Type: Limited edition prints
Size: 48cm x 33cm / 65cm x 50cm
Tirage: 100 copies each
A pencil drawing of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, also known as the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro, or in everyday speech as the Colosseo Quadrato (“Square Colosseum”) in Rome.
Designed in 1938 by Italian architects: Giovanni Guerrini, Ernesto La Padula, and Mario Romano. The building is an example of Italian Rationalism and 1930’s architecture with neoclassical design, representing romanita, a philosophy which encompasses the past, present, and future all in one. The monumentality of the structure was meant to reflect the regime’s new course in Italian history.
The design of the “Square Colosseum” was inspired by the Colosseum, and the structure was intended by Mussolin! as a celebration of the older Roman
landmark. Similar to the Colosseum, the palace has a series of superimposed loggias, shown on the facade as 6 rows of 9 arches each.
Atop all four sides of the building runs an inscription taken from a speech that Mussolin! delivered on 2 October 1935: “Un popolo di poeti, di artisti, di eroi, di santi, di pensatori, di scienziati, di navigatori, di
trasmigratori” (‘a nation of poets, of artists, of heroes, of saints, of thinkers, of scientists, of navigators, of migrators”).
At the 4 corners of the podium are placed four equestrian sculptural groups by Publio Morbiducci and Alberto de Felci, representing the Dioscuri, the two mythical Greek heroes, sons of Zeus and Leda.
Around the base of the building are 28 additional statues of approximately 3.4 meters in height, each under an arch, illustrating various industries and trades.
Moving around the building clockwise from the entrance, the statues represent:
Heroism, Music, Handicrafts, Political Genius, the Social Order, Labor, Agriculture, Philosophy, Commerce, Industry, Archaeology, Astronomy, History,
Inventive Genius, Law, Architecture, the Supremacy of Navigation, Sculpture, Mathematics, the Genius of the Theatre, Chemistry, Printing, Medicine, Geography, Physics, the Genius of Poetry, Painting and Military genius.
