I dioscuri

I DIOSCURI (A. Felci, P. Morbiducci)

Four sculptural groups mark the four corners of the large base of the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana. Made of travertine blocks on a reinforced concrete structure, they represent two pairs of Dioscuri, the mythical sons of Zeus also known as Castor and Pollux. The heroes of numerous legends in the history of ancient Rome, they were chosen as works of art for the Rome Universal Exhibition in light of the celebratory importance given by the Fascist regime to Roman nature: they were to announce the new triumphs for which the City was destined.
The pair that decorates the front, and main, side of the building was created by Publio Morbiducci; those on the rear were the work of Alberto Felci. The preparatory drawings made by Publio Morbiducci (a sculptor who had already created, for E42, the bas-relief at the entrance to Palazzo Uffici "History of Rome through its building works"), was immediately approved by C.E. Oppo, responsible for the Exhibition's Artistic Department and commissioner of the work; on the contrary, Alberto Felci had to present three different sets of drawings before the requirements of Ente EUR were satisfied.

Various problems were encountered during completion of the work: on 25th July 1942 the first of Felci's two groups was completed, while the second - in spite of the extensions granted by Ente EUR to the firm Amleto Rossi, in charge of working the travertine - had only been partially completed by August 1943: it was finally finished in 1952, as part of the more general resumption of work in the district. Morbiducci's Dioscuri suffered an even worse fate: damaged by the fighting following September 8th, 1943, completion of the first group (of which only the horse remained) and creation of the second had to wait until 1956, when a new contract was signed.
As a whole, the compositions are proud and emphatic, particularly the one created by Morbiducci: the sculptor, taking his inspiration from the models in the Fountain of the Dioscuri in Piazza del Quirinale (the breastplate acting as a base is an explicit reference), gives his statues an intentionally rhetorical feeling, particularly dear to the tastes of the customer. On the contrary, after all the corrections he was forced to make, Felci's work was decidedly academic in style.