"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." Monumental Sculpture in Naples, Palermo, and Southern Italy (1861–1939)

Alberto Pirro, Ph.D.

This project investigates the phenomenon of post-Risorgimento monumentomania in Southern Italy between national unification in 1861 and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, focusing in particular on the two former capitals of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Naples and Palermo. Its primary aim is to analyse the symbolic role of public monuments erected in honour of Risorgimento figures and events, assessing their contribution to the construction of collective memory and the redefinition of urban identities within the new national framework.

The research addresses four key questions. First, it identifies which and how many Risorgimento monuments artists and patrons erected in Naples and Palermo between 1861 and 1939. Second, it examines how monumentomania reshaped the urban fabric of both cities. Third, it analyses how state authorities, municipal administrations, and private patrons commissioned these monuments. Finally, it investigates which iconographic and stylistic models sculptors adopted and how contemporary audiences received them.

Accordingly, the investigation will unfold in four stages: the mapping and cataloguing of monuments; the collection and analysis of primary and secondary sources—both public and private—allowing for the study of patronage, artistic competitions, criticism, and reception through the contemporary press, literature, and visual arts; iconographic analyses of individual works, crossing art-historical and urban-historical perspectives; and the creation of a geo-referenced digital database as the first attempt at an interactive mapping of post-Risorgimento monumental sculpture in Naples and Palermo.

Beyond its scholarly contribution, the project seeks to provide tools for the preservation, valorisation, and public dissemination of this heritage, opening new perspectives not only for the academic study of specific case studies but also for the broader public history of areas of the country often subject to misunderstanding or prejudice.