Rome of the early 20th century in the mirror of Images of Italy by P.P. Muratov

Images of Italy by P. Muratov is the pinnacle of literature devoted to Italy not only because this book fuses the traditions of Russian and European literature on travels in Italy, but also because Italy changed so much in the 20th century that its ancient literary myth turned out to be on the verge of decay. After decades of decline, the Italian myth again gained momentum in the era of symbolism, also due to the great works on the history of Italian art by critics and scholars Burck-hardt, Wolfflin, Vernon Lee, Pater, Berenson, Venturi, Symonds. These writers gave Mura-tov new patterns of form, composition and style, which the Russian literary tradition did not have; and their authority strengthened the aestheticism and tendency to separate epochs of Italian art, such as the Quattrocento and the "primitive" art, already characteristic of his personality. But Muratov's text has its own features: high artistic merit, unusual for an essay; competence in the history of Italian art; originality in the choice of subjects; accuracy and freedom of judgment. V.N. Grashchenkov, editor of the critical edition of Muratov's book, noted: "< . . .> Muratov combined a long literary tradition of travel notes with methods of English artistic critical essays and methodological achievements of the new European Art Criticism". Travel impressions and memoirs in the book are organically connected with the historical biographical elements. Images of Italy has eight chapters devoted to Rome: "Feeling Rome", "The Antique", "Christian Rome", "Melozzo da Forli", "High Renaissance", "Baroque", "Piranesi", "Roman Campagna". The subject of R. Giuliani's attention, the image of Rome contemporary to Muratov, being apparently a secondary and marginal aspect of his narrative, is in fact recurrent and highly revealing for understanding the original point of view of the writer and his writing manner. The proof of this can be the epigraph he chose that precedes the chapters about Rome. If chapters on other cities are preceded by epigraphs from literary works, the epigraph "Roma o morte" (or, rather: "O Roma o morte", "Rome or Death") was a famous slogan of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Rome was conquered by Garibaldi's troops and proclaimed capital of Italy only in 1870. Thus, the epigraph mark both the change in the city's history, triggered by political circumstances, and Muratov's interest not only to the past of Italy, but also to its modernity. Accession of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy was marked by the beginning of a painful process that forever changed the urban, architectural and social look of the city and imprinted on its self-identity. Between 1870 and 1885 the living body of the inhabited center of Rome was ripped open by new streets where frantic construction of new quarters began. The construction plans (1873, 1883, 1909) were partially taken into account, yet mostly ignored because construction was largely unplanned. Neglect of the current urban structure of the city occurred along with building speculation. In the 1880s more than 20 old aristocratic houses were destroyed, most of which were real gems of architecture. Meanwhile, the vast patrician villas, models for European aristocratic residences since the Renaissance era, were a characteristic feature of the urban area of Rome. Muratov's opinion on urban innovations is sharp in tone and is expressed by epithets "tasteless", "banal", "bad", "ugly", "worthless", "monstrosity", etc. In the Roman chapters of Images of Italy Muratov makes severe judgments about the massive urban interventions in the city's appearance on the objectively descriptive narrative level, but over time the new does not irritate him so much. Genuine self-exposure of the author shows on the intimate lyrical narrative level (the tastes of the author, his conception of the beautiful and the picturesque, leitmotiv comparison of the past and the present). Particular attention of Muratov, a certified engineer-transporter, belongs to urban and suburban traffic routes (tram and railway lines), their descriptions, sometimes lyrical, periodically become part of the narrative imagery. His opinion on the social institutions of the Kingdom of Italy becomes generous when it comes to the preservation and protection of monuments of antiquity: Muratov is impressed by the recent excavations of ancient Ostia, by archaeological arrangement of the Forum; he likes new museums: the National Museum, the Barrakka and the Capitoline Museums. In conclusion, it can be noted that Muratov's judgment of Rome after the unification of Italy is clear and harsh, yet fair in regard to the merits of the new municipal government. This judgment is a result not only of the author's acute sense of beauty, be it of landscape or a work of art, but also of his passion, his often lyrical and elegiac sense of the world, finally, his existential experience of Rome. Deep connoisseur of the Roman genius loci, Muratov asserts that Rome will certainly adapt all the innovations made to the urban look by the tumultuous events of Italian history at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to its space and spiritual aura. This prophecy of the passionate scholar, a Russian writer loving Italy was right.

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