Artistic Activity and Literary Production
The eclectic student Anton Giulio Barrili completed all his studies, from primary school to what we might call high school, at the Piarist Fathers’ School in Savona, and since childhood stands out for particular artistic-literary qualities; in fact from 1846 to 1850 differs in many literary-grammatical disciplines. In 1846 he obtained the first place in Italian Language Studies and in 1847 he qualified second in Basic Grammar, in 1849 he was awarded for superiority of ingenuity in the first class of grammar and in 1850 in the second class of rhetoric.
Barrili’s vast literary work, consisting of numerous short stories and about fifty novels, began in 1865, the year in which his novel Il Capitano Dodéro (Captain Dodéro) was published for the first time in the appendices of the magazine Il Movimento.
The calm and fluent style we find in his articles, will characterize his narrative activity, in fact the Barrili’s prolific output, was born in the newsrooms in the form of a love novel appendix. Love is the theme of many narratives, it is described in a gentle and delicate manner, evoking the style of the classical idyll.
Despite the calm tones, the plot is rich in events as the scenario-environment continuously changes. Sometimes the fact is set in a slower historical reality but rich in references to local homeland traditions, the war scenes in the novel Val d’Olivi – 1871 (Olivi Valley), are an example. In La Montanara (1886), taking place in a contemporary reality, the story exerts greater interest due to the news and lived events, becoming more vibrant. The latter type of narrative includes the novel entitled Amori alla macchia (1884), which tells a love story set in the second half of the nineteenth century in Carcare, at that time affected by the flourishing artistic-pictorial activity of the “Greys” whose style anticipates the one of the Impressionists.
The Greys’ School, born in Genoa, was inspired by the painting “en plein air” of the master painter Tammar Luxoro, and in that period Carcare became the promoter of the new artistic language, based on a balanced relationship between color tone and natural light, able to guarantee a “naturalistic” interpretation of the landscape. The name The Greys’ School stems from the particular predilection for the half-tones fused in the brightness of the whole.
Barrili’s idyllic style, despite its constant references to classical lines, turns out to be original due to its continuous digressions: the scene becomes broader and the plot more complex, in this way the author seeks to convey the sense of reality. Sometimes he transfers the contents of the traditional idyll from a peaceful world to the common world of everyday life, rich in passions and unexpected events. The narration is fragmented in many aspects of too often miserable and petty worldly life. In the novel L’idillio Mondano, the protagonists are men of aristocratic-bourgeois society with hypocritical and unscrupulous behaviour, such as the one of the book I Vecchi e i Giovani (The old and the young). The thematic lines that represent the description of an empty and superficial society, move away from the patriotic sense of Barrili that will also love to evoke historical facts in the idyllic historical background. The most important works belonging to this theme are: Amor fra l’armi (1873), Castel Gavone, Diana degli Embriaci and Un giudizio di Dio (A Judgment of God) and Re di cuori (King of hearts).
The novel entitled I Rossi e i Neri ovvero i Misteri di Genova (The Reds and Blacks or The Mysteries of Genoa), deeply embedded in the historical reality of the ancient Maritime Republic of Genoa at the end of the 19th century, deserves particular attention. Barrili probably manages to give his best in this work, describing everything that concerns the Genoese reality of 1857 with journalistic precision, accurately reporting all the aspects, both negative and positive. He describes the squalid environment in equal measure of the more luminous wealthier one, moving indeed from the analysis of the dark sewer tunnels to that of the noble palace, in order to highlight the multifaceted and varied nature of the city.
The persistent literary exercise leads the author to experiment with other narrative solutions. The dramatization of the idyll emerges above all at the end of each story: it is perceived that contemporary social reality has something negative, emphasized by protagonists lacking dramatic depth, weak and unreliable.
La conquista di Alessandro (Alexander’s conquest), Studio dal vero (Live study), La Sirena (The Mermaid), Storia vera (True story), Casa Polidori (Polidori’s House), Rosa di Gerico (Rose of Jericho), Diamante nero (Black diamond), Il Dantino and Il tesoro di Golconda (The treasure of Golconda) are expressions of the societal analysis. In the latter, the intimate description of the characters located in the fantastic setting of India prevails and it seems that Tiziano Sclavi, the author of Dylan Dog, was inspired by these adventures to describe an episode of the famous detective stories.
In the novels Il libro nero – 1869 (The Black Book), Il ritratto del diavolo – 1882 (The Portrait of the Devil), Il prato maledetto: Storia del X Secolo – 1896 (The Cursed Meadow: History of the 10th Century), Barrili made a careful analysis of the human condition, a new and original examination of the ego and its immorality, since the characters and the narrated facts are rendered suggestive by the fantastic frame that encloses them. In the plot of the “cursed novels”, a generic name for the works mentioned above, stories of men who begin to reflect on their own existence and what its meaning is, are described. When the characters come into contact with the demonic and mysterious element of reality, they enter into a crisis, fall into doubt, from which they cannot recover. In these three works Barrili now more profound and modern, shows that he has moved away from the idyll, knowing how to concretize in metaphorical images the difficult attempt of the ego towards self-awareness.
The first two novels Le due Beatrici (The two Beatrici) and Terra vergine (Virgin land), followed by (I figli del Cielo (The Sons of Heaven) and Fior d’Oro (Golden flower) and Raggio di Dio (Ray of God), belong to the “Colombian cycle”, a completely different literary genre, whose project dates back to 1889. In each of these novels, the adventurous life of the great explorer Christopher Columbus is described, from the beginning of his struggles in Spain in search of support to achieve his goal, to the arduous voyage of discovery. Barrili provides the public with further proof of his storytelling ability and attention to detail, highlighting his great connection with the city of Genoa.
In his later works, Barrili observes and describes the world from different perspectives, not neglecting any aspect, no matter how squalid, of reality. He uses various stylistic tones that range from ironic sharp words to satirical-humorous character sketches, from comic-fantasy scenes to realistic depictions.
The use of tonal variety is a literary device to highlight the author’s firm stance towards life, which he loves and respects in its many aspects, even in the negative ones. He analyses every detail with great accuracy so that readers appreciate the varied reality, suggesting they live it with irony, detachment, and without illusions.