Anchise Picchi is born in Crespina (Pisa) on the 1 April, 1911, by Gaetano Picchi and Isolina Cappagli. Still very young he tried the drawing. Since five years old he draws, with charcoal, animals and persons on the walls of his farm house. About ten years old he sees his father died during the First World War. His family moved to Fauglia (Pisa) where the young knows friendly Francesco and Luigi Gioli, valued macchiaioli artists. Luigi invite often Anchise in his study in his villa in Fauglia. After, Anchise sculpts a beautiful head of an old man for Luigi and Luigi will reward the young sculptor with a painting of a fair in Tuscany (Maremma). On 1920 the family moved again in Collesalvetti and in 1923/1924 Anchise meets Carlo and Luigi Servolini. He is associated, now, with Art School in Pisa and here knows the sculptor Alvio Vaglini and becomes his good friend. In Pisa he knows the painter Pizzarello too, Bellonzi (next Presidend of the Quadriennale in Rome) and Bertini, the sculptor. During his frequent visits to the Rigacci's shop in Florence he meets Pietro Annigoni (see walnut portrait in the sculpture section). In the year 1936 the family moved again in Grosseto where Anchise starts again to study to acquire the Diplome for Teaching History of Art and Drawing, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. There he knows the physicist Oreste Piccioni in the Enrico Fermi's team. He know also the painter Faccenda and Gentili, the engraver, together to the musician Alberto Montanari. In 1938 his family is again in Pisa and in the same year Anchise moves in Grecia, in Salonicco, to teach in the abroad Italian Schools. In 1941 he teaches in Siena and in 1942 he is in Collesalvetti starting again to frequently visit the old Luigi Gioli. In the following years he works in his study in Collesalvetti. In 1965 he open a new study in Leghorn where he remain until the 1980. During the Leghorn period Anchise get friendship with the more important artists of the “Labronico Group”, particularly Renato Natali (see walnut portrait in the sculture section), Gino Romiti, Filippelli, Michelozzi, Landozzi, Lomi, Rontini, etc. During 1961 his mother dies. On April 1978 he exhibits in Palazzo Strozzi, in Florence, with a great Anthological of painting and sculpture, under the sponsorship of Florence Municipality. On October 2001 the Collesalvetti Municipality puts on a beautiful exhibition in the Exhibition Center at Villa Carmignani in Collesalvetti (Livorno). During 2005 the Crespina Municipality gives him the honorary citizenship for his artistic merits and the gold medal. Since 1970 the artist retired in his study in Collesalvetti where he died on 13 November, 2007.

Note

Here we haven't reported, as usually, the long and annoying list of the exhibitions, of the prizes, titles and acknowledgements, that nobody normally reads. The artist, however, remaining external to any movement and to any tendency or group, always refused the marketing of his artworks via the normal commercial channels and his artworks were sold to collectors and estimators quite directly from the author. So even the important and numerous artworks in public collections were directly assigned by the artist himself .