European Film Star Postcards: Pastels by Aldo Mazza

09 September 2023

Pastels by Aldo Mazza

Aldo Mazza (1880-1964) was an Italian painter, illustrator of children's books, caricaturist for satirical magazines, and poster designer. His work was endowed with a great sense of humour. In the 1910s, Mazza did a series of pastel-like portraits of Italian stage actresses such as Dina Galli and Lyda Borelli, but also of unknown ladies, all in the same style. For this post, Ivo Blom selected from his collection ten postcards with Mazza's pastels.

Italian postcard by Ed. [Mona Lisa], no. 1809. Pastel by Aldo Mazza. Lyda Borelli.

Italian postcard by Alfieri & Lacroix, Milano, no. 1804. Pastel by Aldo Mazza. Dina Galli. (NB Only our cards of Galli in the series by Mazza are marked as being edited by Alfieri & Lacroix.)

Italian postcard, no. 1809. Pastel by Aldo Mazza. Maria Melato.

Portraits in a sketchy style

Aldo Mazza was born in Milano, Italy in 1880. He came from a family of painters. Both his grandfather Giuseppe Mazza and his great-uncle Salvatore Mazza had been renowned painters. When he was 16, Mazza enrolled on the Accademia delle Belle Arte di Brera, where he was taught by Cesare Tallone and dedicated himself to painting, while also illustrating children's books for the editor Vallardi.

His first commission was the making of satirical designs for the journal Guerin Meschino, which he did for over twenty years. Afterwards, he would also design illustrations for Il Numero, L'Illustrazione italiana, Il Secolo (from 1924), and Il Pasquino. In 1914 he would participate in the Great Italian Exhibition of Caricature and Humor, organized by Il Numero.

He initially specialised in a realist, colourful style, rejecting the artistic avant-garde. In 1905 he married Paola Farnesi. In 1908 he illustrated La canzoniere della nonna and started his career in chromo-lithography, working for e.g. Sonzogno, Bertelli, and Ricordi, making caricatural posters, as well as a poster for stage actress Dina Galli.

In 1915 Mazza joined the army when Italy joined the Allied Forces during the First World War. He continued his work though, designing patriotic posters e.g. for the National Loans, and painted landscapes in Dalmatia and Libya. He also painted abandoned poor children and started a contract with the daily Il Secolo.

In a sketchy style, he made several portraits of stage actors such as Lyda Borelli and Dina Galli, of which several were also issued as postcards. Yet, in the same style, he also drew anonymous fashionable ladies or used the style for stage companies such as the Borelli-Piperno-Gandusio company, founded in 1913, or the company Galli-Guasti-Ciarli-Bracci.

Italian postcard by Ed. [Mona Lisa], no. 1802. Pastel by Aldo Mazza. Lyda Borelli.

Italian postcard by Alfieri & Lacroix, Milano, no. 1810. Pastel by Aldo Mazza. Dina Galli.

Italian postcard. Design by Aldo Mazza. Depicted is an Alpine (Alpino), member of the Italian mountain warfare, wearing the typical hat with the raven feather. First World War propaganda promoting the buying of war bonds (national loans). Caption: The offices of Credito Italiano will provide free-of-charge services related to the subscribed.

A taste for the twodimensional and strong contrasts in colours

Aldo Mazza worked as a poster designer mainly for the Bologna firm Chappuis, for the Arti grafiche Bertarelli and for Ricordi, producing about sixty posters, including advertising and political ones. He also designed theatre posters, calendars (his 1917 calendar for the Unione Cooperativa di Milano is famous) and postcards in chromolithography.

Companies for which he made his billboard posters were e.g. the Neapolitan clothing company Mele, Fernet-Branca liquor, Birra Italia, Shell lubricants, Ganzini photography items, Bianchi bicycles, the department store La Rinascente, Credito Italiano, Magazzini Vittoria, etc. Remarkable is his poster for the 1911 World Fair in Turin, as well as his posters promoting tourism in Italy.

Mazza knew the famous painter and designer Marcello Dudovich. From him, he gradually adopted the taste for the twodimensional and strong contrasts in colours. After the war, Mazza started to design posters with audacious designs, influenced by the futurists, the new sportive culture (e.g. dynamic posters with racing cars), and the fascist climate.

As a painter, Mazza initially worked in the divisionist style. He specialised in (often women's) portraits, flowers, and landscapes. He contributed to exhibitions such as those by the Venice Biennale, Brera, the Lombard watercolourists, and the Mostra del ritratto femminile contemporaneo (Monza, 1924), while in 1935 he was given a personal exhibition at the Gallery Pesaro in Milan.

Today, postcards and calendars by Mazza can be found at the Raccolta Bertirelli in Milan, his posters at the Salce Collection in Treviso, while the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci di Milano owns several paintings by Mazza, his grandfather and great-uncle. Aldo Mazza passed away in Gavirate, Italy, in 1964.