Roman Lens, Dalmatian Issues: the Exhibition of Dalmatian Architecture at the Accademia di San Luca (Rome, June 1943)

The first comprehensive exhibition on historical Dalmatian architecture opened at the Academy of St. Luke in Rome in June 1943, destined to remain the last propagandistic cultural effort of the Fascist regime. The purpose was the legitimization of the Italian administration in Dalmatia between 1941 and 1943 through the creation of the new official narrative on the regional heritage. Given the part of Gustavo Giovanoni in this endeavour, its close analysis provides a possibility to elucidate the prominent role he had in the shaping of the policies of the Academy of St. Luke in 1940s as well as in the creation of the competing early 20th century visions of the Eastern Adriatic past. As the president of the Academy of St. Luke, Alberto Calza Bini, Giovanoni’s right hand Bruno Maria Apollonj Ghetti and Commissioner for Dalmatian monuments Luigi Crema were preparing the exhibition against the ever-changing backdrop of the war-time politics, they were also creating a new Italian view of the East Adriatic historical architecture, based on new photographs and architectural drawings made for the exhibition. The lens they were using were specifically Roman, their interest directed primarily towards the ancient Roman buildings and the classical tradition, in concordance with the policies of the Italian “Empire” proclaimed in 1936. Only in the second stage of the preparations of the exhibition, they included the Venetian heritage, until then the usual tool of the interpretation of Dalmatia in the Italian historiography. The final result was a novel pan-Italian view, although still rather Roman-centered, which included typological approach and the attention to landscape, typical of the so-called Roman school of history of architecture, but also some of the ideas of the regime, comprising the racial theory. The catalogue had a long critical fortune in the Italian historiography, also influencing the policies of the Croatian postwar Commissioner for the monuments of Dalmatia Cvito Fisković.