“Il Vittoriale degli Italiani”, Gabriele d’Annunzio’s last masterpiece

Great writers are often remembered for their literary works, which represent the deepest testimony of their way to look at the world. Important literary men’s words constitute a precious cultural and human wealth, capable of crossing time and generations.

Many literary works left their mark on historical periods and conveyed teachings that went beyond poetry, stories or novels as they became a tangible part of daily life. During their existential path, everyone can meet some iconic characters and their adventures who has known in books for the first time. It is a sort of magic: narration and all its details leave the paper and inhabit reality, proving literature isn’t an abstract far dimension but reveals itself a mine of edifying experiences.

The famous Italian writer Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863-1938) overcomes this about this precious privilege by bestowing an even more striking legacy on future generations: thanks to his unconventional thinking, he has spread an unmistakable lifestyle, according to which the value of beauty was a priority. Gabriele d’Annunzio was a faithful follower of the artistic current of aestheticism, whose principles were to make life an artwork and, doing that, to distance yourself from ordinary routine. He wanted to pursue an extraordinary life, rich in elegance and refinement, and this high ideal is probably the fundamental concept of his literary career, present in all his works and emerging from them through fine descriptions, charming settings and a studied, sublime language. His poems are the triumph of musicality and sensuality, his novels, among which “Il Piacere” is a wonderful masterpiece, are dwelled by people who reject bourgeois mediocrity because they have a superior sensibility, an authentic love for pure art and beautiful things.

D’Annunzio loves luxury and excesses and puts what he describes into practice in his writings: he led an expensive and immoral life, surrounded by many women and luxurious objects, arousing the amazement of his contemporaries.

Against morality of the time, he attended worldly society and licentious environments, beyond his concrete economic availabilities, even if he was very well paid by editors and newspapers. Gabriele didn’t stop buying unusual knick-knacks, jewels, rare fabrics, in order to satisfy his need for accumulation and to create a perfect, unique context, where he could take refuge from current banalities. His special intellectual nature has become even more real thanks to “Il Vittoriale degli Italiani”, a magnificent monument to himself, a sumptuous mansion where d’Annunzio’s refined aesthetic taste and his main passions, which have distinguished his existence, are exhibited and celebrated.

Let’s go into this incredibly sophisticated atmosphere, visiting an abode, completely different from the others.

 

Il Vittoriale: History and Location

“Il Vittoriale degli Italiani” is a complex of buildings, streets, squares, an open-air theatre, gardens and streams, which was erected in 1921 by Gabriele d’Annunzio, on the advice of the architect Gian Carlo Maroni, to honor Poet’s unmistakable life and Italians’ enterprises during the First World War.

It is located at Gardone Riviera, a small municipality on the shores of Garda Lake, in the North of Italy, a heavenly landscape surrounded by greenery.

When Gabriele visited the place for the first time, he was impressed by its peace and spontaneous beauty; he needed a quiet site where he could retire, after the difficult war years and the ruinous Fiume enterprise.

It must be remembered Gabriele d’Annunzio, as spokesman of many disappointed Italians, who were dissatisfied by peace treaties and territorial divisions following First World War ending, decided to occupy the border town Fiume, Croatian today, and here he established a personal dominion, challenging Italian State; although, in spite of his efforts, he was deposed in 1920 and moved away from any operating political activities.

Consequently, d’Annunzio asked his collaborators and friends to find a pleasant location, far from clamor and anxieties.

Poet’s secretary Tom Antongini proposed Villa Cargnacco at Gardone Riviera, German art historian Henry Thode’s property, to whom the residence was confiscated by the Italian State after the beginning of the Great War. The mansion seemed perfect for his needs, above all when Gabriele discovered it contained a library with over 6000 volumes, so he has rented it for six months, till he decided to buy it from the State. Villa Cargnacco was similar to a parish priest’s old home, but d’Annunzio had clear ideas and strong personality: he wanted to transform it into a monumental house-museum, an overabundance kingdom, whose improvement is exciting like writing a novel.

Il Vittoriale, which Gabriele donated to Italians in 1930, can be considered his last masterpiece and, since the residence had to reflect his extraordinary lifestyle, he bought, close to Villa Cargnacco, other lands, Villa Mirabella, the Washington Hotel, disused at the time, the dock tower near the lake and the crusher, during the period 1922-1935.

The Poet had a specific project in his mind, so he chose, collocated, cataloged, collected, following a precise drawing, which allowed him to leave an indelible human and artistic footprint to the place. It was a perpetual building site, ready to widen and enrich itself, and d’Annunzio made his home more and more astonishing in every part of it, from grandiose externals to rooms full of about ten thousand objects, each with a specific symbolic value.

Don’t deprive your eyes of a similar visual show.

 

The park among secluded corners and superb constructions

The visitor is already impressed from the entrance because it is constituted by a portal with two arches, drawn by the architect Maroni. There is a small niche in the center, which hosts a studied sentence, one of many Gabriele d’Annunzio’s mottos, included the famed warning “Io ho quel che ho donato” (“I have what I have donated”), carved in the tympanum: these words sanction the entry to the Vittoriale.

From Vittoriale square you can reach “D’Annunzio segreto” museum, set in 2010, an authentic coffer which preserves Poet’s most intimate and personal objects such as clothes, shoes, jewels and many nightshirts worn by his lovers. Also, a special space is dedicated to the actress Eleonora Duse, the most loved woman by Gabriele.

The amphitheater was ardently wanted by the Poet, but it was only completed in 1952 (D’Annunzio died in 1938): Gian Carlo Maroni was sent to Pompei to study the Greek theater ancient structure and a theatric season is held every summer today again.

It overlooks a spectacular panorama, which admires Garda Lake till to Sirmione promontory. Proceeding with the visit, two 16^th century semi-columns mark the entrance to the gardens, where, in a little magnolia forest, the “Arengo” is located: it is a holy and suggestive place, used for commemorative ceremonies and rituals.

He often sat in “Arengo”, to recover serenity in a silent inner dimension. Not far from it, a sunny “Belvedere” leads to a flourishing orchard (“Frutteto”), modeled like a Renaissance garden, surrounded by copies of classical statues, stone eagles and lilies, and to the “Limonaia”, where a particular cedar plant, called “Buddha’s hand”, had to always be there. Next to the orchard, a small cemetery receives Gabriele d’Annunzio’s dear dogs, above all greyhounds, to whom he dedicated a poem in 1935.

Leaving this purely naturalistic atmosphere, a building created by Maroni, hosts “Mas 96”:  the anti-submarine boat that the Poet used during the famous “Beffa di Buccari” military enterprise accomplished with Costanzo Ciano ad Luigi Rizzo, in the night between February 10^th and 11^th 1918.

The declaration, which anticipates its visit, is probably the most renowned of d’Annunzio’s ones: “Memento Audere Semper” (Remember to always dare).

In the highest part of Vittoriale, Gabriele’s body is kept in the “Mausoleo”, a funerary monument inspired by Etruscan-Roman tradition; it is made with Botticino marble and his tomb is surrounded by his closest companions’ ones. If you think you have seen the great part of this striking residence, if you think you know enough about d’Annunzio’s extravagances, you are clearly wrong. When you enter the “Prioria”, a pair of eyes won’t be enough for you to catch all details and particulars which its overladen rooms are able to offer.

 

“Prioria”, an eclectic, amazing home

The Prioria is the real symbol of the Poet’s elegant and unusual personality, the place which expresses his primary philosophy of “unmistakable life” (“Il vivere inimitabile”). It is a mine of objects, over 33.000 books, numerous enigmatic sentences, readable on architraves and fireplaces, in a continuous game of symbolic references, in an atmosphere of sacredness expanded by poor lighting.

The facade already has emblematic features, because it is decorated by many friezes and coats of arms, among which Medici and Canossa families’ ones, Florence and Trieste’s ones, while Trento’s coat of arms with the eagle was removed by Town Hall to be donated to the Poet.

Beyond the entrance door, passed the vestibule and its seven steps, you arrive in the Music Room (“Stanza della Musica”), where Gabriele gathered “Quartetto Veneziano” young musicians with Luisa Baccara, the Venetian pianist who has become his lover at Fiume.

The hall is characterized by alternation on the walls of red damask fabric and black silk curtains with golden motifs, creating a particular game of lights and shadows.

As in the whole house, the Music Room is full of objects, such as musical instruments, Chinese style furniture, Ottoman sofas and Oriental bronzes.

Obviously, books never lack: in the Globe Room (“Stanza del Mappamondo”), whose name derives from the globe belonged to the residence’s previous owner, contains the great part of Thode’s original library; moreover, it preserves a little shrine dedicated to Napoleone, with Emperor’s funerary mask and a snuffbox.

Leda’s Room (“Stanza della Leda”) keeps Leda’s statue, an Afrodite’s smaller one, adorned with lapislazzuli and malachite necklaces, and various sculptures which strengthen its sensual atmosphere.

In this room many eccentric and beautiful elements stand out, for example, six majolica parade elephants, fine bed silk blanket, variegated ceramics, Chinese, Persian and Indochinese majolicas and an authentic bestiary, placed on a dresser with Chinese enamels: there are glass, silver and with precious stone, alabaster and ceramic animals.

The Blue Bath (“Il Bagno Blu”) is simply impressive: here overabundance of objects reaches the apex, so it is impossible to describe all (they are about 900) and contemplate them in a single glance; their color richness is amplified by ultramarine blue sanitary, very modern for the period, and by numerous Persian tiles, carefully sought by d’Annunzio.

The quantity of knick-knacks is really incredible: different porcelain animals, dogs, peacocks, panthers, gazelles and hawks, combs, brushes and some small bottles of “Acqua Nuntia”, perfume made by the Poet for guests and lovers.

The “Officina” is the perfect place for him to write, read and study, where few people were allowed: it is dominated by Samotracia Nike’s statue and hosts the main work instruments such as rare editions, dictionaries and touristic guides.

Cheli’s Room (“Stanza della Cheli”) is just as exclusive and uncommon since it is a lunchroom full of light, an explosion of gold, red and blue tonalities, enlarged by alabaster glass windows.

The room has a barrel vault, walls are lacquered and the shell motif is repeated in different points of it. The name “Cheli” derives from turtle’s carapace (“khelys” in Greek), which occupies the long table: the tortoise, Casati Stampa Marquise’s gift, died in Vittoriale’s gardens due to tuberose indigestion, so its bronze sculpture represents a sort of warning to follow frugality rule.

These fantastic rooms are a little taste of what you can find at Vittoriale, inside and outside, snooping across sunny gardens and corridors immersed in semi-darkness.

D’Annunzio has marked over 50 years of Italian culture, influencing fashion and political ideologies, inspiring mass costume, giving life to “dannunzianesimo” phenomenon.

His world vision is impressed in every corner of this evocative location, where each detail, from a small lapislazzuli ornament to a glorious military monument, is devotedly studied. And maybe there isn’t a more sincere and deeper tribute to the beauty and own unrepeatable individuality than that, an eternal human heritage, strenuously desired and perfected by Gabriele d’Annunzio, literary and artistic genius, until the end of his days.

Sources:

• Guerri, G. B. (2015). Il Vittoriale degli Italiani. Guida alla visita. Silvana Editoriale.
• V.A. (2007). La Letteratura (Vol. 5). Paravia.
• Il Vittoriale degli Italiani. (n.d.-b). Vittoriale. https://www.vittoriale.it/