Drawn Writings

Abstract

Luigi Serafini’s (1949) passion for nature has its roots in his childhood, when, in Pedaso, in the Marche region, he spent seemingly endless summer days in the enchanted park surrounding his relatives’ house, reached from Rome by car along the Via Salaria with his family. It was within this botanical and zoological enclave, situated not far from the river Aso, descending from the mythical Sibillini Mountains (though perhaps, as Serafini himself maintains, possessing a karstic source near Mount Aso in Japan), that the young Luigi began to draw plants and barnyard animals, perhaps sketching the first iconograms of that fantastic bestiary and herbarium which would later become the Codex Seraphinianus [Serafini 1981]. Symmetrically aligned with the longitudinal axis of the Apennines, as though within the mirror-world of Alice, the passion of Serafini for the classical world –nurtured by his father’s love of antiquities– had the opportunity to develop in the Eternal City, where he was allowed to freely wander among the Fori Imperiali, in a world equally resonant with mythological echoes, composed of arches, columns, brick walls, and precious marble claddings. (read more)