Antonello Trombadori

Who was Antonello Trombadori?

Antonello Trombadori was an Italian politician, art critic and journalist.

Born in Rome into a family of artists Trombadori lived a happy life in the Villa Strohl-Fern studio-home of his city, coming into contact with numerous intellectuals of the era. An intimate friend of Renato Guttuso and Corrado Cagli, he collaborated with them in his youth on a series of important magazines, including La Ruota, Primato, Città, Corrente and Cinema.

Between the years of 1937 and 1940 he participated in a secret propaganda effort to convince Italian youth to abandon fascism. He was caught in 1941 and brought in front of the Special Tribunal, where he was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment. Due to his family’s celebrity, Benito Mussolini offered him absolution in return for a public apology and admission of tort. Trombadori refused and was consequentially jailed. On July, 1943 he escaped from prison and in collaboration with Giorgio Amendola, he attempted to defend Rome from the Nazis and was subsequently arrested by the Germans on February, 1944. He managed to escape in August of the same year.