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As part of the celebrations for the greatest
writers of the twentieth century, the Via Senato Library Foundation,
in conjunction with the Vittoriale degli Italiani, has organised an
exhibition that illustrates the open and fearless comparison that the
Poet of Italy Gabriele D’Annunzio established, ever since his juvenile
works, with modernity.
The
exhibition, which is sponsored by the Culture and Museums sector of
the Milan municipality and which will be open until 4 March 2001, focuses
on the innovative force of the poet’s artistic creativity and documents
the birth of the trend which goes under the name of “Dannunzianesimo”.
The exhibition therefore offers a setting that follows the style of
the Vittoriale residence, which adequately houses numerous materials,
articles and books that used to belong to the poet, thus recreating
the D’Annunzio environment and atmosphere.
Among
the articles displayed, of exceptional importance are a silver inkstand
which used to belong to D’Annunzio, which bears on the lids two tortoises
in red agate; glossy earthenware by the ceramist and sculptor Enrico
Mazzolani; majolicaware by Pietro Melandri; a flying helmet dating back
to the 1910’s; the sweater worn during the 1918 flight over Vienna;
and chinaware by the ceramists Giò Ponti and Francesco Nonni ...
What
emerges is a picture of D’Annunzio conversant with and precursory of
modern communication, careful about applied parts and design, and also
careful about literature as a way of life, and about art, since he was
also an art critic, and he was very fond of certain Italian artists,
first and foremost Michetti.
“I
am a man of excesses - he wrote - and I am capable of anything”; however
his unconventionality does not align him with the poètes maudits. He
was loved by many women, whom he returned with his passionate eagerness
in a marvellous series of letters that reached them daily. Suffice it
to mention Eleonora Duse.
“Woman
is a science,” he observed with his seductive charm, therefore it is
possible to “learn” her through regular exercise. In the same way as
he loved women, D’Annunzio loved the most beautiful Italian places,
the churches, villas and fountains of Rome, the Latium and Abruzzo coast,
the small Italian towns.
The
exhibition provides an overall view of D’Annunzio’s innovatory life
and thought, by capturing his idea of beauty, the strength of his art
and aesthetic aspect, the new facet of aestheticism. Towards the end
of the nineteenth century, the poet was able to perceive the dawning
of the new age of image; the flash of the camera is the light that guides
his quick steps through the towns which are now coloured by glittering
réclame’s.
Nobody
can equal his gift for advertising, busy as he is mainly launching himself,
by conveying beauty and charm to each item on which he focuses his attention.
Suffice it to say that, had publishers complied with his wishes, all
the D’Annunzio books would have been released in edictio picta, since
he viewed figurative images as inseparable from written words.
So
the whole life of Gabriele D’Annunzio is centred on beauty, and beauty
becomes pure art, aestheticism, with an innovatory character of its
own. He was a very prolific writer, journalist, protector of artistic
heritage, prose writer and diarist, man of letters and star, without
a university degree, parading an extremely expensive lifestyle which
was meant to impress, impeccable clothes, a magnificently furnished
home, a life spent among salons, theatres, luxury hotels, travel, summer
holidays, sweet idleness, smart hobbies.
D’Annunzio
celebrates the joie de vivre, the delight of lying naked in the sun,
the horse rides along the shore, tête-à-tête outings through the pinewood
under the July rain.
The
scenes, the prints, the articles, the books, the clothes, the gifts
received, every single item displayed tells us something about the Poet
of Italy, together with the paintings and sculptures; they tell us about
the “incomparable poet”, and the “Vittoriale”, monumental citadel set
up on the Brescia shore of the Garda, is the imposing symbol of D’Annunzio,
projected towards the twentieth century, or rather towards “modernity”.
(traduzione Interpres sas-Giussano)
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