The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts - UCLA Department ...

t8 DAPA\finter 1987
moral values such as "good" and "evil" are simply linguistic categories; that is
to say, they are convictions and opinions without any objective or absolute
foundation other than the will to pov/er (what he called "the proud desire of
power," Elettra,VersiII,405). However, he was disgusted by the spectacle of
"vile
and mediocre" political discourse which manipulated the masses while
hiding its ovln economic interests behind supposedly democratic ideals.
D'Annunzio repeatedly and polemically denounced what he called "the third
Rome" and the power struggle-€ of nascent capitalist civilization in Italy He saw
the contemporary politicianas a "great demagogue...a builder of bordellos...
named with names of glory" and"a bag of excremental wisdom". (Maia,VersilI,
218-19). Especially in Il R.roco, D'Annunzio opposed to the mediocrity of "the
third Rome" the reactionary utopia of aristocratic pov/er, which would rely on
the genius of "heroes of the race" and would transform the State into a work of
art,i.e., an entity based exclusively on esthetic criteria. The resources of theatrical
communication, oratory and poetry should be used, he thought, to restore
a sense of beauty to the masses. This political use of discourse and esthetic
values was at the source of D'Annunzio's behavior during the war and at Fiume,
and was a motivating influence on the symbolical and allegorical composition
of Il Vittoriale as a monumental architectural complex. Instead of limiting himself
to thg role of an observer of the political scene, as in the tradition of Italian
men of letters, D'Annunzio noisilv entered into that scene and assumed aleading
role in it, paradoxically in the name of beauty as the sole and absolute truth.
In other words, he acted in the name of an esthetic principle which is usually
considered extraneous or altogether alien, in traditional esthetics, to concerns
of a moral, political, or didactic sort. D'Annunzio was continually criticized,
both from a political and an esthetic point of vieul for this "transgression" on
his part.
ln 1897, D'Annunzio was elected to the Italian Parliament as the representative
of the district of Ortona (in his native Abruzzo region of central Italy). He was
supported by the political Right, even though he declared that he himself was
above all factions. In 1900, the year inwhichll Rtocowas published, he left the
majority in Padiament and went over to the Left in protest against the reactionary
measures taken by the Felloux government. (General Felloux had tried
to put an end to the growing discontent and social unrest all over the Italian
peninsula-violently repressed by the Armed Forces on several occasions-by
having the Farliament approve a series of laws curtailing the freedom of speech
and of political association. Only Giovanni Giolitti, who led the maioriry in
Parliament almost continuously between 1903 and 1914, succeeded in silbilizing
the political situation in the country at the cost, howeveq of many compromises
and shady electoral maneuvers.) D'Annunzio ran in the next election
together with the Socialists, but this time he was not elected, and his
parliamentary career came to an abrupt end. He continued, though, to be active
as a public speaker, to publish his political writings in the newspapers, and
to declaim publicly his political and didactic poems. He also kept working at
the same time, with his legendary indefatigability, on manyworks of poetry
prose, and drama. D'Annunzio saw himself as the prophet of a new
Renaissance, and aimed to make Italians aware of belonging to a great tradition,
which in turn was the rightful heir to the splendors of Greco-Romancivlliza
tion. Foetry was to have the function of making the heroes of the past become
present to the collective consciousness. For D'Annunzio, all those who
had contributed to the "beauty" of Italy were its heroes; they were to serve,
moreove! as models so that this work of beauty might be continued in the
present day Some of these heroes were (first and foremost) Dante, Leonardo,