From Wednesday, September 17, to Friday, December 5, 2025, the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio presents the exhibition Corpi Nudi (Naked Bodies), the largest exhibition dedicated to the nude photography of Italian-Brazilian photographer Elio Luxardo (Sorocaba, August 1, 1908 - Milan, November 27, 1969) ever held since his death.
Roman by adoption, but born in Brazil in 1908 to Italian parents who had emigrated to South America, Luxardo is perhaps the greatest representative of that generation of photographers who found themselves immersed in a genuinely creative atmosphere during the twenty years of Fascism. This was one of the most controversial periods in the history of unified Italy, in which demands for political and personal freedom encountered insurmountable obstacles, while artistic inspiration could often soar independently, crossing spaces and flying over ideologies.
The case of Elio Luxardo has a peculiarity that clearly differentiates him from his Italian photographer colleagues of that era. A master craftsman of the darkroom, he arrived in Rome during the Fascist period and grew professionally during the development of the Cinecittà film studios, cultivating his talent by portraying the actors and actresses of that era, remembered as the 'Cinema dei telefoni bianchi' (1936-1943), while not disdaining to make himself available to high-ranking figures of the regime.
But it was his desire to retreat into a sort of intimate bubble in his studio that allowed him to develop his creative flair to the maximum, confining his work to a fascinating and intense mise en scène, from which he was able to extract a brilliant core of images dedicated exclusively to nude photography. The exhibition brings together this intimate collection of original photographs from the early 1930s, never intended for commercial purposes, characterized by an unprecedented and captivating interplay of light and shadow.
Enchanted by Greek and Roman sculpture, the male nude alternates admirably with the female nude, in a comparison that reveals the clash between two different social and cultural identities. On the one hand, there is an involuntary process of acculturation and observance of fascist dogmas; on the other, there is a tangible synopsis of his youthful spirit, when, as an excellent athlete and dreamer artist, he was immersed in the suspended lightness and myth of the Brazilian atmosphere. The temperament and vigor of the fascist man, so virile and distinctive, are immediately apparent in the representation of the male nude, but that heroic strength also interfaces and intertwines with the elusive eroticism of the female nude, a woman's body so far removed from the rhetoric of “home, country, family” and the icon of the “angel of the hearth.”
A double existential game that will cause his original nude photographs to disappear, swallowed up in the hidden layers to which history has accustomed us.
During the twenty years of Fascism, his women were too much like pin-ups, and after the Liberation, his men were too much like Fascists. But with the passing of time, which hides and seals, his original, vigorous, and seductive images have finally reemerged, finding light and visibility for a significant tribute to the artist.
The exhibition project is accompanied by a publication edited by Silvana Editoriale, which is scheduled for release after the opening of the exhibition.
Roman by adoption, but born in Brazil in 1908 to Italian parents who had emigrated to South America, Luxardo is perhaps the greatest representative of that generation of photographers who found themselves immersed in a genuinely creative atmosphere during the twenty years of Fascism. This was one of the most controversial periods in the history of unified Italy, in which demands for political and personal freedom encountered insurmountable obstacles, while artistic inspiration could often soar independently, crossing spaces and flying over ideologies.
The case of Elio Luxardo has a peculiarity that clearly differentiates him from his Italian photographer colleagues of that era. A master craftsman of the darkroom, he arrived in Rome during the Fascist period and grew professionally during the development of the Cinecittà film studios, cultivating his talent by portraying the actors and actresses of that era, remembered as the 'Cinema dei telefoni bianchi' (1936-1943), while not disdaining to make himself available to high-ranking figures of the regime.
But it was his desire to retreat into a sort of intimate bubble in his studio that allowed him to develop his creative flair to the maximum, confining his work to a fascinating and intense mise en scène, from which he was able to extract a brilliant core of images dedicated exclusively to nude photography. The exhibition brings together this intimate collection of original photographs from the early 1930s, never intended for commercial purposes, characterized by an unprecedented and captivating interplay of light and shadow.
Enchanted by Greek and Roman sculpture, the male nude alternates admirably with the female nude, in a comparison that reveals the clash between two different social and cultural identities. On the one hand, there is an involuntary process of acculturation and observance of fascist dogmas; on the other, there is a tangible synopsis of his youthful spirit, when, as an excellent athlete and dreamer artist, he was immersed in the suspended lightness and myth of the Brazilian atmosphere. The temperament and vigor of the fascist man, so virile and distinctive, are immediately apparent in the representation of the male nude, but that heroic strength also interfaces and intertwines with the elusive eroticism of the female nude, a woman's body so far removed from the rhetoric of “home, country, family” and the icon of the “angel of the hearth.”
A double existential game that will cause his original nude photographs to disappear, swallowed up in the hidden layers to which history has accustomed us.
During the twenty years of Fascism, his women were too much like pin-ups, and after the Liberation, his men were too much like Fascists. But with the passing of time, which hides and seals, his original, vigorous, and seductive images have finally reemerged, finding light and visibility for a significant tribute to the artist.
The exhibition project is accompanied by a publication edited by Silvana Editoriale, which is scheduled for release after the opening of the exhibition.