"Tono" Zancanaro was born in Padua on 8th April in 1906.
In 1931 he started painting and in 1935 he became a student of Ottone Rosai in Florence. In 1942 he met Ernesto Treccani in Milan, who in turn put him in touch with Guttuso and Moravia and Morante in Rome. In addition to his travels in neighbouring areas, visits of particular importance for the artist were those to China (1956) and to Sicily and Magna Grecia, where he stayed for long periods. In Sicily he made new friends, with Leonardo Sciascia, Antonio Uccello, Vincenzo Tusa and other intellectuals, including the publisher Sellerio. Between 1946 and 1950 he returned several times to Paris and travelled to Russia, Poland, East Germany and Albania. In 1970 he obtained a teaching post for engraving for the Academy of Fine Arts in Ravenna where he remained until 1977, working with the Cooperativa del Mosaico. In 1972 he had his first major exhibition at the Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, followed in 1974 by a second exhibition at the Galleria Civica d'Arte in Palermo. In 1978 the municipality of Padua held a large exhibition of his work in the Salone della Ragione. In 1982 the municipality of Milan also honoured him with an exhibition in the Castle Sforzesco. Sudden paralysis of his right side in May 1985 resulted in his being admitted to hospital in Padua where he slowly faded and died on the 3rd June.