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Uncovering Mussolini and Hitler in Churches: The Painter's Ideological Subversion and the Marking of Space along the Slovene-Italian Border

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2018

Extract

This study analyzes the phenomenon of church paintings as subversive visual representations of Fascism and as an act of systematic rebellion against Fascist “ideological marking of space.” Slovene Expressionist painter and sculptor Tone Kralj's (1900−75) paintings functioned as ideological markers of national territory. He painted churches along the ethnic border as it was imagined by the Slovene community, delineating it with visual symbols of anti-Fascism and anti-Nazism. Kralj's undertaking can thus be interpreted as an instance of systematic “subversive coverage” of an ethnically exposed borderland with church paintings. Even today, his artistic “delineation” of the then-disputed ethnic border is a marking phenomenon that cannot be found anywhere else in Europe. If one of the most important authorities on Fascist ideology in Italy, Emilio Gentile, considers Fascist ideology to be a form of political religion and a modern manifestation of the sacralization of politics, then Tone Kralj's church paintings could be regarded as an instance of systematic introduction of the political and ideological into the religious context. Perhaps the most ingenious feature of Kralj's ecclesiastical art is his fusion of Catholicism with the Slovene national idea for the purpose of ideologically marking and promoting anti-Fascism and anti-Nazism as well as Slovene nationalism and Slovene irredentism in the Julian March.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 2018 

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Footnotes

This article was translated by Breda Biščak.

References

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19 The Isonzo Front (1915–17) was the site of twelve battles along the Soča/Isonzo River on the eastern sector of the Italian Front during World War I. Located in present-day Slovenia, the Soča/Isonzo River at that time ran roughly north-south just inside Austria along its border with Italy at the head of the Adriatic Sea. The Italians first attacked the Habsburg army in June 1915. For fourteen days, the Italian army attempted to cross the river and scale the heights beyond but was beaten back. Subsequent Italian attacks also failed, until a sixth offensive, in August 1916, when the Italian army captured Görz/Gorizia and secured a bridgehead across the Soča/Isonzo, the Italians’ first real victories on the front. The Italians subsequently changed their tactics but remained unable to penetrate the formidable natural barriers protected by Austrian artillery. In late summer 1917, the Italians struck again, this time with fifty-one divisions and 5,200 guns, and slowly pushed forward, dislodging the Austrians as they advanced. The Germans, fearing the collapse of the Austrian front, sent reinforcements. On 24 October, the Austrian-German forces took the offensive, beginning with a heavy bombardment, and by afternoon the Italian army was in a rout. War-weary territorial troops threw down their arms, the Austrians poured over the Soča/Isonzo, and Caporetto fell, although many Italian units continued to fight as they retreated toward the Piave River. It marked one of the worst defeats in Italian history.

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