January 29, 2024

"In 1924, the artist Nancy Cox-McCormack recounted her experience sculpting the bust of Benito Mussolini..."

"... in an article for The New York Times Magazine, 'When Mussolini Poses.' While posing, Mussolini was surrounded by opulent gifts, she wrote, including a music box that 'played only the Fascisti marching song.' The verb 'to pose' was first recorded in the mid-14th century. Its earliest definitions, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, include to propose a theory or question, to arrange an object or, like Mussolini, to assume a position for a portrait. When someone poses for a portrait, he or she presents an 'idealized' version of him or herself, 'often as a person of culture, fashion or erudition,' the lexicographer Grant Barrett said. But people 'posing' in life may be pretending to be someone they’re not to impress or deceive others. A character in a film reviewed by The Times in 1943, for example, was 'posing' as a millionaire’s long-lost daughter...."

Writes Sarah Diamond, in "A Pop, Dip and Spin Through the History of ‘Pose’/Though the word 'pose' is associated with voguing, it is less a part of the vocabulary and more a part of the movement" (NYT).

Speaking of words — and I'm glad the NYT publishes these essays about individual words — I see that the sculpture in question is called a "bust" and a bust, in sculpture, is just the head and the neck. How do you "pose" with just your head and neck?

Cox-McCormack's sculpture was, indeed, only a depiction of Mussolini's head and neck. It was not the arms-across-chest pose he was famous for:


By the way, what is "the Fascisti marching song"? It can't be "Faccetta Nera" ("Little Black Face"). That was written in 1935, and McCormack wrote about Mussolini's music preference in 1924. Is it "Giovinezza"? Based on the write-up at Wikipedia, I must presume that was the song the sculptor heard during the bust-posing.

23 comments:

rcocean said...

too dangerous. IF so, why aren't they censoring the communist songs?

Quaestor said...

Cox-McCormack seems to have vaulted il Duce's forehead a bit more than Nature ordained.

dbp said...

"While posing, Mussolini was surrounded by opulent gifts, she wrote, including a music box that 'played only the Fascisti marching song,"

Don't music boxes typically play only one song?

Wince said...

The left dreams about hanging Trump upside down at an EV charging station, instead of a Esso gas station at Piazzale Loreto in Milan.

Ann Althouse said...

"too dangerous. IF so, why aren't they censoring the communist songs?"

You're quoting something that I had in the post but then took out. I'd said Spotify wouldn't return any songs when I searched for "Giovinezza" or "fascist marching song." I thought I was getting censored, and maybe I was. But a little while later, it did give me a big long list of recordings of "Giovinezza," so I deleted the stuff about Spotify.

Maybe it does a temporary censorship... for like 5 minutes?

Ann Althouse said...

"Don't music boxes typically play only one song?"

Good point.

I imagined the song playing constantly. But maybe it only played once. Or not at all.

n.n said...

Left-wing ideology wears diverse pose hats.

Two-eyed Jack said...

Mussolini looks like a bald Chico Marx.

https://www.listal.com/viewimage/20646751

BarrySanders20 said...

50 years later he could have loaded Vogue (Strike a Pose) into that music box and modified the lyrics a bit. He'd have loved it.

Greta Garbo and Monroe
Dietrich and DiMaggio
Mussolini, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine

Josephbleau said...

"Don't music boxes typically play only one song?"

My grandmother had one where you could change the little spine rollers and have it play different songs, but it must be hard to find new songs to buy. She only had 3 songs, one was the nutcracker.

BarrySanders20 said...

Regarding poses and the early days of photography, per the intertubes:

"In the early days of photography, it took several minutes to take a photo because cameras relied on slow chemical reactions. If subjects moved at all, the image turned out blurry. A smile was more difficult to hold for a long period of time, so people grimaced or looked serious."

Just not as long as holding a pose for a bust, though the bust wont get blurry with a smile or a sneeze.

Rosalyn C. said...

This bust by Cox-McCormack seems to minimize Mussolini’s jaw. That’s a little bit strange because in all his photographs he seems to deliberately jut his very strong prominent jaw forward. He was definitely posing a lot. Was there some intention in this bust to change his image?

mikee said...

The pose that best conveyed Mussolini's true self was him hanging head down from a lamp post. Sic semper, caput stercore.

Kevin said...

I am more interested in the bust of Sophia Loren.

Narr said...

"Giovinezza" is a jaunty thing, and manages to work Dante into the lyrics.

Has anyone asked Spotify for the Horst Wessel Song? Youtube has a bunch of them.


Narr said...

"Giovinezza" is a jaunty thing, and manages to work Dante into the lyrics.

Has anyone asked Spotify for the Horst Wessel Song? Youtube has a bunch of them.


Kate said...

Ochi Chërnye

Oligonicella said...

I've done a few busts. I don't care for that rigid "posed" look and did mine from photos. Makes the sculpting (or post work if metal) more difficult but at least they don't look like they're staring at an oncoming car.

It reminds me of a death mask.

Quaestor said...

"Giovinezza" is a jaunty thing, and manages to work Dante into the lyrics."

I doubt the lyricist was thinking of the Divine Comedy, more likely the reference is to Dante's defense of the independence of Florence against the temporal authority of the pope. It was Mussolini's regime that finally curbed the Church's hold on Rome, creating the Vatican State as we know it today.

Rosalyn C. said...

According to wiki, this portrait was done early in Mussolini's career, around 1922, so before he had developed his signature pose of jutting his powerful jaw forward.

wiki on Cox-McCormack: "Through a chain of friendships, Cox-McCormack was able to meet and model Benito Mussolini, who had just risen to power in Italy, evoking widespread excitement among Cox-McCormack and her friends. Cox-McCormack had been in Rome during Mussolini's March on Rome, and had seen what was happening at first hand. 'Every artist I knew... was enthusiastic about the 'stellone' (great star) who had appeared in the sky 'to save Italy from utter ruin.'[10] She considered him 'a creative force' and 'the inspiration of the new epoch in Europe.' She completed his bust in ten sittings during May and June 1923. It was the first bust made of the new ruler. (Years later, she became disenchanted with Mussolini's regime).[10]"

Sheridan said...

What song was playing when Trump's booking photo was taken? Booking photos seem to be today's equivalent of sculpted busts.

William said...

Mussolini really did succeed in looking like Mussolini. He created the Fascist Dictator brand. If you were looking around to cast a bond villain, you'd cast somebody who looks like Mussolini and not like Hitler. There's an extraordinary disconnect between men who look like Hitler or Stalin and the amount of evil they inflicted upon the world. Not so much with Mussolini. ....Here's a philosophical question: Mussolini wasn't particularly anti-Semitic. His mistress, the one who wrote his autobiography was Jewish. He, nonetheless. went along with Hitler's edicts regarding the Jews in Italy. He did this for strictly opportunistic reasons. Does that make him more evil than Hitler?

Narr said...

Gold star to Quaestor.