Leopoldo Metlicovitz

Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolf Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni and Marcello Dudovich, he is considered one of the fathers of modern Italian poster art.

Many of the works of the most famous composers of the time are advertised on posters signed by Metlicovitz: from those of Giacomo Puccini such as Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (1926) to Iris by Pietro Mascagni (1898), to Conchita by Riccardo Zandonai (1911).

[3] At the end of the nineteenth century, the Grandi Magazzini Mele of Naples entrusted Officine Ricordi with their own advertising campaign for their clothing, one of the first on a large scale, and the artifices of success were the posters created by Metlicovitz together with Aleardo Terzi, Dudovich, Cappiello and others.

[5] Especially from the beginning of the twentieth century, the Officine Grafiche Ricordi began to sell various products that were the fruit of a merchandising ante-litteram, thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Giulio Ricordi, and many of them bore the signature of Leopoldo Metlicovitz, such as the Almanacco Verdiano of 1902 or the series of illustrated postcards on musical themes, such as those for the operas La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly or Germania by Alberto Franchetti.

In 1914 Metlicovitz is also one of the designers, together with Armando Vassallo, Luigi Caldanzano and Adolfo De Carolis, involved in the launch of the film Cabiria, a colossal of silent screenplay by Gabriele D'Annunzio, for which he will create four posters.