Remo Branca

Remo Branca was born in Sassari into a wealthy family on May 4, 1897. He completed his studies in his hometown, earning a law degree in 1921. Despite his scientific and legal education, he had a boundless love for art, particularly engraving. Even as a high school student in Sassari, he was drawn to painting and woodcut engraving, inspired by the works of Mario Mossa De Murtas and Giuseppe Biasi. After earning his law degree and graduating from the Fine Arts School in Florence, he moved to Iglesias to avoid reprisals from the Sassari Fascist Party, against which he had expressed opposition through his newspaper “La Libertà,” which he directed. In 1926, here he founded a School of Decorative Art.

After brief stays in Nuoro and Novara, he moved permanently to Rome, where he worked at the Ministry of Public Education, developing a particular interest in educational and documentary filmmaking. He always maintained close ties with Sardinia, to whose historical, cultural, and artistic events he dedicated numerous works. Very active in the field of woodcut engraving, he collaborated for many years with magazines such as L’Eroica and Xilografia, and on this engraving technique, he published three fundamental texts: Breviario di Xilografia (Breviary of Woodcut), La Xilografia in Sardegna (Woodcut in Sardinia), and Maestri e Incisori di Sardegna (Masters and Engravers of Sardinia).