Città Fascista, surveillance and spectacle

Citta Fascista: Surveillance and Spectacle Author(s): Diane Yvonne Ghirardo Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 31, No. 2, Special Issue: The Aesthetics of Fascism (Apr., 1996), pp. 347-372 Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/261170 . Accessed: 22/09/2013 11:03 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Sage Publications, Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Contemporary History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Diane Yvonne Ghirardo Citf6Fascista:Surveillanceand Spectacle In fascist Italy, much of the battle for the hearts and minds of Italians took place in the public arena, in the streets and squares of the peninsula's cities. From the episodic urban violence of the post-flrst world war period to the mass demonstrations and rallies of the 1920s and 1930s, the Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) and Mussolini brought fascism's messages to the streets in a concerted effort to win and maintain public support. Propaganda campaigns carried out in newspapers, books, conferences and parliamentary speeches, and even radio broadcasts, paled in comparison with fascist activities in the streets.' Mass civic events became a fascist trope, a means of forging a new, post-democratic collectivity and of inscribing the public character of the new political formation into the urban realm. Antonio Gramsci astutely recognized the importance of obtaining the spontaneous consent of the masses through noncoercive activities in order to maintain hegemony, but while he theorized it, Mussolini instinctively realized it and developed a broad range of initiatives designed to ensure consent and consensus. Gramsci recognized that for Mussolini to maintain hegemony, 'organic intellectuals' would be necessary to produce the means for achieving consensus. How they did so has not been subjected to scholarly analysis, particularly where their activities intersected with architecture and the arts. In this paper, I explore how intellectuals developed urban programmes for the city- of Ferrara that advanced the views of history and society espoused by Mussolini. Activities such as those described in this article represented two fundamental dimensions of fascist policy in the public realm: surveillance and spectacle. The dual tactics of surveillance and spectacle combined ideally in urban propaganda displays for the 1934 plebiscite, where the oversized head of Mussolini loomed over and symbolically surveyed the street, reminding Italians to vote yes (si), but at the same time embodying an ephemeral but grand urban spectacle (Figure 1). Fascists employed many tools to achieve their goals, including Journal of ContemporaryHistory (SAGE, London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol. 31 (1996), 347-372. This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 348 Journal of ContemporaryHistory FIGURE 1 Propaganda in the street for the 1934 plebiscite, Palazzo Braschi, Rome (Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Rome) censorshipand control of the media, mandatoryenrolmentin the party to be eligible for many types of employment, the establishment of fascist organizations for Italians of all ages, assuming control of a wide variety of existing organizations in order to This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillanceand Spectacle 349 bring them under the umbrella of fascism, persistent propaganda campaigns, among others.3 Two related strategies for the control of the public realm are of particular interest: one entailed the construction of new buildings, the re-fashioning of old ones, and the reconfiguration of urban fabrics through modifications, additions and enlargements of the existing street network; and the other an ever-increasing series of small-scale and ephemeral transformations.4 Innumerable examples of the former enterprises dot Italian cities, often components of larger complexes or urban projects, such as the Casa del Fascio in Trieste, the urban core of Genoa with the Istituto Nazionale per la Previdenza Sociale, the new communal offices in the city of L'Aquila, and the buildings erected for E'42, or EUR (Esposizione Universale di Roma).5 The Duce could be photographed against a backdrop of sleek modern buildings, reclamation and irrigation projects, or a new highway, thereby giving spatial expression to temporal achievements: the March on Rome in 1922 became the benchmark against which subsequent achievements were measured, the ground zero of the new era. The spatio-temporal moment of these accomplishments was given permanence in stone, in the form of dates rendered in Roman numerals followed by the letters EF (era fascista). But even ground zero had antecedents widely understood to be the progenitors of the fascist city. Historical revivals of many types, from local festivals to the excavation of the Roman Forum, had been popular since the mid-nineteenthcentury Risorgimento, so that in many respects the fascists simply built upon an existing tradition. Under fascism, however, the historical events and reconstructions differed in that they tended to redound to the glory of a combined revolutionary hero and government leader (Mussolini), and they targeted the masses far more specifically than before. Risorgimento politics were still elitist politics, but Mussolini's shrewd awareness of the need to win the loyalty of the masses led him to direct much of his efforts toward them in the public realms of Italian cities. Beyond the major public building projects, a second strategy entailed the projection of fascism into the city fabric by means of clever ephemeral alterations and by smaller permanent installations. Many of the ephemeral events took place on the occasion of Mussolini's state visits throughout the peninsula during This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 350 Journal of ContemporaryHistory the twenty-one years of fascist rule, with his ceremonial entrances following precisely in line with a long tradition of ceremonial visits by secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries.6 Since the Renaissance, such ceremonial occasions had been recorded in precise detail in separately published pamphlets, which also included lists of the dignitaries present, as well as detailed descriptions of the movement of the procession through the city streets, the apparati constructed in honour of the occasion, and the various ceremonies and entertainments held in honour of the visitors. Mussolini, too, passed beneath temporary triumphal arches exactly in the manner of the victorious generals of antiquity or Renaissance nobles and clerics, and his visits were recorded in nearly identical fashion in newspapers and pamphlets, with detailed itineraries, names of dignitaries, and an account of each stage of the visit.7 The most frequent and surely the most famous ephemeral events, the memory of which lingered long after the fall of fascism, remained the mass rallies. Familiar images of Mussolini addressing crowds of blackshirts in locations from Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum in Rome, and from piazzas, ports and buildings throughout the country, were repeated endlessly in film and graphics. By positioning himself in carefully selected sites, Mussolini allied himself at once with the deepest traditions and with the most forward-looking, modernizing impulses as emphasized in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, the crowning nineteenth-century achievement of bourgeois culture with its spacious arcades catering to conspicuous consumption. But settings such as the Galleria presented a mixed image to the fascists: on the one hand, it drew attention as a showpiece at the heart of modern Milan, and was the favoured area for strolling Milanese. When the fascists displayed propaganda here in favour of the plebiscite in 1934, they could be sure of its broad visibility by erecting it in the Galleria. On the other hand, the Galleria was a place where uncontrolled activities could and did take place, a potential site of rebellion and revolution. This second aspect of the public sphere threw into high relief the conflicts that concerned the fascists: while they sought to promote fascism through the selective appropriation of public space on behalf of party activities, they could not ignore the fact that casual, often oppositional public interaction - the other side of the programmed rally - also took place in the very same public This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillanceand Spectacle 351 realm. Rallies could be controlled, casual interactions could not. Fascist policy, then, pursued two strategies, with activities that represented two fundamental dimensions of fascist policy in the public realm: surveillance and spectacle. Through party and police surveillance, fascists could contain the most blatant manifestations of dissent, and indeed, the archives testify eloquently to policies designed to control the public domain.8 Through spectacle, they hoped to summon the support of the masses and engender support for and loyalty to the regime. Through spectacles, fascism offered diverse activities with multivalent meanings which nonetheless served to reinforce fascism, either by celebrating the accomplishments of Mussolini and fascism, or, less directly, by emphasizing specific themes, figures or eras from the past. The anonymous spies of the Ministry of the Interior therefore made spaces such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele a required stop in their wanderings through the city. There, 'sotto i portici della Galleria', one could find ... the old socialist carcass and enemies of Mussolini ... a reasonably numerous group of people which, except for a few, having enjoyed the benefits of the Fascist Party or of the Duce himself, do not fail to participate with a group of loafers living who knows how, spending their lives in the Galleria making pronouncements and predicting the most catastrophic misfortunes.9 Such comments point to the obvious fact that, although Mussolini enjoyed wide support, lingering opposition remained a thorn in the side of the regime; therefore fascism would need to appropriate public space in other ways. The public displays orchestrated by the PNF carried significant propaganda weight, repeated as they were in newspapers, books and postcards, each time emphasizing the twin accomplishments of Mussolini and fascism. Theatrical in inspiration, organization and operation, these public displays were not intended to accomplish any business, let alone to open a dialogue between Mussolini and the masses; rather they reinforced the shared values and ideals of the new fascist society, maintained a high level of enthusiasm, and emphasized the role of Mussolini in carrying these values and ideals forward. But however grand they looked in photographs and on newsreels, public assemblies were not unambiguous successes. Participation often depended on degrees of coercion, for the local party offices demanded verified This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 352 Journal of ContemporaryHistory reasons in order to excuse members from weekly demonstrations, parades, meetings, or from special assemblies called to greet Mussolini or some other official.'" Some fascists even began to question whether such gatherings in fact allowed the party to penetrate to the mass of people, or whether participation represented nothing more than superficial adherence to dictates rather than enthusiastic involvement. By 1932 observers detected an increasingly apathetic response to speeches, precisely because attendance was coerced, in one way or another. The numerous events requiring mass attendance led some critics to charge that the party leadership had abused what could, in principle, be a positive tool. One spy commented in 1932 that the Duce's motto, andare verso il popolo (go to the people), had so far been interpreted in only two ways: the usual parades and the usual speeches lasting a couple of hours." How, then, to bring Italians together en masse, in the public realm, and promote support for the regime? How to fix the public realm as an undeniably fascist one, without resorting to repression? Without entirely abandoning the mass rally - and indeed, inventing new occasions for it, such as at youth camps and sporting events - the fascists had to develop other types of activities, less directly propagandistic and less tedious, other ways of inscribing hierarchies of power in the urban realm and of summoning masses to activities that ultimately paid obeisance to fascism.'2 Politics proceeds according to images of reality, as Mussolini well knew, therefore the perception of that reality is allimportant and dependent on its staging, for events needed to be choreographed so as to offer clear, if mediated messages. The initiatives carried out in Ferrara under fascism were typical of accomplishments elsewhere in other Italian cities, with new buildings erected on the Viale Cavour for the Casa del Fascio and Post Office, and a new quarter developed in the area of Viale Vittorio Veneto.'3 But as with most Italian cities, beyond erecting a few new buildings, signs of the fascist presence were necessarily limited by historic centres dense with their own accumulations of centuries-old displays of power. In 1926 and in 1933, Ferrarese city officials, with the collaboration of the state, undertook two projects in which the government and, indeed, Mussolini personally played direct and significant roles: the This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillanceand Spectacle 353 reconstruction of the statues of Niccolo d'Este and Borso d'Este, and the reintroduction of the Palio - a traditional horse-race as one of a series of events in celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of the death of the Ferrarese poet, Ludovico Ariosto." These two fairly modest undertakings yield a surprisingly rich body of information about the use of urban space and the role of tradition in the modern fascist state. Let me begin with the statues of Niccolo and Borso d'Este (Figure 2). The Este family took control of Ferrara at the end of the twelfth century, as a victorious Guelph family in the ongoing battle between Guelphs and Ghibellines. As Guelphs, the Este family pledged their support to the Papacy and therefore owed fealty to the Pope.'5 Marquis Niccolo III d'Este (1383-1441) owed his prominence to his feats as a soldier, while Borso gained recognition for more cultivated pursuits in arts, letters and public administration. Historians described both in superlatives; indeed, Niccolo, says one, 'was a wise, prudent, magnanimous man of great ingenuity who lacked nothing but letters'."6 Following Niccolo's death, his heir Leonello summoned the famous Renaissance architectural theorist, Leon Battista Alberti, to Ferrara in 1443 to judge a competition for a gilded, bronze equestrian statue of Niccolo to be erected on one side of the Volto del Cavallo, opening into the courtyard of the original Palace of the Este family, now the Palazzo Comunale.'7 When Leonello died in 1450, it was left to Borso d'Este, another son, to complete the project and to inaugurate it in 1451. Borso promptly commissioned his own portrait in 1452, a bronze portrait of himself sitting in a chair held aloft on a column, erected in front of the Palazzo della Ragione in 1454 but relocated opposite the Niccolo portrait, on the other side of the Volto del Cavallo, in 1472. From the standpoint of architectural history, one other significant point needs to be made about the Niccolo statue: the base upon which it stood, presumably designed by Leon Battista Alberti himself, incorporated an antique column and took the form of a triumphal arch, thereby joining imperial imagery, antique architectural element, and contemporary political imperatives. This fusion of current political objectives with the legitimating force of antique aesthetic and political symbols was one of the chief hallmarks of Renaissance architecture both as set out in Alberti's theory and in the practice of Quattrocento architects, notably that of Alberti himself.'8 Connections with the This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of ContemporaryHistory 354 0 o0 0? N .s I _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~A This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillanceand Spectacle 355 antique served important legitimating functions, and brought contemporary architecture closer to the ideal of the antique precisely the goals and the strategies that underlay the revival of the antique under fascism. In neither case, however, were the aesthetic programmes of antiquity to be slavishly imitated; rather the goal was to imitate, to interpret, but also to improve upon the antique prototypes, thereby placing contemporary accomplishments securely on a par with the acknowledged mastery of antiquity.'9 Nothing so evidences the urban significance of the two statues as their larger-than-life presence in maps of Ferrara throughout the years of Este dominance (Figure 3). There the statues sat, for over three hundred years, until 1796, when French troops arrived in Ferrara during Napoleon's Lombard campaign. In an outburst of republican fervour, French troops tore down the two statues as emblems of aristocratic domination and shipped them to Modena, where they were melted down into cannon, leaving only the pedestals behind.20 Surprisingly, given the significance of the statues and the cultural prominence of Ferrara, only a few sketches and indications survived in maps. Subsequent guidebooks invariably mentioned the two columns and the missing statues, but only in the twentieth century did the stalwart Ferrarese librarian, Giuseppe Agnelli, decide that the time had come to reconstruct the two statues. In a booklet published in 1918, Agnelli recounted the history of the bronze figures and offered a plan for their reconstruction. Once he had located a donor and named Giacomo Zilocchi sculptor, the project slowly wound its way through the local and national bureaucracy.21When the proposal finally came before a panel of experts regularly convened by the Ministry of Public Instruction to give advice on a wide range of technical and artistic projects in 1927, the committee brusquely rejected Agnelli's proposal on the grounds that the absence of sufficient visual sources did not permit a precise reconstruction, and in any case, the proposed reconstruction violated contemporary criteria for restoration. Furthermore, the statues as designed were neither faithful antique reproductions nor did they represent a genuine and sincere expression of modem art'.22 Clearly frustrated with this response, Mayor Renzo Ravenna bypassed the ministry altogether and appealed directly to Mussolini. In a passionate telegram to the Duce, he reiterated the unanimous and overwhelming support of Ferrarese deputies, This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of ContemporaryHistory 356 W Wi J rC S S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. . . . --- /a---- This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 357 senators, local authorities, and provincial fine arts representatives for the reconstruction of the two statues, and pleaded with Mussolini to intervene and re-examine the issue.23 Less than a month later, word came back to Ferrara through the Ministry of Public Instruction that Mussolini had personally approved the project.24The records are silent on which Ferrarese fascists might have intervened on behalf of Agnelli's project, but Ferrara was full of famous fascists, including Italo Balbo, one of the most popular and well-known at the time because of his exploits in airplanes and later as Minister of the Air Force. Even without such intervention, however, the project would have been appealing to Mussolini, for it selected from Ferrara's history references to the days of patrician one-man rule rather than to republican or ecclesiastical control. The Niccolo statue was also the earliest example of the recreation of a bronze statue of this type since antiquity. The two statues - signorial warrior and cultivated prince - perfectly captured the twin images Mussolini sought to convey of himself as fascist Duce. The equestrian motif itself dates back to Hellenistic times, and was invariably associated with rulers, esteemed warriors or, with the advent of Christianity, saints. It is no coincidence that St George, who, mounted on his trusty steed, slew the dragon, happens to be the chief patron saint of Ferrara and, indeed, St George is represented repeatedly in Ferrara, including in the lunette of the Porta Maggiore of the Duomo, across the way from the Niccolo statue. While the dense layers of historic meaning that have accrued to the equestrian portrait range so broadly as to defy the significance of individual variations, here it simply conveys majesty grounded in imperial rule as transformed by a Renaissance prince.25 Imperial imagery was the primary source of the equestrian portrait as an emblem of majesty, although only two comparable statues were extant in fifteenth-century Italy: the statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome (still located at the Lateran when the Niccolo monument was commissioned in 1443) and the Regisole in front of the Duomo in Pavia. Medieval captains and podesta (mayor) such as Cangrande della Scala were also represented on horseback, often as part of funerary monuments.26 Niccolo's portrait ideally combines civic and religious motifs, Niccolo as the representative and vassal of the church as well as the local secular leader. The combination of the column forming part of its base and the configuration of the pedestal as a triumphal arch com- This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 358 Journal of ContemporaryHistory pellingly conveys the connections between imperial, spiritual and civic past, present and future. Sited in the most public, most central, and most significant section of the city, the monument commemorates not death but the living presence of the Este in the city - and that Borso initiated his own portrait almost as soon as he came to power only underscores the monument's emphasis on that presence. The location of the Niccolo portrait drew instant parallels with antiquity, for, as a triumphal arch situated in what Alberti referred to by its antique name, the forum, or main square of Ferrara, the monument responded to Alberti's requirement that a triumphal arch be located where a principal thoroughfare joins the forum.27 Such imagery ideally conveyed the finely nuanced messages that Mussolini also sought to convey: the beloved ruler prepared to take up arms but also a man of letters; the present rooted in the past but resolutely facing the future; the conflation of the civic, spiritual and private under fascism.28 It should come as no surprise that artists also represented Mussolini in equestrian portraits deliberately evoking imperial connections, such as the damaged relief at EUR, or even in photographs as he rode down the Via Appia.29 Resplendent in bronze, Niccol6 symbolically overlooked his urban domain just as surely as Mussolini did from the balcony of Piazza Venezia, or indeed, from any one of hundreds of others throughout Italy. But at the same time, the Niccol6 portrait participated in the Renaissance tradition of public spectacles sponsored by rulers in order to enhance personal glory, awe the masses, but also entertain them. Moreover, the Niccol6 portrait, invariably depicted as much larger than life in printed maps of the city, ideally portrayed the twin pillars of fascist urban programmes: surveillance and spectacle.30 The second great moment of restoration of the ducal past in Ferrara arrived just five years later in 1933. Mayor Renzo Ravenna submitted a project to the Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri in 1932 for a series of cultural events as part of the festivities celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of the death of one of the city's favourite sons, Ludovico Ariosto, author of Orlando Furioso and one of the greatest Italian poets and dramatists of the Renaissance.3' A citizen's committee presented the project after several years' work, in order to 'celebrate This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 359 the greatest poet with a series of cultural, artistic and folk manifestations that will summon the attention of scholars, artists and the people to the sum of the great poet's work and to the city that receives glory and splendour from his fame'.32 During the preceding years, the group had organized a series of lectures and conferences 'held in suggestive sites in our city, so rich with works of art and precious rooms that recall the bright period of Este domination'.33 Now, Ravenna urged, Ferrara should demonstrate its power and how its current beauty dovetailed with ancient glories." On the anniversary of Ariosto's death, 6 July 1933, they planned an official commemoration of the poet with major figures in Italian and international culture in attendance. A series of cultural, artistic and popular exhibitions complemented this event. In the cultural sphere, organizers planned to publish two volumes of Annali Ariostei edited by the city's librarian, Giuseppe Agnelli; to reprint a critical edition of one of Ariosto's comedies; to mount an exhibition of the manuscripts and prints of Ariosto and another of portraits and medals of him; and an exhibition of small bronzes from Ariosto's time. The most important artistic event was to be a major exhibition of Ferrarese painting from the Renaissance, scheduled to run from May to October in the Palazzo dei Diamanti and composed of works of art gathered from throughout the world. A second, smaller exhibition of contemporary art from the Ferrara region was also planned, along with the presentation of one of Ariosto's comedies and musical performances. Part of the celebrations would also emphasize the technical and agricultural accomplishments of fascism: an exhibition of hydraulic engineering in Emilia Romagna, another on regional land reclamation projects, another on industries working with reclamation machinery, yet another on agricultural products and electro-technical industries applied to agriculture, to be followed by a major national exhibition and congress on the cultivation of fruit and fruit trees. Finally, the mayor mentioned in passing the prospect of other events described as 'Manifestazioni folkloristiche popolari sportive', and the possible re-introduction of the traditional horse-race that pitted Ferrara's neighbourhoods against one another: the Palio of San Giorgio.35 Upon receiving the proposal from Ferrara, Mussolini personally took two immediate actions: he shifted control of the This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 360 Journal of ContemporaryHistory Ariosto centenary to the Accademia d'Italia in collaboration with Ferrara, no doubt with the idea of making sure that rural bumpkins did not make a mess of things and that the celebrations occurred with the requisite academic authority, and with bold red strokes he eliminated all the technical and agricultural exhibitions.36This decision also focused the entire cycle of celebrations on historical events rather than on the accomplishments of contemporary fascism. Because the enormous Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista was mounted in autumn 1932, perhaps yet another exhibition with the same themes rendered in sober and pedagogical tones was not necessary, for the exhibition planned for Ferrara certainly would never excite enthusiasm, nor would any of the events planned for Ferrara engage the urban massesclearly not what the Duce had in mind for the public in the summer of 1932.37But perhaps equally important, the celebration of a history that could now be seen through the light of fascism was itself a sufficient accomplishment in no need of further embellishment. When the city subsequently submitted a revised proposal, it clearly defined the 'Manifestazioni folkloristiche popolari sportive' as tennis, soccer, fencing and a national choral competition, but the re-establishment of the Palio now became the centre piece of these 'manifestazioni folkloristiche'.38 Celebrating important feast days with a horse-race between borghi or contrade was an old medieval custom in Italy and could be found in Florence, Siena, Asti as well as Ferrara, where it was also called the corsa dei cavalli barberi, for the horses came from Muslim countries such as Morocco.39 The Palio in Ferrara appeared in municipal records in 1259, and the Palio of St George (San Zorzo) in 1279.40 From the beginning, the Palio combined the religious and civil realms: although sponsored by the Este, the Palio nonetheless honoured the saints. In addition to the feast of S. Giorgio, the Palio was also run on Ferragosto (the Feast of the Assumption) during the fifteenth century, and on the occasion of illustrious visits, princely weddings, and exceptional festivals.4' During the seventeenth century it was also held on Fat Thursday and the feast of the Conversion of St Paul.42 The running of the Palio pitted different borghi and contrade against one another, with the first prize being a richly decorated banner (the palio), second prize a pig, and third prize a rooster. Although initiated as the popularly organized corsa dei cavalli This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 361 barberi, donkey races, races for women and for youngsters often supplemented the main horse-race. The Palio, in fact, became a major event in Ferrara each year, and as Cittadella wrote in 1864, 'In those times in which every princely court vied with the others for the most luxurious and rich public festivals, the Este family distinguished itself for grandiosity, magnificence and good taste.'43By the fifteenth century, under Niccolo and Borso, palios were also held in most of the towns controlled by the Este.4 The race had no fixed location in the streets of Ferrara. Over the centuries, the routes of the Palio rendered Ferrara's temporal dimension congruent with the spatial, as the routes followed the city's growth and thereby emphasized its most modern aspect. Initially held in the thirteenth century on Via Ripa Grande, from Borgo della Pioppa to Castel Tedaldo, by the fifteenth century the site had shifted to the street running from the Porta di Sotto to the church of St Peter; another racetrack ran from the church of St Peter to that of St Domenic; from St Anthony (behind St Gregory) to the Via Nuova delle Botteghe behind the Palazzo Ducale, and in the piazza itself, from Torre di Rigobello to the Tower of the Lions. Donkey races were run from the Porta di Sotto to the Porta di Gusmaria. In the sixteenth century, the location moved from the older part of the city to the wider streets of the newer districts, Via Giovecca and Via degli Angeli, and in the seventeenth century the race relocated yet again to Via di San Benedetto.45 When the Este family lost Ferrara in 1598 and the Papacy took over direct control of the city, the church still sponsored many local festivals, including masked balls at Carnevale, and the Palio, but with diminishing vigour and less regularity; the last Palio was run in 1860.46 The 1933 programme intended to revive the Palio with all its accoutrements, including all the traditional figures - the Console, the Massaro, the Giudice di Campo - in traditional costume, for a total of 272 officials on the field, all of whom had been listed in the Ferrarese municipal statutes of 1479 under Borso d'Este.47 Eight contrade and borghi were pitted against one another, so that instead of the passive spectacles provided by the Thespian Cars (travelling stage productions sponsored by the government), for example, the Ferrarese themselves starred in the Palio. From the beginning, the Palio intertwined civic and religious realms, becoming a generic festival to celebrate a variety of feast- This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 362 Journal of ContemporaryHistory days or important state occasions.48 The fascists chose to run the race in June to be more closely linked with the Ariosto celebrations. Just as in the past the site of the race shifted gradually from the oldest to the newest sections of the city, so under the fascists the racecourse shifted once again to Piazza Ariostea in the socalled Addizione Ercolano where, appropriately enough, an obelisk recalled the exploits of imperial antiquity.49 This also meant that the new race took place within the sharply delimited space of a piazza, although a vast one dedicated to Ariosto, which also allowed large numbers of spectators to be massed in one confined space, the better to draw them together as a coherent group. Regardless of the historical origins, however, in its new, twentieth-century version, the Palio was to emphasize the new, fascist city: not new in physical structure, although there were certainly new buildings and new districts, but new as a site reborn for the enactment of civic ritual. Ferrara, the mayor announced, had been 'renewed and regenerated under the guidance of the Duce', exactly as it had under the domination of the Este. As they marched toward the new Italy, the city wanted to demonstrate just how far it had come and how rich was the city's glorious but distant past; then the world would see that united Italy had but one great soul.50 In emphasizing the connections between Ferrara estense and Ferrarafascista, the mayor also conveniently rewrote the Palio's history, claiming that it had not been run for three hundred years.5 He affirmed in writing the conceptual telescoping of historical time between contemporary and Renaissance Ferrara that underlay both the reconstruction of the two portrait statues and the revival of the Palio. With the Ariosto festival, the Palio was revived for a very specific reason: I quote from the mayor's report, under the heading 'Ripresa del Palio di San Giorgio'. Having arranged the foregoing cultural and artistic events for the spiritual elevation of the cultivated and lovers of art, it seemed necessary to the Committee to insert into the festivities events having a folk character, but which nonetheless are linked with the era in which Ariosto lived. Thus was born the proposal to run the Palio again.52 And this particular festival was chosen because it was 'the most original of the feasts that cheered and exalted Ferrara during the period of Este domination'.53 The reading of history the mayor offered was a highly selective one, for however glorious those This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 363 times had been for the aristocracy and the ecclesiastics, the labouring masses had lived under more onerous conditions.54 At the same time as the Este family was hosting lavish public spectacles such as the Palio, it also returned its holdings to a feudal condition and exacted higher feudal dues and taxes than elsewhere in Italy. Even Antonio Frizzi, normally adulatory about the Este dominion, noted that in the late fifteenth century '[the Estense] had accumulated so much wealth that they were, as usual, hated by the people'.55 This was not the image of the Este that hagiographers recorded, nor was it the one recalled by the fascist administration: Ferrara under the Este was portrayed as a town where the benefits of feudal hierarchies were enjoyed by all. The depiction of the Palio in Francesco da Cossa's April panel in the fresco cycle for the Sala dei Mesi in the Palazzo Schifanoia perhaps renders the Renaissance conception of social and political hierarchy in Ferrara most clearly (Figure 4). Commissioned by Borso d'Este for his pleasure palace to celebrate his dominion over the city, the frescoes portray Borso enacting his public responsibilities and enjoying his private life in the context of the scheme of the entire world, with deities and planets ruling their spheres, and Borso ruling his. One small strip of da Cossa's April panel includes the running of the Palio in all its versions horses, donkeys, and foot races for women and men. The aristocracy stands above and apart from the racers in attitudes of solemn watchfulness as they view a display that can only be described as vulgar, with scantily clad men and women (one woman even displays her genitals) racing below them. The men may have been Jews, and the women prostitutes. Borso and Ercole Este repeatedly tried to ban prostitutes from the races in an attempt to upgrade and refine the race for Este ceremonial functions, apparently with no success.56 Just as the twentiethcentury version of the race proposed an uncomplicated, inaccurate account of Este dominion, so the new Palio expunged the ribald past of the race in deference to modem sensibilities. The clear attempt to involve the urban masses in the centennial celebrations and, by extension, in the activities of the fascists and fascist city administrations, was hardly an accident. The reports that Mussolini received from anonymous spies for the Ministry of the Interior and for the PNF repeatedly emphasized that This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of ContemporaryHistory 364 . ............... ~iO 'a~~~~~~~~1 C ' . . .....,. This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 365 the working class was the most disdainful of fascism, the most sceptical about its promises and the most critical and rebellious. '[The Party] tells us that the worker should not be inferior, his rights must be respected and cared for, but in practice the rights vanish and only the illusion remains', wrote one of the anonymous spies in 1937.57 Moreover, the lists of subversives diligently maintained by the Prefect of the various cities reveal an overwhelming preponderance of workers - ushers, masons, mechanics, bricklayers, marble cutters, drivers, farmers, typographers, railway workers, bookbinders - and only rarely an intellectual, a journalist, a scholar, or a professional.58 Working-class districts of cities, such as San Lorenzo in Rome, or the new borgate such as Primavalle and Trullo, remained hotbeds of dissent and anti-fascism, despite repeated round-ups of suspected subversives.5 Intellectuals, professionals, businessmen and industrialists were well-situated under fascism, for only rarely did accounts of serious discontent in these groups emerge from the regime's spies until the outbreak of the second world war. But the working class required special attention, for suppression could only contain the most outspoken opposition. Instead, the fascists had to combine seduction with coercion, the carrot with the stick. The consensus of intellectuals in general and the scepticism of the working class emerges not only in the documents of the Ministry of the Interior and the PNF, but also in the way cultural debates were played out under fascism. For the most part, intellectuals either supported the regime or tacitly consented to it; the relatively few opponents found themselves either sent into internal exile or forced to emigrate voluntarily.60 As the documentation on the bronze portrait statues and the Ariosto centenary reveal, a wide spectrum of intellectuals inside and outside local and state bureaucracies participated in the major cultural events of the era. With the marked increase in the pace and tempo of everything from exhibitions to the restoration of old buildings or art works under fascism, it comes as no surprise that librarians, architects, artists, bureaucrats, historians, critics, art historians, curators and others were eager to participate. These 'organic intellectuals' were, as Antonio Gramsci astutely realized, essential to the functioning of the regime and to constructing a consensus for fascism.6' But in this they differed little from intellectuals, artists, and other organic intellectuals who were operating on behalf of left-wing causes in Germany during This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 366 Journal of ContemporaryHistory the 1920s, Russia in the 1920s and 1930s, and on behalf of the New Deal in the United States during the 1930s.2 In each case, participation constituted a break from pre-first world war idealist traditions, a rejection of the 'l'art pour l'art' platform of the preceding generation, and the fulfilment of a new historic role for intellectuals, outside the ivory tower and directly engaged with the people. The excesses of the specific governments excited little, if any public comment from most intellectuals, who instead sought to give shape to their own vision of what the political system represented: such was the case most notably with Giuseppe Terragni (architect), Mario Sironi (painter), Massimo Bontempelli (writer), but it was equally true of less well-known figures such as Giorgio Cavaglieri (architect), Ugo Betti (writer), and P.M. Bardi (critic).63 On the other hand, members of the working class, long familiar with the weight of oppression, greeted fascism as sceptically as they did other political parties. The easy transfer from socialism to fascism that Paul Corner documented in Ferrara testifies to the thinness of working-class attachments to larger political formations.64 Mussolini's own family background in the small town of Predappio made him acutely aware of working-class attitudes and of the need, reinforced by the anonymous reports gathered by the party and by the Ministry of the Interior, to encourage working-class support for the party. Inevitably, the arena in which their efforts took place was the public spaces of cities. The highly public character of initiatives such as the two I have described in Ferrara typifies the fascist strategy and the participation of local 'organic intellectuals' in cities and towns throughout Italy, whether in groups of schoolgirls, afterwork leisure groups, in the PNF itself or in apparently apolitical activities. The integrative force of traditions such as the replaced statues or the re-introduction of the Palio could not operate except in the public realm, in effect, in the centre of the city, where the twin pillars of fascist urbanism - surveillance and spectacle - could be given full expression. The point was not just the spectacle itself, but the attempts to domesticate fascism and to emphasize its local character, to affirm it as a political movement as forward-looking as local lore claimed the Este family to have been in the fifteenth century, but as rooted in the past as the Este likewise claimed to be, and in both cases by means of public display. As is common of those in authority, Mussolini perceived tradi- This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 367 tion as a collective organizing force to sharpen fascism's identity and to serve as a mediating agent for the mass understanding of fascism. In this, as we have seen, he simply gave voice to the broadly-held views of a wide spectrum of intellectuals. As in the fifteenth century, the appeal to such traditions was intended to bind the aesthetic and political realms of the community together as a cohesive unit and to ensure continuity and legitimacy for the government based upon that newly unified community. The past was not meant to be embraced merely on its own terms but, although apparently paradoxical, evoking the past was a means of transforming the movement into a modern (and of course, fascist) state. The challenge that the Ferrarese fascists confronted was to appropriate the authority attached to the Estense, but to follow up on their accomplishments by surpassing them, as the Este themselves believed they had done with the legacy of the Roman Empire. Notes I owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people who have helped in different ways with this project. The staff at the Archivio Centrale dello Stato located hard-to-find material; I am especially grateful to Dottoressa Giovanna Tosati and Leonardo Capobianchi for going beyond the call of duty to assist me. Luigi Oggianui of Istituto Luce helped with illustrations, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat of the University of North Carolina, Denise Bratton of Cornell University, and Deanna Shemek of the University of California, Santa Cruz, read and commented on earlier versions of this paper, and shared their own research with me. I presented versions of the paper at the Italian Cultural Institute Conference, 'Fascinating Fascism', in October 1993; at the ETH-Honggerberg, Zurich, in December 1993; and at a seminar at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, in April 1994. The article is dedicated to the memory of my son, Christopher. 1. I have written about the fascist appropriation of the street in 'Architecture and Theater: The Street in Fascist Italy' in Stephen Foster (ed.), 'Event' Arts and Art Events (Ann Arbor 1990), 231-52; and 'City and Theater: The Rhetoric of Fascist Architecture', Stanford Italian Review (1989), 165-94. See also Jeffrey Schnapp, '18 BL: Fascist Mass Spectacle', Representations, 43 (Summer 1993), 89-125. 2. Antonio Gramsci, Quaderni del carcere, 6 vols (Rome 1977), especially vol. 2, Gli intellettuali; in the English version, translated by Quentin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith, Selections from Prison Notebooks (New York 1979), 3-23 especially. When I broached this and a related argument about the role of intellec- This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 368 Journal of ContemporaryHistory tuals and artists in Gramsci to Emilio Gentile recently, he responded by proposing that Gramsci's whole notion of hegemony, and hence the role and function of intellectuals, derived from his observations of fascism. A good English discussion of Gramsci's hegemony is in T.J. Jackson Lears, 'The Concept of Cultural Hegemony: Problems and Possibilities', The American Historical Review, 90, 3 (June 1985), 567-93. 3. Victoria Di Grazia, The Culture of Consent: Mass Organization of Leisure in Fascist Italy (Cambridge 1981); Philip Cannistraro, La fabbrica del consenso, fascismo e mass media (Rome-Bari 1975). See also the unpublished PhD dissertation of Libero Andreotti, 'Art and Politics in Fascist Italy' (MIT 1988) for a solid discussion of some propaganda strategies; and Ghirardo (ed.), 'Architecture and Culture in Fascist Italy', special issue of the Journal of Architectural Education, v. 45/2 (February 1992), with articles by Libero Andreotti, Jeffrey Schnapp and Brian McLaren. 4. The best outline of such a programme remains Spiro Kostof, 'The Emperor and The Duce: The Planning of Piazzale Augusto Imperatore in Rome' in H. Millon and L. Nochlin (eds), Art and Architecture in the Service of Politics (Cambridge, MA 1978), 270-325. 5. Ibid. 6. See 'Narrazione della Partenza del Serenissimo Sig. D. Cesare da Este, Duca di Modena & di Reggio', facsimile reproduced in Bonner Mitchell, 1598. A Year of Pageantry in Late Renaissance Ferrara (Binghamton, NY 1990), 77-83. See also Bonner Mitchell, Italian Civic Pageantry in the High Renaissance: A Descriptive Bibliography of TriumphalEntries and Selected other Festivals for State Occasions (Florence 1979), 33. 7. Such was the case with a brochure published on the occasion- of Mussolini's visit to the Agro-Pontino in July 1934, complete with an account of every fifteen minutes of his trip. 8. Police and party spies chased youthful protesters who scrawled graffitti on walls, but they also recorded in detail the names, addresses, occupations and views of suspected subversives, dividing them into categories to indicate degrees of danger to the state. These records are located in two principal record groups at the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome (ACS): Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF), Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Provincie, and Ministero dell'Interno, Casellario Politico. 9. Anonymous report, 18 July 1931, Milan, PNF Situazione Politica ed Economica delle Provincie, Busta 7, 'Politica, attivita varia. Milano situazione'. 10. Anonymous Report, Milan, 3 April 1931. ACS. PNF Situazione Politica Economica delle Provincie (henceforth Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov.), Busta 7, sottofascicolo 86, 'Ufficio voci'. 11. Anonymous report, Rome, 6 July 1932. ACS. PNF Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., Busta 19. The streets and piazzas offered more than sites for orchestrated displays of mass support for Mussolini: they were also the locus of considerable covert attention from the regime. The Ministry of the Interior maintained a network of spies in cities and towns throughout the peninsula, whose duty it was to report anonymously on what was being said, what the mood of different social classes was, and how they were responding to fascist activities and programmes; the PNF did the same. Spies included priests stationed in the Vatican City, women, and men from a wide range of professions and commercial activities. Unfortunately, the This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 369 Interior Ministry's records for the city of Ferrara (and all cities beginning with the letters A to G) are missing from the State Archives. 12. Most of these types of activities have been examined by historians. But there were other types of activity undertaken with the support of local party officials and with the blessing of the state, its various institutions, and the national party. A wide range of cultural institutions took on a fascist aura, as part of the broad campaign to endow the PNF and the fascist state with intellectual and cultural credentials, such as the venerable Accademia dei Lincei, the Accademia d'Italia, and so forth. 13. The Casa del Fascio, inaugurated on 23 February 1931 by Italo Balbo, was designed by Ing. Giorgio Gandini; the Palazzo delle Poste e Telegrafi by Angelo Mazzoni was completed in 1930. For a contemporary view of these two buildings, see Gualtiero Medri, Ferrara: Brevemente Illustrata nei Suoi Principali Monumenti (Lunghini and Bianchini 1933), 139-43. 14. The bibliography on the two statues extends back to the fifteenth century, but the most complete recent account is Denise Bratton, 'Dynastic Image, Prospettiva, and Urban Signification: The Equestrian Portrait of Niccol6 d'Este in Ferrara, 1443-1451', unpublished MA thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993. 1 am grateful to her for discussing the Niccol6 statue at length and sharing her research with me. See also Charles M. Rosenberg, 'Art in Ferrara during the Reign of Borso d'Este (1450-1471)', unpublished PhD dissertation (The University of Michigan 1974). 15. The story is well told in Ermanno Lanzoni, Ferrara. Una citta nella storia (Ferrara 1984), and Ella Noyes, The Story of Ferrara (London 1904). 16. Giuseppe Antenore Scalabrini, Memorie Storiche delle Chiese di Ferrara e de' suoi Borghi (Ferrara 1773); Leandro Alberti, Descrittione di Tutta Italia di F. Leandro Alberti Bolognese (Bologna 1550), 309. 17. Noyes, The Story of Ferrara, 278. 18. Leon Baptista Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, translated by Joseph Rykwert, Neil Leach, and Robert Tavernor (Cambridge, MA and London 1988). 19. In recent years several articles have appeared that assess the fascist cult of romanita and related issues: most recently, Emilio Gentile, 'Il fascismo come religione politica', Storia Contemporanea, XXI, 6 (December 1990), 1079-106; see also M. Cagnetta, Antichisti e Impero Fascista (Bari 1979); Dino Cofrancesco, 'Appunti per un'analasi del mito romano nell'ideologia fascista', Storia Contemporanea, XI, 3 (June 1980), 383-411; Romke Visser, 'Fascist Doctrine and the Cult of the Romanita', Journal of Contemporary History, 27, 1 (January 1992), 5-22. Little has been published on the architecture: the best is still William MacDonald, 'Excavation, Restoration and Italian Architecture of the 1930s' in H. Searing (ed.), In Search of Modern Architecture (New York 1982), 298-320. 20. Giuseppe Agnelli, Ferrara e Pomposa (Bergamo n.d.), 121-3. Agnelli also wrote a separate book about the two statues as part of his campaign to have them reconstructed. Agnelli, I Monumenti di Niccolo III e Borso d'Este in Ferrara. Atti e Memorie della Deputazione Ferrarese di Storia Patria (Ferrara 1918). References to the statues appear frequently in earlier guides and histories of the city; see Antonio Frizzi, Guida del Forestiere (Ferrara 1787), 45. 21. Memorandum from the Commissione Speciale Riunita dal Ministero per dar Parere su Progetti Tecnici Artistici, 18 October 1926. ACS. Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Direzione Generale. AA.BB.AA. Div. 1924-27. Busta 381 This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 370 Journal of ContemporaryHistory (Consiglio Superiore). 22. Memorandum, 18 October 1926. 23. Renzo Ravenna to Prime Minister Mussolini, 28 February 1927. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri (PCM) 1927, Fascicolo 5.2.984. 24. Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione to Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 4 March 1927. ACS, PCM. 1927, Fascicolo 5.2.984. 25. Bratton, 'Dynastic Image', 77-92. 26. Ibid., 21. 27. Alberti, On the Art of Building, 265. 28. Diane Ghirardo, 'Italian Architects and Fascist Politics: The Rationalists' Role in Regime Building', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XXXIX, 2 (May 1980),109-27. 29. The relief on the building of Rome by Publio Morbiducci (1937) is located on the Ente EUR building. 30. The literature on spectacle during the Renaissance is extensive; among the key sources are Richard Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York 1980); Roy Strong, Art and Power: Renaissance Festivals 1450-1650 (Suffolk 1984); Richard Ingersoll, 'The Ritual Use of Public Space in Renaissance Rome', unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1985; Antonella Manicardi, 'I trionfl modenese dei duchi d'Este 1452-1584', n, ser. XI, 6 (1984), 105-40; 31. 'Celebrazione del 4 Centenario della Morte di Lodovico Ariosto. Schema di Programma'. Renzo Ravenna to Mussolini, July 1932, forwarded by Mussolini to Guglielmo Marconi, Accademia d'Italia, and returned with letter from Mussolini, 16 July 1932. ACS. PCM. 1931-3. Fascicolo 14.2/3237. 32. Renzo Ravenna to S.E. Capo del Governo, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri, 10 November 1932. ACS.PCM. 1931-3. Fascicolo 14.2/3237, 1. 33. Ravenna to Capo del Govemo, 10 November 1932, 1-2. 34. Ibid., 2. 35. 'Celebrazione', July 1932, 2. 36. Ibid., 3; Mussolini to Marconi, 16 July 1932. 37. After decades, a few articles have begun to appear about the Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista: see Diane Ghirardo (ed.), 'Architecture and Culture in Fascist Italy', Journal of Architectural Education, 45/2 (February 1992), special issue with articles by Libero Andreotti, Diane Ghirardo, Jeffrey Schnapp, Brian McLaren; Jeffrey Schnapp, 'Epic Demonstrations: Fascist Modernity and the 1932 Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution' in R. Golsan (ed.), Fascism, Aesthetics and Culture (Hanover, NH 1992); Marla Stone, 'Staging Fascism: The Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution', Journal of Contemporary History, 28, 2 (April 1993), 215-43. 38. Ravenna to Capo del Govemo, 10 November 1932, 9-10. The exhibition of Ferrarese art from the Renaissance was the most costly of the events planned for the centennial, and the Palio one of the least expensive: the exhibition was estimated at 800,000 lire, and the Palio at 70,000, although they expected to recover all but 30,000 from paid admissions. Indeed, out of a total anticipated expense of 1,015,000 lire, only 100,000 was to be spent on the 'manifestazioni popolari', from fencing and sharpshooting competitions, tennis, and the Palio, of which they expected to recover 40,000. 39. Alan Dundes and Alessandro Falassi, La Terra in Piazza: An Interpretation This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Ghirardo: Surveillance and Spectacle 371 of the Palio of Siena (Berkeley 1975), 2-4. Luciano Artusi and Silvano Gabbrielli, Lefeste di Firenze dalla Candelora a Berlingaccio (Rome 1991), 184-9. 40. Luigi Napoleone Cittadella, Notizie relative a Ferrara per la Maggior Parte Inedite Ricavate da Documenti (Ferrara 1864), 210-12; Nino Franco Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara (Rovigo 1968), 12. 41. Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 14. 42. Ibid., 39. 43. Cittadella, Notizie relative a Ferrara, 210. 44. Ibid., 215. 45. Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 14, 31, 37-8. 46. Ibid., 43-4. 47. Ravenna to Capo del Govemo, 10 November 1932, 9; Statuti Municipali Ferraresi, Book X, Rubrica 41, 284. 48. Cittadella, Notizie relative a Ferrara, 210-12. 49. Four rioni participated: S. Paolo, S. Benedetto, S. Spirito, S. Maria in Vado; and four borghi: S. Giorgio, S. Luca, S. Giacomo and S. Giovanni. The rules and regulations for the renewed Palio have been published in Visentini, Il Palio di Ferrara, 113-31. 50. Ravenna to Capo del Govemo, 10 November 1932, 2. 51. The date he was referring to was the last Palio sponsored by the Este family rather than the last Palio altogether. Ravenna to Capo del Govemo, 10 November 1932, 9. 52. Ibid. 53. Ibid. 54. Lino Martini, Lo Stato Estense (Turin 1987), 18-34. 55. Antonio Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, 2nd ed. (Ferrara 1850), vol. IV, 118-33. 56. Deanna Schemek, 'Circular Definitions: Configuring Gender in Italian Renaissance Festival', Renaissance Quarterly (Spring 1994). Shemek proposes an equally political reading of the Renaissance Palio, but she also undertakes a provocative analysis of gender relations through her study of the Palio. I am grateful to her for allowing me to review her unpublished manuscript while I was completing this paper, and for providing me with some new documentation. 57. Anonymous report, Milan, 12 January 1937. ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., busta 7, 'Politica - attivita varia'. See other anonymous reports from Milan, 28 March 1939, 20 November 1938, in the same fascicolo; also anonymous reports from Rome, 5 January 1932, 19 May 1932, 29 September 1936, 13 October 1936. ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., Busta 19. 58. 'Proposta di assegnazione al confino di sovversivi pericolosi', Questura di Roma to Ministry of Interior, 5 September 1939. ACS. Ministero dell'Intemo. Casellario Politico, busta S1 3-ABis, fascicolo 2; also Prefect of Milan to Ministry of Interior, List of Subversives, 15 November 1933. Milan. ACS. Ministero dell'Intemo. SI 3 /Pacco 2, Milano, protocollo 040916. 59. See anonymous report, Rome, 5 October 1936 and 5 January 1932 ACS. PNF. Sit. Pol. Econ. Prov., busta 19, for accounts of sentiments at San Lorenzo, and of sentiments in general among the working class. 60. On the participation of intellectuals in the fascist regime, see Philip Cannistraro, Lafabbrica del consenso:fascismo e mass media (Bari 1975); Victoria De Grazia, The Culture of Consent (New York 1981); Emilio Gentile, Gli origini This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 372 Journal of ContemporaryHistory dell'ideologiafascista 1918-25 (Bari 1975); Mario Isnenghi, Intellettuali militanti e intellettualifunzionari (Turin 1979); Gabriele Turi, Ilfascismo e il consenso degli intellettuali (Bologna 1980). 61. Gramsci, Gli intellettuali. I have argued elsewhere that Gramsci's programme for rupturing idealist traditions and engaging intellectuals and artists directly with the people was as much on the agenda of the left as the right. Ghirardo, 'Architects, Exhibitions and the Politics of Culture in Fascist Italy' in Journal of Architectural Education, 45/2 (February 1992), 67-75. 62. For a discussion of how architects participated in aspects of popular culture, see Ghirardo, 'Architects, Exhibitions', 67-8. 63. Ghirardo, 'Politics of a Masterpiece: the Vicenda of the Facade Decoration of the Casa del Fascio, Como 1936-39', Art Bulletin, LXII, 3 (September 1980), 466-78; Emily Braun, 'Mario Sironi and a Fascist Art', in Italian Art in the Twentieth Century (London and Munich 1989), 173-80; Massimo Bontempelli, 'Principii', in Quadrante, 3 (May 1933); see also Ruth Ben-Ghiat's provocative discussion of realism in cinema, literature and philosophy, 'From Fascism to AntiFascism: The Realist Aesthetic in Italy, 1930-50', forthcoming in The Journal of Modern History. 64. Paul Corner, Fascism in Ferrara 1915-1925 (London 1975). Diane Yvonne Ghirardo is Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture at the University of Southern California. She has published many articles and books, including Building New Communities: New Deal America and Fascist Italy ( 1989), Out of Site: A Social Criticism of Architecture (1991) and Architecture after Modernism (1996). She is currently completing a study of architecture in the US after 1970, and is researching women's spaces in Italian cities since the Renaissance. This content downloaded from 132.174.255.3 on Sun, 22 Sep 2013 11:03:46 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions