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i .,:: , , i', . ; F]12hdUffiL : F!rLcrlqdlt JE= F;.lZlcinuFeill rlfrrrhl*. :, l ,'i :,. ir :. i]. i' r l ,- ' . E,;; - , t, ii i i. fi fi i i. ii i' i rnodt dpici del wdrye dr,wanvo di mda poesia dannunzlail4 unc molteplid&di dtorilia4 basmrilievi, e stern{ni di cini e d casare g€ffihzce. L'effeso vol$rso da D'Annunzco € qudlo della bcciata trecentesca del Pila;ar: hetorio di Arca.o, cosrellate dalle inregne di rnolti poded" sopra all'arco del pieolo prffno sostenuo dadrrc colornene di rnarrno, due Viftorie drih{€ atta scuola di saruo,ino. sh sull'ardritrarc detla porta che sull'ardretto del pronm "sono indsi {nofli e frasi augurati L'uso decordivo dt md4 di fra$i enig$ffiche e di scrme in un linguagio cripnirc e allusivo i diffi$issimo in tuno il vino riale (& fig. 12). si tra$a di finsi concbe e snblematiche o andn di rebus verbas'& DAnnunzio ure dalla proprh operao rhlh trrdizione classica, medisrak e rinsimemnle, cocraminan& e csm#cendo spessogli originali. Ia pessiw per i mcffi e i rebus wrbali, per gli stemmi, le imprese e gti enrbkni, e per la rapprw*arione "gerqglifica" o allqgoricadi con€efti e pgr- $eri i un fensneno dpicamene rinascimentale collqgaro al gener€ motari" $irno &l lbri di emblemi cJre seivl in prte ad ispirare I'idea &l tqryo O Giulio camillo. D'Annunzio si appropria di questa tradizione in nlodo idiosirF cradco e creativo, senrcndoei &i rnomi non solo conp rnodvi decomtivi, ma per ricordare, coslmen:Eare e rit'ehre h frrnzione simbolice di ambienti, og. geti e irunagini. Ardrc calctri e finnrmenri di snrlare ed opere d'an€ sono diryosti ser*egicemenrc per creare ln qgni ambknte non solo un'dmos&ra genericadi belleza ma per rievocareattrn erco u|u serie di assoclasloni mnemordcte i lasctti &llarradizione artirrica e lereraria la cui apprapriazione crgha & foodamenale in tuta lbpera dannunziana kr pffir cCIfitinuare a scrhrcre, e a riordinare e ren&re organie la sva@a orerr&, D'Annunzto tiene continuarn€ffe sotro gli ocdri i stmulacri embkmatici delle prryrie opere e dei precurmri che lo hanno ispirao. c.opiee calchi anche di scarsa qulitc, la cui funzione i purame*e mnernonic4 sono giusreppoed aon arredt ed ogg€fii d'ane di notsole bellezza e ralore deaoratirc. l:{el ilbn Wtw il modo dannunziano di "comporre" I'ambieme € cCIet descriso: "Ce$o I'art€ sovrana m"ispir4 il gueto della forma e del colore mi conduce nella sc€lta e nelh mmposizione. una irrgqgnostrstsa scal$iti mi iltumina nel mo& di replare gh interialli e le ahezze. per sollerare una fgura pi6 che un artra una sc*ohdi meiolica mi serve di base, unostracciodi essuro d'o'ro m? buonoa dissimulare il cubo pmwisoriq una rnaniera lm di sop'pesare il bronzo mi f,lAn{lfrr,ernol9tr/ g'
38 DAPAWinter 1987 and is related to the genre of the books of emblems that in part inspired the theater of Giulio Camillo. D'Annunzio appropriated this tradition in his own creative and idiosyncraticway, using the mottos not only as decorative motifs, but also in order to recollect, to comment on, or to reveal the symbolic function of certain settings, objects, and images. Even the casts, sculptunlfragments, and works of art are strategically arranged in order to create in every setting not only a generic atmosphere of beauty but also to reevoke, through a series of mnemonic associations, the traces of the literary and artistic tradition whose creative reappropriation is fundamental in all of D'Annunzio's work. In order to continue to be able to write, and to organize and render organic his Opera Omnia, D'Annunzio kept in sight the emblematic simulacra of his own works and of the traditions that inspired them. Copies and casts, even those of poor quality which have a purely mnemonic function, are iuxtaposed with furnishings and objets d'arr of notable beauty and decorative value. In his Libro Segreto, his way of "composing a setting" is described like this: "Cgrtainly high art inspires me, the taste for form and color guides me in choice and composition, a most ingenious cunning enlightens me in how to regulate intervals and heights. To raise up one figure higher than another a ceramic box serves me as a base, a strip of gold cloth helps me to dissimulate the cube, a ready way of weighing the bronze in my hands reassures me concerning the resistance of the fragile glazedmateri^l underneath it....The simple people around me smile in ignorance or astonishment, while I impatiently ask for an old nail, a bit of precious cloth, a remnant of gold ribbon, a box of watercolors" (ProseII,709 -10). In reality, the accumulation of objects and props in certain settings is so excessive that one gets the sense of a confused bric-a-brac, or of an anguished and unlimited proliferation of signs. The "Room of Relics," for instance, produces such an effect (it is to this room [fig. 3] that the above description of D'Annunzio's refers). As in all the rooms of the Priory D'Annunzio reduced the natural lighting to abare minimum, screening it in this case with a stained-glass window done by Pietro Chiesa from a design by Guido Cadorin. The window represents St. Cecilia at the organ, above the surreal image of a battlefield with the faces of two fallen soldiers in the foreground (one of which is a portrait of Maroni). The work of the Venetian painteq decorator, and mosaic artist Guido Cadorin (1892-1976), inspired by Pre-Raphaelite, Decadent, and Liberty iconography, can be seen in many rooms of the Priory The "Room of Relics" is dominated by two compositions in the form of a pyramid and an altar;in them we can clearly see D'Annunzio's religious syncretism and Flaubertian taste for the exotic and the oriental, as we can in "Leda's Room" (fig. 13) and in the "Blue Bathrooml'which contains more than two thousand objects, mostly of oriental origin (tig. 14). The pyramid of Asian idols is composed of a series of statuettes of dragons, of Confucius, and of Buddha, crowned by a fifteenth-centurywooden sculpture of the Madonna and Child, flanked by a series of small polychrome statues of various saints. The altar, with a bas-relief of the Lion of St. Mark above it, is coveredwith precious Baroque reliquaries and other religious paraphernalia; at its center is a crushed steering wheel (a particularly incongruous detail). This belonged to the powerboat in which Sir Henry Segrave died during a race which D'Annunzio himself had proposed. The floor is covered with Fersian carpets, and the walls are covered with damasks. On the wall opposite the pyramid hangs a very fine sixteenth-century tapestry representing in an archaic, pastoral setting a priest in the act of showing d-re five fingers of his right hand to a group of men and women, while a group of children playing in the background appear to be imitating his gesture. Amotto engraved on the wooden beam above the tapestry
Page 1 and 2: Winter 1987 Italian Theme Issue The
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Page 6 and 7: costante dell'attenzione dei cronis
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Page 14 and 15: La relazione con la grande attrice
Page 16 and 17: da parte di un discorso politico "v
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Page 20 and 21: complessiva della sua oper^-Merope,
Page 22 and 23: Corriere della Sera, e in testi pii
Page 24 and 25: Essa corrisponde piutrosto al tenta
Page 26 and 27: la fine di un'epoca e pud essere vi
Page 28 and 29: individuale di D'Annunzio esula inf
Page 30 and 31: oggetti che D'Annunzio integra nell
Page 32 and 33: venne mai approvato da D'Annunzio,
Page 36 and 37: Ata.Nktr !*rn[ ff.lr.bSrtrt' rf,ltt
Page 38 and 39: eliquiari barocchi; al centro vi si
Page 40 and 41: calchi di giovanetti dalle labbra d
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Page 44 and 45: chiaramente visibile il metodo di l
Page 46 and 47: nelle sue cento e cento pagine imma

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