We arrived at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporane (GNAM) in Rome through the figure of Georges de Canino , about whom Potito Pedarra enlightens us: dedicatee of a photograph by Respighi, circa 1905, with the dedication “To Georges de Canino / they respighi almost more than me, with affection / Elsa Respighi /1936-1976” (© Archivio Potito Pedarra), his are the pen drawings that accompany Elsa's article Poemi romani on p. 15 of the magazine Il Mondo della Musica, Year XIII N.1 1975.

Artist and collector, de Canino in the 1970s inherited the Fondo Valori Plastici , formed thanks to the work of Mario Broglio (Piacenza 1891 - Lucca 1948), also an author of the Giornale del Mattino di Bologna, and his wife Edita Walterowna Zur Muehle . Valori Plastici is an art magazine founded in 1918 to promote cultural, editorial and exhibition activities, collecting and the art market with its central hub in Rome. The magazine and the related cultural movement dissolved in 1925.

de Canino enriched the estate with personal documentation including documents related to the Respighi spouses .

 

In addition to the Fondo Valori Plastici , the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (GNAM) in Rome also preserves other Respighi documents, which can be viewed at this link .

Among the documents, a print of the lyric Nebbie , autographed by the composer, and an article by de Canino on Elsa Respighi: GEORGES DE CANINO, The "Ballets russes" in the memories of Elsa Respighi , in reality Soviet , year XXV - n. 3-4 March-April 1977, pp. 69-70.