“Il verbo di Bodhisattva”. De Pisis, le avanguardie, l’oriente.

Abstract

Filippo de Pisis (1896-1956), one of the most important Italian painters of the twentieth century, was also a poet and a powerful writer and critic. The book Il Verbo di Bodhisatthva (1917), written at the end of de Pisis’ avant-garde years, starts from the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and is influenced by theosophical and esoteric readings; putting forward the character of the ‘Mind of Awakening’, de Pisis clearly referred to the wisdom of Buddha. In the slim yet provoking work one finds Italian post-war culture anticipated with its strive to overtake philosophical idealism.