocious creativity; that he preserved them is a sign of the importance he placed on these early works, the seeds of his spontaneity. Also noteworthy are the tempera paintings, attributable to his stay in Saiano, featuring scenes from the life of Christ and Saint Francis. The bright colors and figures with strong black outlines, ‘in the style of Matisse’ or ‘in the style of Léger’, signal a boldness that might be considered inconsistent with the artist’s realism and figurative culture, probably absorbed by available books and magazines, or perhaps by an education open to innovation.
In 1943, Costantino moved to Rezzato for his novitiate year, which followed a similar educational model to Saiano, but was more demanding in its dedication. It was a “year of probation” for the taking of first vows on September 30, 1944. No longer a child, he prepared himself, along with the others, through a rhythm marked by study of the Rule, silence, and ascetic choices, for the decision to live a life consecrated to God in fraternity, following the Gospel and the Rule, and serving the poor. During this period of discernment, he clearly sensed the call to be an artist immersed in Franciscan life, to devote himself, like Saint Francis, to joyfully praise God in the poor way, which had also been Christ’s.
He would later point out that this extreme and radical year marked a decisive turning point in his life and art: he recalled its essentiality, dictated by the spirituality of the place and the novitiate, but also by the war.
The Massacre of the Innocents, 1941, tempera on paper. Pavia, Frate Sole Foundation
He then radicalized his love for his vocation and intuited the hallmarks of his own style: allowing the small, the poor, the naked to give way to the emergence of Beauty, a divine gift, especially through light, which would later compel him to paint, creating, on paper, a piece of wood, or a wall, a more powerful Light. An album survives, containing not only watercolors but also simple line drawings, in rough, primitive forms, in charcoal, ink, or earth colors on the luminous white of the paper.
He was allowed to draw as long as he did not distract himself from his religious duties; his teachers, recognizing his gift, deemed his dedication a suitable channel for his many energies. The lively and witty novice, due to his lifestyle choices and the war, was not given paints and brushes, but instead procured them using ash, coal, earth, and various debris found in the convent. This poverty would later become a proud choice for him.
His primitive forms, influenced by his still immature abilities, interests, and contextual limitations, also signaled his affinity with twentieth-century art, particularly the primitive art of the avant-garde artists. There even emerged, perhaps through a direct but undetermined relationship, a certain affinity with the art of the Camonica Valley, discovered starting in 1909 and popularized in the 1930s.
To pursue high school studies, after his solemn profession, Costantino moved to Sabbioncello di Merate. There he found a stimulating environment with proposed trips, lectures of various kinds (from art to astronomy), film screenings, and visual narratives. The order preserves several magazines produced after World War II, featuring contributions written in the various formation houses that enabled long-distance exchanges and discussions among the young friars. They primarily dealt with literature, art, spirituality, and mission. Leafing through them, one can see both the seriousness and commitment of the young authors and the richness and openness of the educational program offered. Costantino engaged in them with articles and drawings that indicated, as his Franciscan vocation consolidated, the emergence of a personal artistic profile. His simple drawings, ‘Sironi- or Carrà-style,’ differed from the illustrative and pictorial ones of his companions. They signaled a maturation due to his frequent visits, both in the studio and library, to the painter Donato Frisia, who lived in Merate.
After a year at the Cividino friary, of which no trace remains, the young friar and his companions arrived in Busto Arsizio, a lively yet provincial city marked by dynamic industrial development, to study theology. In the same years, encouraged by far-sighted figures, the Lombard Friars Minor had accepted the challenge of charity practiced in culture by establishing the Angelicum, located at the Milanese convent of Sant’Angelo. This center was designed by Giovanni Muzio, the Order’s representative for the construction of churches and convents as well as for the promotion of sacred art. Enjoying the trust of his superiors, the architect supported Costantino’s artistic inclinations.
Furthermore, Costantino was able to both serve as an apprentice, exchanging insights and learning techniques, with the painter Alessandro Pandolfi while he painted figurative cycles in the convent church of Busto Arsizio, and to make quick forays, hitchhiking, to Milan’s art galleries with his companions.
Father Costantino in one of the first exhibitions of his paintings. Pavia, Frate Sole Foundation
Documents attest to the favor of superiors and instructors for their artistic education, which included visits to nearby Castelseprio, exhibitions, and artists’ studios. The young friars thus managed to weave a dense network of relationships with contemporary gallery owners, artists, and architects (Sironi, Fontana, Figini and Pollini, Ponti, Cardazzo, Ghiringhelli), establishing a respectful and frank dialogue with them in a climate of artistic brotherhood. This offered, especially to Costantino, the opportunity to mature artistically, humanly, and spiritually, preparing to enrich the convent and church with beauty. His first important achievement was the cycle of frescoes dedicated to Saint Francis, which he painted in the convent of Busto Arsizio in 1948-1949. Their rapid completion certainly depended on technique, but was also perhaps due to his imminent move to Milan. The Conventual Chronicle recorded the progress of the work, while that of the artist’s fellow students did not spare him scathing criticism.
The mural frescoes, in the noble tradition updated in the Manifesto of Mural Painting drafted by Sironi and others in 1933, established Friar Ruggeri’s identity as a painter. They were his first true entry into the world of art, even though he had no specific training. Having completed the frescoes and his theological studies, in September 1949 he was assigned to the Convent of Sant’Antonio in Milan to undertake pastoral work and prepare for holy orders.
A turbulent climate had spread among the young friars, due to internal dynamics and the air of renewal that was beginning to circulate, which shook the conventual system. To reflect calmly and adequately prepare for the tasks of their ministry, Costantino and his companions were sent to various convents outside the territory of the Lombardy Province. Costantino spent a peaceful and fruitful year in Trento, blessed by the sobriety of the people and the Trentino friars, who drew him into the familiar relationships he had already established in his beloved Franciacorta, among his own family. Here, he combined convent life with begging in the Trento area and with painting scenes of rural life, animals, and landscapes.
In March 1951, he held his first solo exhibition at the Jesuit Galleria San Fedele in Milan, presented by Mario Sironi, who had approached him seeking consolation in his final years, burdened by the fall of Fascism (of which he had been the official artist) and the death of his daughter Rossana. Sironi, recognizing his talent, traveled to Trento, selected the paintings for display, and presented the exhibition in Costantino’s absence, as he remained in Trento to complete his preparations for ordination.