The âGothic Queenâ: the Myth of Siena in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Saverio Luigi Battente

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The âGothic Queenâ: the Myth of Siena in the 19th and 20th Centuries

in A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena

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Saverio Luigi Battente

Saverio Luigi Battente
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Art:: Kapitel

Seiten:: 263â287

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004444829_015

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Abstract

Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Siena was the subject of a renewed interest on the part of nationalist intellectuals who were influenced by the Florentine journals circulating at the time. Beginning with Corradini, Siena began to mythologize their civic virtues as an example on which to forge their national equivalents, first by the nationalist movement and later, in expanded form, in the Fascist era. However, in the background remained the challenges posed by modernization and the proper response to them, including even its repudiation. As a âdaughter of the roadâ, so termed by E. Sestan because of the cityâs location on the Via Francigena, Siena was at the time one of the stops on the Grand Tour of Italy and styled herself a sort of time capsule, zealously enclosed in her glorious past. It was in this period, following the late 16th-century refeudalization indicated by the myth of R. Romeoâs Italia mille anni, that the city took on the task of rewriting the history of the âGothic Queenâ in order to convey her from the Renaissance to the Risorgimento in an unaltered form. To accomplish this, they even enlisted the House of Savoy who, donating their heraldic banners to those of the contrade of the Palio (the heritage of the medieval guilds), sought to connect a non-existent national past with a still unwritten present. Moreover, the attention being given to Sienese history was not unknown to Sismondi who was seeking an explanation of the system of tenant farming.

My contribution intends to analyze the âmakingâ of a cultural operation that functioned as the glue for a political, economic, and social project lasting more than a century, in which the history of medieval Siena was pivotal not only for how it was defined but for how it was intended to justify the choices made in the present. In certain ways, this procedure is similar to what the Fascist regime would later do to glorify and justify itself, according to G. Volpe. Through an analysis of the history of Siena, my essay will seek to highlight the disparity between reality and myth. In addition, it will analyze the coming to fruition of various initiatives, such as: the birth of the Art Institute, the Defense of Monuments, the school of Falsi dâAutore, the myth of the contrade and the Palio, and the International Exhibition of Sienese Art held in London. All succeeded in giving stability to a rural Siena confronted with the challenges of modernity, while legitimizing the historical past, revisited and altered according to the requirements of the âhere and nowâ.

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A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena

Reihe:Â Brill's Companions to European History, Band: 23

ISBN:: 9789004444829

Verleger:: Brill

Print-Publikationsdatum:: 06 Jan 2021

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The âGothic Queenâ: the Myth of Siena in the 19th and 20th Centuries

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A Companion to Late Medieval and Early Modern Siena

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The âGothic Queenâ: the Myth of Siena in the 19th and 20th Centuries