Angelo Cesselon: The Portraitist of Italian Film Posters

From Venetian painting to Roman film studios

Born on 17 February 1922 in Settimo di Cinto Caomaggiore, in the Veneto, Cesselon began painting as a boy in the tradition of late nineteenth-century Venetian painting. After his family moved to Rome he discovered contemporary art and the city's graphic studios, and immediately after the Second World War he began working for film companies, from the first painted sketches to finished poster designs. His film work spanned some thirty years and brought him into contact with the best-known actors and directors of the period, for both European and American studios.

The single-image poster

In the 1940s most posters told the story in miniature, with several small scenes arranged like a storyboard. From 1947 Cesselon chose instead one identifying image — usually a face — painted with a portraitist's skill. The approach made him one of the most productive poster painters anywhere.

His colour is the giveaway: vibrant, carefully juxtaposed reds, violets, blues and greens in the Venetian tradition. His women are glamorous but restrained; his men are painted with quicker, more nervous strokes of brush and palette knife in warmer tones.

Posters to look for

• Marilyn Monroe in La tua bocca brucia (Don't Bother to Knock), Giungla d'asfalto (The Asphalt Jungle, 1958 re-release) and Orchidea bionda (Monkey Business).
• Ava Gardner in Il bacio di Venere (One Touch of Venus) and Pandora.
• Gina Lollobrigida in Anna di Brooklyn, La donna più bella del mondo and La romana.
• Ingrid Bergman in Stromboli (Terra di Dio) and Notorious – L'amante perduta; Alida Valli in Il terzo uomo (The Third Man).
• Italian classics and re-releases: Umberto D, Ladri di biciclette (1958 re-release), Marcellino pane e vino, L'armata Brancaleone.
• Later auteur films: Morte a Venezia, Effetto notte, Sussurri e grida, Mon oncle d'Amérique, Papillon.
• Male stars, painted with quicker strokes: Totò and Ugo Tognazzi in Totò nella luna, Fernandel and Gino Cervi in Don Camillo, Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster in Vera Cruz, James Dean in Il gigante (Giant).

Several of these are re-release posters (riedizioni), which Cesselon repainted for later runs — a good example of why a riedizione can be worth collecting for its art.

Beyond cinema

Cesselon also illustrated book, record and magazine covers, notably a series of athlete portraits for Sport nel Mondo, and calendar covers for the Carabinieri in 1975, 1977 and 1980. An international prize in 1958 made him a sought-after portraitist; his sitters included President Giovanni Gronchi and Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. In 1975 he retired to Velletri, where he kept painting, mostly large portraits of saints for religious orders, until his death there on 26 September 1992.

Where his work is kept

Much of what he produced — sketches, drawings, posters and paintings — is in the Archivio Cesselon, looked after by his heirs. Film archives in Turin, Bologna, Milan and Bari, the Parma documentation centre and the Carabinieri headquarters in Rome also hold his work, and the Cinema a Pennello museum in Montecosaro has a room devoted to him. Exhibitions include a solo show at Rome's Palazzo delle Esposizioni in 1991 and Angelo Cesselon pittore di cinema in Venice (1998) and Rimini (1999).