Città foscista: Surveillance and spectacle

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 31, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 347-372

  Ghirardo, Diane Yvonne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0042814175     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200949603100207     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. I have written about the fascist appropriation of the street in 'Architecture and Theater: The Street in Fascist Italy' in Stephen Foster (ed.), 'Event' Arts and Art Events (Ann Arbor 1990), 231-52
2. and 'City and Theater: The Rhetoric of Fascist Architecture', Stanford Italian Review (1989), 165-94
3. See also Jeffrey Schnapp, '18 BL: Fascist Mass Spectacle', Representations, 43 (Summer 1993), 89-125
4. Antonio Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere, 6 vols (Rome 1977), especially vol. 2, Gli intellettuali; in the English version, translated by Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, Selections from Prison Notebooks (New York 1979), 3-23
5. especially. When I broached this and a related argument about the role of intellectuals and artists in Gramsci to Emilio Gentile recently, he responded by proposing that Gramsci's whole notion of hegemony, and hence the role and function of intellectuals, derived from his observations of fascism. A good English discussion of Gramsci's hegemony is in T.J. Jackson Lears, 'The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities', The American Historical Review, 90, 3 (June 1985), 567-93
6. Victoria Di Grazia, The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy (Cambridge 1981);
7. Philip Cannistraro, La fabbrica del consenso, fascismo e mass media (Rome-Bari 1975)
8. See also the unpublished PhD dissertation of Libero Andreotti, 'Art and Politics in Fascist Italy' (MIT 1988) for a solid discussion of some propaganda strategies; and Ghirardo (ed.), 'Architecture and Culture in Fascist Italy', special issue of the Journal of Architectural Education, v. 45/2 (February 1992), with articles by Libero Andreotti, Jeffrey Schnapp and Brian McLaren
9. The best outline of such a programme remains Spiro Kostof, 'The Emperor and The Duce: The Planning of Piazzale Augusto Imperatore in Rome' in H. Millon and L. Nochlin (eds), Art and Architecture in the Service of Politics (Cambridge, MA 1978), 270-325
10. See 'Narrazione della Partenza del Serenissimo Sig. D. Cesare da Este, Duca di Modena & di Reggio', facsimile reproduced in Bonner Mitchell, 1598. A Year of Pageantry in Late Renaissance Ferrara (Binghamton, NY 1990), 77-83
11. See also Bonner Mitchell, Italian Civic Pageantry in the High Renaissance: A Descriptive Bibliography of Triumphal Entries and Selected other Festivals for State Occasions (Florence 1979), 33
12. Such was the case with a brochure published on the occasion of Mussolini's visit to the Agro-Pontino in July 1934, complete with an account of every fifteen minutes of his trip
13. Anonymous report, 18 July 1931, Milan, PNF Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Provincie, Busta 7, 'Politica, attività varia. Milano situazione'
14. Anonymous Report, Milan, 3 April 1931. ACS. PNF Situazione Politica Economica delle Provincie (henceforth Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov.), Busta 7, sottofascicolo 86, 'Ufficio voci'
15. Anonymous report, Rome, 6 July 1932. ACS. PNF Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., Busta 19. The streets and piazzas offered more than sites for orchestrated displays of mass support for Mussolini: they were also the locus of considerable covert attention from the régime. The Ministry of the Interior maintained a network of spies in cities and towns throughout the peninsula, whose duty it was to report anonymously on what was being said, what the mood of different social classes was, and how they were responding to fascist activities and programmes; the PNF did the same. Spies included priests stationed in the Vatican City, women, and men from a wide range of professions and commercial activities. Unfortunately, the Interior Ministry's records for the city of Ferrara (and all cities beginning with the letters A to G) are missing from the State Archives
16. The Casa del Fascio, inaugurated on 23 February 1931 by Italo Balbo, was designed by Ing. Giorgio Gandini; the Palazzo delle Poste e Telegrafi by Angelo Mazzoni was completed in 1930. For a contemporary view of these two buildings, see Gualtiero Medri, Ferrara: Brevemente Illustrata nei Suoi Principali Monumenti (Lunghini and Bianchini 1933), 139-43 Ferrara: Brevemente Illustrata nei Suoi Principali Monumenti
17. The bibliography on the two statues extends back to the fifteenth century, but the most complete recent account is Denise Bratton, 'Dynastic Image, Prospettiva, and Urban Signification: The Equestrian Portrait of Niccolò d'Este in Ferrara, 1443-1451', unpublished MA thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993. I am grateful to her for discussing the Niccolò statue at length and sharing her research with me
18. See also Charles M. Rosenberg, 'Art in Ferrara during the Reign of Borso d'Este (1450-1471)', unpublished PhD dissertation (The University of Michigan 1974)
19. The story is well told in Ermanno Lanzoni, Ferrara. Una città nella storia (Ferrara 1984), and Ella Noyes, The Story of Ferrara (London 1904)
20. Giuseppe Antenore Scalabrini, Memorie Storiche delle Chiese di Ferrara e de' suoi Borghi (Ferrara 1773);
21. Leandro Alberti, Descrittione di Tutta Italia di F. Leandro Alberti Bolognese (Bologna 1550), 309
22. Noyes, The Story of Ferrara, 278
23. Leon Baptista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, MA and London 1988)
24. In recent years several articles have appeared that assess the fascist cult of romanità and related issues: most recently, Emilio Gentile, 'Il fascismo come religione politica', Storia Contemporanea, XXI, 6 (December 1990), 1079-106
25. see also M. Cagnetta, Antichisti e Impero Fascista (Bari 1979)
26. Dino Cofrancesco, 'Appunti per un'analasi del mito romano nell'ideologia fascista', Storia Contemporanea, XI, 3 (June 1980), 383-411
27. Romke Visser, 'Fascist Doctrine and the Cult of the Romanitá', Journal of Contemporary History, 27, 1 (January 1992), 5-22. Little has been published on the architecture: the best is still William MacDonald, 'Excavation, Restoration and Italian Architecture of the 1930s' in H. Searing (ed.), In Search of Modern Architecture (New York 1982), 298-320
28. Giuseppe Agnelli, Ferrara e Pomposa (Bergamo n.d.), 121-3. Agnelli also wrote a separate book about the two statues as part of his campaign to have them reconstructed. Agnelli, I Monumenti di Niccolò III e Borso d'Este in Ferrara. Atti e Memorie delta Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria (Ferrara 1918). References to the statues appear frequently in earlier guides and histories of the city; see Antonio Frizzi, Guida del Forestiere (Ferrara 1787), 45
29. Memorandum, 18 October 1926
30. Renzo Ravenna to Prime Minister Mussolini, 28 February 1927. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (PCM) 1927, Fascicolo 5.2.984
31. Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione to Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 4 March 1927. ACS, PCM. 1927, Fascicolo 5.2.984
32. Bratton, 'Dynastic Image', 77-92
33. Alberti, On the Art of Building, 265
34. Diane Ghirardo, 'Italian Architects and Fascist Politics: The Rationalists' Role in Regime Building', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XXXIX, 2 (May 1980), 109-27
35. The literature on spectacle during the Renaissance is extensive; among the key sources are Richard Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York 1980);
36. Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450-1650 (Suffolk 1984)
37. Richard Ingersoll, "The Ritual Use of Public Space in Renaissance Rome', unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1985;
38. Antonella Manicardi, 'I trionfi modenese dei duchi d'Este 1452-1584', n, ser. XI, 6 (1984), 105-40
39. 'Celebrazione del 4 Centenario della Morte di Lodovico Ariosto. Schema di Programma'. Renzo Ravenna to Mussolini, July 1932, forwarded by Mussolini to Guglielmo Marconi, Accademia d'Italia, and returned with letter from Mussolini, 16 July 1932. ACS. PCM. 1931-3. Fascicolo 14.2/3237
40. Renzo Ravenna to S.E. Capo del Governo, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 10 November 1932. ACS.PCM. 1931-3. Fascicolo 14.2/3237, 1
41. Ravenna to Capo del Governo, lONovember 1932, 1-2
42. 'Celebrazione', July 1932, 2
43. After decades, a few articles have begun to appear about the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista: see Diane Ghirardo (ed.), 'Architecture and Culture in Fascist Italy', Journal of Architectural Education, 45/2 (February 1992), special issue with articles by Libera Andreotti, Diane Ghirardo, Jeffrey Schnapp, Brian McLaren; Jeffrey Schnapp, 'Epic Demonstrations: Fascist Modernity and the 1932 Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution' in R. Golsan (ed.), Fascism, Aesthetics and Culture (Hanover, NH 1992); Maria Stone, 'Staging Fascism: The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution', Journal of Contemporary History, 28, 2 (April 1993), 215-43
44. Ravenna to Capo del Governo, 10 November 1932, 9-10. The exhibition of Ferrarese art from the Renaissance was the most costly of the events planned for the centennial, and the Palio one of the least expensive: the exhibition was estimated at 800,000 lire, and the Palio at 70,000, although they expected to recover all but 30,000 from paid admissions. Indeed, out of a total anticipated expense of 1,015,000 lire, only 100,000 was to be spent on the 'manifestazioni popolari', from fencing and sharpshooting competitions, tennis, and the Palio, of which they expected to recover 40,000
45. Alan Dundes and Alessandro Falassi, La Terra in Piazza: An Interpretation of the Palio of Siena (Berkeley 1975), 2-4. Luciano Artusi and Silvano Gabbrielli, Le feste di Firenze dalla Candelora a Berlingaccio (Rome 1991), 184-9
46. Luigi Napoleone Cittadella, Notizie relative a Ferrara per la Maggior Parte Inedite Ricavate da Documenti (Ferrara 1864), 210-12
47. Nino Franco Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara (Rovigo 1968), 12
48. Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 14
49. Cittadella, Notizie relative a Ferrara, 210
50. Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 14, 31, 37-8
51. Ravenna to Capo del Governo, 10 November 1932, 9
52. Statuti Municipali Ferraresi, Book X, Rubrica 41, 284
53. Four rioni participated: S. Paolo, S. Benedetto, S. Spirito, S. Maria in Vado; and four borghi: S. Giorgio, S. Luca, S. Giacomo and S. Giovanni. The rules and regulations for the renewed Palio have been published in Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 113-31
54. Lino Martini, Lo Stato Estense (Turin 1987), 18-34
55. Antonio Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, 2nd ed. (Ferrara 1850), vol. IV, 118-33
56. Deanna Schemek, 'Circular Definitions: Configuring Gender in Italian Renaissance Festival', Renaissance Quarterly (Spring 1994). Shemek proposes an equally political reading of the Renaissance Palio, but she also undertakes a provocative analysis of gender relations through her study of the Palio. I am grateful to her for allowing me to review her unpublished manuscript while I was completing this paper, and for providing me with some new documentation
57. Anonymous report, Milan, 12 January 1937. ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., busta 7, 'Politica - attività varia'. See other anonymous reports from Milan, 28 March 1939, 20 November 1938, in the same fascicolo; also anonymous reports from Rome, 5 January 1932, 19 May 1932, 29 September 1936, 13 October 1936. ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., Busta 19
58. 'Proposta di assegnazione al confino di sovversivi pericolosi', Questura di Roma to Ministry of Interior, 5 September 1939. ACS. Ministero dell'Interno. Casellario Politico, busta S13-ABis, fascicolo 2; also Prefect of Milan to Ministry of Interior, List of Subversives, 15 November 1933. Milan. ACS. Ministero dell'Interno. S13/Pacco 2, Milano, protocollo 040916
59. See anonymous report, Rome, 5 October 1936 and 5 January 1932 ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., busta 19, for accounts of sentiments at San Lorenzo, and of sentiments in general among the working class
60. On the participation of intellectuals in the fascist régime, see Philip Cannistraro, La fabbrica del consenso: fascismo e mass media (Bari 1975); Victoria De Grazia, The Culture of Consent (New York 1981); Emilio Gentile, Gli origini dell'ideologia fascista 1918-25 (Bari 1975); Mario Isnenghi, Intellettuali militanti e intellettuali funzionari (Turin 1979); Gabriele Turi, Il fascismo e il consenso degli intellettuali (Bologna 1980)
61. Gramsci, Gli intellettuali. I have argued elsewhere that Gramsci's programme for rupturing idealist traditions and engaging intellectuals and artists directly with the people was as much on the agenda of the left as the right. Ghirardo, 'Architects, Exhibitions and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy' in Journal of Architectural Education, 45/2 (February 1992), 67-75
62. For a discussion of how architects participated in aspects of popular culture, see Ghirardo, 'Architects, Exhibitions', 67-8
63. Ghirardo, 'Politics of a Masterpiece: the Vicenda of the Facade Decoration of the Casa del Fascio, Como 1936-39', Art Bulletin, LXII, 3 (September 1980), 466-78
64. Emily Braun, 'Mario Sironi and a Fascist Art', in Italian Art in the Twentieth Century (London and Munich 1989), 173-80
65. Massimo Bontempelli, 'Principii', in Quadrante, 3 (May 1933)
66. see also Ruth Ben-Ghiat's provocative discussion of realism in cinema, literature and philosophy, 'From Fascism to Anti-Fascism: The Realist Aesthetic in Italy, 1930-50', forthcoming in The Journal of Modern History
67. Paul Corner, Fascism in Ferrara 1915-1925 (London 1975)