Benedetta Cappa Marinetti (1897-1977)

„Benedetta fra le donne“ – by this phrase Benedetta Cappa signed her first publication in the periodical “Dinamo”, not lacking of self-irony and fighting spirit. She is in fact considered the protagonist of an avant-garde, female way of living within the second generation of Futurism from 1917 onwards.

Within her middle-class upbringing, Benedetta Cappa was obviously given lessons on Education which must have aroused her interest in current educational science (e.g. Montessori). At the same time, she took lessons in painting from Giacomo Balla in whose workshop she first met Filippo Tommaso Marinetti early in 1918. This acquaintance, which led to a cohabitee and subsequently to a marriage during which three daughters were born, should turn out to strongly influence both of them.

Benedetta seems to have played a decisive role in the development of the futurist “Tattilism” [...]