Naval interiors between art and design on the Conte Biancamano cruise ship

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Article

Naval interiors between art and design on the Сonte Biancamano cruise ship

Rossetti S., Bisiani T. UT, Trieste, Italy

Abstract

In November 2017 at the Civic Gallery of Modern Art in Monfalcone, the exhibition "Boico - Cervi - Frandoli - Nordio - Naval interiors between art and design" was set up. A small exhibition dedicated to four architects of Trieste, it is a group that has distinguished itself after the Second World War as one of the major protagonists in the field of design and design of naval interiors. In this text we tried to deepen one of their ship design works, that of reconstructing the Conte Biancamano ship and also to investigate two examples of artistic interventions realized by artists within the most important public spaces of these ships, by the works of Mario Sironi and Marcello Mascherini. After the war, cruise ships were also one of the means through which, thanks to navigation, it was possible to make known the high quality of Italian design, architecture and art abroad.

Keywords: Conte Biancamano, Romano Boico, Aldo Cervi, Vittorio Frandoli, Umberto Nordio, Marcello Mascherini, Mario Sironi, naval interiors, cruise ship, naval furnishing, wall decoration, wall rug.

ИСКУССТВО И ДИЗАИН ВО ВНУТРЕННЕМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ КРУИЗНОГО ЛАЙНЕРА "КОНТЕ БЬЯНКАМАНО”

Росетти С., Бизиани Т. УТ, Триест, Италия

Абстракт. В ноябре 2017 года в Государственной галерее современного искусства в городе Монфальконе была открыта выставка «Бойко - Черви - Франдоли - Нордио - Между искусством и дизайном, корабельные интерьеры».

Это была небольшая выставка, посвященная дизайну интерьера круизного судна, выполненному четырьмя архитекторами города Триест после окончания Второй мировой войны.

В нашей ставьте мы попытались представить одну из проектных работ архитекторов, составленную для круизных лайнеров и реализованную на корабле «Конте Бьянка- мано». Также были проиллюстрированны два произведения, выполненные двумя известными художниками Марио Сирони и Марчелло Маскерини для наиболее значимых публичных пространств этого морского судна.

Высокое качество итальянского дизайна, архитектуры и искусства в послевоенные годы стало известно за пределами Италии в том числе и благодаря навигации круизных судов, произведенных в нашей стране.

Ключевые слова: Конте Бьянкамано, Романо Боико, Альдо Черви, Витторио Франдоли, Умберто Нордио, Марчелло Маскерини, Марио Сирони, коробельные интерьеры, круизный корабль, коробельная мебель, декорирование, гобелены.

Naval interiors between art and design experience in Trieste, 1940-1950

In November 2017 at the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Monfalcone, the exhibition "Boico - Cervi - Frandoli - Nordio - Naval interiors between art and design" was set up.It was a small exhibition dedicated to four architects of Trieste: Romano Boico (1910-1985), Aldo Cervi (1901-1972), Vittorio Frandoli (1902-1978) and Umberto Nordio (1891-1971), this group distinguished itself after World War II as one of the major protagonists in the field of design and design of naval interiors.

The years immediately after the end of the war were marked by a vital impulse, aimed at the rebirth of the Italian Mercantile Navy and the Adriatic Shipyards, which had suffered heavy destruction during the war, but which in the 1930s had distinguished themselves internationally for the construction of beautiful motorboats.

The group of the four Triestines took part in this rebirth with a position of absolute importance: led by the eldest Umberto Nordio, who made available his experience and his prestige, the group united the common interest towards rationalist architecture with the technical rigor that distinguished the work of Aldo Cervi, to the knowledge of the materials that came to Vittorio Frandoli from the practical experience of the carpentry firm founded by his father Giovanni and active in the field of naval interiors, to the functionalist imprint in the distribution of the spaces of the younger than the four, Romano Boico.

Photo 1 - Conte Biancamano

In the naval interiors designed between the late forties and mid fifties, the quartet set the spaces marked by an accentuated formal cleanliness, marked by "an expression of lightness" that Gio Ponti from the pages of "Domus" (1953) considered the essential element of a modern and functional naval decor. The group's work stood out for its simplicity in the selection and matching of the materials, for a uniform color scheme and for a marked integration with the works of art included in the rooms, in line with the idea promulgated in those years from Gio Ponti that the ships should be "also a manifestation of the arts of the country" represented by them (in "Domus" 1952). In the exhibition were analyzed with the support of vintage photos, studies, executive projects, sketches of the quartet made on Conte Biancamano (1949)(Photo 1), on the motorboats Australia (1951), Neptunia (1951), Augustus (1952), Africa (1953) and Asia (1953), ending with the Homeric (1955), which saw the collaboration between Boico and Cervi. In the exhibition there were newspaper articles and coeval publications to the realization of the motorboats, which document the great attention of the media and the public that flourished around these companies.

The exhibition was an opportunity to get closer to these issues and deepen some of the works created for the restyling of Conte Biancamano, which due to their peculiarity have stimulated our personal interest.

The interior fittings of passenger ships

Between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, to promote the desire to move first-class passengers, we wanted to eliminate the sense of discomfort of the journey by constructing ships of such size as to minimize roll and pitch. interiors of these ships, the goal could be pursued by limiting the visual contact with the outside and re-proposing solid, opulent and static settings like those of the representation buildings, luxurious and not very functional.

In the second part of the twenties the construction practice in Italian ships continued to propose these solutions with a luxury demode at the limit of the grotesque which was however much appreciated by the US clientele.

This proven scheme, anchored in the opulence of the past, will be questioned only in the last part of the twenties, also in relation to the spread of architectural practices that will have one of the most fruitful processing centers in Italy, thanks to artists particularly attentive to these aspects. The arrival on the scene of an architect like Gustavo Pulitzer Finali reopens the games by introducing aspects in line with the nascent functionalism in architecture2. In its view, the attraction of the naval interiors is no longer the offer of interiors that evoke the Italian Renaissance culture through the richness of its typically "terrestrial" [...] decorations, but the modernity of an elegant ambient comfort (not luxury) which follows the canons inspired by the great Central European culture that developed in those years between Trieste, Vienna and Budapest [...] the Ship no longer tries to dress up as a floating palace, but manifests its specificity through the "cabins", the sumptuous "salons" of the parties ", the" walk bridge "where the true life on board and its relationship with the sea are told"(Photo 2-3-4).

During this period the interior fittings will pay attention to the structures of the vessel taking into account their functionality, in particular the decoration and decoration of the ships exploited the beauty of the structural lines sometimes transforming them into decorative elements, the will was not to give the passenger the 'illusion of being on the ground, but vice versa to be traveling within an object with beauty. Such operations of exaltation of the elegant structures of a vessel were simpler to be realized on small boats rather than on large transatlantic, where, however, with great capacity operated Pulitzer Finali3.

In this regard it is interesting to report a reflection published by Gio Ponti on Do- mus's pages in October 1931: "The problem of naval furnishing goes beyond the simple question of comfort, elegance and taste. Through the work of the artists and performers, it is a living testimony to the tenor of a nation's civilization which hosts hospitality, a very representative function from which great prestige and authority derive, a serious function of ambitious responsibility. This function excludes the outdated, if not abandoned, way of furnishing the beautiful modern hulls to the old and pompously: this way denies all the original and sincere contributions of the spirit, art and technique of today and gives in consequence a well-warranted testimony of our civilization and of our creative virtues, which does not correspond at all to the truth and is therefore free of defamation of the noble forces, of the activities and possibilities that today Italy represents in this field. In addition to the contradiction that repels the spirit there is, in ships furnished to the old, the congenital falsity of the work; work without authority and without marital status: an absurd work which, for the educated intellects, does not succeed even what it would like to be, that is stylistic work, because it is forced to dimensions and aims that are impossible to reconcile with respect of the same styles: a work that automatically excludes the best artists of today's Italy, that is, the living Nation, [...] our artists, whose authority is high and significant and sure, must be wisely present with their work on our ships. This is another testimony of civilization and a wonderful resource for employing magnificent talents of valiant men."

Gio Ponti emphasizes the question of the unity of the rooms, or rather the coordination between adjoining environments, regardless of the upper or lower class to which they belong; the eye of the user must find concatenation and coherence in moving from one environment to another. In the 1930s, the interiors of the ships will also be testimony and promotion abroad and to foreign passengers, national pride and engineering capabilities of the nation.(Photo 5-6-7),

Post-war: the refitting

The war marked a serious moment of interruption for the transoceanic navigation of the line, many ships were turned into hospitals or destined to transport troops and many were destroyed. In the post-war period Italian shipyards set out again proposing avantgarde solutions for this sector, there was a growing experimentation both in the use of new materials and in design with innovative choices with respect to the distribution of interior spaces, and with particular attention reserved for involvement of artists. The most active shipyards in the field of upgrading were those of Genoa, Monfalcone and Trieste, and there were as many design groups composed of Italian architects, who will establish themselves in the field of naval furnishing. It was the group headed by the Triestine Gustavo Pulitzer, who moved to Genoa in '48, and the group composed of Umberto Nordio, Vittorio Frandoli, Aldo Cervi and Romano Boico, and the Milanese group headed by Gio Ponti.

The first significant episode is constituted by the reconstruction works of the Conte Biancamano (Photo 8), installed in the San Marco shipyard in Monfalcone. Built in the early thirties, Conte Biancamano was to be completely renovated after the vicissitudes of the war. With a new practice, the renewal of the spaces and decorations was in fact entrusted following a notice of competition to the three working groups just mentioned.

At a careful reading, the interventions that led Gio Ponti were characterized by a "unitary" tendency, as opposed to the "pluralist" one, which found its most complete expression in Conte Biancamano. In this context, the most receptive for the decorative works is the Trieste group composed by Nordio, Frandoli, Cervi and Boico, which is characterized by stands that focus mainly on the narrative aspect of the artists' work, which sometimes even prevail with the their works on the composition of spaces. In fact, they are sometimes entrusted not only with the design of large decorative panels, but also, as in the emblematic case of Marcello Mascherini, that of structural parts usually reserved for architects' intervention.

The various projects for Conte Biancamano will see the presence of about forty artists, mostly from the Trieste school, but with the involvement of still high-sounding names such as Mario Sironi and Massimo Campigli, co-opted respectively for the execution of the sketch an extraordinary tapestry made by Alberto Maria Ponis at MITA di Nervi, and a large panel painted with scenes linked to the sea resort in the second-class living room 4

The MITA Company thus inaugurated the post-war activity of supplier of shipyards, outfitters and shipping companies; the maritime sector would remain, for more than two decades, the main commercial sector for Ponis manufacturing products.

On board the Conte Biancamano Pulitzer he selected some printed fabrics of MITA, such as the curtains in the reading and writing room, but the clerk that was most important was that of a large tapestry with a long wool thread, designed by Mario Sironi. the first-class living room where the tempera studies made by the artist for its composition were also exhibited.

In addition to the furniture, and the paintings of the best Triestine painters, the extraordinary decoration with the stories of the Argonauts on the ceiling of the first-class veranda, created by Marcello Mascherini and now preserved at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. A plaster cast of the same ceiling decoration adorns the Aula Magna of the University of Trieste.

Mascherini himself will also transform the handrail of the staircase that joins the four main bridges in a sort of large fishing net populated by fish and crustaceans (Photo 9).

Photo 9 - Conte Biancamano - handrail of the main staircase offirst class decorated with a large fishing net populated by fish and crustaceans by Marcello Mascherini

On the value of these experiences, Gio Ponti will once again write about "Domus", highlighting its national peculiarities: in furnishing our ships must be "dedicated to Italy" that is to say the honor of Italy in two ways. The one, figurative, represented in the decorations, in the paintings, in the ornaments: and it is the call of the "legend of Italy": the famous architectures, the famous gardens, the ancient Italy [...] Italy of the artists and today's craftsmanship, Italy of enchanting ceramics, prodigious glasses, famous enamels, marvelous fabrics: legendary Italy of art and history. The other way to honor Italy is, if we also conceive of the ship only as a "functional means of transport" and not as propaganda, in making Italian ships beat all the foreigners under this aspect.

Ponti closed by asking rhetorically: "as far as ships are concerned, there are two opinions: that they are exclusively perfect means of transport and that they are also a manifestation of the arts of the country that the ship represents", obvious answer, a few lines under "we are obviously for the second opinion because there is no reason that passengers who come to Italy attracted to it, to the Italian art, do not find the expression (of course the noblest) on same Italian ships».

The massive intervention of the best artists in the furnishing and decoration of ships designed in Italy will continue throughout the fifties, trying to combine functional needs with refined elegance that will become the real trademark of the shipyards of the peninsula.

In the second half of the fifties, the idea of considering ships as real traveling art galleries was increasingly stated, progressively loosening the weld between function and decoration that had been the basis of the rationalist revolution initiated by Pulitzer Finali.

M/V Conte Biancamano, the new installation

The Monfalcone shipyard was destroyed by the bombings of 1944. Thanks to the intervention of the IRI and the Allied Military Government, it faced the second reconstruction of its history. In 1948 he arrived in Monfalcone, almost unrecognizable - after having served with the name of Hermitage as a troop ship for the U.S. Navy - the Conte Biancamano, a glorious transatlantic ship of the Twenties built by the yard W. Beardmore & Co. Ltd. of Dalmuir for the Lloyd Sabaudo of Genoa. Completed the modernization works, October 26th, 1949 was given in management to the National Maritime Society of Rome. Sold in 1952 to Italia S.p.A. di Navigazione of Genoa for passenger transport along the route of North and South America, on 16 th August 1960 it was demolished in La Spezia by the Terrestre Marittima5 * (PhotolO).

Photo 10 - Monfalcone shipyard during the refitting of Conte Biancamano

The Conte Biancamano after the first world war, having exhausted its role as a ship for troop transport, is returned to its country and in the re-construction operation as well as expressing the great industrial potential of the country, is characterized by the high degree of quality of the interiors, which entrusted to national architects and artists become the expression of the highest level of artistic expression of our country, becoming a vehicle for the transmission of national identity and quality, mobile expression of the best national production, usually conveyed through international exhibitions.

Agreement with the University Building Commission and the Superintendency of monuments, presented to the Civil Engineering a proposal that exclusively uses the ceiling decoration by Mascherini, with an "aesthetic and economic advantage" without the need to include other works of sculpture and stone cladding on the walls.

The myth of knowledge: the ceiling decoration by Marcello Mascherini

In 1949 the preparation of the Aula Magna of the University of Trieste did not envisage placing the ceiling decoration created by Marcello Mascherini for the veranda of the M/V Conte Biancamano8.

In a first hypothesis the ceiling decoration coexisted with other sculptural works, but the arrangement was destined to change because the architect Umberto Nordio, in agreement with the University Building Commission and the Superintendency of monuments, presented to the Civil Engineering a proposal that exclusively uses the ceiling decoration by Mascherini, with an "aesthetic and economic advantage" without the need to include other works of sculpture and stone cladding on the walls.

The Provveditorate for Public Works and the Civil Engineers considered it inappropriate to apply to the ceiling the Mascherini's decoration, which would have been more suited to a richly decorated environment, rather than to a lecture hall marked by severe austerity.

The cladding of marble slabs reflected the criteria of austerity, but also of grandeur and richness that were the basis for the design of the room, conceived in another historical and artistic context, during the Fascist period.

The concept of "grandeur" and "secular duration" could be represented with marble or stone, and not with the material proposed by Nordio, that is to say with pressed slabs of "Sintelit Sadi" type, which in addition to not transmitting the same concepts they did not offer the same guarantees of durability and resistance.

Even the Department of Public Services was of the same opinion and it was Professor Costa who supported the choice of Nordio emphasizing that the university building commission excluded the use of the marble coating primarily for "acoustic reasons" and then for economic reasons deriving from the cost for the tapestries provided for in the 1940 furniture project. In the opinion of the commission, therefore, the solution with the plates and the decoration proposed by Nordio was considered "adequate functionally, aesthetically and economically". But it is not easy for Nordio to combine grandeur with economic limitations; he dedicates a particular care to the slabs, studying their surface and shade, in order not to impoverish the Main Hall, even trying to correct some inconveniences that the marble could have caused, both in terms of acoustics but also because of the coldness that would have resulted: hence the decision to work the surface of the slabs to avoid the perception of regularity and the coating in old gold to give heat to the environment. The foreseen tapestries were never realized, instead the ceiling decoration was placed which is part of the decoration designed for the re-establishment of the M/V Conte Biancamano, it became the symbol of the rebirth of a historical triestine entrepreneurial tradition represented by the shipbuilding and consequently of the city itself. The re-construction of the transatlantic vessel purchased by the Societa Navigazione Italia was carried out at the Monfalcone shipyards between 1948 and 1949 and the decoration, after a competition, was assigned to three of the most important naval design firms in Italy, two Trieste-Gustavo Pulitzer and the group composed by Nordio, Aldo Cervi, Vittorio Frandoli and Romano Boico - and a Milanese group directed by Gio Ponti. The definition of "floating gallery" is apt indeed attended by about forty artists mostly from Trieste and Mascherini among them, who collaborated with the group of Nordio realizing for the first class veranda the ceiling decoration depicting the journey of the Argonauts and Jason in search of the golden fleece.

It is plausible that it was Nordio who proposed to the university building commission to decorate the ceiling of the Aula Magna with the cast of the “rosone”, for which the same company SADI of Vicenza was involved, which had made the original installed on Conte Biancamano. (Photo11-12).

Both the designer and the members of the commission were probably aware that the contents of the work referred to the Greek myth and brought back the origins of the city not to the "Romanity" desired by Fascism, but to the Tergestra mentioned in the Frammenti by Callimaco. In the main hall of the University the myth of the foundation of the city is revolutionized and to the classicism in the sign of Rome it replaces that of the Greece of the adventurous heroes, the explorers and the sailors who yearn to reach unknown lands, characters that are animated by an inexhaustible desire to know: a fitting metaphor for a university institution, which in its most important room chooses to exhibit a work that represents its main objective, the desire to know. But at the same time the Argonauts and Jason are the mythical ancestors of many adventurous and ingenious people from Trieste who, thanks to the sea and their resourcefulness, have contributed to their fortune and that of the city (Photo13-14).

Photo 14 - University of Trieste, Main Hall - detail of ceiling decoration “The Myte of Jason” by Marcello Mascherini

Mario Sironi and M/V Conte Biancamano (1950)

One of the major artists who collaborated with the Pulitzer studio in the post-war era was Mario Sironi (Sassari 1885 - Milan 1961) whoPulitzer knew well since the thirties when he requested a panel for the preparation of a ship's space, although Sironi gave a timely response, the work was not successful and it was perhaps for this reason that when Pulitzer returned from the United States, he immediately turned to him for an intervention to be carried out on Conte Biancamano (1949).

The reconstruction of the Italian fleet represented an opportunity for everyone to revive the economy of culture and art after the war's depression.

For Ponis it also meant facing a challenge: experimenting with technical solutions, even daring, as it was in its character. MITA9 equipped itself to print the designs of the artists on cloth, passing from the production of carpets to that of large tapestries, first of all the realization in exceptional dimensions (214 x 682 cm) of the sketch by Mario Sironi intended for the salon first class by Conte Biancamano. (Photo15-16).

Photo 15 - Conte Biancamano - sketch for wall rug (arazzo) by Mario Sironi

ship conte biancamano art

It is interesting to reread Pulitzer's epistolary exchange with Sironi that accompanied the whole process of the work, from the sketch to the realization of the tapestry, in particular that of 10th July 1949 which testifies precisely the initiative of Ponis: Trieste, 10/7/49

Dear Sironi,

I had your telegrams. It was impossible for me to write because I had and I still have much more difficult days than usual.

I just want to confirm that after patient research I found the famous package that you sent me.

I liked the sketch very much, although infinitely more difficult to do than I had anticipated. However, Mr. Ponis, who seems armed with great courage, enthusiasm and optimism, says he is not afraid to deal with your cartoon, despite the limitations of time and cost.

It seems rash to me, but now all that remains is to go ahead and in fact the Ponis I believe has already set its frame and provides to bring your sketch to natural size. I had to leave and I could not follow the thing. I'll be back in Genoa around the 15th of this month and then I'll tell you how things are going. In case we ask you to come to Genoa for a few hours to correct if you need real cardboard.

We want to do a good thing, worthy of carrying your signature.

Do you agree?

Bests, your Pulitzer

in Trieste until 13/7

Via Mazzini 30 - tel: 6600

To better interpret the plastic and chromatic effect of the work designed by Sironi, on that occasion it was suggested to compose the different thicknesses obtained with hand-knotted wool (a technique already tested in the production of carpets) integrating them with different weaving methods.

Mario Sironi has always dedicated himself to the field of applied arts, designing fabrics and carpets. (Photo17-18).

In the Pulitzer archive kept atthe CSAC has been found one of these fabrics made by MITA and which corresponds to one of the thirty sketches of Sironi that were collected in thesketch folder and sketches for Sironi fabrics stored in the Pituitzer Archive.

The production of the Italian Manufacture of Artistic Carpets (MITA), has realized in a factory founded in Genoa Nervi by Mario Alberto Ponis in 1926, was active until 1976.

References

1. M. Eliseo, P. Piccione, Transatlantic!. Storia delle grandi navi passeggeri italiane,Ge- nova 2001.

2. N.F. Pulitzer, Il Conte Biancamano. Come cambia lo scenario dell'architetturanavale nel secondo dopoguerra, in Trieste Anni Cinquanta. La citta delle forme.Architettura e arti applicate a Trieste 1945-1957, a cura di F. Caputo (catalogodella mostra, Trieste 2004), Trieste 2004.

3. P. Piccione, Gio Ponti. Le Navi. Il progetto degli interni navali 1948-1953, Viareggio 2007.

4. Massimo Degrassi, Il mare in una stanza:arte e cantieristica navale, in Civilta del mare e navigazioni interculturali: sponde d'Europa e l'“isola” Trieste, EUT, Trieste 2012.

5. G. Ponti, Informazione su alcuniambienti del «Conte Biancamano», in“Domus”, 245, aprile, 1950, pp. 3-19.

6. G. Ponti, L'arredamento navale oggie domani, “Domus”, 46, ottobre1931, pp. 22-24.

7. S.E. Carnemolla, Monfalcone, storia di un cantiere navale, Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea: Sulle tracce delle idee, 29/12/2012, http://www.studis-torici.com/2012/12/29/carnemolla_numero_12.

8. Il mito di Giasone nella composizionedi Marcello Mascherini. “ConteBiancamano”, Genova EditoreServizio Stampa e Propagandadell'ITALIA, Societa di Navigazione-Agis, Genova 1949.

9. M. Fochessati, G. Franzone, La trama dell'arte - arte e design nella produzione della Mita, Grafiche G7 sas, Savignone (Ge) - per Sagep Editori Srl, Genova - settembre 2016.

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