THE LAST COLLECTIVE PROJECT
In 1938 the Italian War Wounded Association decided to build a headquarters in the centre of Ravenna.
The building was completed to a design by Matteo Focaccia in 1942, but the decorative mosaic phase for the large hall on the first floor had already started in the spring of 1940. The mosaic cycle was intended to celebrate the Italian fighting spirit and the bond with the heroic times of Ancient Rome through five large mosaic panels, three vertical and two horizontal, the execution of which was entrusted to the members of Renato Signorini’s School of Mosaics. The reception hall, which survived war damage, may be considered as the last collective pre-war project of the former students of the School of Mosaics.
In 1946 Giuseppe Salietti founded La Bottega del Mosaico (Mosaics Workshop), which became an independent commercial enterprise in 1948 known as Gruppo Mosaicisti (Mosaicists’ Group). This Group included some notable artists such as Lino Melano, Ines Morigi Berti, Libera Musiani, Antonio Rocchi, and Renato Signorini.