{"id":121354,"date":"2025-01-20T08:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T07:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/?p=121354"},"modified":"2025-07-31T15:06:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T14:06:02","slug":"demolitions-and-the-roman-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egidimadeinitaly.com\/en\/demolitions-and-the-roman-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Demolitions and the Roman School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demolitions and the Roman School<\/b><\/h1>\n

Art works and artists chronicling the gutting of Rome and its transformation<\/b><\/h2>\n
\"Antonietta
Veduta dalla terrazza di Via Cavour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What do we mean by the demolitions of Rome?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The <\/span>demolitions<\/b> refer to the period of extreme \u201cgutting\u201d that Rome was subjected to from 1924 to 1940.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Italian government and the Holy See reached an agreement in 1935, putting in charge of the works the Governorate of Rome, which hired the architects <\/span>Marcello Piacentini<\/b> and <\/span>Attilio Spaccarelli<\/b> to plan suggested interventions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mussolini and Pope Pius XI approved their project, and the demolitions got under way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demolitions as seen through the eyes of the Roman School and Via Cavour School<\/b><\/h2>\n

The <\/span>artists of the Roman School<\/b><\/a>, especially those of the <\/span>Via Cavour School<\/b><\/a>,<\/span> harbored a shared deep distaste for the idea of art as an expression of the fascist regime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They were eyewitnesses to the drastic changes that Rome was undergoing and used their art to immortalize the city as it was disappearing before their eyes with the evisceration of Rome\u2019s historic center.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chronicle painting<\/b><\/h3>\n

The <\/span>theme of the demolitions<\/i><\/b> was approached as a type of \u201cchronicle painting,\u201d conveying feelings and impressions that told the story of a hidden, secret Rome, steeped in ancient myths and baroque sensibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The demolitions were famously depicted in art works by Mario Mafai, Giovanni Omiccioli, Caterina Katy Castellucci<\/a>, Eva Quajotto, and Afro Basaldella<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Their works present a melancholic Rome in its endless transformation, taking it towards modernity, a city at twilight on the verge of disappearing under the \u201crenovating axe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Major artworks by the Roman School on the demolitions<\/b><\/h2>\n

The <\/span>artists of the Roman School<\/b> addressed the theme of the demolitions extensively. Many evocative works by the Roman School on the theme of the demolitions convey a deep sense of bittersweet nostalgia.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The theme of demolitions in Rome<\/b><\/h2>\n

In the 1930s, Rome underwent exceptional urban expansion, mirroring the ideology of Fascist \u201cRomanity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The areas around the Capitol, the archaeological area of the Republican Forum, the Imperial Forums, and parts of Renaissance and Baroque Rome, underwent major gutting. Demolitions removed the layers that had been added on the remnants of the classical age.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many Roman artists living in Rome worked on urban landscape paintings that depict the destruction of the medieval city to make way for Fascist Rome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the most noteworthy of these painters were <\/span>Orazio Amato<\/span><\/a>, Orfeo Tamburi, Duilio Cambellotti, and Antonio Barrera. All of these artists witnessed the cultural and physical transformation of Rome.<\/span><\/p>\n

Eva Quajotto<\/h3>\n

The works on the theme of the demolitions by <\/span>Eva Quajotto<\/b><\/a> (Mantua, 1903 \u2013 Vallerano, 1952) echoed the subjects of Mario Mafai.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both bore witness to the urban transformations to which the fascist regime subjected Rome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Three of these works are <\/span>Demolizioni a Piazza Navona<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0 <\/span>Demolizioni intorno all\u2019Augusteo<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Il Circo Massimo prima delle demolizioni<\/span><\/i>. [Demolitions in Piazza Navona, Demolitions around the Augustan, The Circus Maximus before the Demolitions.]<\/span><\/p>\n