Time.news – “Living history”. And the preeminent principle of the house-museum and the historic houses themselves. Function that is based on the transformation of the home of a famous person or family into a museum open to the public. Perhaps the most widespread form of exhibition, in Italy but also abroad.
In Rome there are officially eleven of house-museums, in Milan there are four registered but around Italy there are 51, for example, they are the only “historic houses” available to Fai, the Italian Environment Fund.
In the capital we find the Keats-Shelley House directly overlooking the Spanish Steps, where then, at n. 31 is also there Chirico’s house, where the metaphysical painter lived the last thirty years of his life. It’s still: casa Goethethe Pietro Canonica museum, the house museum of Alberto Moravia on the Lungotevere della Vittoria 1, behind the Rai in Viale Mazzini, the studio of Luigi Pirandello, early 20th century villa in via Bosio 138, the Hendrik Christian Andersen museum, the painter Francesco Trombadori’s studio, the Giacinto Scelsi house museum in front of the Roman Forum with the piano still played by the Maestro, the Mario Praz house museum and the museum Foundation of the sculptor Venanzio Crocetti. But then there is also the recent house of the painter Balla, Villa Alberto Sordi in Caracalla but also Bellonci house, seat of the Strega Prize. Also in Rome it was proposed that the Municipality buy the house of Pier Paolo Pasolini where the poet lived, between Rebibbia and Ponte Mammolo.
In Naples there is Caruso house“The tenorissimo”, in Syracuse Casa Vittorini, in Ravenna Dante housethe house museum in Rimini Federico Felliniin Ghilarza, SardiniaGramsci housea Catania house dickin Ponte di Piave, in the province of Treviso, the Parise museumeven in Racalmuto the house museum of the aunts of Sciascia; in Gardone Riviera, in the province of Brescia, there is the Vittorialethe house museum of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, which in 1981 alone and far was visited by over 253 thousand people.
It is truly home to the international art museum of Venice Peggy Guggenheim, on the Grand Canal, where the great American collector lived and which today is the exhibition site of the homonymous Foundation. Also in the lagoon, Palazzo Fortuny. We could still continue with the homes of two former Prime Minister, for example, De Gasperi in Pieve Tesino in Trentino, and Spadolini in Pian dei Giullari in the hilly area of Florence.
There is something for all tastes along the peninsula. A sign that the residences of historical figures become a place of “cultural mediation”, in which they can see and visit the objectsthe works, the spaces and relive the life of the character through thematic paths.
With an intrinsic strength of authenticity, the main vocation of these places is “in create a direct relationship between the former home, the place and the character reviving the atmosphere and the spirit of the times “. In some cases, such as the Moravian house, everything has remained intact as the writer left it at the time of his death. Messy table, scattered papers, open books.
Petrosino and Diotallevi, the policeman and the boss
But what leads to the establishment of a house-museum? What makes museum houses exceptional “is theirs ability to represent life, traditions and values not only of those who lived there, but also of the society in which the landlord lived ”, we read on the website of the Mic, the Ministry of Culture, because“ visiting a house museum is a fascinating experience. Everything, in a house museum, becomes part of the exhibition: furniture, paintings, books, objects of personal and daily use “.
Some of them are configured as real museums, promote cultural activities and are regularly open to the public, while others can be visited by appointment only. I’m destination of researchers, scholars, who immerse themselves for hours in libraries available to read and take notes.
A research on the literary twentieth century cannot ignore one full immersion in Alberto Moravia’s library, for instance. Very often they are visited out of curiosity of individuals or groups of enthusiasts or, again, they are a destination for school groups who approach the discovery and study of the works of the characters through their homes, their habits.
In the last two years of the pandemic many museum houses have remained closed to visits to avoid contacts and group infections while some of them have transferred some meetings and seminars to the web. But it was not at all the same thing, because the emotional impact with the place and the objects that belonged to their inhabitants was less. The appeal turned out to be of lesser intensity.
Many of these places then find themselves having to contend with administrative problems, starting with funding which often depend on Regions or Municipalities, increasingly struggling with scarce financial resources. But then there are also richer institutions: in 1998 the Vittoriale di D’Annunzio underwent restorations for 700 million lire at the time but with the 2020 lockdown it had to deal with a deadweight loss of one million and 200 thousand. euro in no visits.
The houses are countless: there is home of the great Toscanini in Parma, by Manzù in Ardea, by Pavese in Santo Stefano Belbo, near Cuneo, del Bellini in Catania, del general Graziani in Frosinone, of Ennio Flaiano in time.news, Juliet in Verona, that of the Cervi brothers, martyrs in the fight against fascism, Federico Zeri, art critic, in Mentana, outside Rome, and even the house of Joe Petrosinoa famous Italian-American policeman in Padula, in the province of Salerno, the home of Giacomo Matteotti to the flaminio district in Rome, Modigliani in Livorno, then closed for a quarrel between the heirs, that of the poetess Alda Merinithen closed due to lack of funds.
Finally, also the house-museum of the former boss of the Banda della Magliana Ernesto Diotallevi in the Trevi Fountain, certainly not open to the public, but it contained precious paintings and collections by Giacomo Balla, Mario Schifano, Sante Monachesi, Franco Angeli, Norberto Proietti, Ana Maria Laurent, Antonio Balbo, paintings of the Roman, Campanian and French School of the 800 and ‘900 as well as antiques of great value. Fruit of recipe.