L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 L'Italo-Americano Nasi Illustrissimi Pasquino visits the Pincian Gardens " If Cleopatra's nose had been shorter," s a i d t h e F r e n c h philosopher Blaise Pascal, "the whole face of the earth would have been different." The same t h o u g h t s t r u c k m e a t a reception held for the young Egyptian queen in Novem- ber 46 BC at Julius Caesar's v i l l a o n R o m e ' s Q u i r i n a l Hill. E v e r y o n e a d m i r e d Cleopatra's nose. Long and curved like the prow of a w a r s h i p , i t w a s b o u n d t o attract Caesar, nearly as good an admiral as he was a g e n e r a l . I f s h e h a d b e e n s n u b - n o s e d l i k e h e r youngest brother and pup- pet co-ruler Ptolemy XIV, Caesar, whose aquiline pro- file was stamped on every silver denarius, would never have made her his consort in Alexandria. Neither would he have shown off her mar- b l e b u s t t o a p p r e c i a t i v e guests here in Rome. "A peninsula worthy of conquest!" Caesar said, kiss- ing the tip of the statue's nose. Cleopatra, only twen- ty-two years old, could not refrain from nuzzling him. Even Cicero , whose bul- bous nose was dented at the end like the cleft of a chick- pea, laughed and applauded. R o m a n s h i s t o r y i s a p a r a d e o f n o s e s . S c i p i o N a s i c a , t h e c o n s u l w h o e n s h r i n e d t h e s t a t u e o f M a g n a M a t e r o n t h e Palatine Hill, was named after his enormous schnoz. So was the poet Ovid, sur- named Naso, who forlornly blew his exiled honker on the shores of the Black Sea. Sulla, the dictator who suf- fered from rhinophyma, exe- cuted anyone foolish enough to mock his proboscis, which r e s e m b l e d a m u l b e r r y encrusted with oatmeal. Roman noses are still dis- played all over the city, from the head of the shattered Colossus of Constantine in the Courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori to the bill- board for Lady Gaga's latest E u r o p r i d e C o n c e r t a t t h e C i r c u s M a x i m u s . B u t t h e largest collection of illustri- ous noses can be found in t h e P i n c i a n G a r d e n s , overlooking the Piazza del Popolo. Let me show you. L a i d o u t b y G i u s e p p e V a l a d i e r d u r i n g t h e N a p o l e o n i c W a r s , t h e Pincian Gardens are Rome's oldest public park and its Hall of Fame. Marble busts line its shady paths and the bridge connecting the gar- dens to Villa Borghese. Not part of Valadier's original design, these busts feature monarchs and statesmen, painters and sculptors, sci- entists and inventors, poets and novelists, historians and philosophers, but no popes or cardinals. After the Roman Republic overthrew Pope Pius IX in February 1849, Giuseppe Mazzini, eager to inspire patriotism, commissioned u n e m p l o y e d s c u l p t o r s t o c a r v e 5 4 b u s t s o f f a m o u s I t a l i a n s f o r t h e P i n c i a n Gardens. Four months later, when the papal government was restored, only the busts of the most uncontroversial figures were set into place. T h e b u s t s o f s e c u l a r i s t s , heretics, and revolutionaries were removed and stored in Casina Valadier, the park's neoclassical villa. Eventually, these busts were returned outdoors, but not before receiving drastic m a k e o v e r s . G i a c o m o Leopardi, the nihilistic poet, became the Greek painter Zeuxis. Niccolò Machiavelli, the anticlerical political sci- entist, was turned into the mathematician Archimedes. Girolamo Savonarola, the radical Dominican friar, was recast as Guido of Arezzo, the Benedictine monk who invented musical notation. After the Papal States fell in 1870, these and other his- torical figures altered for p o l i t i c a l r e a s o n s f i n a l l y received recognition. New busts of them were carved and set side by side with the older ones already in the Pincian Gardens. Over the next ninety years, busts of other famous Italians were added to the pantheon until the total number reached 228. A s y o u s e e , t h e y a r e a s n o o t y b u n c h . T h e i r u p t u r n e d n o s e s , w h o s e blanched marble stands out in stark relief against the p a r k ' s e v e r g r e e n s a n d palms, are often smashed or docked. The vandals include disgruntled art critics, who c o n s i d e r t h e s t a t u e s Risorgimento kitsch; angry feminists, who resent that o n l y t h r e e w o m e n (Catherine of Siena, Vittoria C o l o n n a , a n d G r a z i a D e l e d d a ) a r e a m o n g t h e immortals; spiteful anar- chists, who hate all govern- ments; and selfish tourists, who want souvenirs. Ten to twenty busts are defaced each month, so the M i n i s t r y o f C u l t u r a l H e r i t a g e a n d A c t i v i t i e s keeps an expert restorer on the payroll and a depository o f c a s t s o f t h e P i n c i a n ' s illustrious noses: hooked n o s e s a n d c o c k e d n o s e s , sharp noses and flat noses, r o u n d n o s e s a n d s q u a r e noses, pinched noses and wide noses. Each nose job, City Hall estimates, costs 8 0 0 e u r o s ( a b o u t $ 9 0 0 ) . This expense drains funds from other restoration pro- jects. Since I am a noseless stat- u e , w h o s e f e a t u r e s h a v e been eroded by time, I could c o m p l a i n . B u t a l l t h i n g s , whether stone or flesh, are subject to the cruelty of for- tune and the absurdity of politics. No one is exempt, not even the Queen of Egypt, whose mutilated bust is rele- g a t e d t o a c o r n e r o f t h e M u s e o G r e o g o r i a n o Profano at the Vatican. A f t e r J u l i u s C a e s a r ' s assassination in March 44 BC, conspirators broke into Caesar's villa and snapped the nose off Cleopatra's bust, but the lady herself had long fled. Thirteen years later, when her new lover Mark Antony angrily recalled this outrage, Cleopatra shrugged and smiled. " W h a t d o y o u e x p e c t ? " she asked. "Eternal glory?" S h e s h o o k h e r h e a d a n d sighed, thinking of the com- ing Battle of Actium, which she and Antony would lose. "When the great die," she s a i d , " t h e y d o n ' t g o t o E l y s i u m b u t t o Rhinokoloura." T h e a l l u s i o n , I ' m t o l d , perplexed Antony, a hunk with a chiseled nose but no g e n i u s l i k e C a e s a r , s o C l e o p a t r a e x p l a i n e d . Rhinokoloura was a place of b a n i s h m e n t i n t h e S i n a i desert for criminals whose noses had been sliced off. Pasquino's secretary is Anthony Di Renzo, profes- s o r o f w r i t i n g a t I t h a c a College. You may reach him at direnzo@ithaca.edu. ANTHONY DI RENZO A statue at the Pincian Gardens. Photo: Konstantinos Papaioannou/Dreamstime HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS

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