Enzo Petraccone, Croce’s favorite pupil and dear to personalities such as Fortunato and di Giacomo, represented a notable figure of young intellectual in Naples in the first half of the second decade of the twentieth century. Trained in a rich and lively cultural context, he was able to move from journalism to non-fiction, dealing with both literature and history, then choosing to devote himself to the history of art. The advent of war quickly interrupted his research; after three years at the front, he died in June 1918 without being able to see his monograph on the painter Luca Giordano printed, published posthumously the following year. The intervention intends to reflect on the early loss of a talent such as Petraccone, destined to be remembered as a meteor in the panorama of artistic and cultural studies in the south, through three paragraphs, each corresponding to a specific period: in the initial one the first twenty-four years of the young man’s life, studies and meetings, as well as non-fiction and journalistic production; the second focuses on the three years spent at the front analyzing the writings composed in those situations, the thoughts formulated and also the images that show Petraccone in military clothing; finally, we retrace the memory of Enzo after his tragic death, the initiatives in honor of him and the posthumous publications, in order to capture how much of the scholar and how much of the soldier prevailed in the collective memory.
«Mammà, farò tutto intero il mio dovere!». Vita, opere e memoria di Enzo Petraccone, giovane critico d’arte lucano al fronte
Brevetti, Giulio
2021
Abstract
Enzo Petraccone, Croce’s favorite pupil and dear to personalities such as Fortunato and di Giacomo, represented a notable figure of young intellectual in Naples in the first half of the second decade of the twentieth century. Trained in a rich and lively cultural context, he was able to move from journalism to non-fiction, dealing with both literature and history, then choosing to devote himself to the history of art. The advent of war quickly interrupted his research; after three years at the front, he died in June 1918 without being able to see his monograph on the painter Luca Giordano printed, published posthumously the following year. The intervention intends to reflect on the early loss of a talent such as Petraccone, destined to be remembered as a meteor in the panorama of artistic and cultural studies in the south, through three paragraphs, each corresponding to a specific period: in the initial one the first twenty-four years of the young man’s life, studies and meetings, as well as non-fiction and journalistic production; the second focuses on the three years spent at the front analyzing the writings composed in those situations, the thoughts formulated and also the images that show Petraccone in military clothing; finally, we retrace the memory of Enzo after his tragic death, the initiatives in honor of him and the posthumous publications, in order to capture how much of the scholar and how much of the soldier prevailed in the collective memory.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.