Scholars have referred to the twentieth century as “the century of the periodicals” to highlight the significance of magazines in shaping its modern culture. 1 Literary, artistic, and cultural magazines were not only a means of communication, but also a distinctive space of cultural production – a new public sphere – following the demise of the old aristocratic circles constituted by the courts and the salons.
In Italy, during the early twentieth century, the press, including periodicals, played a key role in Italian public, political, and cultural life, as the country rapidly evolved and came to face the challenges of modernity.
It discusses some of the aesthetic and ideological implications attached to the redefinition of the idea of the classical in the postwar context, with particular reference to the centrality attributed to Italy in the renewal of European art. Focusing primarily on the magazines La Brigata, La Raccolta, Valori plastici, La Ronda, Il primato artistico italiano and Il Convegno, published in the crucial years between World War I and the rise of Fascism (with the exception of Il Convegno, which was published between 19), the article explores how these writings contributed to the theorization of Metaphysical Art and it considers their essential role in shaping the artistic debate in Italy in the years of the so-called “return to order.” It assesses the role played by Metaphysical writing in the demise of avant-garde aesthetics and in the promotion of a revision of the relationship between art and politics, which saw a reconceptualization of the classical as central to the redefinition of postwar national culture. This article looks at the extensive theorization and critical activity carried out by the artists involved in the Metaphysical movement between 19, with particular reference to the writings of Carlo Carrà and Giorgio de Chirico.