1861-2011. the Unity of Italian Art THROUGH the Diversity of Its Regions

“1861-2011. THE UNITY OF ITALIAN ART THROUGH THE DIVERSITY

OF ITS REGIONS”

Italy is the Land of Beauty, a nation famous for evoking emotions and passions. Not for nothing did the literati flock to Italy on the Grand Tour, visiting our cities, travelling through our countryside and admiring the masterpieces on show in our museums.

Countless novelists, painters and modern poets from Northern Europe have, on discovering Italy – an example is Aragon in his poem Italia Mea – sought forgiveness from the land of Italy for “having so long” tarried “in these withered countries wearied by winter, and for wasting” their “songs on wasted skies”?

Now, as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Italian Unity, is a good time to investigate why Italy is so renowned among beauty-lovers.

The top reason for Italophiles is without doubt the nation’s extremely rich and varied cultural heritage. Italy is the world’s number one cultural

“power”, with an “army” of at least five million catalogued works, 10,000 churches, 20,000 heritage districts, 45,000 castles and gardens, 35,000 historic residences, 2,000 archeological sites and 3,500 public and private museums.

These treasures, distributed through all of the country’s regions, have forged the sensitivities of artists who, from the Alps to Sicily, have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of Beauty. Since the dawn of history, Italy has embraced and spread a particular ideal of Beauty and Harmony.

A second reason for this love of Italy is the infinite variety of its landscape –

1 in part a result of thousands of years of history, civilization and different cultures following and intersected one other. What sets the complex historical characteristics of Italy’s landscape apart from other European landscapes is precisely the multiplicity and stratification of traces left behind by the many civilizations that have enriched Italian history, molded its territory and modeled its countryside.

A third reason for such widespread fondness for Italy is ascribable to specific aspects of its language. Italian is the language of harmony, and is known as such around the world.

The collection of works on display comes from Italy’s various regions.

Together, they delineate a complex panorama and demonstrate that, in the wake of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, it was possible to identify elements that, in time, would help to form an ensemble of national characteristics.

Italian Art: 1861 to 1911

During the initial post-unity period, artists followed a complex web of paths to overcome environmental differences and emancipate themselves from common pressures. This is evident from their hunger for exchange, a desire to overcome isolation, and a quest for opening up new horizons.

The affirmation of a romantic sensibility was an important aspect of this, and played a significant role in the formation of Italy’s new cultural and civic consciousness, as well as helping to foster ideals of modernity, sometimes

2 from a liberal standpoint, sometimes from a democratic and radical standpoint, but always under the auspices of the claims staked by Unity and

Independence.

Tensions rose with the quickening of events in 1848 and the Wars of the

Risorgimento, fostering hopes, illusions and dreams among Italy’s key figures at that time.

Art had an important role to play, as it focused on the lives of the new middle-classes and the ideals held by the most open and democratic elements of society.

1911 to 1961

Italian artists who loomed large on the international art scene were celebrated at the 1914 International Venice Biennale. Then the dark clouds of the First

World War swept in over Europe, rendering art world matters suddenly unimportant.

After the war, the art world recorded the trauma of catastrophe, generally through motifs that were less subversive than those adopted by avant-garde movements, in pursuit of a “return to order” for art itself: a return to the values of tradition, spread through metaphysical experience – another nodal development, alongside Futurism, to emerge from the contribution of Italian creativity to the international art scene.

International contacts intensified, and despite the Fascist regime’s relative disinterest in relations with other nations, an informed feeling kept the values of Italian heritage alive, and maintained dialogue with the most important art world developments.

3 1961 to 2011

There was no clean break between the art world before and after 1961, the year that Italy celebrated the centenary of its Unity. The groundwork laid in the first half of the century continued to develop in more and more complex directions, and Italy remained at the forefront of the international art scene.

This was, however, a time of great energy for American art, which after following in the wake of European art came to the fore and became popular around the world, including in Italy.

The Italian art world today continues to feature artists of unmistakable style and quality, at a time when all of Europe is engaged in intense interchange with the US arts scene.