The times she feels gratitude for this art she stumbled upon over thirty years ago are too many to count. However, that time when the young student, at the end of his calligraphy course, told her with a pout that he felt like an orphan, Delia Senes was moved. She had just put away the nibs and ink, and the child was already homesick. A feeling that often occurs even among adults who attend the writing workshops of the Turin-born calligrapher, originally from Sassari (born in 1957), who will be in Cagliari today and tomorrow for the chancery and uncial calligraphy course organized by the Art Therapy Academy founded and directed by Cristina Muntoni.
"Making a mark on paper, when done masterfully, isn't just a matter of skill and technique," says Senes, but something that appeals to the full range of emotions, uniting the mind and heart. "An artistic practice that, while displaying beauty, soothes melancholy and cultivates joy." The artist, who has lived in the Piedmontese capital since he was three years old, stumbled upon calligraphy by chance in the early 1990s, when he discovered the association "Dal Segno alla Scrittura," of which he is now vice president and a member of the board of directors. It was founded by Piero De Macchi, a Turin-based graphic artist and engraver who passed away last year, who "introduced the knowledge and study of calligraphy to Italy."
Since then, "a tradition has developed here too," of which Senes is one of the most esteemed exponents. "We Italians, too, like France a few decades ago, have internationally renowned calligraphers, like Massimo Polello."
If, as Senes says, beautiful writing is "a creative emotion," the qualities required to practice it are curiosity and empathy. "Handwriting means moving from the dimension of 'communication' to the more intimate dimension of feeling," and it couldn't be otherwise, given that professional calligraphers draft invitations for weddings, birthdays, and name days; they compile diplomas, honorary titles, and certificates; they write greetings, "love and heartbreak letters," farewells and homecomings. They celebrate firsts: "the first tooth, the first report card, the first child, and the first divorce."
Papers laid out in Gothic or Flemish script, drawn with quill pens, nibs, or brushes, and black, red, green, blue, and brown inks: "small works of art that also represent the heart of those who created them."
Beautiful handwriting is a discreet practice, because among the names of those who commission calligraphic masterpieces are important families, such as the Neapolitan family for whom Senes hand-wrote the wedding invitations last month: burgundy ink on Amalfi paper; or glorious companies like the Ferrari car manufacturer, which—unsurprisingly—wanted Ferrari red for its precious paper; or even historic film productions. "We calligraphers wrote the postcard that appears in Sergio Corbucci's comedy 'The Amnesiac of Collegno.'" As happens whenever ancient writings need to be evoked.
While it's not easy to choose his favorite of the works he's worked on, one in particular makes Senes proud: the Italian Constitution, handwritten by twenty calligraphers during an edition of the Salone del Libro, who took turns transcribing all 139 articles onto rolls of paper. "Each of us chose one and transcribed it in our preferred calligraphy. A civic testimony, as well as a shared project that moved me as it gradually took shape."
Drawing words, according to the artist, is an activity that generates beauty and harmony, and each time leads to different places: castles, museums, archives, libraries. In Cagliari, as a teacher at the Academy of Art Therapy, he comes twice a year, and in addition to moving the brush, he teaches how to make ink with walnut husks and to meditate: "Writing is another way of thinking."