Virility in the City: The Male Body and Urban Space in Rome from Italian Unification to Fascism

Sara Vitacca

Focusing on the relationship between art, urban space, and gender perspectives, this project examines the construction of a “virile” image of the city of Rome. It argues that, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, monuments, sculptures, and urban installations promoted a new ideal of the male body. The project begins with the post-unification period, when “virilism” first imposed itself as a cultural and political discourse across Italian society, and ends with the Fascist era, when it became particularly significant for the political propaganda of the regime. In addition to monuments and emblematic urban settings, critical and historiographical aspects and the visual and popular culture of the time are also considered. Taken together, these give a sense of how Rome came to embody a narrative of virility and of the gendered implications of that narrative. For example, how does the portrayal of the male body engage in a dialogue with architecture and the surrounding space? In investigating this narrative of virility, my project addresses a number of questions: by whom and for whom are such representations conceived? How does the perception of the monument in the urban setting change according to the gender of the spectators and the way they appropriate the city and its public spaces? My project works towards answering some of these questions, and deepening our understanding of how they relate to Rome’s urban and artistic heritage.