Filippo de Pisis is the assumed name of Luigi Filippo Tibertelli, born in Ferrara. He was born into the Tibertelli family, established in Ferrara since the fourteenth century. The founder of the family, Filippo Tibertelli "da Pisa", was a condottiere, or commander of a troop of mercenaries, from Pisa whose reputation rose to near-mythic proportions over the years. De Pisis changed his name from Luigi Filippo Tibertelli in recognition of his ancestor's place of origin.
Ferrara was dominated by Socialists and anti-clericals at the time of De Pisis's birth, so the Catholic Tibertelli family found itself somewhat isolated from the social life of the city. De Pisis's parents chose to have their seven children educated at home by priests and later at a private high school.
De Pisis began to study drawing at the age of six, but it was not his sole interest. He was also fascinated by antique objects and developed a love of nature, especially butterflies, of which he had a large collection.
At eighteen De Pisis entered the University of Bologna, where he studied literature and philosophy. He also continued to paint. During his college years he met the brothers Giorgio De Chirico and Albert Savinio. Through them and their circle, he became exposed to the French avant-garde in literature and art, and he entered into correspondence with poets Guillaume Apollinaire and Tristan Tzara.
After graduating from the university, De Pisis went to Rome, where he worked for four years as a high school teacher. He began dedicating himself seriously to painting, producing still-lifes that featured unexpected juxtapositions of objects and also some landscapes.
In the early 1920s, De Pisis also became aware of his homosexuality. He wrote of sexual fantasies in his diary, and he eventually fell in love with a young man named Berto. De Pisis wrote of enjoying his lover's body, which he said caused him "delirium and pangs of the soul."
De Pisis moved to Paris in 1925 to study the work of French artists, especially Eugène Delacroix and Édouard Manet, whom he particularly admired. The political situation in Italy may have contributed to his decision to leave Italy since the country was then in Fascist control.
Although De Pisis described himself as neutral - neither for nor against the Fascists - he was attacked in Italian newspapers as disloyal for abandoning his country and might have been declared a traitor had not Fascist minister Italo Balbo, an old schoolmate, intervened on his behalf.
He lived in the French capital for fourteen years. His admiration for Eugène Delacroix, Eduard Manet and Camille Corot, as well as for Henri Matisse and the "Fauves" was reflected in a gestural use of colour and brilliant coloured accents. Besides still life he painted urban scenes, male nudes and hermaphroditic images.
With a style that combined elements of metaphysical and impressionist painting, avant-garde Italian artist Filippo De Pisis did not belong to any one particular artistic movement. His individualism may have contributed to a certain marginalization of his art, yet he gained acclaim for his cityscapes, still lifes, and voluptuous male nudes. His work is distinguished by a palpable sensuality.
In artwork not intended for public display De Pisis sought to create an ideal androgynous human figure. He wrote "The masculine and feminine element is tightly fused in every person." In his celebration of androgyny De Pisis rejected traditional heterosexual sex roles.
In addition, he created paintings of the male figure, such as Nudino sulla pelle di tigre (Nude man on a tiger skin, 1931). He generally recruited his models from young working-class men whom he encountered on the street. In his diaries he recorded appreciative comments about the bodies of his subjects.
In the late 1930s De Pisis made several trips to England, where he worked with artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant of the Bloomsbury Group. He subsequently held successful exhibitions of his paintings of London.
When World War II broke out, De Pisis moved back to Italy, settling first in Milan. The Fascists were still suspicious of him, and once threatened to arrest him as a "perturber of morals."
After the overthrow of the Fascist government in 1943, De Pisis moved to Venice, where he soon established a reputation as an eccentric character. He dressed as a dandy and appeared in public with his pet parrot on his shoulder. He maintained a large house and his own gondola. He continued recruiting young men to be his nude models, and made notes about them in his diaries - "delizioso" (delicious) being a frequent description.
De Pisis chose one of these models, Bruno Scarpa, to be his gondolier. The handsome Scarpa, decked out in the splendid livery that De Pisis had designed for him, also served at De Pisis's afternoon teas, which attracted a diverse group of guests.
De Pisis was known for his evening entertaining as well. To celebrate the end of the war, he threw a party at which twenty boys - "each one more beautiful than the other", he noted in his diary - danced wearing only strings of shells around their loins. Local police raided the event, and arrested nineteen people including De Pisis, who spent a night in jail.
At the 1948 Venice Bienniale a room was devoted to some thirty of his works. He was not, however, awarded the grand prize, apparently because of objections on the grounds of his sexuality.
At about this time De Pisis's health began to decline due to a nervous disorder, and he found it necessary to enter a neurological clinic near Milan. Despite his medical problems, he continued to paint nearly until his death.
