Amintore Fanfani
Incidents
- Dady Orsi (1943) Resurrezione di Cristo (particolare)
22 October, Friday, Day 35
[…] A day of accidents for me and for the others. With the painter Orsi we were returning from the hill to the south-east of Dieterswill, from which the Swiss Alps can be contemplated, when we were called by a Swiss corporal: we were forty meters beyond the limits of the garrison! Taken to a room – command of the Dieterswill guard – we were asked to give our names; which we did [p. 137].
26 December, Sunday, 100th day
[…] They are thinking of enlarging and embellishing the Catholic chapel of Chexbres and are asking for the help of an Italian architect and painter. Our Orsi, as I said, could very well decorate the walls that are currently bare. I will speak to our Gospel group, so that at each meeting a collection is made to leave a sum to the committee that will be set up for the purpose [p. 203].
28 December, Tuesday, 102nd day
[…] In the afternoon, Orsi and I went to visit the painter Gimmi, from Zurich, who has returned from Paris and is currently exhibiting with praise in Geneva. He wasn’t there. His wife, a sculptor, invited us for the end of the week and, in the meantime, she gave us a monograph on her husband’s art. It seems a bit flat and without much originality. Our Orsi has a little more flair and taste. But we shall see more on our next visit [pp. 206-207].
2 January, Sunday, 107th day
[…] Yesterday and today the projects that Orsi and Bassi have prepared for the embellishment of the Catholic chapel of Chexbres were discussed. The Favre family is promoting it and the painter and architect who have been interned should lend their services. I am called upon to take an interest in it, as a mutual friend.
3 January, Monday, 108th day
[…] In the afternoon, together with Orsi, I went to meet the painter Gimmi, a Zuricher who has worked a lot in Paris and since 1939 has retired to Chexbres. We talked to him and his wife at length about Italy, which they know. Then they showed us some of their works, which were of interest to us. […].
Missed departure for Italy
4 January, Tuesday, 109th day
Today a little drama played out in Orsi’s soul. For days he had been preparing to accept his wife’s invitation to return. He wanted to take advantage of the furtive repatriation of Treccani and Ravasi, who lived very close to the border. I had long warned him of all the difficulties and reasons against a hasty attempt. But against all my arguments he always presented new ones. This morning at noon he was decided. He had already left me a very valuable drawing on a blue background as a souvenir and was about to pack his bags, when he decided to wait for the outcome of his application for repatriation and his wife’s answer to precise questions about the possibility of living in his homeland. So he stayed. To distract him, his brother-in-law and Palazzeschi took him for a walk through Rivaz towards Cully. We stayed out until 5.45 p.m. enjoying a magnificent sunset. He seems calmer now and is already planning to set to work on his decorative sketches for the Catholic chapel here. The demon of doubt, whether he was rightly or wrongly expatriated torments many again, disillusioned by the long wait, and tired by the present inactivity. Those who study and work and prepare for the future are more patient [pp. 217-8].
5 January, Wednesday, 110th day
[…] Tonight at 8.30 p.m. in the Chapel, the Parish Committee has summoned Colonel Mura, the painter Orsi, the architect Bassi and myself to put the plans for the embellishment into practice [p. 218].
11 January, Monday, 115th day
[…] Orsi, who was once again inclined towards repatriation, is no longer leaving because he has been assured that an anti-Fascist group living in Zurich is keeping track of all the returnees in order to pay them at the redde rationem of their submission to the Germans. So he decided to undertake the decoration of the Catholic chapel here and the Swiss were delighted [p. 221].
- Dady Orsi (1944) Gesù cammina sull’acqua (particolare)
Vevey
- Dady Orsi (1943) Conversione di Saulo (particolare)
15 January, Saturday, 120th day
[…] I was going to buy the paints in Vevey with Orsi to paint the Catholic chapel in Chexbres. And so we did. Along the lake road, accompanied by M. Favre, we first went to St. Saphorin, an old village on the Riviera, with a church built on Roman remains. Leaving at 1.30 p.m., we were at the first houses of Vevey. Along the main street, lined with rich shops and numerous greengrocers and confectioners we came to Aux beaux Arts, a shop owned by the Italian Giuliano, stocked to the hilt with brushes and paints, much of which could not be found in Italy for some time. Orsi has chosen the best for the work, and I bought a series of 12 plates of sketches of horses, oxen, etc. by a certain Don Perceval: nothing extraordinary, but discreet models for my horse studies. Cost: fr. 3. Monsieur Favre took us to visit the Catholic church, which is very well kept: then the quai; then a café, where we were relieved of our fatigue with pastries and wine, and at 6.40 p.m. we returned by train to Chexbres [pp. 224-5].
17 January, Monday, 122nd day
[…] Orsi has come to paint the models for the panels in the chapel in our room, so that with Fuga drawing in pen, with me sketching with coloured pencils, with Orsi working in tempera we are turning it into a bohemian studio [p. 227].
At the University Camp
18 January, Tuesday, 123rd day
[…] We stay at the Grand Hotel, where I have a beautiful one-bed room with running water. A little cold, but very luxurious. After supper I tidied it up and even decorated it with the design that Orsi made for the painting of S. Pietro in the chapel at Chexbres [p. 228].
Without permission in Chexbres
30 January, Sunday, 135th day
[…] Permission to go to Chexbres was not granted, but as I had promised I went anyway, like a bad boy. The Favres were waiting for me to talk about Orsi’s sudden departure. I saw the three paintings he had prepared for the chapel but, unfortunately, they were done in less than a week. So the dream of seeing the Chapel of Chexbres decorated by the Italian internees vanished. And the poor Swiss were very disappointed, especially after having bought 500 fr. worth of paints, brushes, etc., for their work. Of course, his wife’s invitation to return was categorical, but once he had made the commitment, the painter could postpone his repatriation for a few weeks. Now they say that the repatriations have been suspended because the Germans seem to have shot some of the returnees [p. 237].
Still in Chexbres
9 March, Thursday, 174th day
[…] I borrowed two brushes and about ten tubes from them which they had bought for Orsi [p. 264].
Pentecost
28 May, Sunday, 255th day
[…] We got Orsi’s three sketches for the chapel from Favre. We will put them on display and perhaps the Chapel of Chexbres, which no longer wants them, will be able to find someone who will buy the large canvases [p. 322].
The exhibition
3 June, Saturday, 260th day
[…] I have also put on display the two colour drawings that Orsi gave me before he left, with the three sketches of the church at Chexbres [p. 322].
- Dady Orsi (1945) Crocifissione
- Dady Orsi (1940) crocifissione
Full Sunday
25 June, Sunday, 283rd day
[…] I put the Adoration of the Magi by Fries, which I had put in the Rapperswil dormitory, in the gilded frame of Orsi’s drawing. It is a little small for the room, but it is beautiful and continues the memories of the first camp [p. 349].
Resumption
14 November, Wednesday, 425th day
[…] In the meantime, with a bit of gummed paper I have framed the S. Pietro di Orsi that towers at the head of the bed. In the next few days I will attach a few more drawings so as to make the room more friendly [p. 442].
In Vevey
28 May, Monday, 620th day
[…] The Chapel is finished, but the architect and the painter have competed with each other to come up with an ungainly large room. Orsi’s project was much better [p. 563].
Volume I, Quaderni Svizzeri -1943-1945
I Diari di Amintore Fanfani, Quaderni Svizzeri -1943-1945
Senato della Repubblica – Archivio Storico – Rubbettino