The Quadriennale of Roma is an important exhibition of italian contemporary art. This year the commission is headed by Floriano De Santi and the choice of the curators focuses on the relationship between art and new technologies. All the works have been made in the latest two years in order to be representative of the contemporary trends. Different groups are shown: the older artists such as Titina Maselli, Patella, Mimmo Rotella, Ceroli, Pistoletto, Consagra and Pomodoro, the younger ones such as Cucchi, Paladino and Ontani. Moreover, new talents are presented. We should not be surprised for such a superimpositions of styles because art of our time is in transition, just as the philosopher Mario Perniola says: "Art is a series of coexistence, not a progressive order". We can not even talk of history of art, but of "a topology, that considers the contradictions of art" (quot. by C. Spadoni in cat.). We could criticize the curators for laking in the organization of the exhibition according to the theme suggested by the title of the exhibition itself. In this sense the most interesting artists are the young ones, because they show a deep comprehension of the problems connected to technology in contemporary society. In their works we can see a research of the sense of identity, of the meaning of appearence, and of the double. As Warhol demonstrated in all his career, in fact, the problem of technology in art is the possibility of duplicating the images, that is to say to produce a double that causes the crisis of identity. In my opinion, the young artists use photography just to underline that reality, once stopped in its everyday flow by the flash of the camera, becomes some another thing, a double reality that leads us to reflect upon the meaning of it. Contemporary society pushes the artists to find in the technological reproduction of reality a way to autentic values. Marco Samoré, who is thirty-year old from Faenza, presents a photography entitled Fidanzamento, that is the enlargement of an ordinary particular, an ash-tray. It has beautiful colours and it is full of lights running on the surface of the object, that seems to testify a suspended moment. Enrica Borghi, thirty-four year old from Novara, presents the sculpture of a dress entitled Soirèe, that reminds us of the Mona Hatum flash dress, inviting us to think about the sense of being and appearence, expressed by the absence of the human presence in the dress. Giulia Caira, twenty-nine year old from Cosenza, shows a surrealistic cibachrome of a female figure on a dark disquieting background that reminds us of the posthuman atmospheres of the english artist Cindy Sherman. The two artists of the Premiata Ditta - UnDo.Net present a virtual work of art entitled http://undo.net/oraperora, inside their Internet site, one of the most interesting ones about contemporary art in Italy. Marco Vaglieri, from Milan, presents a laser print of some people in an icecream shop. The ordinary situation takes its sense from the reproduction. We could say that any picture can be a work of art, then. This is the provokative demonstration made by the artists that use photography. After all, art is dead, isn't it? by Francesca Romana Orlando

NOTE

1 Vittorio SPRETI and others, «Enciclopedia Storico-Nobiliare Italiana», vol. II, Bologna, 1981, p. 232f: article «Caetani» by Temistocle BERTUCCI.

2 Gelasio CAETANI, Domus Caietana, vol.1/2, San Casciano Val di Pesa, 1927, p. 237, 249-256, with three plans of the castle regarding the various phases of its architectonic history. I am indebted to Riccardo Cerocchi, President of the «Caetani Foundation» at Latina, for his precious informations during a common visit of the castle in 1994.

3 He has been assumed to cardinalate at the age of only twelve years and as a cardinal lived at Sermoneta from 1537 to 1540.

4 Gaspare DE CARO, article «Caetani, Nicola», in: "Dizionario biografico degli italiani", vol.16, Rome, 1973, p. 197-201.

5 Other mesures: lenght of pentagram 154 cm, partially filled up with the melodic line until altogether 125 cm; height of pentagram 4-5 cm ; height of pentagram with title «fuga» 10 cm.

6 Gelasio CAETANI, op.cit., vol. II, 1933, p. 34 (partial transcription).

7 Klaus-Jürgen SACHS, article Fuga, in «Riemann Musiklexikon, Sachteil», Mainz, 1967, p. 307f.

8 Cf. Claudio SARTORI, Bibliografia della musica strumentale italiana stampata in Italia fino al 1700, Florence, 1952.

9 SARTORI, p. 16.

10 Metrical symbols on the left of the clef seem to be very rare in musical iconography. However Volker SCHERLIESS quotes a similar example in Musikalische Noten auf Kunstwerken der Renaissance bis zum Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts, Hamburg, 1972, p. 101, n. XV: inlay in the choir of the Sienese cathedral, by Giovanni da Verona (1456-1528).

11 Patrizio BARBIERI, «Chiavette» and modal transposition in Italian practice (c.1500-1837), in "Recercare" III (1991), p. 5-75:19,21.

12 Instructive is a schedule at the end of: Giovanni BASSANO, Sieben Trios, edited by di Edith KIWI («Hortus Musicus» 16, Kassel, 1958).

13 Article Macque, Giovanni de (Jean), by Renato BOSSA, in: «Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti - Le Biografie», 4 (1986), p.562.

14 Adrian WILLAERT, Ricercari a 3 voci, edited by Hermann ZENCK («Antiqua - Eine Sammlung Alter Musik», Mainz, 1933).

15 Carles GUILLOT, Giovanni de MACQUE, Carolus LUYTHON, Werken voor orgel of voor vier speeltuigen, edited by Jo-seph WATELET and Anny PISCAER («Monumenta Musicae Belgicae», 4e Jaargang, 1938, Amsterdam, 2/1968), p. 33-69.

16 This hypothesis derives from stylistic evaluations relied to the circumstance that the two capriccios come from a manuscript conserved in the «Biblioteca del Conservatorio» of Naples. (Ms. 73). At Naples Macque has been from 1586 on. Cf also Friedrich LIPPMANN, Giovanni de Macque fra Roma e Napoli, in «Rivista Italiana di Musicologia», XIII (1978), p. 245-279.

17 Bernard MEIER, Die Tonarten der klassischen Vokalpolyphonie, Utrecht, 1974, p. 312.

18 Ed. WATELET-PISCAER (cf. note 15), p. 41.

19 Ed. WATELET-PISCAER, p. 46.

20 Ed. ZENCK (cf.note 14), p. 38.

21 Ed. ZENCK. The ricercares 1-8 measure between 101 and 163 bars alla breve.

22 Capriccio sopra un soggetto, ed. WATELET-PISCAER, p. 39-41.

23 Capriccio sopra tre soggetti, ed. WATELET-PISCAER, p. 41-43.

24 Cf. note 11.

25 Ed. ZENCK, ricercare 5.

26 Cf. Dietrich KÄMPER, Studien zur instrumentalen Ensemblemusik des 16. Jahrhunderts in Italien, Köln, 1970 («Analecta musicologica», 10), p. 152-155.

27 Bernhard MEIER, Reservata-Probleme. Ein Bericht, in: "Acta musicologica", 30 (1958), p. 77-89; furthermore Hell-mut FEDERHOFER, Monodie und musica reservata, in: "Deutsches Jahrbuch der Musikwissenschaft", 2 (1957) («Jahrbuch der Musikbibliothek Peters», 49), p. 30-36.

28 Antonio BRUNELLI (1610), citato da FEDERHOFER, p. 31.

29 Gaspare DE CARO, articles Caetani, Nicola e Caetani, Enrico, and Georg LUTZ, article Caetani, Camillo, in «Dizionario biografico degli italiani», 16, Rome, 1973, p. 197-201, 148-155, 137-141. - See also LIPPMANN, op.cit. (see note 16), passim.

30 Cf. LIPPMANN, p. 251.

31 Cf. LIPPMANN, p. 255.