Modigliani, Vittorio Emanuele

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MODIGLIANI, VITTORIO EMANUELE

MODIGLIANI, VITTORIO EMANUELE (1872–1947), Italian lawyer and politician; brother of the artist Amedeo *Modigliani. Born in Leghorn, Modigliani joined the Socialist party as a student. From 1913 to 1924 he sat as a Socialist in the Italian parliament. He opposed Italian participation in World War i and supported the formula of a peace without victor or vanquished. In 1924 Modigliani joined the rest of his party in abstaining from all parliamentary activity, in protest against the new Fascist law making parliamentary opposition ineffective. He appeared for the prosecution in the Giacomo Matteotti trial in 1923–24 in which leading Fascists were accused of complicity in Matteotti's assassination. Soon afterward he left Italy in protest against the Fascist regime and lived in Austria and France, where he was a virulent opponent of Fascism. Modigliani participated in the formation of a socialist pro-Palestine committee formed in Brussels. He returned to Italy in 1945 and was elected a deputy to the constituent assembly and chairman of the Italian Socialist Party.

[Giorgio Romano]