Rationalism, Classicism, Nation a I ism: Myth and Monument in the Third Rome by Martin Thomas Troy ship between Ideology and architecture tool of national policy. However In Is encountered. Can there be a true spite of Mussolini's personal friendship Fascist architecture, whereby the with the Futurist Marinettl. and his ad· ideals of Fascism are truly expressed mitted enthusiasm for a modern Slow, incessant, inexorable, is the by architectural form? If this Is so, then aesthetic, Futurism presented a basic advance of Fascism. Fascism con· lt follows that Ideology can be a unresolved contradiction to the main structs In a Roman way, stone generator of form. The other extfeme body of nationalistic Fascist theory upon stone, Its ideal and material position on this question Is that ar· Revolutionary and destructive anti· buildings, which like the Roman chltectural form, used in the service of traditionalism ran counter to ones, will defy time. 1 an Ideology, Is merely a 'facade' behind Mussollnr s obsession with a return to Ben/to Mussolini, 1923 which Ideology can lurk, Its true secrets the 'Roman Tradition'. To Mussolini. hidden behind a screen of heroic Rome was " ... the eternal city that has gestures and monumental myths. given two civilizations to the world and ussollnl's 'March on Rome' In will yet give a third."• 1922 signalled the final over· I. Futurism and the Italian Tradition Mthrow of the old order In Italy and At this time, In the early 1920's, there the rise to power of the Fascists. The We w/11 sing the stirring of great was developing a flourishing Classicist symbolic manifestations of this 'March crowds... as revolution sweeps movement In Italian painting and ar· on Rome' were much greater than any through a modem metropolis. We chltecture. This movement did not have Imagined military ones. Mussolini's vi· w/11 sing of the midnight fervour of any particular political alignments or sions of a new Imperial Rome, with If arsenals and shipyards blazing pressures as Its Impetus for develop· Duce as the new August us, would need with electric moons; insatiable sta· ment. Rather, it grew from a desire for to have just such a heroic beginning to lions swallowing the smoking cultural renewal: as a reaction against truly mark the advent of the new spirit serpents of their trains; factories what was considered to be the failure of In Italy. This new spirit, arising from the hung from the clouds by the 2 the pre-war avante-garde. Making use of political, economic and social theories twisted threads of their smoke... the Italian Classical tradition. they of Fascism, attempted to express its from Marinetti's Futurist sought a new order, reason and ideals by assuming a 'cultural dress'. Manifesto 1911 regularity In art and architecture. 5 Th is Thus art and architecture became prime new order would a id in defining the vehicles for the national expression of We could define Classical ss the nature of the relationship between the Fascism. These Ideals were not of a spiritual movement In our desires, present and the past In artistic theory constant nature, but were always evolv· excluding... every meaning of and practice. lng, to match the evolution of the rhetorical reaction or of the Fascist Ideology Itself. Mussolini's rehabilitation of worn out manners Inspired by the powerful metaphysical brand of Fascism was as politically op· and Ideas, which no longer corres· Imagery in the paintings of de Cllirlco portunlstlc as he was himself. Italian pond to our sensibilities ... and by the painters of the Novecento Fascism transformed Itself from a na· Classical, finally, is the sustainer movement, the new generation of tlonal 'socialist' movement based on of certain fundamental norms... of 'Ciassiclzing' architects from Mtlan revolutionary theories Into a completely a certain political and moral order. 3 were led by Glovannl Muzio, GJo Pontl, reactionary and nationalistic Ideology Ardengo Sollic/1924 and de Flnettl. The stripped Classicism In the later stages of Its developme,nt. and heavy traditional forms used by These changes In Ideology were The Futurist Ideals of the glorification this group, known as the ' Milanese 900', paralleled by shifts in the State's at· of war, aggressive action, the society of owed as much to the Internationalism titude towards theories of art and ar· the machine, revolution, and the of Austria's Adolph Loos as •t did to chltecture. From an Initial attitude of abolishment of morality and historical Italian tradttlon.6 Thus, it can be regard· art as an individual expression, and not culture appealed Immensely to ed as a precursor to the architecture of as an expression of the State, Mussolini Mussolini as he was formmg his the Rationalist mo'iement as well as to was soon In a strong enough political philosophies of Fascism followmg the the Monumental neo-Classicism of the position to be able to dictate which First World War. The Futurists' revolu· following decade. aesthetic would constitute an official tionary theories of art meshed well with Fascist art. Thus t he concept of Fascist Mussolini's early theories of the With the decline of Futurism as an architecture was spawned. 'Fascist R evolution'. So, when the aesthetic force In Italy and its quick fall Fascists took power In 1922, they were from favour In official circles, the it Is here that the eternal dilemma of able to turn to the Futurist movement debate over what would constitute the how to define the nature of the relation· for a new revolutionary aesthetic as a of ficial Fascist Architecture began to THE FIFTH COLUMN, Winter 1963 23 'Progressions of Classicism: Terragni 's intellectual abstraction of the Classical spirit' rage. The key to this debate was the Fascists' desire for an architecture that would express the greatness of the Third Rome by evoking Italy's Classical tradition. The Interpretation of the form of this Classicism would be the major point of contention between the Ra· tlonallsts and the noo-Ciassicists. 11 . Rationalism as Classicism ... New architecture. true architec­ ture, must emerge from a stflct adherence to logic, to chltecture, they believed. could embody the true architecture of Fascist Italy. rationallty ... there exists a Mussolini's rhetorical annunciations of The casa del Fasclo, designed as a Class1cal foundation and spirit of the need to rejuvenate. the triumph of symbol of 'Fascism In Action', featured 9 trBdltiOTI (not the forms. wt11ch s youth, and " the revolution In actlon.'' a direct connection between the something different) thst s so pro­ At the same t1me. th1s architecture meeting hall and the exterior piazza, found in Italy, that evidently aJ'Id could embody the national sptrit of Italy permitting the flow of mass political almost automatiCBI/y, the new ar­ by 1nvo ng the spirit and essence of rallies from inside to outside. chitecture will preserve a stamp C asslcism. These polemical an· wfllch Is typically Italian.. We do nouncements were replete wtth am· The Rationalist symbolization of a not want to break with trad1l10n. lt biguities In meaning and intent. lt was 'Revolutionary Fascism' eventually and fs tradition which transforms itself not until the actual realization of inevitably succumbed to the forces of and assumes new aspects... 7 several projects that this concept of Ra· political reaction within the regime. Gruppo Sette 1926 tlonallsm as Classicism was clarified. Over a period of time In the 1930's, the movement lost Its internal The formation of the Gruppo Sette in Perhaps the most obvious link between cohesiveness and Its political support. 1926 signalled the birth of the Ra· these two can be seen in the similarities The shift towards the right Implied a tionallst movement In Italy. As the between Rationalism and the Classicist shift towards the neo-Classic as an ex· group's spiritual leader, Gluseppe Ter· Novecento group 10 Both movements pression of the Fascist State. Ra· ragni was lndisputedly the most tmpor· called for a return to order and logic. tionalism's bid to represent the aspira· tant IndiVIdual within the pre-war Ra· Although approachmg it from different lions of Fascism through an abstracted tlonallst movement lt Is not necessary directions. both movements tended national Classicism had failed, amid to descnbe here the details of the nse towards a monumentalism and for· reactionary cries of 'Internationalism' and fall of Gruppo Sette and the!r brand ma .. sm that can be considered to be an and Bolshevism of Rationalism. However, 11 s r,portant expression of a Classicist 1deal. The to realize how-and why Rational sm 'n· abstraction of formal tectonic elements Ill. Classicism as Nationalism ltlally appealed to the Fascist reg1me, a so tended to move Italian Rationa ism and ~hy the movement eventual y ost 1nto an almost metaphysical mode of Mussolini wishes to resuscitate the support of the Fascists. expression. the matertal vestiges of ancient Rome because they are beautiful From the t1me of the movement's incep­ These abstractions of Classicism can and lnvatusbte, but also and main· tion, the Rationalists realized that the best be seen In the work of Terragni. ty because, m doing so, he hopes only wa'l they would be able to receive With commissions such as the to revive the old virtues of rugged building commissions of any Novocomum Apartment House In men who under iron discipline significance within the Fascist system Como, and the Casa Rustic! In Milan, once fashioned Roman Power.12 was to gain the off1cial sanction of the Terragni established a language of Ra· The New York Times. regime. To this end, direct appeals were tlonalist architecture and gave the March 19, 1 9 3 3 made to Mussolini through various movement its early credibility.