The new exhibition conceived and organized on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Centro Studi Ragghianti Foundation, which falls in the autumn of 2021, intends to deepen a theme hitherto little considered by historiography and academic studies: that of friendship between Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti (Lucca, 1910 - Florence, 1987) and the painter, writer and politician Carlo Levi (Turin, 1902 - Rome, 1975). Created in collaboration with the Carlo Levi Foundation of Rome, curated by Paolo Bolpagni, Daniela Fonti and Antonella Lavorgna, the exhibition will be open from 17 December 2021 until 20 March 2022.

The relationship between Ragghianti and Levi, fundamental for both of them, intensified in Florence, during the Nazi occupation, through the common political militancy in the Resistance, especially after Levi, in 1941, found a clandestine refuge in Anna Maria Ichino's house in Piazza Pitti. , where he writes his best known novel, Christ stopped at Eboli, to which a section of the exhibition is dedicated.

However, it is not only politics - in the ranks of the Action Party - that unite them, but also the intense discussion on contemporary art issues and a shared sensitivity for the country's artistic heritage. It should be remembered their joint intervention, with the architect Giovanni Michelucci, after the Nazis had blown up five bridges in Florence, to avoid the demolition of the Torre di Parte Guelfa in Ponte Vecchio, a "rescue" then implemented by the command ally.

Ragghianti's interest in Levi as a painter can be traced back to 1936, when he included him in his article dedicated to contemporary Italian painting; in 1939 he reviewed the exhibition in New York in the magazine «La Critica d'Arte». Certainly the strongest moment of their attendance takes place during the days of the formation of the Tuscan Committee of National Liberation and the direction of the "Nazione del Popolo", and when Levi, immediately after the liberation of Florence, becomes a member of the commission for the reconstruction of the center historical city. This intensification of their relationship is also reflected in the sharing of the artistic discourse, so much so that Levi's personal exhibition at the Galleria dello Zodiaco in Rome in 1946 was presented by Ragghianti himself; and it is always Ragghianti who proposes the first historicization of the figure of Carlo Levi in 1948, through the publication of a "catalog" of the Levian work, in which the paintings created from 1923 to 1947 are dated and cataloged. with a presentation by Ragghianti, who still remains an essential point of reference for studies on Levi. Among other things, the book also includes Levi's text Fear of painting, which recently returned to the attention of scholars, as well as the more extensive reflection Fear of freedom, written in 1939, on the crisis of European society, which today is as current as ever. .