Massimo Campigli, born Max Ihlenfeld in Berlin but raised in Florence, was one of the most significant Italian artists of the 20th century.

In his thirties, Campigli spent a decade in Paris which was to be highly influential on his future work. There he joined other Italians including Giorgio de Chirico and Gino Severini, worked in Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17, and most significantly began his modern take on Etruscan art after a visit to Rome's National Etruscan Museum at Villa Giulia. This exposure to Etruscan art influenced his entire output from that point on and led to significant critical success.

This print, signed 'buon Natale', was sent at Christmas by Campigli to Herbert Bayer, a significant Bauhaus figure and 20th century cultural polymath, and Joella Bayer, who sat for Campigli in the early 1930s and who had previously sat for Salvador Dali and Man Ray.

The plate was also used for an edition in black. Details of both can be found in the Meloni Tavola catalogue raisonné of Campigli's graphic works at reference 176.
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Notes:

Meloni Tavola 176
Lithograph in red
On Japan Nacré paper
Annotated 'buon Natale' and signed in green pencil

Printed by Atelier Desjobert, Paris
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Provenance:

Herbert and Joella Bayer