Since the time of silent movies, epic films have been made. Some of them adapted stories from the Bible or ancient mythologies, especially Greek and Roman.
Hercules, Ursus, Maciste, Goliath, Perseus, gladiators, and amazons- all these characters found their place and their moment to shine, especially in the decade of the 60s on “sword and sandal” films, also known as “Peplums” or “muscleman epics”
Sword and sandal films (or peplums from a Latin word for a sort of tunic that was easy to make and favored by the costume departments for these films) are a genre of adventure or fantasy films that have subjects set in Biblical or ancient ages, often with contrived plots based very loosely on mythology or history. Most movies are based on Greco-Roman history and mythology, or the surrounding cultures of the same era (Egyptians, Assyrians, Etruscans, Minoans). The greatest productions of this film genre were made between 1958 and 1964.
Hollywood industry made epic films like Quo Vadis (1951), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), or Cleopatra (1962). Most of them were filmed in Italy and Spain.
Legions of low-budget films followed the American big epic spectacles, often using the remains of costumes and props.
Most of those cheap spectacles were also filmed in Italy and Spain as co-productions.
You can see miniatures, matte paintings, colorful scenarios, men in rubber monster suits, and some full-size creatures. For today’s audience standards, most of these effects look campy, but there are some interesting miniatures and matte paintings, and also some of the first animatronic monsters, mostly made by Italian artists like Carlo Rambaldi, who years later became one of the most well-known creature makers for films.
I have not been able to find much information about the pioneers of special effects in Italian cinema, but one of them was Eugenio Bava, father of the famous director Mario Bava.
Eugenio worked as a cinematographer, title creator, effects and model artist, and eventually glass painter, and even as an occasional director.
His son Mario Bava was an outstanding cinematographer, special effects maestro, and film director. He learned these artistic crafts with his father, and made use of perspective tricks like foreground miniatures and glass paintings, and very often used the trick of cutting and pasting a photo on glass to create a complete landscape or decoration with a building or landscape element.
Amedeo Gigli worked for about 8 years with Mario Bava, making glass and matte painting tricks. But he left cinema for commercial illustration.
Comic artist Silio Romagnoli made some storyboard and illustration work in Dino de Laurentiis movies, and in one of them, “The Bible,” he was in charge of the matte paintings.
But in most of the Italian movies, the work of these tricks remained without credit.
In the sixties, especially in films of the “peplum” or "sword and sandal" genre, matte paintings and miniatures were used very often. In most of these cases they were made by two non-Italian artists. The Polish-born painter Joseph Natanson, who learned the technique in London, working in the matte painting department of Shepperton Studios since the late forties, moved to Rome in the early fifties and became the matte painter in charge of Cinecitta.
The other was the Spaniard Emilio Ruiz. He was discovered by the Italian producers at the beginning of the co-productions in Spain in the late fifties. Emilio Ruiz was quickly known by the Italian producers and was required in films of all genres, traveling to Italy very often.
Apart from these artists, there were other cases in which scenic painters or special effects artists did occasional matte paintings. It is also very likely that an Italian art director did some of these paintings himself.
This place is dedicated to the Special effects in these movies, usually made on a low budget, but with lots of enthusiasm and imagination.
Peplum films with matte painting and miniatures
1954- Attila (Pietro Francisci) (Matte paintings: Ivor Beddoes, Stephen Grimes)
1954- Teodora, imperatrice di Bisanzio/ Theodora, Slave Empress(Riccardo Freda) Matte painting: Unknown, probably Joseph Natanson
1956- Mio Figlio Nerone/Nero’s Mistress (Steno) (Fotografic effects: Mario Bava/Matte painter: Amedeo Gigli)
1958- Le fatiche di Ercole /Hercules / Labors of Hercules/(Pietro Francisci) (Dir Photography FX: Mario Bava/Matte painting:Amedeo Gigli)
1958- La Rebelión de los gladiadores/ The Warrior and the Slave Girl (Vittorio Cottafavi) ( Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz)
1959- Los últimos días de Pompeya / The Last Days of Pompeii. (Mario Bonnard) (Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz )
1959- Sheba and the Gladiator / Nel segno di Roma(Guido Brignone) (Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1959- Hercules unchained / Ercole e la regina di Lidia/ ( Pietro Francisci) (Dir Photography FX: Mario Bava/Matte painter: Amedeo Gigli)
The boat on the left is a glass painting.
1959- La battaglia di Maratona/ Giant of Marathon (George Tourneur) (Photographic effects: Mario Bava/ Matte painting: Amedeo Gigli)
1959- Cartagine in fiame/Carthage in Flames ( Carmine Gallone) Matte painter unknown. Probably Joseph Natanson.
1960- Erode il grande /Herod the Great (Viktor Tourjansky) (Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1960- La regina delle Amazzoni /Colossus and the Amazon Queen (Vittorio Sala)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1960- Vengeance of Hercules /Goliat and the Dragon (Vittorio Cottafavi) Stop-motion animation: Jim Danforth / Creature FX: Carlo Rambaldi/ Matte painting: Emilio Ruiz.
1960- Las legiones de Cleopatra / Legion of the Nile (Vittorio Cottafavi)(Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz)
1960- Giants of Thessaly / I giganti della Tessaglia (Ricardo Freda) Creature FX: Carlo Rambaldi / Art Director: Franco Lolli.
A foreground miniature that was used at two different locations.
1960- David e Golias/ David and Goliath (Ferdinando Baldi). Art director: Oscar D´Amico. He was an expert in perspective tricks and miniatures. The upper part of the temple's interior was a foreground miniature. It was filmed using a nodal head to capture a downward pan.
1960- Gli amori di Ercole /The Loves of Hercules(Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia)Matte painting unknown, but probably it was by Joseph Natanson.
1960- L’assedio di Siracusa /Siege of Syracuse (Pietro Francisci)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1960- Salambo /The Loves of Salammbo (Sergio Grieco) matte painter unknown.
1960- Il sepolcro dei re / Cleopatra’s Daughter(Fernando Cerchio) matte painting: Joseph Natanson
1960- La regina dei tartari / The Huns (Sergio Grieco) Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz
1961- El coloso de Rodas / Il Colosso di Rodi (Sergio Leone) Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz
1961- Trionfo di Maciste /Triumph of the Son of Hercules ( Tanio Bocio/Amerigo Anton)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1961- Teseo contra Minotauro/The Minotaur (Silvio Amadio) Matte shots: Joseph Natanson / Creature FX: Carlo Rambaldi.
1961- Atlas against the cyclops / Maciste nella Terra dei Ciclopi ( Antonio Leonviola) Matte shots: Joseph Natanson/Creature FX: Carlo Rambaldi.
1961- Hercules conquers Atlantis /Hercules and the captive woman / (Vittorio Cottafavi) Art director: Franco Lolli. Another Italian set designer who had extensive experience in the use of models and perspective tricks. Foreground miniature for the ceiling.
1961- La reina del Nilo / Nefertiti, Regina del Nilo (Fernando Cerchio) Matte painting: Joseph Natanson.
1961- I tartari /The Tartars (Ferdinando Baldi) Art director: Oscar D´Amico
A beautiful foreground miniature used during several moments of the film under different sunlight.
1961- Il gigante di Metropolis / The Giant of Metropolis (Umberto Scarpelli) Matte shots: Joseph Natanson.
1961- Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan/ Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World (Riccardo Freda) Matte painter unknown, but it was probably Emilio Ruiz.
1961- La schiava di Roma / Slave of Rome (Sergio Grieco, Franco Prosperi) Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz.
The Roman camp tents in the foreground are real, while those in the background and the mountainous landscape are painted on glass. It was shot using a horizontal camera pan with a nodal head.
1961- Le vergini di Roma/ Amazons of Rome (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, Vittorio Cottafavi) Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz
1962- Los siete espartanos / Seven Gladiators (Pedro Lazaga)(Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz)
1962- Giulio Cesare, il conquistatore delle Gallie / Caesar the Conqueror (Tanio Boccia = Amerigo Anton)Matte shots: Joseph Natanson.
1962- Una Regina per Cesare/A Queen for Caesar ( Víktor Tourjansky)Matte painter unknown, but probably it was Emilio Ruiz.
1962-Vulcano, figlio di Giove/Vulcan, Son of Jupiter (Emimmo Salvi) Matte painting Unknown.
1962- Ponzio Pilato / Pontius Pilate (Gian Paolo Callegari) Matte painting: Joseph Natanson.
1962- Marte dio della guerra/The Son of Hercules vs. Venus (Marcello Baldi)
1962- Los titanes/ Arrivano i titani /The titans (Duccio Tesari)(Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz, Joseph Natanson)
1962- Giuseppe venduto dai fratelli/The Story of Joseph and His Brethren (Irving Rapper, Luciano Ricci)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1962- L’ira di Achille/Fury of Achilles ( Marino Girolami)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1963- Maciste contro i Mongoli / Hercules Against the Mongols
1963- Los invencibles / Invencible Seven. (A. de Martino)(Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz)
1963- Perseo l'invincibile /Medusa vs. the Son of Hercules/El valle de los hombres de piedra (Alberto De Martino) (Dir FX Amando De Osorio/ Creatures FX Carlo Rambaldi/ Matte shots: Emilio Ruiz)
1963- Brenno il nemico di Roma/Brennus, Enemy of Rome (Giacomo Gentilomo)
1963- Giacobbe, l’uomo che lottò con Dio/ Jacob: The Man Who Fought with God (Marcello Baldi)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1963- Le gladiatrici / Thor and the Amazon Women (Antonio Leonviola)
1963- L’eroe di Babilonia/The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules (Siro Marcellini)(Matte shots: Joseph Natanson)
1964
-Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Urus gli invincibili./Samson and the Mighty Challenge. (Giorgio Capitani)
Art director: Gianfranco Ramacci
Matte painting: Emilio Ruiz
1964 - El valle del eco tonante /Hercules of the desert. (Tanio Boccia / Amerigo Antón)
1964-Maciste en el infierno de Gengis Khan /Hercules Against the Barbarians (Domenico Paolella)
1964- Hércules contra los hijos del sol /Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun(Osvaldo Civirani)
1964- Ercole sfida Sansone/ Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (Pietro Francisci)
1964- Ursus il terrore dei Kirghisie /Hercules, Prisoner of Evil (Antonio Margueriti=Anthony Dawson)
1964- Ercole l’invincibile/Hercules the Invincible (Álvaro Mancori)
