Piazza Navona 1915 - 1920

Curator: Standing before us is Giuseppe Graziosi’s etching, "Piazza Navona," created sometime between 1915 and 1920. The work depicts the iconic Roman square. What strikes you about it? Editor: The first thing that hits me is how ominous and gothic it feels! The light is so contrast-heavy that the monumentality of Piazza Navona seems almost oppressive. Curator: I see that. The dark lines and dense cross-hatching do give it a rather weighty feel. For me, the obelisk in the composition operates as more than just a landmark. In ancient Egyptian iconography, obelisks represent solar power and national triumph. To see one so dark and dominating creates a tension here. Editor: Precisely! Especially in the context of early 20th-century Italy, right after the First World War. Monumental architecture carries echoes of national identity and sometimes, unfortunately, political power struggles. Do you think Graziosi intentionally injected this unease into his portrayal, given the social climate of the time? Curator: Perhaps. The figures, nearly swallowed by the scale of the architecture, also feel emblematic. Their placement seems to underline human diminishment within systems of power. This relates to traditional artistic and religious symbols of humbleness, I think. Editor: Right, the scene becomes charged with that underlying socio-political commentary. But Graziosi was working during a period heavily influenced by movements like Neo-Impressionism. Doesn't this mark a shift where the relationship to past forms is re-examined to produce contemporary art? Curator: Exactly! In that view, Piazza Navona itself might operate more like a stage upon which older forms receive a re-staging that questions past notions of triumph. By embedding these layered iconographic implications within his work, Graziosi doesn’t offer simple admiration of tradition, but a complex investigation of its continuing role in the modern era. Editor: A chilling performance. Ultimately, what strikes me now is how successfully Graziosi transformed a celebrated Baroque space into a moment pregnant with anxiety about modernity’s unfolding political reality. Curator: For me, it serves as a powerful reminder of the cultural memory embedded in even the most seemingly celebratory spaces, and our human compulsion to project ourselves onto symbolic landscapes.