Women’s statues in Italian cities. A study of public art and cultural policies

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, the styles and the role of monumentality have undergone significant transformations in the West, in line with wider trends of democratization and demystification of arts. Nevertheless, statues depicting human figures are still important landmarks in urban cultures. The statue wars that have erupted in several countries during recent years to challenge the racist, colonial and/or patriarchal vision embodied by many monuments, are a tangible demonstration of this. However, the topic remains understudied in the scientific literature. This research paper is intended as a contribution to begin addressing this gap by focusing on the dimension of gender in public monuments. We analyze statues in Italy depicting contemporary secular female figures. The aim of this paper is to research gender-based patterns or stereotypes that are specific to cultural heritage and urban design. The sample consists of 34 statues, distributed throughout the Italian national territory. A thematic analysis is conducted on the corpus integrating visual, narrative, aesthetic and sociological elements. The results reveal the existence of evident and widespread forms of stereotyping and discrediting of the female figure in Italian monuments, as well as the inadequacy of cultural policies, both in small provincial as well as larger urban contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Women
• statues
• public art
• cultural policies
• social representations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This census represents the most complete and recent collection of information on statues of women living in Italy. It was carried out in 2021 through a grassroots questionnaire that received 42.000 responses; integrated with data from Wikimedia, websites dedicated to monuments, and with further research carried out by the researchers themselves.

2. For this reason, some of the Italian statues that were discussed in the previous sections, such as ‘Violata’, ‘La Lavandaia’ and the Gleaner of Sapri are excluded from our dataset and are thus not mentioned in our findings, since they depict imaginary or literary figures rather than real-life women. Additionally, the statue of Margherita Hack in Milan is also not present in our dataset because it was inaugurated in June 2022, after we had carried out our analysis.

3. The year of installation is not available for the remaining 3 statues in the corpus.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gaia Peruzzi

Gaia Peruzzi is Associate Professor at Sapienza University of Rome, where she teaches Sociology of Culture and Media & Diversity. Her main research interests include gender cultures, gender and media, representations of minorities and social problems, and journalism.

Vittoria Bernardini

Vittoria Bernardini is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Sociology at the University of Tuscia. She holds a PhD in Methodology of Social Sciences from Sapienza University of Rome. Her main research interest include gender-based violence and feminist digital activism.

Yasmin Riyahi

Yasmin Riyahi is a PhD Candidate in contemporary art history at Sapienza University of Rome. Her research deals with the Roman art scene of the 1930s, with a particular focus on Galleria di Roma. Her research interests also include elements of visual culture and decolonial practices.