La Difesa Della Razza (1938–1943): Primitivism and Classicism in Fascist Italy

Abstract

While recent studies on Italian Fascism have considered the regime's colonial project in Libya and Ethiopia, it is also necessary to analyze racism and its construction in the peninsula. The official magazine La difesa della razza (1938–1943) sought to provide scientific and cultural bases for Italian racism and anti-Semitism by citing anthropological studies as well as ancient sources. My paper examines its use of images, specifically the juxtaposition of classical, African, and modernist references. Thus, I focus on the ways in which classical art was represented alongside African individuals and/or sculptures in order to construct a racist ideology rooted on the civilized-primitive dichotomy. Despite the fact that La difesa della razza extolled the greatness of classical art while denigrating modern art, many of its covers recall Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical paintings, Man Ray's photographs, and Hannah Höch's photomontages. Though the aforementioned artists utilized classical and/or African elements to question European culture, this fascist publication adopted a similar aesthetic to support its claims regarding the superiority of Italian race and culture across time. Hence, La difesa della razza demonstrates the heterogeneous and often contradictory ways in which fascist intellectuals justified the regime's racial policies, as they utilized the modernist sources they claimed endangered Italian civilization and its alleged racial purity. In any case, as with many other aspects of fascist official (and unofficial culture), modern art was at once disavowed and relied upon, thus constituting a peculiar case of modernist primitivism. Given the current existence of neo-Fascist parties within Italy, migration from Africa and the need for a more thorough reconsideration of fascist colonialism, my essay traces this nation's visual discourse on race as it emerged during the years leading up to World War II.