Where and when
Wednesday 22 June at 17.30
NOVECENTO PRESENTA
In defense of art: intellectuals and artistic heritage during the Second World War
Alessia Cecconi in conversation with Fulvio Cervini.
What is the fate of works during a conflict? What is the role of artists and intellectuals? Although the protection of the historical and artistic heritage in the years of the Second World War has become a topic of increasing interest, less known is the contribution of civil society in defense of monuments and mobile works. In the month of numerous anniversaries linked to the Resistance in Tuscany, a reflection on the commitment of some protagonists of the Italian culture of the twentieth century – including Giovanni Poggi, Ugo Procacci, Cesare Fasola and Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti – offers the opportunity to retrace the events of the fight against raids and war destruction. An opportunity to remember, echoing the words of Roberto Longhi, “what and how many values it was a matter of protecting”.
Alessia Cecconi
art historian, is director of the CDSE Foundation (Centro di Documentazione Storico Etnografica, Vaiano, Prato). He has been collaborating for many years with the Memofonte Foundation of Florence, for which he has followed projects related to computer processing, cataloguing and investigation of historical-artistic sources from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. His research, concretized in numerous scientific and popular publications, is dedicated to the artistic literature of the modern age, the local history of the twentieth century, heritage education. She is also co-author of the manual of art history for the lower middle school Art and Image (Gruppo RCS-Fabbri editore, 2014). Coordinator of the regional project “Resisting for art: war and artistic heritage in Tuscany”, she curated between 2014 and 2015 the exhibitions Bombing Art 1940-1945 (Vaiano, Villa del Mulinaccio and Prato, Palazzo Banci Buonamici) and Giorgio Castelfranco. A little known monument man (Florence, Museo Casa Siviero). In 2015 he published the book, the result of the regional research project Resistere per l’arte. Guerra e patrimonio artistico in Toscana. Ten stories of men and works saved (Editions Medicea).
Fulvio Cervini
graduated in Medieval Art History with Adriano Peroni at the University of Florence in 1990. In 1995 he obtained his PhD in Art History at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and from 1996 to 1998 he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He has gained experience as a teacher, a journalist, a publicist, a consultant for local authorities, a folder of cultural heritage, an honorary inspector of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. From May 1999 to October 2005 he was Art Historian Director in the Superintendence for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-Anthropological Heritage of Piedmont, where he was also responsible for the territorial protection of the Provinces of Alessandria and Verbania, and has held the position of director of the Royal Armory in Turin (2001-2005). From 2002 to 2005 he was lecturer in comparative history of art in European countries at the University of Pisa. Since November 2005 he has been Associate Professor of Medieval Art History and Protection of Cultural Heritage at the University of Florence, where he directs, from 2009 to 2014, the School of Specialization in Historical and Artistic Heritage.