Arrigo Boito’s poem "Il torso" as an example of the crisis of the cult of antiquity in post-romantic period
The article deals with the poem Il torso by the Italian poet and composer Arrigo Boito who was a representative of the literary and artistic movement known as la scapigliatura. The movement that existed in Italy, mainly in Milan, in 1860-1870 was peculiar for its critical attitude to romantic art, although its representatives adopted purely romantic forms and traditions of expression. Boito’s poem dealing with ancient Greece and Rome is notable for being an example of a departure from the tradition of presenting the Greek and Roman antiquity as the “golden age” of humanity. It is apparent from the poem Die Götter Griechenlands ( The Gods of Greece ) by F. Schiller which is a sort of a hymn to the harmony and beauty of the ancient world. In the second half of the 19th century, however, the tradition established by Classicism and Romanticism underwent crisis caused by scientific researches. The differences between the antiquity presented by the classicists and romantics and the poets of post-romantic period are illustrated by Boito’s poem. The ancient Greece and especially Rome are utterly realistic in his poem and the reality he presents has many ugly sides. The poet makes it clear that there was no particular “golden age” in human history and people are the same both in antiquity and in modern times.