The Ara Pacis Augustae in fascist Italy: analysis of the monument's instrumentalization from the newsreel of the Istituto Luce (1937-1938)

• Grant number: 20/06052-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2020
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Glaydson José da Silva
• Grantee: Augusto Antônio de Assis
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The work presented here intends to analyze the instrumentalization of the Ara Pacis Augustae monument by Mussolini in the years 1937 and 1938 from the Cinegiornale Luce, an important official source of information in audiovisual format, from the government to the population. The research aims to situate the regrouping and restoration of fragments of the altar, adjunct to its reopening, on September 23th, 1938, carried out by Mussolini himself as a result of the end of the commemorations of the Bimillenary of the birth of Augusto; all these moments are well marked in four editions of Cinegiornale Luce B (1931-1940).It is considered here that the figure of Ara Pacis is of great importance within the Culto della romanità in the fascist Ventennio, especially after the proclamation of the empire, in the context of the Duce's equivalence with the Primo Imperatore. Its central instrumentality, in dialogue with all the components of the Piazza Augusto Imperatore, is linked to the notion of Pax Romana and its fascist parallel: the "Mussolinian Pax".One of the forms of mass dissemination of these ideals, linked to the politics of the imaginary, was through newsreels produced by Luce Institute; so such a company can be understood as part of an identity-building mechanism. Thus, the central relevance of our proposal consists in the critical decoding of the fascist discursive aesthetics in the sources in question.(AU)