Italian painter and scenic designer Orfeo Tamburi (1910–1994) was a prolific artist. He was known for his versatile work in painting, illustration, and design.
Early Life and Career
Tamburi is born in Jesi, Italy, in 1910. He moved to Rome in 1927 to pursue his artistic education. There, he attended a Liceo artistico and later the Accademia di Belle Arti with the help of a scholarship.
He had his first group exhibitions in 1932.
In 1936, a short trip to Paris introduced him to the works of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), which greatly influenced him. He returned to Italy and participated in several prestigious exhibitions, including the Rome Quadriennale and the Venice Biennale.
War Years and Artistic Expansion
Tamburi lived in Paris throughout World War II. During this period, he expanded his work to include illustration. He used etching, lithography, and drawing to reproduce literary works by various poets and writers.
Two notable projects from this time include his fifty drawings for Piccola Roma. These drawings incorporate a poem by Italian poet Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970).
Another project was his illustrations for French writer Stendhal’s Promenades dans Rome.
“Painter of windows”
Tamburi is described as a “painter of windows.” This points to his “geometric vision of reality.” The “precise lines of the shapes of the houses” and “also of the windows” characterize his work.
But he wrote in his book “Venti disegni di Roma”: “I am not a painter who paints things, but a painter who thinks about things.”
The realist painter Renato Guttuso said “Orfeo Tamburi is the painter of the secret life of cities.”
The celebrated surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) praised Tamburi’s artistic intellect and the coherence of his work.
He said “The first impression I had of Tamburi’s paintings was that of a powerful and serene intelligence, which moves with ease and clarity in a poetic and well-defined world.”
Post-war period
After the war, Tamburi traveled extensively throughout Europe before settling permanently in Paris in 1947. His work gained international attention, and he traveled to the United States in the mid-1950s for exhibitions at major museums.
In the 1960s, he returned to the U.S. and was commissioned by Fortune magazine to photograph several American cities.
Tamburi was also active as a scenic designer. In 1941, he designed the figures and sets for Feo Belcari’s La sacra rappresentazione di Abrham e Isaac. He even appeared as an actor in the 1951 film The Seven Deadly Sins.
Global Recognition
Throughout his career, Tamburi received several honors. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the First Class for Cultural and Artistic Merit in 1971. He also received the “Eternal City” International Prize in 1975.
Orfeo Tamburi died in Paris in 1994.
In 1964, Tamburi donated many of his works to the Pinacoteca Civica in his hometown of Jesi. The Pinacoteca Civica established a prize in honor of his mother.
Orfeo Tamburi’s works have been sold at auction for prices ranging from $7 to $30,032. The highest price achieved was for a Ceramic table top sold at Finarte in 2025 for $30,032.
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