The Photo Library

The photographic archive collects more than four thousand five hundred images that tell the story, the artistic and the cultural role that the Circle has played from the end of the 19th century to the 90s of the 21st century.

The archive, as well as documenting with photographic testimonies the presence of the numerous illustrious people from all over the world who frequented the club, also preserves authentic documents of dances, parties, banquets, concerts and conferences reported, for their great success, in the local press of the time.

The intention to preserve the memory of the artistic heritage has strong roots. The first photographic gift is attested in 1891, when Her Majesty Queen Margherita was invited at the first exhibition of the Neapolitan Society of Artists, which took place on 18th June of the same year. On that occasion the partner Count Collegno did everything possible so that the Queen would grant her autographed portrait. A year later, Prince Umberto also honoured the founding committee with an autographed photo.

Queen Margherita di Savoia was engaged with King Umberto I.

And so, the collection of photographic portraits began. In 1919, the President Prince Giuseppe Caravita di Sirignano, organised an "Afternoon of Art” in which he chose to invite the master Pietro Mascagni

and Ernesto Murolo.

However, to reconstruct the chronicles of the events and the social life of the Club, we have to take in consideration the twelve precious manuscript notebooks preserved in the Foundation's Historical Archive. For example, thanks to the notebooks, we know that Queen Maria José's visit took place in 1933 on the occasion of the debut of the trio "Ofussi, Viterbini and Vitale" and that Enrico De Leva, in the same year, had a great success with his poem "Little Mermaid".

While I moved by listening Errico,
In the harvest silence of the Salon,
I was struck by a sweet tremor
For the sweet account of his song.

The verses dedicated to Raffaele Viviani, who performed in the Circolo in 1933, are poetic and devoted too:
To Viviani. After the magnificent success of the diction of his verses, held on the 21st January 1933, at the Artistic.

When, on friday, I read Viviani's verses
(He would come the following evening),
I was really looking forward to listening to him again.

The members of the Association composed a lot of poems and hymns of praise. They also loved to compose clever rhymes, some of that in Neapolitan dialect, with which they illustrate curiosities and “behind the scenes” of the illustrious guests of the Club. An example of these rhymes is the memory of Toti Dal Monte's concert (1929) which was postponed because of a "jinx member” (Mola).

On the fifteenth will come Toti dal Monte;
I read it this morning in the paper “Mola Says”
and scratched himself on the forehead…
If he comes and sings, it won't be so bad;
But if he doesn't sing, I think, is it true or not?
It would be a funeral for us partners...
And so it was: that he came not and he did not sing
(For the morning ban)
Was it Mola’s fault? - And it said no!

The Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayao did not escape to the pungent rhymes of his writers partners too:
Tomorrow, February 19th, there will be a recital by Bidu Sayao
during which the great artist will repeat
the Fiume’s program.
If you eat macaroni for lunch
For first, second and third course,
Would you get sick?
That's for sure! What you say is correct.
Well: tomorrow, the Concert Day,
At Bidù's recital (admire!),
This unique dish is offered.
When I think of you Bidu, I’m sick.

All this “works” highlights the incredible satire of the members, but also their profound attention in choosing the illustrious people to invite. However, despite their scrupulous selection, the guests sometimes revealed some surprises.

An example is the conference of the law. Innocenzo Cappa who, the day after the event, sent to the Circle an invoice to pay for the tête-à-ete had on the sofa “with Tina and Ivonne, Saturday 28, Lire 200.” Someone exclaimed: “Next time we must choose better the educated people to invite. We don’t need mess, no. It seems to me too much”.

There were also sad moments, transformed into rhymes, as for the death of the great Salvatore Di Giacomo in 1934, one year after the donation of his photo.

Sad parenthesis
(Salvatore Di Giacomo’s funeral)
The hearse with Di Giacomo is passing through the street
Followed by many people.
Naples weeps its most honest tears,
Just as I cry.
He died talking about Naples
Describing it with the most beautiful and kindest words he knows
So much beautiful that they are capable to touch your heart.
Towards the castle, almost under the statue,
The military band stops:
The hearse leaves leaving the obsequies,
And only "Marechiaro" accompanies him...
As the procession broke up, the band
Started playing the first notes of Marechiaro.
II–4–1934XII

There were so many social breakfasts dedicated to illustrious guests. Among them the one dedicated to Amedeo Maiuri in 1936, professor, superintendent and archaeologist, who donated his photo in 1958 with an affectionate dedication:

“I found in Naples and in Campania the most human voices of the ancient world”.

In 1936 these verses were dedicated to Eduardo, Peppino and Titina De Filippo.

For breakfast to the family De Filippo
For four days they are dry of topics.
Nothing interesting has happened anymore.
The friends insist: how does one become mute?
I open my arms and say:
It is the case to ask to the workshop on the Past.
What can I say? Always the same things
that are happened in the past. Mark the pace or do the old Friday's social life;
Of those worldly Fridays in Panza,
is no longer spoken of out of decency.

Or I have to tell about some conference,
that someone found inappropriate ...
I was doing this examination of conscience,
When, on Wednesday, was announced
The play of our side-show, Eduardo de Filippo, and Peppino
and their sister too. It will take place on the twenty-two.
With “the country air” of a brother;
And the marquis, with his sausages,
Made (he says) “a punta di coltello”,
For the claim of the Golden Barrel.

In the lunch offered to the Ladies and to them
In the afternoon, after breakfast,
we will admire more than one great artist.
It's hard for a fly to penetrate in the saloon:
it will be saturated with people,
We won’t be able to hear or see nothing.
But we will still clap our hands
And we will praise the good de Filippo;

For their glory, not of tomorrow
But forever.
The echoes of their size went out
into the world long ago.
Where it does not go, there is no bottom.
So let us toast
To the ladies, first of all;
To those who today make us breathe
The country and dewy breeze,
And to the great orchestra, to the excellent brother:
The Pirandello's major performer.

Among the many author’s photographs in the collection, the Giulio Parisi’s photo stands out. He is responsible not only for the original, intimate and futuristic portraits of sixty-four artists of the Circle which were published on the occasion of the exhibition dedicated to them in 1962, but also for the wonderful sets created for the grand ball of the Comencini Salon and Sirignano.

Today the Photo Library is open to the public, for scholars and enthusiasts. In addition, our on-site search service offers the possibility, through the cataloguing in SBN - Sistema Bibliotecario Nazionale -, to consult and save the photos already present on the site.