The essay takes its cue from a text that Gio Ponti published in 1949 to describe the multifaceted
activity of Pietro Chiesa (1892-1948), a longtime friend and fellow artist, and with
him artistic director of Fontana Arte. The «romantics» and «amusements» are, in fact, for
Ponti objects in which the exuberance of Chiesa’s imagination grants him explorations
into other eras or ironic games. The expression “storehouse of ideas”, penned by Chiesa in
some of the sheets in which he notes and imprisons fleeting ideas to be sifted and, if appropriate,
developed, is worth recalling the multiplicity of cues that makes up his visual and
creative baggage and that is particularly reflected in the «romantics» and «amusements»:
from objects from all eras and origins in his heterogeneous art collection (including those
from the Romantic period) to his encounters with contemporary Italian and international
artists (including the Surrealists).
Proposing a selection of examples, the text aims to show how in the «romantics» and
«amusements» objects the creative process of Chiesa does not follow schemes or programmatic
principles, but relies on falling in love with a form or matter and the fun of creation,
without ever forgetting the rigor and seriousness necessary for perfect execution:
all indispensable elements for achieving what he himself had called the «joys of art that
cannot be constrained in a formula».