The lion, the emblems and the wardrobe: Some of D’Annunzio’s ’Annunzio’s Renaissance and Baroque Secrets in the Vittoriale

A lecture by Alessandro Giammei, Princeton University.

Italy’s most famous late-modern poet, novelist, war hero, and viveur was also a collector (and forger!) of medals, a peruser of antique illustrated books, and an exquisite interior decorator. Such peculiar qualities made Gabriele D’Annunzio an extraordinary re-user and re-inventor of Renaissance and Baroque word-image devices called emblems and imprese. However, this sophisticated line of work has been ignored or misunderstood by scholars, by readers, and by the many devotees that today repeat (and even retweet) his memorable mottos ignoring their erudite 17th century humanistic origins. Through the analysis of decorated stationary, bookplates, and furniture—most notably, of a wardrobe—I will take a tour in D’Annunzio’s emblematic masterpiece: his villa in Gardone, a mysterious theatre of modernized verbal and visual allegories that still awaits to be deciphered.

In ENGLISH.

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