28 C O N T E X T 1 1 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 9 government after 1861. The definition of a work of art was not widened. It was still understood in terms of the single recognised masterpiece, and neglected to consider other works of art (especially architectural ones) which might be visually modest but full of historical significance. There was plenty of awareness of the past in the culture of 19th-century Italian architecture. Evidence of this includes the renewed classicism in the new styles of the early part of the century, and the revival of gothic that was dear to the romantics. The pragmatic, eclectic vision of the mid-century, with its Babel of stylistic references (Romanesque, gothic, renaissance) was derived from a wish to attribute merit to every historical period. It showed a conviction that rediscovering the nation’s greatness depended on accessing its fertile and inspired architectural past. In addition, the training of architects culminated in acquiring the language and grammar of those styles so that, in carrying out their projects, the highest aesthetic quality could be transferred to the new buildings. This can be seen best through the work of Camillo Boito, the greatest theorist of Italian architecture of the second half of the 19th century. Boito was a professor in Venice, and later taught at the Polytechnic and Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. His teaching programme for the three-year course for future architects included the styles of classical antiquity, then those of the renaissance, and finally those of the middle ages. The latter were seen as the most favourable for the creation of a modern architecture, of a national style that would be able to define the architecture of the new Italy. To each of the styles was attributed a specific role. As a consequence, the city and other places filled up with neo-Romanesque schools and service buildings, neogothic churches, neo-renaissance palaces for banks, insurance houses and the residences of the well-to-do, and even industrial structures and power stations loaded with references to 15th-century decoration. Historicism exalted an awareness of the nation’s past. It was founded in the hope of giving rise to a new era of architectural greatness. However, it did not avoid the simultaneous destruction of a great number of authentic examples of this past, through the clearances carried out in so many cities. In Florence, along with the loss of the Mercato Vecchio, whole groups of authentic parts of the city disappeared to give way to false-renaissance architecture. In Milan, genuine facades of churches in the mannerist or baroque styles were replaced with neo-Romanesque frontages. These changes were carried out in the name of returning to the date of the beginnings of the site. From the late 19th century, Italian cities altered through the accumulation of individual projects, lacking any overall plan. It took until 1932 for town planning to become part of the education in schools of architecture. The plans for Milan and Rome date to the same period, a decade before the first national planning law of 1942. Meanwhile the country continued its growth. With this growth came the need for public and private displays which impacted on the redevelopment of historic centres. Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader, emphasised the need for ‘thinning out’ the central areas leading to the exaltation of great monuments, in particular those of ancient Rome. In 1932 he launched out against the ‘picturesque but squalid’ aspects of the capital of the empire. By this he meant the fabric of old buildings that stood between and around the remains of ancient Rome. These stood in the way, and would be given over to ‘His Majesty the pick-axe’. In the name of the splendours of the ‘New Empire’, the backbone of the Borghi, the medieval quarter in front of Saint Peter’s, made way for the grandiloquent Via della Conciliazione (not finished until 1950). Even more paradoxically, the two ancient forums were cut in half to make way for the Via dell’Impero (now, Via dei Fori Imperiali) and to create a grandiose backdrop for military parades. In the northern city of Brescia as early as 1929, the medieval centre was cleared to make way for an imperial Piazza della Vittoria. This provincial forum seems to prefigure the Fascist regime’s architectural apotheosis, the Roman E42 quarter or Eur, the last project to be undertaken. It is full of high-flown and bombastic references to the buildings of the ancient Romans. Carlo Migliavacca is a journalist in Milan with Bell’Italia. His article was translated and adapted for Context by Graham Tite. Brescia’s medieval centre was cleared to make way for an imperial Piazza della Vittoria in 1929.This provincial forum is full of bombastic references to the buildings of the ancient Romans.
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