TABOO: THE ACTUAL MODERNIST AESTHETIC, MADE REAL A ...

Renaissance now registers in modernist studies, generally, as proof only of his interest in
authoritarian patrons and, by extension, Benito Mussolini and the politics of fascism.
Rainey writes:
Pound, in short, had found his imaginary patron and the resolution
to the question of art, authority, and public consensus. The thread
that links together this intricate complex of events and motifs is the
figure of the great patron, Sigismondo Malatesta, and the question
of faith in his judgment: through him, the modernist culture of
patronage was assimilated to the emerging culture of Fascism.
(109)
In the Spring of 1923 Ezra Pound returned to Italy to conduct further research into
Sigismondo Malatesta, the ―quattrocento‖ ruler of Rimini. He travelled to Rimini – a
small town located South of Ravenna on the Adriatic Coast of Italy. Malatesta especially
interested Pound at this moment because he exemplified the kind of ideal patron of the
arts that he and his own group of friends – HD, Wyndham Lewis, TS Eliot, and James
Joyce – sorely lacked as they attempted to revolutionize the way poetry, prose, and
painting were practiced. Malatesta‘s role as a condottiere-for-hire to each of the five
major Italian city states – Venice and Milan in the North, Florence in central Italy, and
Rome and Naples in the South – intrigued Pound, who saw in his seemingly
indiscriminate war-making a concomitant consistency of commitment to supporting the
arts and culture of Rimini. Malatesta‘s singular mission was the reconstruction of the
church of San Francesco (often called the Tempio Malatestiano). This church is famous
for a few things. First, it is considered a landmark in Western architecture because it was
the first to incorporate Roman triumphal arches into its structure. Also, it is famous for its
elaborate sculptures and bas-reliefs by Agostino di Duccio. It has a fresco in the sacristy
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