Paintings by Aldo Pagliacci
Born in 1931 in San Benedetto del Tronto on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, Aldo Pagliacci was an Italian painter and self-taught violin craftsman whose artistic talent was evident from an early age. At the
age of twenty, he had already exhibited paintings at the Biennale of Venice and the Rome Quadrennial. After these exhibitions, Pagliacci relocated to Rome circa 1930.
In the 1890s, Italy had claimed Ethiopia was an Italian protectorate and tried to conquer the country unsuccessfully. In 1934, Ethiopia was one of the few independent states in a European-dominated Africa. After a border incident in December of 1934 between Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland, Benito Mussolini rejected all attempts at arbitration and, in October of 1935, invaded Ethiopia. In 1936, Pagliacci volunteered for military service as part of the invasion.
During the second World War, Aldo Pagliacci served as a magazine correspondent but was captured by the British in 1941. Pagliacci was taken to a Rhodesian prisoner of war camp where he 
was assigned to decorate the camp church’s interior. He claimed he accomplished the task in four months fueled by the cognac and whiskey provided by two Franciscan friars. Sometime after his return to Italy in 1946, Aldo Pagliacci began a twenty-year travel period in Central and South America. He lived and worked for extended periods in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Venezuela.
In 1971, Pagliacci established a studio in Rome and began a period of studio work and travel throughout northern Europe, specifically Germany, Sweden, Holland and Norway. It is known that he began his career as a maker of violins and cellos in Rome at this time. A Pagliacci violin, dated 1973 with a production number of fifty, was auctioned by Tarisio Fine Instruments & Bows in 2021.
No specific information exists as to where Pagliacci learned his skills at crafting musical instruments. Due to the very long and swinging f-shaped openings on the sides of the violin’s body, his violins are believed to be based on those of the Marches region of 
central Italy. Pagliacci’s models differ from the Landolfi violins of the Madrid area in that they are wider and rounder. The corners of Pagliacci’s violins are short and the arching is flat which produces a more powerful soloist tone. There is no specific knowledge on the number of music instruments he actually created; however it is speculated it was more than one hundred.
In about 1980, Aldo Pagliacci settled on Forio d’Ischia, an island southwest of the city of Naples. He would remain on Forio d’Ischia until his death in 1991. Pagliacci’s paintings are housed in the major museums of Central and South America as well as many private collections, including the collections of Nelson Rockefeller and film actor Clifton Webb.
Notes: Musical instruments created by Pagliacci occasionally appear at auction sites. A violin, numbered eighty-five and dated 1985, sold through the privately owned London auction house Bonhams for £12,500 (14,542 Euros).
Top Insert Image: Aldo Pagliacci, “Fire in Santa Maria in Montesanto”, 1970, Oil on Canvas, 70 x 50 cm, Private Collection
Second Insert Image: Aldo Pagliacci, “In the Bakery”, 1954, Oil on Plywood, 55 x 41 cm, Private Collection
Bottom Insert Image: Aldo Pagliacci, “View of Rome, Ponte Mazzini”, 1948, Oil on Canvas, 75 x 65 cm, Private Collection