Giovanni Anzil Toffolo

Giovanni Anzil Toffolo (born in Munich in 1911 to Friulian parents who had emigrated to Germany, where his grandfather had started a construction business) returned to Italy in 1916 and settled in Tarcento. It was there, during the 1930s, that he decided to pursue painting, influenced by the official currents of Italian Novecento. A notable example from this period is his **Self-Portrait** (1936, private collection), which reflects the stylistic tendencies of the time. During his military service, he met the painter Fiorenzo Tomea from the Dolomites, who introduced him to a more essential, naturalistic approach to painting. This influence is evident in his still lifes and floral compositions from around 1940, marking the beginning of his exhibition activity. The brutality of the war and his involvement in the Resistance were pivotal in shaping his artistic language. Confronted with the harsh realities of the conflict and the tragic nature of the partisan struggle, Anzil Toffolo developed a style with expressionist undertones, heavily influenced by Northern European traditions. Works such as *After the Execution* and *Memories of the Resistance* (both from 1945) vividly capture the tragic and dramatic aspects of World War II and the violent outcomes of the partisan movement in the region. In 1946, after the war, Anzil Toffolo, along with Ugo Canci Magnano and Luigi Rapuzzi, signed the *Manifesto for a Modern Classical Art*, a document that sought to move away from the superficial atmospheric effects of late Impressionism and return to a more objective, modern classical vision of reality. This manifesto was later endorsed by artists such as Edoardo Devetta, Giuseppe Zigaina, Virgilio Guidi, and Tomea himself. In the following decade, Giovanni Anzil Toffolo became one of the leading figures of the Italian Neorealism movement, which he embraced and helped define with his work.