These photos are from Rome’s southern district of EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) which began to pop up slowly around 1938, originally dedicated to the projected world’s fair of 1942. As nice as that sounds, this would also have been the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Fascist era in Italy. Hooray! Mussolini and a team of fascist architects are to thank for the construction, as the plan was to move Rome’s urban expansion south-west to evidentially create a new modern city center. World War II got in the way, the fair never happened, and the project was at a halt uncompleted by 1942– it wasn’t until the 1950’s and 60’s until the original buildings were fully completed.

Let’s try to contextualize with what we’ve established in previous posts. At the time of EUR’s design, 200 or so years had passed since the birth of neoclassicism. Here’s a recap on some of the era’s accomplishments in an effort to better understand how time has transformed visual Italy at this point.

revival of antiquity / antiquity as future

more of the visual past was available

new geometrical image of the city established

symmetry/ ideal ratios

visual results detached from the originals —>degrees of separation 

process of abstraction —> concise way of defining form–>reduction to mere outline —> linear abstraction

and of course, Italian tradition 

By the time EUR’s Rationalist buildings were conceived, Italian artists and architects had basically streamlined the best of what not only neoclassicism summarized from its past, but also from the Futurists (1910-1916) and some of what the Novecento Italiano movement presented as well (1923-1943). Ideally I would like to touch on both of these epochs as well so stay tuned; this bit is merely a note I suppose, and hopefully it will assist future tidbits as I write them.

If it is not so clear already, with this blog I am essentially trying to pull together a visual timeline/a collection of artistic milestones that Italy has created throughout its history… among other things. Please forgive me if it isn’t chronological.