VINCENZO CECCANTI – Illustrator

(Pontedera, 1871 – Livorno, 1916)

Vincenzo Ceccanti, known as Cencino, was born in Pontedera, in the province of Pisa, on March 8, 1871, the son of Luigi and Natalizia Pazzini. After frequenting the Art Academy of Florence, he worked in Tuscany at the beginning of the XX Century creating posters of noteworthy quality. He moved to Milan where in January of 1908 he married Giovanna De Enrici (1887 – 1869). On December 3, 1908 he became father of a child named Mario and in the following August he moved to Pozzolo Formigaro, in the province of Alessandria, but then moved back to Tuscany. It is worth mentioning a poster that he made for the Aerial Circuit in Florence in 1911 (signed alongside E. Mancini). In 1911 he also drew for Barilla a shop sign-calendar characterized by the Art Nouveau taste and by the atmospheres of the Belle Époque in which a laughing boy pours an egg into the kneading trough outside his workshop, under the glance of enthusiastic admiration of the crowd of bystanders. The extremely well known logo for Fernet-Branca designed for a calendar in 1904 could be attributed to him. Also worthy of mention is the splendid poster for the Terme di Boario (Boario Thermal Spa) (published posthumously in 1917), various fliers for the Sonzogno Publishing House, Luce Wolff, Coca Button and the Tommasini Pasta Factory of Milan. Later on he moved to Florence and turned his attention to stained glass art, creating various artistic windows, including those for the Pontedera Cathedral (destroyed by bombing raids) and for the Chiesa del Soccorso (Church of Divine Help) in Livorno. Vincenzo Ceccanti died of an illness at the age of 45, at Livorno Hospital on August 31, 1916.

Giancarlo Gonizzi

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