THETime is long, deep, mysterious. For many years, entering the small bathroom between the dining room and the internal door of the pharmacy of the Ro Ferrarese house, I saw the page of a cartoon by Benito Jacovitti with a dedication and his signature: “To Vittorio Sgarbi, so you don’t treat me badly. Jack”. To take into account that Jacovitti died 26 years ago, in 1997I can imagine that sheet was given to me about thirty years ago, I don’t remember where; and I don’t even remember meeting him, Jacovitti. And so it is probable that it is a thank you, arrived through mutual friends, for something I said or wrote about him, expressing my admiration for him. On every public or private occasion I have not failed to declare it, but I don’t think I have ever seen it in person.
Jacovitti: Coconut Bill 1974
Jacovitti, the legend
He remained in the myth of my childhood, but the respect and the apparent concern of his dedication flatter me making me think, as has happened to me on many occasions, of an overturning of generational relationships. Jacovitti he was my father’s age. Grown up, that child who avidly read it it had sensationally manifested itself through television, with sudden popularity, revealing a polemical character, who didn’t send them to say, ready to judge without respect and restraint. And here, then, is a tough guy like him asking for indulgence: evidently a game and an affectionate acknowledgment. I like that this is our only direct connection, even at a distance. And I also like to say here that his (pretend) concern was unwarranted because I could never treat Jacovitti badly because of the unconditional consideration I’ve always had for him.
The euphoria and the fun
Today, his dedication makes me tender because Jacovitti is for mein so much funereal irony of illustrators and cartoonists, the highest and most irrepressible example of euphoria and fun. And it makes me feel alive. No one in his field has managed to combine style and ability to entertain with the spirit of the story. Iacovitti’s drawing and color laugh with an irresistible rhythm, a continuous series of jokes that are in the drawing before being in the words: in the shape of the shoes, in the faces of the animals, in the snakes, in the fish, in the salami. The page comes alive with Iacovitti’s irony and good humour. Cocco Bill, Jak Mandolin, Jak Cello: an unfortunate petty thief who gets the tricks suggested by Popcorn, a clumsy little devil expelled from the underworld for poor performance. Here he is pointing a gun, so harmless that a spider comes out of the barrel, at an unfortunate person who shows the lining of his pockets declaring: “But I’m broke”. The joke itself isn’t funny, but the context, the illustration with the little devil coming out of the top hat are irresistible. Iacovitti is pure energy, rhythm, horror vacui, continuous invention.
The 1962 Manifesto for the civic campaign for the disinfestation of the Municipality of Milan has an irrepressible rhythm. Jacovitti imagines ingenious infernal machines at the service of the division of hygiene and health for the fight against flies and mosquitoes. Jacovitti describes, as Hieronymus Bosch would not have been able to do, the action of his diabolical machines: a vast disinfestation action is also underway with the use of helicopters. The image corresponds perfectly to the triumphalistic emphasis, as Jacovitti always does in his wild illustrations. From them rises a music that is a blend of Rossini crescendo and jazz. The calendars, diaries, diaries, advertising for Esselunga, Coccobill’s school notebook are evidence of an unbridled imagination that coincided with Jacovitti’s life itself. Pure energy, pure joy.
To explain what Jacovitti was, we are not helped by figurative or literary references, no quotations are needed that his style ruminates and overturns. The rhythm of invention and the spirit of the times find their equivalent in Fred Buscaglione. There is no more eloquent and more direct reference to understand such an unusual and complex artist. Everything else is boring.
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