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ABSTRACT
The literature generally hails Antonio Fradeletto (1858-1930), first general secretary of the Biennale between 1895 and 1914, as instrumental in organising the venture and in setting forth its artistic and commercial direction in conjunction with the City Mayor, president of the Biennale. During these early ‘heroic’ years of the Biennale, the general secretary concentrated a lot of power in his hands, from curating some of the sections, to managing the venue, to facilitating the sales. In addition, Fradeletto was an elected MP representing Venice at the Parliament in Rome, who also found the time to pursue some intellectual and literary activities. Antonio Fradeletto is therefore taken as an ‘ego-centric’ case study to explore the extent and limits of agency at the Venice Biennale. Indeed, by focussing specifically on Fradeletto’s acknowledged Anglophilia and on his support of the British section, this article seeks to highlight the negotiations and compromises going on behind the scene, and the way Fradeletto pushed his own preferences to implement his vision of the Biennale. More broadly, this perspective allows to investigate how far political and cultural biases may affect the development of a cultural institution such as the Biennale.
RIASSUNTO
Antonio Fradeletto (1858-1930), primo segretario generale della Biennale dal 1895 al 1914, viene generalmente descritto, insieme a Riccardo Selvatico, sindaco di Venezia e presidente dell’istituzione, quale figura determinante nella definizione della direzione artistica e commerciale dell’esposizione. Duranti i primi anni, denominati ‘eroici’, il segretario generale concentrò il potere nelle sue mani, occupandosi tanto di curare alcune esposizioni, quanto di gestire le sedi e promuovere le vendite. Oltretutto Fradeletto venne eletto deputato presso il Parlamento di Roma, cosa che non gli impedì di trovare il tempo di impegnarsi in attività intellettuali e letterarie. Il testo intende dunque indagare Antonio Fradeletto come un caso studio ‘egocentrico’ capace di estendere oltre i confini nazionali il ruolo di agente della Biennale di Venezia. In particolare, attraverso la sua riconosciuta anglofilia, che portò Fradeletto a supportare la sezione Britannica, l’indagine mette in luce le trattative e i compromessi avvenuti dietro le quinte, e il modo in cui Fradeletto abbia realizzato la propria idea di Biennale, facendo prevalere le sue preferenze personali. Più in generale questa specifica prospettiva consente di indagare fino a che punto pregiudizi politici e culturali possano influenzare lo sviluppo di un’istituzione culturale come la Biennale.
Notes
1. In 1930, a decree changed the status of the Biennale from a locally-controlled venture into that of ‘Ente Autonomo’ (or Autonomous Board) dependent on the central government.
2. Fradeletto tried, to no avail, to organize an exhibition of Ruskin’s drawings in Venice in 1900. However he did manage to organize an international congress in honour of John Ruskin in September 1905, during which French specialist of Ruskin Robert de la Sizeranne (Citation1906) paid him homage. Stephan Bann (Citation2004) devoted an article on Ruskin and de la Sizeranne. Fradeletto (Citation1929) was still influenced by Ruskin’s approach to art and beauty when he wrote his last book L’arte nella vita.
3. Margheritta Sarfatti came from a Venetian Jewish family; she became a central and powerful figure of Fascist Italy, involved especially in the arts. For more information, please see Rachele Ferrario (Citation2015).
4. The term ‘Anglophilia’ describes various expressions of interest in Great Britain which had started to appear in the eighteenth century; however the term seems to have been coined in the second half of the nineteenth century to differentiate it from ‘Anglomania’. It has been defined as ‘paying respects to the symbolic value of England’.
5. As noted elsewhere, these rooms were not always distributed on grounds of nationality. Sometimes, British artists shared a room with American artists; or on other occasions, Scottish artists were given a distinct room from their British colleagues.
6. As the Biennale grew, space became scarce which prompted the Biennale organizers to look into ways of involving foreign nations in a more sustained manner while relieving the pressure on the central edifice. In 1905, the Venetian authorities had passed a resolution whereby ‘henceforward and by degrees, each country should have a permanent building of its own … such buildings to become the property of the governments of the various countries or eventually of private committees’. Tunbridge Wells, Salomons Archives, DSH.M.00336, volume VIII, The Standard, ‘Venice Exhibition, Permanent Pavilion for British Art’, 16 January 1909, 69. For a broader discussion on nationalism and its impact on taxonomies in the art market, please see Jan Dirk Baetens and Dries Lyna (Citation2019).
7. Venice, Archivio Storico delle Arti Contemporanee (A.S.A.C.), Fondo storico (F.S.), Scatole Nere (S.N.), Padiglioni 9, Gran Bretagna, VI Biennale, 1905, Letter from H.M. Treasury (George H. Duckworth) to Alfred East, Walter Crane and George Frampton, 7/III/1905, 2pp.
8. Venice, ASAC, Copialettere, Vol. 79 ‘Varie’, 26/XII/1907 – 30/VII/ 1908, 380-381, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Mario Borsa, 10/VII/1908, 2 pp.: ‘Credo che il sogno del Padiglione inglese sia definitivamente svanito. Me ne dole assai, ripeto’.
9. Venice, ASAC, Copialettere, Vol. 80 ‘Varie’, 30/VII/1908 – 26/X/1908, 246–247, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Mario Borsa, 12/IX/1908, 2 pp.
10. Venice, ASAC, Copialettere, Vol. 81 ‘Varie’ 6/X/1908- 10/XII/1908, 196–199, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Mario Borsa, 9/XI/ 1908, 4 pp.: ‘Quanto è accaduto costà, mi sembra ancora inverosimile…. Io potrei dare il Padiglione all’Austria, che sarebbe felice di averlo. Ma, oltrechè Segretario generale dell’Esposizione, sono uomo politico; e non posso e non voglio accordare un posto eminente all’Austria rassegnandoci senz’altro all’esclusione dell’Inghilterra’.
11. Since May 1882, Italy was part of the Triple Alliance together with Germany and Austria-Hungary. In spite of their official position, not all the Italians enjoyed cordial relationship with their allies. In particular, some Venetians could still remember vividly the Austrian occupations which occurred intermittently between 1797 and 1866 and how the Venetian insurrection led by Daniele Manin in 1848 was repressed (Duggan Citation2007, 173).
12. Very little is known about Giulio Fradeletto (1888–1939). His parents married in 1883 and he had two sisters, Regina and Adriana. He could speak and write English fluently. He published two books (1902 and 1908): which promoted Venice’s economic role, especially thanks to an amicable relationship with Britain.
13. During his time in London, Giulio lived at 17a Pembridge Gardens, Bayswater. The post-scriptum of a letter sent to his father emphasized their shared Anglophilia: ‘Giulio leaves tomorrow. … He leaves more Anglophile than he was when he arrived’. (‘Giulio parte domani … Egli parte ancora più anglofilo di quanto lo era’). Venice, ASAC, FS, SN, Attività 1898–1944, Fascicolo ‘Sala inglese’, Letter from Mario Borsa to Antonio Fradeletto, 28/XII/1906, 23Ma12, 4 pp.
14. Tunbridge Wells, Salomons Archives, DSH.M.00336, volume VIII, ‘Letter to the Editor of the Daily Mail, ‘£3,000 Gift for Art’, Sir D. Salomons and the Venice Exhibition’ (The Daily Mail, 15 January 1909).
15. Tunbridge Wells, Salomons Archives, DSH.M.00336, volume VIII, ‘The Venice International Fine Arts Exhibition, 1909, Appeal of the British Committee for Funds to purchase and decorate a Pavilion, and towards the Expenses of the British Section’, 91.
16. Where possible the English title has been indicated alongside the Italian title however it has not been possible to track all the artworks discussed in this article. I would like to thank Libby Horner for her help on this section.
17. In 1895 during the first exhibition of international modern art in Venice, a clash took place between the organizers and the clergy. Indeed Giacomo Grosso’s realist Supremo Convegno [Supreme Gathering] depicted Don Juan in his coffin surrounded by five naked women in lascivious poses .The Patriarch of Venice, future Pope Pius X, called for the work to be removed from the exhibition room on grounds of breach of morality however the Biennale organizers refused; the painting enjoyed a succès de scandale and won the ‘Popular Award’ (Mimita Lamberti Citation1995, 40).
18. Venice, ASAC, FS, SN, b6, 6E28, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Venetian businesses, 8/X/1897. Fradeletto shrewdly added ‘it goes without saying that the names of the patrons will all published in the newspapers’ (‘S’intende bene che i nomi degli offerenti saranno tutti pubblicati dai giornali’).
19. Venice, ASAC, FS, SN, b6, 6E65, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto 28/X/1897.
20. Venice, ASAC, FS, SN, 6E53, Letter from Ettore Brocco to Antonio Fradeletto, 25/X/1897.
21. Venice, ASAC, FS, SN, b6, 6E69, Letter from Banca Veneta to Antonio Fradeletto, 12/X/1897: ‘particolare deferenza per la persona dell’interpellante’.
22. Venice, ASAC, Registro vendite 2, Prima Esposizione internazionale d’arte 1895; Seconda Esposizione internazionale d’arte 1897, no pagination.
23. The figures listed were 33,106.47 lire in revenue for the commission on sold pieces of art, as opposed to 31,562.59 lire as expenditure on advertisement and communication.
24. Venice, ASAC, Copialettere, vol.100 ‘Padiglione inglese’, 25/I/1909-07/XII/1909, 246–248: Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Marcus Bourne Huish, 18 May 1909, 3pp.
25. Venice, ASAC, Registro vendite, Ottava Esposizione internazionale d’arte della città di Venezia, 22 aprile–31 ottobre 1909, 1907 e vendite 1909, Biennale di Venezia, Ufficio Vendite, Registri, 07, unpaginated: the sculpture is listed number 867 with the generic name ‘Grandi Alberghi’ as buyer.
26. Venice, ASAC, Copialettere, vol.10 ‘Varie’, 17/X/1899-23/VIII/1900, 35, Letter from Antonio Fradeletto to Vincenzo Breda, 26/X/1899.: ‘Ella mi ha espresso il desiderio o l’intendimento di fare un acquisto alla Mostra di Venezia. Avvicinandosi l’epoca della chiusura mi permetto di ricordarle la gentile promessa … Ormai i prezzi sono stati ridotti … con un’importo relativamente esiguo si possono avere opere di molto pregio artistico’.
27. Rome, ASBI, Banca d’Italia, Gabinetto, pratt., b. 101, fasc. 22, letter from Bonaldo Stringher to Antonio Fradeletto, 12/VI/1905.: ‘My dear Friend, I received your two letters of the 25 May and 7 June. It is not in my intention to deprive the Venice exhibition from the usual contribution of 500 lire, but the Bank as such, cannot contribute to the objective indicated by Mayor Grimani. … This is why I wrote that I wanted to give a personal contribution, that I am free to give to the Venice Exhibition and entitled to refuse to other exhibitions or objectives.’ (‘Caro Amico, Ho le tue lettere del 25 maggio e del 7 corrente. No ho nessuna intenzione di privare l’esposizione di Venezia delle consuete 500 lire, ma la Banca, come tale, non puo’ contribuire allo scopo indicato dal Sindaco Grimani … Percio’ ho scritto che, la Banca non potendo, avrei offerto un mio contributo personale’.)
28. Venice ASAC, letters from Giovanni Giolitti to Antonio Fradeletto, dated 24 August 1912 and 3 September 1912, 2pp. each.
29. London, Tate Gallery Archives, 72-45/ 244, Letter from John Pierpont Morgan to Giulio Fradeletto, dated 19 June 1909.
Additional information
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Marie Tavinor
Marie Tavinor is Programme Director of the Executive Master in Cultural Leadership at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She specializes in the history of art, collecting and the art market and she is a founding member of the Society for the History of Collecting. Her PhD investigated the consumption of British painting in the early years of the Venice Biennale (Royal Holloway, 2017). She regularly publishes and lectures on the subject internationally.