Ricerc@Sapienza

The veneration of the ancient heritage of Rome was a driving force of the Risorgimento since Napoleon’s first conquest of Italy. Equated with secularity and placed in opposition to the papacy, antiquity continued to have an irresistible appeal to the Italians after they had captured the Eternal City in 1870. The monuments of ancient Rome were favoured over those of all later, Church-dominated epochs. As the custodian of the nation’s heritage, the Ministry of Public Instruction oversaw the care of antiquity in the capital, involving not only excavations but also restoration, legislative control and zoning protection. Destra and Sinistra governments alike exploited the city’s ancient monuments to cultivate a state image – but with considerably different objectives. In 1870, a powerful faction of the ruling Destra saw the capture of Rome as an opportunity to forge an image of modernity and progress for the young nation. The shift in power from the moderate Destra to the anti-clerical and expressively patriotic Sinistra initiated a more explicit and unabashed identification of the Italian state with ancient Rome. Three campaigns of archaeological work restored the monuments as an ensemble of great emblematic power. The sentiment that identified the nascent Italian state with ancient Rome had exerted a strong influence over the Risorgimento after its capture of the city in 1870. The city´s ancient monuments had long served the papacy as attributes of its temporal power, analogous to papal buildings such as the Quirinal and Montecitorio. Beyond their physical use as trophies by the Italian government, the ancient remains served an important emblematic role. Their value as symbols as secular rule was enhanced by divorcing them from negative Christian connotations. By excavation, preservation and restoration, Ministers of Public Instruction, mainly under the Sinistra, gave to the city´s ensemble of the most renown ancient monuments a central and prominent place within modern Rome.