Two for Pinocchio

The most famous son of Collodi, an outlying district of the Tuscan town of Pescia, was a mischievous, woodenheaded youngster named Pinocchio. Ever since Author Carlo Lorenzini, writing under the pen name of Carlo Collodi, created Pinocchio 73 years ago, the impish antics of the bad puppet who became a good boy have delighted children the world over. Two years ago, Pinocchio added another measure to his fame. Professor Rolando Anzilotti of the University of Florence defeated his Communist opponent in the race for mayor of Pescia by promising that, if elected, he would see to it that a suitable statue to Pinocchio was erected in Collodi.

After he was installed as mayor, Anzilotti set about fulfilling his promise. He raised $17,000 by popular subscription, put aside $2,400 as prize money, and invited artists from all over Italy to submit designs for the Pinocchio memorial. Tempted by so grand a prize (1,500,000 lire), 84 sculptors and architects sent in projects: merry Pinocchios, realistic Pinocchios, sad Pinocchios, surrealist Pinocchios. Last week the prize jury announced its decision: it would split the award money between Painter Venturino Venturi and Sculptor Emilio Greco, build not one but two Pinocchio memorials.

Prizewinner Venturi, 35, a specialist in murals, submitted a plan for a "magic quadrangle"--a court enclosed by a wall of varying heights on which would be colored mosaics representing scenes and characters from the Pinocchio story. Sicilian-born Sculptor Greco's entry was a tall semi-abstraction showing the Good Fairy pulling Pinocchio from a tree trunk with a great bird hovering above them. When cast in bronze, Greco's figure will stand a little away from Venturi's magic quadrangle on the grounds of Collodi's stateliest 18th century villa.

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