Italian Artists Reflect on the Resistance in World War II

Villa Altieri, the subject of the last post, has been, in addition to its antiquities museum, its archaeological siting, and its role as Palazzo della Cultura e della Memoria della Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale (Palace of culture and memory of the metropolitan capital city of Rome), home to many small and interesting exhibitions. "Pietà l'è morta: omaggio alla resistenza" ("Pity is dead: homage to the resistance") was the one that drew us to the villa in the first place.

The artworks were created mostly after the "Nazi-Fascist" period of World War II had ended, some immediately after (apparently some during that period as well) and others 2 decades later.

The main image in promotional materials for the exhibition is this somewhat strange caricature, at right, of Antonio Gramsci by Giuseppe Guerreschi, from 1967. Gramsci was a symbol of the opposition to Fascism, a founder of Italy's Communist Party (the mark on his forehead) and died in 1936 in a Fascist prison (note the chain and handcuffs), where he wrote his profoundly influential Prison Notebooks during his arduous 11 years of incarceration (evocation of Alexei Navalny). The iconography of Gramsci continues with wall paintings in Rome and his oft-visited burial site in Rome's Non-Catholic Cemetery (He was an atheist, hence his burial outside Catholic Church grounds). At the end of this post are photos of Gramsci, of his memorialized tombstone, and of one of the Roman wall paintings.

Many of the works, by some of the best artists of the period, are disturbingly graphic in their depictions of Fascist horrors. 

Left, a print from Renato Guttuso's "Gott mit uns," a portfolio of 24 first issued in 1945, the year World War II ended in Europe. "Gott mit uns" ("God with us") was a slogan on German World War I and World War II uniforms, often on belt buckles. (Frederika Randall's review of an exhibition of Guttuso's work from 2013 is here.) Some records date the prints to earlier than 1945.

The writing at the bottom right says,"Compagni! vendicate i martiri di via Tasso," translated: "Comrades! Avenge the martyrs of via Tasso," referencing both the Nazi imprisonment of political prisoners at that notorious Rome locale (see below on the sponsorship of the exhibit in part by the museum now housed there) and the murder of more than 300 men, many taken from the via Tasso prison, at the caves of Ardeatine. For a post on that atrocity and the memorial now there, see here (also on an itinerary in our book, Rome the Second Time).

Below, another print from the same series.

Three pieces by Guttuso in the exhibit appear to reference the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) and are titled "Massacro" ("Massacre"); two are below. The artist has other, similar works with the same title from 1940, reflecting the Nazi horrors.

Renato Guttuso, "Massacro" 1961

Renato Guttuso, "Algerine"
 ("Algerian woman") 1961

Below is Ugo Attardi's (another noted Italian artist, 1923-2006) "Questo Matto Mondo Assassino" ("This crazy, murderous world") from 1967:

A few of the prints depicted some hope from Resistance, among them Giacomo Manzù's "Partigiano con fazzoletto rosso" ("Partisan with bandana," no date), the red bandana to this day is a symbol of the Italian partisans, who still maintain an organization, ANPI (ANPI - Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia). Manzù is most remembered as a sculptor.

Another Attardi print shows a statue of Mussolini being dragged down and away:

Ugo Attardi, "Profile del duce e rivolta" ("Profile of the Duce and revolt"), 1951.

A small sculpture based on the iconic scene from Roberto Rossellini's 1945 "Roma, Città Aperta" was also on view.

Vincenzo Gaetaniello, "Roma, città aperta," no date

Also in the exhibit were photos by Margaret Bourke-White about 5 months after the liberation of Rome but before the end of the war in Europe. Some 80,000 leftists celebrated the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution and denounced the monarchy (which would be rejected in the June 2, 1946 plebiscite following the war). Both of the photos below are titled "Comizio sul colle Palatino 12 Novembre 1944" ("Rally on the Palatine Hill, Nov. 12, 1944").

The exhibit featured writings from Italians such as Cesare Pavese and Giuseppe Ungaretti.

Ungaretti's poem at right above is titled "To the dead of the resistance" and has been translated as follows:

Here,

They live on forever

Those eyes that have been closed to the light

So that everyone

Would have them open

For eternity

To that light

The exhibition was comprised mainly of works from "art books," portfolios of prints, all of them in private collections. Many were from the collection o the art critic Dario Micacchi. In some ways, exhibitions based on one or two private collections, which can lead to an increase in prices for the art, seem a capitulation to capitalism, rather than a curated presentation of art and philosophy. The instances of these are many these days, whether it's Ettore Sottsass at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or in Rome Olivetti at the GNAM (Galleria Nazionale del'Arte Moderna) or the Barbie exhibit at the Vittoriano. And yet, we are fortunate that these private works get any showing.

The subtitle of the exhibition - "Omaggio alla resistenza" - "Homage to the Resistance" - is from a 1964 artists' book edited by Salvatore Quasimodo:

The main title of the exhibition - "Pietà l'è morta" - "Pity is dead" - is from a Resistance anthem by Nuto Revelli, less famous than "Bella Ciao" but well-known to Italians. The theme of the song is that it's time to forget pity for the enemy and to go after them. Two lines read:

Combatte il partigiano la sua battaglia:

Tedeschi e fascisti, fuori d'Italia!

and a translation online is:

The partisan fights his battle:

Heinies and fascists, out of Italy!

"Tedeschi" means "Germans," and in our experience is not an epithet. A modern translation might read somewhat differently.

Here, you can listen to the song, as a dirge - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzFbAkZAiUs

A modern version (performed on Liberation Day, April 25, 2013) by Ginevra Di Marco, with substantial changes in the lyrics, is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMan5HwRV_0.

Dianne

Also contributing to the exhibition were the Togliatti archives and materials from the Museo storico della Liberazione (Museum of the Liberation) on via Tasso.(#3 on RST's Top 40). The museum and the Fosse Ardeatine are on the same itinerary in our book, Rome the Second Time: 15 Itineraries that Don't Go to the Coliseum.

Below, a photo of Gramsci from the early 1920s, when he was about 30, then a wall painting by OZMO under the train overpasse in Ostiense, and finally, Gramsci's much-visited (including by us) tombstone in the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome.

Colle Oppio: In the Shadow of the Coliseum

So you've "done" the Coliseum.  It's not yet lunchtime [1-3 in Rome outside the tourist areas], you've given the fenced-in Arch of Constantine its due, and you're tired of being surrounded by tourists and badgered by folks wanting to sell you stuff. Where do you go?  What's next?

You wouldn't know it, but you're just due passi--literally two steps, but generally meaning "nearby"--from Colle Oppio [Oppio Hill], a fascinating, compact, Roman park, filled with attractions from the historic to the funky.  You can get onto, or into, the Colle Oppio through the gate, and then the path, that runs roughly north from the Coliseum, paralleling via Labicana. This is one of Rome's famous seven hills, and some say one of the most inspiring in Rome, with the Coliseum as its backdrop.

One of the first things you see, on your left, is a statue to Alfredo Oriani [1852-1909].  On the side it says A Roma Madre Ravenna.  It's a creation of the Fascist era--XIII, the 13th year of the Fascist regime, or 1935.  A novelist, poet, and social critic, Oriani's work received little attention until the end of the Great War, when it was discovered by the Fascist regime and, with Mussolini as editor, republished in 30 volumes.  Oddly, Oriani was also appreciated by leftist and anti-Fascist Antonio Gramsci, who wrote about him in his prison notebooks.  When we saw the statue, it had been lightly defaced with a right-wing symbol.







Shortly after the statue, turn up to the left.  Ahead is a large pool/fountain--another, somewhat earlier Fascist-era monument.














Perhaps its outstanding feature is the amphorae that decorate it--symbols of ancient Rome, when clay vessels of this kind were used to transport oil and other commodities.  The smaller fountains at the sides of the larger ones are of interest as well.  Above each of them is the letter "A" [for Anno, year] and the number VI [the sixth year of Fascism, or 1928].









Beyond the fountain, on a wall to the right, is some intriguing and, we assume, relatively permanent graffiti: Omnia Vincit Amore [sounds to us, who have never studied Latin, like Love Conquers All/Colle Oppio, and in the center a symbol we haven't seen before.  And just ahead, the remains of a substantial and once-elegant complex of ancient Roman baths.  These are what remains of the magnificent, 10,000 square meter Baths of Trajan (Emperor 98-117 AD), designed by the brilliant architect Apollodorus of Damascusa in 109 AD above Nero's famous - or infamous - Golden House (closed/open/closed - we think now truly closed - the conservationists can't seem to prevent its collapse.  Luckily we saw it in its brief open period a few years ago). [See Marco's update in the first comment below - there may be hope here.]  There's another piece to your left and back--we'll get there in a moment.






This park has another aspect, one that you may--or may not--appreciate.  It's a gathering and resting place for black immigrants, some of them the itinerant merchants who are ubiquitous in Rome's tourist areas, others, perhaps, unemployed or underemployed.  When we visited in May, the field next to the baths was dotted with sleeping young men.





As you move more or less back toward the fountain, and somewhat to the right, you'll find a second set of
ancient bath ruins.  These are more of the Baths of Trajan.  When we last were there, the city had put up some informative placards near the various ruin sites.  Since the baths covered 10,000 square meters and had gyms, saunas, hot and cold rooms, etc., you will find ruins dotting Colle Oppio, which has been called an archaeologist's dream.  No crowds here.

Next to this piece of the baths is another treasure, from the 1930s: a stone fountain in the modernist style, once elegant but now broken and defaced.  The marble bowl is beautiful, nonetheless.  And the fasces on the side of the fountain are remarkably well preserved.












Two more sights to see.  One is a modest, 2-story building of unknown origins--it could be hundreds of years old, or only a century--fenced in and circled by bushes and trees.  As the sign says, it's the property of the Comune di Roma--the city government--and houses the Centro Anziani "Colle Oppio": a social center for the neighborhood's population of older, retired people--of which Italy has plenty.




Our last stop is a small athletic field, in sight of the Coliseum, where we began our journey.  On our visit it wasn't being used for soccer or any other sport, but rather as a meeting place for the the area's itinerant merchants.  They often carry their wares in blue plastic bags.  On this day, these merchants also hoped to sell umbrellas.  A broader view of the field is at the end of this post.

Bill  

RST Top 40. #31: Protestant Cemetery

"It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place."

It's hard to top Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley's take on Rome's Non-Catholic (usually referred to as Protestant) Cemetery, and shortly after penning these words, in 1822 he drowned off the coast of Italy and was buried here.

There are myriad reasons to put the Protestant Cemetery in Rome the Second Time's Top 40, including visiting the graves of figures such as Shelley, fellow Romantic Poet John Keats, and 20th-century Italian intellectual atheist Antonio Gramsci, who died in 1937 under police guard in a Rome hospital (having spent a decade in Fasicst prisons).

Another reason to visit is simply its lushness and quiet, especially compared to the zaniness that is Rome. It's a lovely break from one of the most congested of areas, the Porta San Paolo, right outside the Cemetery walls. A third is the spectacular - and perhaps best - view of the Pyramid.

The Protestant Cemetery has been much better maintained in the past few years, with regular (!) visiting hours, a newsletter, and a very helpful website in English.

The Cemetery appears in Rome the Second Time as part of Itinerary 4 at pages 71-72, and note the correction on Shelley's heart (now that should tempt you to check it out) in our post of May 5, 2009.

Dianne