(b Bologna, 20 July 1890; d Bologna, 18 June 1964). Italian painter and etcher. He lived in Bologna all his life, and apart from brief associations with Futurism and Metaphysical Painting, he stood aloof from modern aesthetic experiments. Early in his career (and again in the 1940s) he painted landscapes, but he came to specialize almost exclusively in still life, eschewing literary and symbolic content, and using subtle combinations of colour within a narrow range of tones. His style has something in common with Purism, but is more mellow and intimate; the greatest influence on his work was Cézanne, whom he revered. After the Second World War Morandi gained an international reputation, and his work won great respect among younger Italian artists for its poetic quality and devotion to purely aesthetic values.