(b Campinas, 18 June 1902; d Rio de Janeiro, 10 Feb 1958). Brazilian painter. The son of Italian immigrants, he was taken back to Italy in 1913 by an uncle. He joined the Italian merchant navy in 1919 but the following year disembarked again in Brazil, in Santos. From 1922 to 1942 he served in the Brazilian navy. His first attempts at painting date from 1925. Although completely self-taught, in 1933 he tried to learn something about the craft by joining the Bernardelli group; active from 1931 to 1942, this group of young artists, predominantly painters, met in Rio de Janeiro to exchange ideas about their work and techniques. A notable example of Pancetti’s early work is Workshops (1940; Rio de Janeiro, Mus. N. B.A.), depicting shipyards in Angra dos Reis. He won a foreign travel award from the Salão Nacional de Belas Artes (Rio de Janeiro) of 1941 but was unable to take it up because of World War II and his already failing health. In 1950 he settled in Bahia, travelling from there to other parts of Brazil. His favoured subjects were landscapes and especially seascapes of Rio de Janeiro, Angra dos Reis, Itanhaem and Salvador (e.g. Seascape, 1945; Rio de Janeiro, Mus. N. B.A.), but he also painted portraits and self-portraits. His tendency to reduce and simplify, together with a powerfully suggestive use of colour, reflected a balance between geometrical structure and spontaneity.

• Pancetti, José Gianini
  • Brazil, §V, 2(iii): Painting, graphic arts and sculpture, 1931–60