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.

摘要

近几十年来，随着艺术民主化和去神秘化的更广泛趋势，纪念碑的风格和作用在西方经历了重大转变。尽管如此，描绘人物形象的雕像仍然是城市文化中的重要地标。近年来为挑战许多纪念碑所体现的种族主义、殖民主义和/或父权制愿景而在多个国家爆发的雕像战争就是这方面的具体证明。然而，该主题在科学文献中仍未得到充分研究。本研究论文旨在通过关注公共纪念碑中的性别维度来开始解决这一差距。我们分析了意大利描绘当代世俗女性形象的雕像。本文的目的是研究特定于文化遗产和城市设计的基于性别的模式或刻板印象。样本由 34 座雕像组成，分布在整个意大利国土上。对整合视觉、叙事、美学和社会学元素的语料库进行主题分析。结果表明，无论是在小省份还是大城市，都存在明显且广泛存在的对意大利古迹中女性形象的刻板印象和诋毁形式，以及文化政策的不足。