Leoncillo, full name Leoncillo Leonardi, was born in Spoleto, Umbria, in 1915. His passion and craft were the unfortunate product of a tragic childhood. Fatherless by the age of three, he suffered from an undisciplined and rebellious streak which would endure for years to come. At 15 he was thrown out of the Technical Institute in Spoleto for behavioural issues. In response, he locked himself away in the attic of his family home, brooding in rancorous silence. There, he began to sculpt blocks of clay brought to him by his brother Lionello to comfort him in his solitude, drew relentlessly and taught himself about art history. He would channel this passion academically at the Perugia Art Institute, where he studied between 1931 and 1935, and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where he studied under Angelo Zanelli.
In the Italian capital he frequented the Scuola Romana, including Libero de Libero, Corrado Cagli, Mirko and Afro Basaldella, and Renato Guttuso, together with other contemporary artists.
In 1939 he moved to Umbertide. There, he would deepen his technical knowledge through contact with Rometti ceramics, gradually increasing the scale of the sculptures he fired in the kilns. In 1940, at the invitation of Gio Ponti, he shared a room at the seventh Milan Triennale with Salvatore Fancello as part of the ceramics exhibition, where he showcased the first ceramics fired in Umbrian kilns. He won a gold medal for applied arts.
Amid turbulent times in 1942, Leoncillo returned to Rome. The dramatic reality of the war pushed him towards more direct political and social engagement. A staunch anti-Fascist, he fought for the partisan forces affiliated with the Francesco Innamorati Garibaldi Brigade from Foligno, courted young anti-Fascist groups in Umbria and Rome, and generally lived his life to the rhythm of the resistance. Tragedy aside, the period was marked by the emergence of ‘European’ stylistic languages that would influence Leoncillo’s vernacular, specifically post-cubism, other homages to Picasso and informalism. In the immediate aftermath of the war, he took part in numerous group exhibitions, where he presented both sculptures and objects from applied art in a conscious attempt to revitalise the Italian artisan tradition, a mission he pursued as a professor of plastic and decorative arts at the State Institute of Art in Rome.
In the latter years of his life, together with his brother Lionello and his fellow painter and friend Ugo Rambaldi, Leoncillo helped found the State Institute of Art in Spoleto, which was later renamed in his honour following his untimely death.
Leoncillo passed away in 1968. The following year, a monumental exhibition was held in Spoleto, featuring most of his works.
