Venedig oder Rom – Disegno e Colore. Ein Topos der Kunstkritik und seine Folgen

Partendo dal concetto di 'regionalismo' oppure d' identità regionale nell'interpretazione che ne ha dato Fernand Braudel ci rendiamo conto che il modo di guardare Venezia e l'arte veneziana con una certa ottica si forma a partire del romanticismo. Sono autori quali John Ruskin e Hippolyte Taine che sulla base della teoria del 'milieu' hanno dato inizio a un metodo della storia dell'arte ottocentesca che identifica il carattere del luogo e della sua gente con l'arte che vi viene prodotta. Il concetto teorico che sta alla base di questo modo di interpretare la pittura, deriva però dal Vasari e si riferiva all'opposizione artistica tra Venezia e Firenze, e al loro antagonismo che secondo Vasari vedeva vincitore il disegno. Dopo Vasari questo concetto viene ripreso da altri teorici italiani, ma all'inizio del Settecento il dibattito si sposta in Francia dove de Piles sulla scia del 'debat des anciens et modernes' dando la palma a Rubens invece di Poussin, prende la parte del colore. Grazie alla diffusione del nuovo gusto per il colore che si diffonde dalla Francia per tutta l'Europa, l'arte veneziana acquista una grandissima riputazione dalla quale approfittano soprattutto i pittori moderni veneziani attivi all'estero, durante il Settecento. Davanti questo sfondo viene sottolineata l'importanza di Venezia per il giovane Mengs che deve il suo primo successo al 'ritratto a pastelli', seguendo il gusto del sovrano sassone Augusto III. A causa dell'incarico per il quadro della chiesa cattolica di Dresda il pittore si porta a Venezia dove studia l'Assunta di Tiziano che si rispecchia nel quadro per Dresda. Dall'incontro con l'arte di Tiziano nasce un intenso dialogo teorico con la sua pittura di modo che Tiziano viene incluso da Mengs nella 'trias' dei tre primi pittori della storia della pittura per la perfezione del suo colore. Tale rivalutazione di Tiziano, pubblicata nei suoi scritti, porta alla revisione generale dei pregiudizi accademici verso la scuola veneziana sul livello teorico e pratico. A Venezia è Andrea Memmo, basandosi sui scritti di Mengs, a dare con la sua 'Orazione' davanti l'Accademia nel 1787 una nuova visione quando abbandona la tradizionale gerarchia 'disegno, colore e chiaroscuro' e con essa anche la tradizionale classifica delle scuole. Angelika Kauffmann che ritrae Memmo durante il suo soggiorno veneziano rappresenta forse il tipo di pittura che Memmo intese come ideale ed è una pittura che riunisce le qualità dei grandi maestri del passato facendolo confluire in un gusto universale. Spetterà poi al Lanzi di introdurre l'idea di una nuova pittura di carattere nazionale che si verifica durante l'Ottocento con i 'Macchiaioli' che danno la prevalenza al colore e non al disegno.

Italia: La chiusura della Casa dell’Emigrante come spunto riflessione sui rientri degli emigrati italiani

In the literature on migration, as well as in social policies regarding this phenomenon, the situation of returning emigrants receives scant attention. This essay establishes an intricate connection between attitudes and policies that prevail in a country regarding emigration and those concerning immigration. The case of Italy provides a prime example for this as it once was a classical country of emigration, only to turn, in recent decades, into a country that appears highly attractive (and relatively accessible) to immigrants. The essay traces the pervasive ambiguity that characterizes this country’s attitudes towards emigration from the beginning of mass emigration shortly after the unification of Italy in 1868 to the emigration policies of the fascist regime of Mussolini and the post-World War II waves of emigration right through to the corresponding ambiguity concerning the status of immigrants in contemporary society, including the indifferent treatment of returning Italian emigrants who constitute a considerable numerical phenomenon. These reflections take their origin from the impending closure of a reception centre in Lazio, the Casa dell’Emigrante near Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, Province of Frosinone, ostensibly for financial reasons. This centre had been the only one of its kind in the whole of Italy dealing officially with the needs of repatriated Italians. It had assisted returning emigrants both with practical matters, such as negotiating the labyrinth of Italian bureaucracy , and with psychological implications of a return, which are often considerable given the time lag of experiences with current social realities and the frequently unrealistic expectations associated with the return. Questions of identity become highly acute in those circumstances. The threatened closure of the centre illustrates the unwillingness of the state to face up to the factual prevalence of migratory experiences in the country as a whole and as a core element of national history, experiences of migration in both directions. The statistics speak for themselves: of the 4.660.427 persons who left Italy between 1880 and 1950, 2.322.451 have returned, almost exactly 50%. To those have to be added 3.628.430 returnees of the 5.109.860 emigrants who left Italy between the end of World War II and 1976 for Europe alone. Attitudes towards people leaving changed ostensibly over time. In the first two decades after Unification parliament on the one hand wanted to show some concern over the fate of its citizens, not wanting to abandon those newly created citizens entirely to their own destiny, while on the other portraying their decisions to emigrate as expressions of individual liberty and responsibility and not necessitated by want and poverty. Emigrants had to prove, paradoxically that they had the requisite means to emigrate when in fact poverty was largely driving them to emigrate. To admit that publicly would have amounted to admission of economic and political failure made evident through emigration. In contrast to that Mussolini’s emigration policies not only enforced large population movements within the territory of Italy to balance unemployment between regions and particularly between North and South, but also declared it citizen’s duty to be ready to move also to the colonies, thereby ‘turning emigration as a sign of social crisis into a sign of national strength and the success of the country’s political agenda’ (Gaspari 2001, p. 34). The duplicity continued even after World War II when secret deals were done with the USA to allow a continuous flow of Italian immigrants and EU membership obviously further facilitated the departure of unemployed, impoverished Italians. With the growing prosperity of Italy the reversal of the direction of migration became more obvious. On the basis of empirical research conducted by one of the author on returning emigrants four types of motives for returning can be distinguished: 1. Return as a result of failure – particularly the emigrants who left during the 1950-1970 period usually had no linguistic preparation, and in any case the gap between the spoken and the written language is enormous with the latter often being insurmountable. This gives rise to nostalgic sentiments which motivates a return into an environment where language is familiar 2. Return as a means of preserving an identity – the life of emigrants often takes place within ghetto-like conditions where familiarity is being reproduced but under restricted conditions and hence not entirely authentic. The necessity for saving money permits only a partial entry into the host society and at the same time any accumulating savings add to the desire to return home where life can be lived fully again – or so it seems. 3. Return of investment – the impossibility to become fully part of another society often motivates migrants to accumulate not so much material wealth but new experiences and competences which they then aim to reinvest in their home country. 4. Return to retire – for many emigrants returning home becomes acute once they leave a productive occupation and feelings of estrangement build up, in conjunction with the efforts of having invested in building a house back home. All those motives are associated with a variety of difficulties on the actual return home because, above all, time in relation to the country of origin has been suspended for the emigrant and the encounter with the reality of that country reveals constant discrepancies and requires constant readjustment. This is where the need for assistance to returning emigrants arises. The fact that such an important centre of assistance has been closed is further confirmation of the still prevailing politics of ambiguity which nominally demand integration from nationals and non-nationals alike but deny the means of achieving this. Citizenship is not a natural result of nationality but requires the means for active participation in society. Furthermore, the experiences of returning immigrants provide important cues for the double ambivalence in which immigrants to Italy live between the demands made on them to integrate, the simultaneous threats of repatriation and the alienation from the immigrants’ home country which grows inexorably during the absence. The state can only regain its credibility by putting an end to this ambiguity and provide to returning emigrants, and immigrants alike, the means of reconstructing strong communal identities.

Sui Generis Rights for the Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions Policy Implications

Within the international community there have been many calls for better protection of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs), for which classic instruments of intellectual property rights do not seem to fit. In response, at least five model laws have been advanced within the last 40 years. These are referred to as sui generis because, though they generally belong to the realm of intellectual property they structurally depart from classic copyright law to accommodate the needs of the holders of TCEs. The purpose of this paper is to provide a well-founded basis for national policy makers who wish to implement protection for TCEs within their country. This is achieved by systematically comparing and evaluating economic effects that can be expected to result from these regulatory alternatives and a related system or private ordering. Specifically, we compare if and how protection preferences of local communities are met as well as the social costs that are likely to arise from the different model laws.