The man without a mask. It is smiling portrait looking into the camera. Her gaze, behind rectangular glasses (a tribute to haute couture), betrays kindness and altruism, which, when skillfully mixed, translate into kindness of soul. However, one cannot see culture, curiosity and intelligence, love for art in all its expressions, traits which he certainly made extensive use of as economist.
Why, as John M. Keynes writes in memory of his teacher Alfred Marshall: “theA skilled economist must possess a rare combination of skillsHe must be, to some extent, a mathematician, a historian, a statesman, a philosopher. He must understand symbols but express himself with words. He must contemplate the particular from the perspective of the general and, with the rapidity of thought, touch simultaneously the abstract and the concrete.” And he concludes the portrait with two sharply contrasting brushstrokes, which reinforce each other: “detached and incorruptible like an artist, yet at times with his feet firmly planted on the ground like a politician.”
It's not hard to imagine Richard (De Bonis), while participating in the drafting and proofreading of the Final Considerations of the Governor of the Bank of Italy, draw from his vast intellectual toolkit to express criticism and offer suggestions, in his unmistakably light-hearted and playful manner. Yet always institutionally impeccable, like his double-breasted suit, so out of place in those rooms.
Behind him in that photograph, which captures him posing during a break in an official meeting, the people are all wearing the mandatory masks required during the COVID era. The contrast with him unmasked best expresses his transparency, the his being a person outside the chorus. Who does not like those conventions and the disguises that they sometimes entail and that we put on to respect the image that we have given ourselves or that we have allowed others to sew onto us.
It's a life lesson, perhaps the most important of the many that Riccardo has left us. It's our duty to treasure it and pass it on to others. Thank you, Riccardo. Rest in peace..
