The end of the nineteen century -besides many transformations- saw the birth of what we call today mass media, with its modern way of communicating ideas and all the sudden changes of society. Magazines, and especially those ones... more
The end of the nineteen century -besides many transformations- saw the birth of what we call today mass media, with its modern way of communicating ideas and all the sudden changes of society.
Magazines, and especially those ones interested in arts and architecture, played a central role in this revolution. Since the beginning, the Italian journals wanted to publish foreign artists, in order to favour the constitution of a truly “modern” conscience, and finally go beyond an Italian tradition, still bounded to classicism and eclectism. One of the main reason for its cultural lag was related to the absence –central in other European countries- of a tradition such as the Grand Tour, that, from the late Renaissance, permitted to each generation to travel and compare ideas, lifestyle, artistic believes.
If we speak of these last two centuries, the main influences in Italian culture came from countries like Germany, Austria and France, first for their physical connections with Italy. However, as soon as the modern transportation and communications permit it, Italian magazines tried to keep up with the many artistic revolutions that where starting all over Europe, like in the Nordic countries.
This essay focuses on a period between 1895 and 1950. The 1895 is the birth of the first modern art magazine: «Emporium», in Bergamo (Milan). On the other end, in 1950 Bruno Zevi publishes the first Italian History of Architecture , which presented Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto as two great masters for the new generations.
Between these two moments, there are the Fascist decades, with his economical but also cultural autarchia , which apparently wanted to contain this growing interest for foreign architecture. Actually, as we can see from a selected bibliography, most of the publications connected to Nordic architecture, comes from that period, especially after the 1928 and the birth of a famous architectural Italian journal: «Casabella».
For these reasons, in order to understand the path of dissemination of Nordic architecture in Italy is crucial to follow the flow of publications on this topic in our architectural magazines.
Magazines, and especially those ones interested in arts and architecture, played a central role in this revolution. Since the beginning, the Italian journals wanted to publish foreign artists, in order to favour the constitution of a truly “modern” conscience, and finally go beyond an Italian tradition, still bounded to classicism and eclectism. One of the main reason for its cultural lag was related to the absence –central in other European countries- of a tradition such as the Grand Tour, that, from the late Renaissance, permitted to each generation to travel and compare ideas, lifestyle, artistic believes.
If we speak of these last two centuries, the main influences in Italian culture came from countries like Germany, Austria and France, first for their physical connections with Italy. However, as soon as the modern transportation and communications permit it, Italian magazines tried to keep up with the many artistic revolutions that where starting all over Europe, like in the Nordic countries.
This essay focuses on a period between 1895 and 1950. The 1895 is the birth of the first modern art magazine: «Emporium», in Bergamo (Milan). On the other end, in 1950 Bruno Zevi publishes the first Italian History of Architecture , which presented Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto as two great masters for the new generations.
Between these two moments, there are the Fascist decades, with his economical but also cultural autarchia , which apparently wanted to contain this growing interest for foreign architecture. Actually, as we can see from a selected bibliography, most of the publications connected to Nordic architecture, comes from that period, especially after the 1928 and the birth of a famous architectural Italian journal: «Casabella».
For these reasons, in order to understand the path of dissemination of Nordic architecture in Italy is crucial to follow the flow of publications on this topic in our architectural magazines.
