1 A FOUNTAIN FOR MEMORY: The Trevi Flow of Power and Transcultural Performance Pam Krist, PhD Thesis School of Modern Languages, Literature and Culture Royal Holloway, University of London 2015 2 3 Abstract In memory studies much research on monuments focuses on those with traumatic or controversial associations whilst others can be overlooked. The thesis explores this gap and seeks to supplement the critical understanding of a populist monument as a nexus for cultural remembering. The Trevi Fountain in Rome is chosen because it is a conduit for the flow of multivalent imagery, ideological manipulation, and ever-evolving performances of memory, from design plans to mediated representations. The thesis begins by locating the historical pre-material and material presences of the Fountain, establishing this contextual consideration as contributory to memory studies. It then surveys the field of theory to build a necessarily flexible conceptual framework for researching the Fountain which, given the movement and sound of water and the coin-throwing ritual, differs from a static monument in its memorial connotations. The interpretations of the illusory Trevi design and its myths are explored before employing a cross-disciplinary approach to the intertextuality of its presences and its performative potential in art, literature, film, music, advertising and on the Internet. The thesis concludes with questions about the digital Trevi and dilution of memory. Gathering strength throughout is the premise of the Fountain as a transcultural vehicle for dominant ideologies ‒ from the papal to commercial, the Grand Tour to cyber tourism ‒ seeking to control remembering and forgetting. Sometimes these are undermined by the social and inventive practices of memory. Discourses of power, often gendered, that draw on Trevi imagery and its potent association with water mythology, are exemplified. These underscore the uncertainties of memory during the production of self-serving suitable pasts. The Fountain is an indicator of ethical implications for future memory as to how the past is shaped to meet present needs. It is always a reflector of the multiplicity of memory practices. 4 Acknowledgements I cannot thank my co-supervisors enough, Dr Ruth Cruickshank and Dr Giuliana Pieri for their academic and personal support. Ruth, with her brilliant inspirations, innovative ideas and constructive criticisms, especially of theory, guided me through the main parts of the thesis and amendments period with a sure touch. I tried to learn that less equals more. Giuliana patiently set the pace and kept a handle on the overall picture, helping with the chapter on art and supervising the final editing for the viva. The Fountain was with the three of us for many years but never ran dry. Among the many students who aided my research and to whom my thanks also go include: Jana Buresova for commenting on my Interviews Appendix, her cheerful emails and informative time spent over coffee, Fiona Cameron for some additional research for me in Rome and being my ‘eyes and ears’ in London and elsewhere, Tom Norton for his information, always of relevance, especially about the latest books on Rome and fountains, Stuart Oglethorpe for his thorough oral interview training and Eugene Pooley for invaluable references on fascist plans for Rome. I am also grateful to the academics who contributed to my adventures across disciplines, some of which were new territory. My thanks go to Ben Earle for enlightening me on music of the fascist era, Rachel Beckles-Willson about the symbolic significance of instruments, Stefano Jossa for art terms, Stephen Gundle on film aspects, John Pinto for his encouraging email correspondence and his wonderful DVD, Trevi, and to John Foot for his oral history course which helped with the Interview Appendix. Special thanks go to my interviewees, Fiona, Peter, and Daniela for their time and interest, whilst also remembering lively conversations with Gilberto, an official Fountain guide, and many Romans who gave me their observations. Several people kindly helped with translations, including my co-supervisors. Peter Willig tackled the German material and Guido Giglioni and Simon Trafford some of the Latin inscriptions. Particular thanks are due to the Institute for Modern Language Research, formerly the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, for their postgraduate training courses. The seminars and conferences of their Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory, established in 2010, sustains students researching memory who are not rooted in a discipline but a field of enquiry. The Department of Italian, Royal Holloway, University of London very helpfully awarded me a full bursary. I received excellent support from many librarians, at the British Library, Warburg, Ashmolean, Winchester School of Art (University of Southampton) and staff 5 at several museums. Above all, I thank the wonderful Inter Library Loan Scheme of Hampshire Library which conjured up books from all over the place, followed through queries and ferreted out old volumes. The little known Postal Scheme at Senate House Library also proved useful. A special form of thanks, for sorting out the seemingly unsortable, goes to the tech wizards at the RHUL IT Centre, notably Chris Horton. Further recognition is owed to friends whose enthusiasm never waned and grew as the write up neared its end. Finally, my love and thanks to Ray Krist, the coin in my fountain, who made all this possible and to whom the thesis is dedicated. He provided fantastic technical and material support mingled with practical observations so that it has been a very special enterprise. Pam Krist 2015 6 Men of every age, have found no better way of immortalizing their memories than by the shifting, indestructible, ever new, yet unchanging, upgush and downfall of water. They have written their names in the unstable element and proved it a more durable record than brass or marble. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Marble Faun 7 CONTENTS Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 4 Introduction 10 C H A P T E R O N E Historical Locations and Material Presences of the Trevi 17 Introduction 1. 1 From Water to Fountains to Trevi 1.1.1 On Looking at the Trevi 19 1.1.2 From Fons to Fountain 22 1.1.3 The (In)Visible Power of Aqueducts 24 1.1.4 Shaping of Water in the Roman Cityscape 26 1.1.5 What’s in a Name and a Place? 28 1.1.6 How Many Forms of Trevi? 30 1.2 Material Power: Building the Showpiece Fountain 1.2.1 Three Papal Billboards 33 1.2.2 Deceptive Presences and Absences 38 1.2.3 Later Constructions: Piazza and Plans 41 1.2.4 Receptacle for Wishes: Coincidental Ritual 43 C H A P T E R T W O Approaches to Memory: A Fountain for Conceptual Flexibility 50 Introduction Part One An Overview: Theories of Memory 2.1.1 Presently Surrounded by the Past 53 2.1.2 Sharing the Memory 55 2.1.3 What Past?: Linguistic Turn, Doubts, Signs, Fictions, Discourses 60 2.1.4 After the Turn: Trauma Theory, Remembering, Forgetting 63 2.1.5 After the Turn: Memory and/or History 70 2.1.6 Discursively Reinstating Monuments 74 Part Two Situating the Trevi in (Cultural) Memory 2.2.1 Memory Debates: Dichotomies 77 2.2.2 A Place in Memory Terms 78 2.2.3 Towards a Fluid Framework: Afterlives, Observers, Intentions 81 2.2.4 Sharing: Collective Individuals 82 2.2.5 Performances and Practiced Places: The Trevi Theatre for Memory 84 2.2.6 ‘Lieu’ and ‘Luogo’ 86 2.2.7 Shaping the Past 88 2.2.8 Monumental Intentions and Challenges 89 2.2.9 A Slippery Fountain 90 2.2.10 Moving on with a Fluid Framework 92 8 C H A P T E R T H R E E Fountain for Illusion: Power, Competitive Memory, Performance 95 Introduction 3.1 The Ideological Power of Water 3.1.1 The Trevi ‘in Waiting’: Contra Flows of Memory 96 3.1.2 The Ownership of Water: Fluid Currency 100 3.2 The Flows of Myth in Memory 3.2.1 Officially Remembered Images 102 3.3 The Social Context of Competitive Memory 3.3.1 Transmissions 107 3.3.2 Traces of a Smokescreen 110 3.3.3 Illusions and False Places 111 3.3.4 Choices, Meanings, Intentions: The Trevi Emerges 113 3.3.5 When Size Matters 114 3.4 Performances on the Fountain 3.4.1 Renewal and Decay: Plants and Gods 115 3.4.2 Performing Gender and Water Power 118 3.5 Hosting Patriarchal Stories: ‘L’Inventrice’ and ‘Il Conduttore’ 3.5.1 Monumental Parts 122 3.5.2 ‘L’Inventrice’ Invented: Trivia’s Story 123 3.5.3 Shaping ‘Il Conduttore’: Agrippa’s Story 127 3.5.4 Joint and Separate Performances: Remembered Forgotten Statues 129 C H A P T E R F O U R A Vehicle for Narratives: Art and Literature 134 Introduction 4.1 A Narrative for Intended Memory: Visual Text on Stone 4.1.1 The Almost Lost Voices of Three Inscriptions 136 4.2 Retrospective Memory of Art: Making the Trevi Baroque 4.2.1 Presently Assigning Past Labels 139 4.2.2 Labelling Practice: Baroque to Theatre 141 4.2.3 The Expanding Narrative of a Baroque Trevi: Guidebooks 145 4.3 Anticipatory Memory: Picturing the Trevi 4.3.1 Early Images: From Functional Power to Neglect 148 4.3.2 Italy as Europe’s Other: A Place for the Grand Tour Trevi 150 4.3.3 Writing the Visual: Deceptive Demotions and Promotions 152 4.3.4 Piranesi and the Engraved Trevi: Evolving Anticipation 154 4.3.5 Views of Piranesi’s Vedute 159 4.3.6 Marketing Future Past Memory: Art of the New Fountain 161 9 4.4 Future Memory: Literary Nymphs in Search of a Fountain 4.4.1 Cool Classical Water and Patriarchal (Im)Purity 164 4.4.2 A Well-Versed Nymph: Fountain Poets and the Night 167 4.4.3 Literary Markers for Memory: Moonlight, Romance, Tragedy 169 4.4.4 Intertexts: Dark Memories