“From the Lefranc Archive. The Muzii Dossier”

in Dall’olio all’acrilico, dall’Impressionismo all’arte contemporanea, conference proceedings CESMAR 7, ed. V. E. Selva Bonino, Saonara, Il Prato Publishing House, 2016, p. 137-168.

locandina 2015 A3The FUTURAHMA group has carried out extensive research within the Lefranc archives, Le Mans. Artists’ materials, publications and written sources have been studied, as they contribute to better understand the turn-of-the-century rich debate on industrially-synthetized paints.

A folder containing important paper documents related to the Muzii tempera has been examined by Margherita d’Ayala Valva. These colors were very popular at the beginning of the twentieth Century with painters and restorers, as is documented by catalogues, manuals and journals. This folder contains an epistolary between the painter Alfonso Muzii, active in early-twentieth-century Florence, and the firm Lefranc, together with some recipes related to the years 1904-1908, when the Muzii tempera was patented, marketed and largely tested by artists (Vittore Grubicy, Giuseppe Pellizza, Giacomo Balla, Giovanni Fattori).