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Lucia Dalla Montà, Director Education Office, Italian Embassy, Honored by Lido Civic Club

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At a ceremony held at the Italian Embassy, the Lido Civic Club of Washington, DC, honored Lucia Dalla Montà , Director of the Education Office at the Italian Embassy, who was presented with the Lido Civic Club Appreciation Award in recognition of her contribution in promoting the study of the Italian language in the United States and in reinstating the AP Italian Language and Culture Exam. The award was presented by Lido Civic Club President Francesco Isgro at the Lido Club’s Annual Scholarship Awards Reception.

Italian Embassy Counselor Michele Pala welcomed the guests on behalf of Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero and thanked the Lido Club for not only honoring Dalla Monta but also for its support for the teaching of the Italian language.

Lucia Dalla Montà, Francesco Isgrò

Prof. Montà was born in the Province of Padua. After receiving her teaching diploma and several certifications she began to teach elementary school, at a time when changes were unfolding in the Italian school system, such as the “active school” movement and the mainstreaming of children with special needs. She developed a passion for helping students increase self-awareness and self-confidence, and for the special needs of handicapped students.

Resuming her studies at the University of Padua to further her education in Pedagogy, she wrote her final thesis on intercultural educational issues. She graduated with the maximum score and also became certified to teach history and philosophy. She then began a nine-year period as a middle school Principal in the province of Venice. Continuing her special interest in intercultural studies, she became Assistant Professor of General Pedagogy at the University of Padua’s Psychology Faculty, where her work included writing articles, preparing educational materials, researching educational issues in culturally-mixed families and participating in European educational projects.

She was then selected to be Principal of the Italian State School in Madrid, where she implemented many educational innovations over her five-year term. As Principal of this school of about 1,000 students, she gained invaluable multicultural and intercultural experience in dealing with the particular challenges of an Italian school in Spain.

After again winning a National Selection, she was appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Education Office at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., where she has dedicated much energy and passion to the successful reinstatement of the Italian Language and Culture Program as an Advanced Placement (AP) program in the U.S. She designed the “Observatory on the Italian Language in the United States,” as well as strategic plans, sponsorship programs for teachers and students of Italian, a communication plan that includes a brochure, and the website www.usspeaksitalian.org, among numerous other initiatives.

She also coordinates the six Italian Education Offices in the U.S. and is the main reference point for AP-related data collections. She has been active with many teachers’ associations and has worked to create a teachers’ community in the Washington, D.C. area. During her time here, she has established close relationships with local scholastic authorities with whom she developed and concluded significant agreements to increase and improve Italian programs in the Washington area and beyond.

Isgro noted that Prof. Dalla Montà was an action and results-oriented individual, noting, for example that when she first met with Lido Club representatives who asked her how they could be of help, she immediately came up with concrete ideas. One of them was that the Lido Civic Club provide grants to students in the Washington area who take the AP Language Exam. As a result, this year the Lido Club has donated more than $2,200 to the Casa Italiana Ente Gestore to administer the grants.

At the event, the Lido Civic Club presented the winners of the 2014 scholarship awards. The Lido Club awarded $50,000 in scholarships to seven worthy college students of Italian descent. Special congratulations were extended to Martina Costagliola, twice the recipient of the Lido Club’s Dominic F. Antonelli, Jr. Scholarship.

 

Titian’s Danaë in Washington to Celebrate Italy’s presidency of the Council of the European Union

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To celebrate the commencement of Italy’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), the Italian government is bringing to Washington’s National Gallery of Art, one of the most sensual paintings of the Italian Renaissance—Titian’s Danaë (1544–1545).

“We are very pleased to continue our excellent cooperation with a prestigious institution such as the National Gallery in Washington on the occasion of the presentation of Titian’s Danaë,” said the Ambassador of Italy to the United States, Claudio Bisogniero. “We are particularly delighted that this exhibition will launch in the U.S. the Italian Presidency of the European Union, an important opportunity also to further strengthen the friendship between the two sides of the Atlantic.”

“The richness of the Gallery’s collection of Venetian 16th-century painting includes the largest holdings in the United States of works by Titian and his studio, with 13 paintings, eight prints, and two drawings,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “We are most grateful for the generosity of the Capodimonte Museum in Naples and are pleased to present the Danae in such close proximity to other related works by Titian, celebrating the genius and legacy of one of the world’s most influential painters.”

The Danaë is one of several examples of the genre of erotic mythologies in Western art popularized by Titian. Two other examples of this genre by Titian from the Gallery’s permanent collection—Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555) and Venus and Adonis (c. 1560)—are also on view in the West Building, in gallery M-23.

“The Special Superintendency for Historic, Artistic and Ethno-anthropologic Properties of the City of Naples Museum Hub and the Palace of Caserta is particularly pleased to collaborate in this extraordinary event for promoting the excellence of Italian culture in the United States,” said Fabrizio Vona, superintendent, Cultural Heritage for the City and the Museums of Naples and the Royal Palace of Caserta.

 

The painting will be on loan from the Capodimonte Museum, Naples— and will be on view July 1 through November 2, 2014, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Italy’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union runs from July 1 through December 31, 2014.

 

Titian’s Danaë in DC to Celebrate Italian Presidency of EU Council

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To celebrate the commencement of Italy’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), the Italian government is bringing to Washington’s National Gallery of Art, one of the most sensual paintings of the Italian Renaissance—Titian’s Danaë (1544–1545).

“We are very pleased to continue our excellent cooperation with a prestigious institution such as the National Gallery in Washington on the occasion of the presentation of Titian’s Danaë,” said the Ambassador of Italy to the United States, Claudio Bisogniero. “We are particularly delighted that this exhibition will launch in the U.S. the Italian Presidency of the European Union, an important opportunity also to further strengthen the friendship between the two sides of the Atlantic.”

“The richness of the Gallery’s collection of Venetian 16th-century painting includes the largest holdings in the United States of works by Titian and his studio, with 13 paintings, eight prints, and two drawings,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art. “We are most grateful for the generosity of the Capodimonte Museum in Naples and are pleased to present the Danae in such close proximity to other related works by Titian, celebrating the genius and legacy of one of the world’s most influential painters.”

The Danaë is one of several examples of the genre of erotic mythologies in Western art popularized by Titian. Two other examples of this genre by Titian from the Gallery’s permanent collection—Venus with a Mirror (c. 1555) and Venus and Adonis (c. 1560)—are also on view in the West Building, in gallery M-23.

“The Special Superintendency for Historic, Artistic and Ethno-anthropologic Properties of the City of Naples Museum Hub and the Palace of Caserta is particularly pleased to collaborate in this extraordinary event for promoting the excellence of Italian culture in the United States,” said Fabrizio Vona, superintendent, Cultural Heritage for the City and the Museums of Naples and the Royal Palace of Caserta.

The painting will be on loan from the Capodimonte Museum, Naples— and will be on view July 1 through November 2, 2014, in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art. Italy’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union runs from July 1 through December 31, 2014.

Titian (c. 1488/90–1576)

In a career that spanned more than 70 years, Tiziano Vecellio (called Titian in English) was the greatest force in Venetian Renaissance painting. Born around 1490 in the town of Pieve di Cadore in the Italian Alps, Titian moved at an early age to Venice to study art. After training briefly with a mosaicist, he studied with Giovanni Bellini, the leading painter of his generation. Titian was influenced not only by Bellini’s use of rich color but also by the pastoral and mythological scenes of fellow Bellini pupil Giorgione.

By 1510, Titian had established himself as an independent master and, after Bellini’s death, he was appointed official painter to the Venetian Republic. Following a number of commissions for the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, and Urbino, Titian’s fame spread internationally. His patrons included the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Philip II of Spain, Francis I of France, and Pope Paul III.

Titian was a master in all painted genres. He produced dignified and insightful portraits, Madonnas of modesty and charm, playful mythological pictures, sensuous nudes, and meditative religious works. Titian died in 1576 and was buried in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, where his dramatic altarpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin (1516–1518), had been installed nearly 60 years before.

Danaë (1544–1545)

The loves of the gods were a favorite theme of Titian’s princely patrons. During the course of his long career, he became the greatest and most influential interpreter of these amorous episodes, drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and other literary texts.

A celebration of the recumbent female nude, the Danaë depicts the legendary maiden, in bed and about to receive Jupiter, the king of the gods. Lured by reports of her beauty, Jupiter appears to her in the guise of a shower of gold coins.

Commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III, the painting was completed during a visit Titian made to Rome in 1545–1546. Wealthy and worldly, Alessandro Farnese was both a distinguished patron of the arts and a notorious womanizer with a mistress (a courtesan named Angela). At a time when ecclesiastics were under fire for their licentious and corrupt ways, it was prudent to transform an all-too-contemporary courtesan into a mythological figure whose nudity was sanctioned by classical precedent.

The Danaë was looted by German troops on behalf of Field Marshal Hermann Göring during the Second World War and was discovered afterward in the Austrian salt mine at Alt Aussee. The canvas was brought to the Munich Central Collecting Point by the so-called Monuments Men in 1945 and returned to the Italian government two years later.

SOURCE: NGA et al.

Messaggio dell’Ambasciatore Claudio Bisogniero ai connazionali in occasione del 2 Giugno 2014

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Cari Connazionali,

quella del 2 giugno è la più importante ricorrenza istituzionale del nostro Paese perché in questa data celebriamo la fondazione stessa della Repubblica, basata sui valori della libertà, della democrazia, dell’uguaglianza e della pacifica convivenza tra i popoli. Proprio quei valori, quindi, che ci uniscono profondamente al grande Paese che ci ospita, gli Stati Uniti.

Ecco perché per noi qui – e per le decine di milioni di persone che in un modo o nell’altro sono figlie sia dell’uno che dell’altro Paese – la festa nazionale assume un valore ancora più forte. Si tratta quindi anche di un’occasione per celebrare valori condivisi e una comune visione delle relazioni internazionali; un momento per festeggiare la profonda amicizia tra Italia e Stati Uniti.

Il 68mo anniversario della Repubblica diventa, all’estero, anche un’occasione per celebrare l’identità di italiani e di italo-americani, e di sentire l’orgoglio di discendere o provenire da un grande Paese e da una incomparabile cultura.

Ma non c’è cultura e non c’è identità senza lingua. Voglio cogliere l’occasione di questo mio messaggio per il 2 giugno per ribadire il mio appello a tutti – italiani, italo-americani ed italofili – per una grande mobilitazione per la promozione della lingua italiana negli Stati Uniti. Si tratta di una sfida che passa nell’immediato anche attraverso il definitivo ristabilimento – un volta raggiunta la sua autosostenibilità – dell’esame di Advanced Placement di Italiano. Ci stiamo avvicinando all’obiettivo, e sento che ce la faremo. Ma non dobbiamo risparmiare tutti gli sforzi per ridare alla nostra lingua la posizione che merita in America. Il mio grazie va a tutti coloro – gli insegnanti, i rappresentanti della collettività, gli enti e le associazioni italiane e italo-americane – che stanno sostenendo questo impegno a favore dell’italiano.

Cari connazionali, il nostro Paese sta attraversando una fase molto importante di riforma e rilancio dell’economia e di ritrovamento di quella fiducia in noi stessi che dobbiamo dare soprattutto alle nuove generazioni. Tutti – residenti in Patria e all’estero – possiamo contribuire al grande sforzo in atto. So, perché in tanti me lo avete detto, che non farete mancare il vostro apporto.

L’Italia – ben consapevole delle difficoltà economiche che incontrano molti cittadini, in particolare i giovani – intende promuovere durante il nostro semestre di presidenza UE politiche volte alla crescita economica e all’occupazione; ricordando come anche la nostra costituzione sancisce il principio che “l’Italia è una repubblica fondata sul lavoro”. Anche in questa prospettiva il governo italiano darà il suo massimo sostegno ai negoziati per l’aerea di libero scambio TTIP: un grande accordo economico e commerciale che porterà benefici ad entrambe le sponde dell’Atlantico.

Ci aspettano importanti appuntamenti internazionali come – appunto – il semestre di Presidenza italiana dell’Unione Europea, a partire dal prossimo luglio, in cui intendiamo imprimere un rinnovato spirito europeista e solidale a quel grande sistema di integrazione continentale che è l’UE.

Ci attende inoltre l’Esposizione Universale di Milano 2015, un evento di portata mondiale dedicato alle sfide della nutrizione e della sostenibilità. EXPO Milano 2015 porrà a partire dal 1 maggio del prossimo anno l’Italia al centro di un dibattito fondamentale per l’avvenire del pianeta, su temi come quello del cibo e della salute, che ci vedono all’avanguardia da sempre. Vi invito fin da ora a programmare una vista ad EXPO e, al tempo stesso, alle straordinarie bellezze del nostro Paese.

Cari connazionali, nell’augurare a tutti una buona festa della Repubblica – che ci faccia ricordare il significato profondo di quello che oggi celebriamo – colgo l’occasione per ringraziare tutti (italiani di prima generazione, discendenti, italo-americani e amici dell’Italia), per la straordinaria collaborazione che offrite a tutta la rete diplomatico-consolare italiana negli Stati Uniti. E vi ribadisco il nostro impegno continuo dell’Ambasciata, della rete consolare per sostenervi nei vostri sforzi e nella vita quotidiana. Vorrei anche ringraziarvi per il grande contributo che il vostro sacrificio, il vostro lavoro, i vostri studi, la vostra ricerca e la vostra creatività, offrono all’Italia e alla sua immagine e reputazione in questo Paese.
Viva l’Italia, Viva gli Stati Uniti d’America, viva gli Italiani di America!

Ralph Fasanella: Lest We Forget

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Ralph Fasanella (1914-1997) celebrated the common man and tackled complex issues of postwar America in colorful, socially-minded paintings. This exhibition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth and brings together key works from a career spanning 52 years. Fasanella, an Italian American,  was born in the Bronx and grew up in the working-class neighborhoods of New York; he became a tireless advocate for laborers’ rights, first as a union organizer and later as a painter.

From May 2, 2014 – August 3, 2014 at the American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

 

 

Sec Kerry Statement on Occasion of Italy’s Republic Day on June 2

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On behalf of President Obama and the American people, I send warmest wishes to the people of Italy as you celebrate Republic Day on June 2.

I have always felt a very special, personal connection to Italy and its people, dating back to my travels in Italy as a young college student. That bond has only strengthened over many visits this past year. I am especially grateful to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini for their partnership on so many issues that matter to the security and prosperity of our citizens.

The deep bonds between the United States and Italy date back to the early days of the American Revolution, when the writings of Philip Mazzei inspired the immortal phrase “all men are created equal.”

In 1946, the people of Italy embraced these same principles in their own constitutional referendum. Their choices, during a time of great turmoil, helped Italy become the strong and prosperous democracy it is today.

Italy is one of our closest allies. We are united by a shared belief in freedom for all people. The United States and Italy are working together to promote stability in Ukraine, the Middle East, and North Africa. Our countries are promoting shared prosperity and tackling the challenge of global food security. The United States looks forward to participating in Milan Expo 2015, an important venue to raise awareness about the challenges of feeding the planet through sustainable agriculture and nutrition.

I extend to all Italians best wishes on this 68th anniversary of Republic Day and look forward to strengthening our partnership in the years to come.

NIAF Hosts Second Annual Congressional Bocce Ball Bash

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On May 29, 2014, the National Italian American Foundation hosted its 2nd Annual Congressional Bocce Ball Bash on the rooftop of the Offices of Venable LLP, in Washington, DC.

bocce-niaf-ip-ca_4524

Bill Pascrell, Pat Tiberi, John Viola, Fucsia Nissoli

We watched U.S. Congressmen Bill Pascrell and Pat Tiberi, pitted against Italian Chamber of Deputies Representative Fucsia Nissoli, and NIAF’s President John Viola.  Among the guest players Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero and NIAF board member Mark Valente.

Pat Tiberi and Gabriella Mileti teamed up against Fucsia NIssoli and Bill Pascrell

bocce-niaf-ip-ca_4517

 

Honoring the memory of American Law Enforcement Officers – National Police Week, May 11-17

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Thousands of law enforcement officers, their families and friends, honored their fallen heroes during the annual National Police Week observances in Washington, D.C.   Most of the events  were held around the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and included the arrival on May 12 of thousands of officers on bicycles who traveled hundreds of miles to raise money for the memorial.  The highlight of the week was a candlelight vigil on May 13, which was open to the public and attended by as many as 20,000 people.

In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls, as National Police Week.  Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial is centered in the 400 block of E Street, NW, Washington, DC and is the nation’s monument to law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty. Dedicated on October 15, 1991, the Memorial honors federal, state and local law enforcement officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the safety and protection of our nation and its people.

The Memorial features two curving, 304-foot-long blue-gray marble walls. Carved on these walls are the names of more than 20,000 officers who have been killed in the line of duty throughout U.S. history, dating back to the first known death in 1791. The names of 286 fallen law enforcement heroes were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial this year.

 

Maria Bartiromo, Winner Urbino Press Award 2014

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Maria Bartiromo, one of the nation’s most noted financial journalists, is the winner of the 2014 Urbino Press Award. Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero will formally make the announcement on April 15, 2014, at the Italian Embassy where Bartiromo will give an acceptance speech.

Maria Bartiromo

Bartiromo is currently the business news anchor and global editor for Fox Business Network and most recently was anchor for CNBC’s “Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo.” A winner of two Emmy Awards, she is also a magazine columnist and author of several business books. She has been called “the Sophia Loren of financial journalism.” Bartiromo has ben nicknamed the “Money Honey” due to her striking looks and for being the first woman to report live from the raucous floor of the New York Stock Exchange and “Econo Babe”. We call her a “rock star”!

In 1995, Bartiromo became the first journalist to report live on a daily basis from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, where she covered breaking news for the network’s unscripted and fast-paced business morning program, “Squawk Box.”

Bartiromo, who has served as Grand Marshal of the Annual New York Columbus Day Parade, and has hosted the annual NIAF gala dinner in Washington, has said that she grew up “in an Italian- American home in an Italian-American neighborhood with very traditional Italian culture of hard work, love of family, and respect for others…members of the Italian American community, like those of the many ethnic groups that have helped build America.”

The Urbino Press Award, now in its ninth year, has become an annual tradition in Washington’s diplomatic and journalistic arena since it was first was presented in 2006 at the Italian Embassy.

The prize is assigned each year in recognition of excellence in journalism to American reporters who, through their commitment and daily work maintain the ability to inform millions of people and do so in an exemplary fashion. Past recipients of the award include: Diane Rehm (2006), Michael Weisskopf (2007), Martha Raddatz (2008), Thomas Friedman (2009), David Ignatius (2010), Helene Cooper (2011), Sebastian Rotella (2012) and Wolf Blitzer (2013).

The actual award is presented at the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino in June. The recipient travels to Urbino to participate in a ceremony and then holds a “Lectio Magistralis” at the Palazzo Ducale.
The city of Urbino, which during the Renaissance gave life to one of the most enlightened courts of Europe, symbolically reinstates its court, once enriched by illustrious thinkers such as Baldassarre Castiglione and Torquato Tasso. The revived court includes the voice and experience of today’s reporters, the outstanding interpreters of the events that are changing our world.

 

Italian Amb. Claudio Bisogniero launches new ItalyinUS.org

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Italian culture in the U.S. has a new online platform: the website www.italyinus.org, the cultural portal of Italy’s diplomatic network in the United States. Simple to use and with all the information you need, the new site is your guide to the hundreds of cultural events organized or supported by the Italian Embassy in Washington, Italy’s Consulates and by the Italian Institutes of Culture in the United States.

Amb Claudio Bisogniero

With its own hashtag Twitter #ITcultureUS, the platform also includes Facebook, building on last year’s 2013 – Year of Italian Culture in the United States page.

The initiative was inspired by the experience of the Year of Culture: a kaleidoscope of over 300 prestigious events organized from coast to coast in 2013, which generated great interest from the public and press in both the U.S. and Italy. The logo of “Italy in US” – an American flag and an Italian flag joined together – closely resembles the logo of the Year, proof that the initiative was not a short-lived celebration, but a carefully planned and permanent foundation from which to re-launch the promotion of our culture in the U.S. and to raise awareness overseas of the best of Italy’s past, present, and future. Its extraordinary cultural heritage but also its continuing ability to inspire.

“What has guided us — commented the Ambassador of Italy in Washington, Claudio Bisogniero — is, on the one hand, the desire to facilitate access to information regarding our cultural initiatives to all those who are interested, and, on the other hand, to bring together a team. Especially when it comes to cultural cooperation, we must involve the largest possible number of institutional and non-institutional actors, mobilizing resources, generating and circulating ideas and projects. To make this happen, you can’t do without a unique showcase, like the new site, and a virtual hub where maximum use is made, as we are now doing, of social media tools. This was one of the main lessons of the Year of Culture.”

 

Caravaggio Exhibition at the Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg

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This February visitors to the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary will have a rare opportunity to view three famous paintings by, or attributed to, Caravaggio and take sides in an intense debate among the world’s leading authorities on Italian paintings.

Two nearly identical versions of Caravaggio’s Saint Francis in Meditation that have left experts divided. Despite years of debate, the experts are divided as to which one of these two beautiful paintings was created first… and by whom? Which one is the original? Could they both be by the great Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio?

The two paintings on special loan from Rome’s Capuchin church and from the town of Carpineto Romano will be shown side by side, affording a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Williamsburg audience to compare them. The exhibition will be completed by another of Caravaggio’s best-known compositions, the Fortune Teller, on loan from the Pinacoteca Capitolina in Rome. Although disputed by the experts until as recently as 1985, this painting is now recognized as a milestone in Caravaggio’s representation of daily life, not to mention a characteristic example of his style shortly after his arrival in
Rome in the early 1590s.

At the end of the 1500s, in the same years that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Caravaggio painted Saint Francis in solitary dialogue with a skull. Caravaggio’s conception of the theme was so arresting that a profusion of copies were made, both during his lifetime and long afterwards. As with many of Caravaggio’s compositions, the conception of the theme was so arresting that numerous copies were made, even during his lifetime. The two competing paintings in this exhibition encapsulate the problems faced by scholars in attributing, dating and interpreting the works of the revolutionary realist, Caravaggio. Michelangelo Merisi (Milan 1571 – 1610 Port’Ercole) was known by the name of Caravaggio, the rural town in Lombardy where his family lived and worked. As an apprentice in Milan, Caravaggio ignored his contemporaries and looked instead to the Renaissance masters, Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione and Titian, who inspired him to illustrate the Bible stories as contemporary events in recognizable settings. Perhaps Caravaggio’s greatest innovation was to portray his friends and models in his canvases, as if the ancient stories had been enacted by ordinary people under the brilliant sun of
Italy.

‘Caravaggio Connoisseurship: Saint Francis in Meditation and the Capitoline Fortune Teller’ includes a didactic section in which explanatory texts and photographic enlargements present the cases for the differing points of view, equipping visitors to see the works with the eyes of a connoisseur and judge for themselves. An online poll will be set up in the gallery to registrar every visitor’s vote.

An illustrated booklet with texts by John T. Spike (assistant director and chief curator of the Muscarelle Museum of Art) and Sergio Guarino (curator of the Capitoline Museum) will be available.

General Information
Caravaggio Connoisseurship: Saint Francis in Meditation and the Capitoline Fortune Teller will be on view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art, February 8-April 6, 2014. The Muscarelle Museum of Art is located at 603 Jamestown Road on the campus of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. For more information, call 757-221-2700 or visit www.wm.edu/muscarelle.
The exhibition will be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from April 12 – June 15,
2014.

Caravaggio, The Fortune Teller (ca. 1594-95): On view at the Muscarelle Museum of Art; on loan from the Musei Capitoline Pinacoteca, Rome

Explorers Emigrants Citizens: A Visual History of Italian Americans

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A visual history of the Italian American experience from the collections of the Library of Congress

Explorers Emigrants Citizens, a new book by Linda Barrett Osborne and Paolo Battaglia, celebrates 500 years of Italian-American history, from the first explorers to the Godfather movies. The 320-page, coffee-table book is lavishly produced with 500 images drawn from the Library of Congress’s vast pictorial holdings.
The book highlights the accomplishments of well-known individuals such as Fiorello LaGuardia and Joe DiMaggio, and also delves deeper to recognize people like Joe Petrosino, the first Italian-American police officer to lose his life fighting organized crime.

Carefully selected photos illustrate the lives of Italians in crowded Eastern cities, and in the fields and mines of rural America. Also included are photos of works of art by Italian

Explorers Emigrants Citizens

Explorers Emigrants Citizens

Americans, such as photographer Carlo Gentile and Athos Casarini, a futurist painter and illustrator for Harper’s Weekly.

Aside from celebrating Italian- American history, the book also touches on harsh realities faced by the early immigrants: stereotyping, racism and barriers to assimilation.

Linda Barrett Osborne, a fourth generation Italian American, is a former writer and editor at the Library of Congress and co-author Paolo Battaglia is an Italian author of illustrated history books.

Director Martin Scorsese, whose grandparents came from Sicily, writes in the book’s foreword, “In images and words, this wonderful book charts our transformation across generations—in my family and so many other families—the hundreds of thousands of families that came to these shores and left their mark on this place we call America.”