Scrittura esposta, architettura e ideologia: il piazzale dell’Impero nel foro Italico, già foro Mussolini, a Roma

Abstract

The use of architectural surfaces as epigraphic supports to display writing was particularly successful in the 1930s thanks to the
fascist regime, which used it in order to define its own image and to visually impose an ideology. Since the piazzale dell’Impero in
the foro Mussolini in Rome is a particularly emblematic case of both the political dynamic and the artistic climate of the time, in
these pages we intend to propose a different critical reinterpretation, based on the analysis of the inscriptions on the obelisk, the
mosaic floor and marble monoliths, their relationship with the architectural support and the ideological message conveyed. The
analysis proceeds through the evaluation of a series of parameters relating to the text, graphic design, material used, legibility
and relationship with the decorative apparatus, according to a method derived from the disciplinary field of epigraphy.