Tra odierno e primordiale

Il futuro remoto di Emilio Villa

Abstract

Emilio Villa (1914-2003) was a poet, translator and art critic. He placed the theme of Origins at the center of his work, always considering it in relation with the concept of Èskhaton (the End of Times) and often observing it as an etymologist. After translating a fragment of the Enūma eliš (1939) - the Babylonian creation myth -, as well as the book of Genesis and the entire Odyssey, Villa applied his cosmogonic talent to contemporary art, in favor of the pictorial movement of Informalism. A trace of its peculiar idea of Origins is also found in John Huston’s film The Bible: in the Beginning…, of which he contributed to as a biblical scholar.