QUATTRO BOCCHE ASSETATE, DEPERO

FORTUNATO DEPERO *

QUATTRO BOCCHE ASSETATE, from "Liriche radiofoniche", 1934

La prima bocca dice:
io voglio del vino asciutto... rosso chiaro... con trasparenza di rubino. Accostando il bicchiere alle labbra, un tepore profumato mi deve leggermente inebriare. Al palato deve apparire quieto, scorrevole e dissetante. Nella gola deve scivolare come una cascatella cristallina di pace raccolta e di poesia silenziosa. Attraverso i suoi riflessi devo vedere la linea flessuosa del suo profilo sottile di vespa chiaro, sanguinello di fragola filtrata con vene azzurrine di aria purissima prealpina.
Vino preparatorio… adolescente… primaverile che mi dia un senso di bagno interiore, di sana strigliatura ai muscoli e di leggero calore ottimista!

La seconda bocca dice:
io desidero vino spesso, rotondo, carnoso, nutritivo e pieno. Un vino che mi dice tutto. Niente dolce, sodo, maturo e virile. Quadrato di corpo, quasi fosco nel cipiglio, profondo nello sguardo.
Quando scrive nella tovaglia deve essere nero e fortemente affermativo. La sua macchia versata, ben contornata senza sbavature acquose, nella gola deve scendere come un cibo, come una fetta di carne liquida.

Il suo profumo di corto raggio, poco espansivo ma saturo e intenso: un vino del sud dal viso abbronzato, dal nervo solare, dal pugno sicuro, dal grado alto, dalla voce appassionata.

La terza bocca dice:
io lo desidero colore dell’oro, pastoso al palato. Zuccherino alla gola. Vino che canti i vigneti solatii dei colli appenninici dei colli romani e dei golfi estivi… bianco per modo di dire.
Il suo vero colore tra l’oro e il rame con liste d’ottone, con pupille d’oro vecchio e sguardi d’oro.
Nuovo sulla lingua, si deve distendere come l’olio e nella gola deve scendere come il velluto.
Allo sguardo deve apparire come il sole in bottiglia, aroma di pesca matura, forza d’un liquore fluidità di una chioma tizianesca. Il bocca deve riempire caldamente con ingenuità infiammante.
Appena bevuto deve trasformare il sangue in oro solare, le vene irradiare luce fosforescente,
dando un senso di beatitudine.

La quarta bocca dice:
io ho tutt’altri gusti. Sono metropolitano e notturno. Desidero vino: né solido, né scuro, né leggero, né dorato; né dolce, né passito; né tizianesco, né rubino. Ma un vino spumante in decolté, d’argento, saltante.
Che appena sturato inizi il suo canto squillante con un colpo di pistola. Con uno scoppio verticale secco diretto al soffitto.
Superbo come il fischio di una vaporiera, con in testa un alto ciuffo di schiuma da parata.
Un vino corazziere.
Un vino che appena giunge in bocca ricorda i cedri, i limoni, gli aranci e le schiume marine, frammisti a bei denti bianchi e a spumeggianti risate di gioia notturna.
Trasparenze di scollatura, riflessi di alabastro, mani di cera inanellate;
Parigi, Sanremo, Montecarlo, roulette, occhi di lampadine, dollari e girandole di fuochi d’artificio.
Brindisi - decorazioni - vittorie - battesimi - cerimonie - fanfare - bottiglie - prese per il collo e uccise contro il muso tagliente delle prue - musica a bordo - fischi di sirene e jazz nei cabaret.
Gioia sturata e fontana iridescente di felicità…
Garçon, champagne!

TRANSLATION

FOUR THIRSTY MOUTHS

The first mouth says:

I want dry wine... light red... with the transparency of a ruby. When I put my lips on the cup,

a scented heat has to slightly intoxicate me. On my palate it has to feel quiet,

flowing and refreshing. In my throat it must run like a crystal fall of cosy peace

and silent poetry. Through its reflections I want to see the sinuous line of its fine profile

of light wasp, blood of filtered strawberries with azurine veins of the purest mountain air.

Preparatory... adolescent... springlike wine, which has to give me the sense of an inner swim,

of an healthy muscle currying, and of a light optimistic heat!

The second mouth says:

I desire thick wine, round, plump, nourishing and full. Wine must tell me everything. Nothing sweet, firm, ripe and masculine. With a square body, almost grim in its frown, with a deep glance.

When it writes on the tablecloth, it must be black and strongly assertive. Its spilled stain must be precise without watery blurs, in my throat it must descend like food, like a slice of liquid meat.

Its smell must be short, not much expansive but saturated and intense: a wine from the South

with a tanned face, a sunny temperament, a resolute fist, a high level, and a passionate voice.

The third mouth says:

I desire golden colour, soft on my palate. Sugar in my throat. A wine that sings of the sunny vineyards on the Apennine hills, the Roman hills and the summer gulfs... white so to speak.

Its true colour between gold and copper with brass stripes, with old gold pupils and golden glance. New on my tongue, it must spread like oil and in my throat it must descend like velvet.

At sight it must appear like sun in a bottle, scent of ripe peach, strong like a liqueur, fluid like Titian hair. In my mouth it has to warmly fill it with flaming candour. As soon as I drink it, it must turn my blood into golden sun, my veins must irradiate phosphorescent light,

giving a sense of bliss.

The fourth mouth says:

My taste is completely different. I'm metropolitan and nocturnal. I desire wine: neither solid,

nor dark, light, or golden; neither sweet nor passito; neither Titian-like nor ruby.

But a sparkling décolletage wine, silvery, exciting.

As soon as you open it, it must start its shrill chant with a pistol shot.

With a vertical sharp burst directly to the ceiling.

Proud like the whistle of a steam locomotive, on its head the high quiff of parade foam.

A cuirassier wine.

As soon as it reaches my mouth, it reminds me of cedar, lemon, orange and marine foam,

mixed with beautiful white teeth and sparkling laughs of nocturnal joy.

Transparency of décolletés, reflections of alabaster, wax hands adorned with rings;

Parigi, Sanremo, Montecarlo, roulette, lights like eyes, dollars and catherine wheels.

Toasts - decorations - victories - initiations - cerimonies - fanfares - bottles - taken by the neck and killed against the sharp mug of stems - music on board - whistle of sirens and jazz in clubs.

Uncorked joy and iridescent fountain of happiness...

Garçon, champagne!

(translation by M.Ramponi)

* Fortunato Depero was born in Fondo (Trento) in 1892 (the region remained a part of Austrian territory until 1918). He studied at the Scuola Reale Elisabettiana in Rovereto. In 1913 he published Spezzature-Impressioni-Segni e Ritmi, a book of drawings and poetry in a Symbolist vein. That same year, in Rome, he met Marinetti, Balla and Cangiullo through the Futurist gallery of Giuseppe Sprovieri and became an active member of the Futurist movement, participating in the "Prima Esposizione Libera Futurista” in 1914. In March 1915, he published the manifesto Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe with Balla, which included photographs of their "complessi plastici" (plastic complexes) — abstract, kinetic constructions made of ephemeral materials. The manifesto advocated the extension of Futurist research into all fields of design and applied arts and also theorized the representation of psychological and extra-sensorial perceptions.

At the outbreak of the war, Depero, volunteered for military service but was discharged as unfit. During the war, he composed "onomalingua' (noise songs and poetry purely analogical) and drew plans for Futurist visionary architecture. In 1916-17, Depero met Sergej Diaghilev and was commissioned to do set designs and costumes for The Song of the Nightingale by Igor Stravinsky. Although never realized, it marked the beginning of Depero's long involvement with theater. At the same time, he collaborated with the Swiss writer Gilbert Clavel on the choreography and sets of Balli Plastici (Plastic Dances) performed in Rome, at the Teatro dei Piccoli in 1918. In his own paintings, Depero depicted a fantastic world of vegetal, animal and mechanical forms, in a dynamic synthesis of large, flat areas of bright color. Depero, together with Balla, was largely responsible for the artistic development of Futurism in its post-war phase. In 1919 he founded the Casa d'Arte Futurista in Rovereto, where he produced furniture, objects, graphics, posters and tapestries, with his wife Rosetta. In 1921-22 he furnished the Cabaret del Diavolo in the Hôtel élite et des étrangers in Rome.

In 1925-26, Depero, spent eighteen months in Paris, where he showed in the Italian pavilion of the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes", with Balla and Prampolini. Depero experimented with built structures designed out of letters-what he termed "typographical" or "advertising architecture." He realized his most famous example at the "Seconda Biennale Internazionale d'Arte Decorativa' in Monza, 1927, with the book pavilion for the publishers Bestetti, Tumminelli and Treves in the form of monumental letters. In the early 1930s he did a similar project for the Campaxi factory, and designed several famous advertising campaigns for the same liquor company. In 1932 he authored the Manifesto of Advertising Art. From the late 1920s he lived in New York, where he designed the Enrico and Paglieri (1929) and Zucca (1930-31) restaurants. In 1929-30, he also designed vertiginous scenes of metropolitan life for the sets of The New Babel performed by the American Sketches ballet. Mostly, however, he worked as graphic designer for important magazines, notably Vanity Fair. He continued this activity in Italy, designing covers for Emporium, La Rivista (1927) and Vogue (1929). He also contributed to newspapers and magazines, such as La sera, Illustrazione italiana, Secolo illustrato and others, and in 1933 he published five issues of the Futurist magazine Dinamo Futurista. In 1934, he published Liriche radiofoniche (Radio Lyrics), which were created specifically to be broadcasted on the radio. After the Second World War, Depero, continued with commissions for large-scale decorations.

He died in Rovereto in 1960.