Trento, 16 February 1887 – Milan, 22 January 1969
Benvenuto Maria Disertori
Musicologist and printmaker, he is among the most significant figures in Italian graphic art of the early twentieth century. His work spans illustration, ex libris, and independent print production, with a refined use of major intaglio and relief techniques, including etching, woodcut, burin, and drypoint.
He collaborated with journals such as La Tempra and L’Eroica, important platforms for literary and graphic culture in the first half of the century. In 1925 he married the Dutch painter Regina Philippona.
From 1931 to 1960 he taught Printmaking at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. In 1950 he was among the co-founders of the “G. Cesari” Institute in Cremona, where he also taught Renaissance musical paleography.
He participated nine times in the Venice Biennale between 1926 and 1950. Notable among these were the 1934 exhibition, featuring his series on the Bisiach violin makers, and the 1942 Biennale, where he was granted a dedicated room.
His works are held in major collections, including the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Uffizi in Florence, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the MART in Rovereto, which also preserves a significant group of his woodcut matrices.
