Beyond Shame: The Beauty of Lucan Poetry

The Italian town of Matera, with its arresting ancient beauty, has been elected as one of 2019’s two European Capitals of Culture. Located within the province of Basilicata, formerly known as Lucania, it is a city nestled within a small canyon carved out by the Gravina, characterised by its numerous cave dwellings or sassi, dug out from the Calcarenite rocks, huddled one over the other.

During a visit for the 1948 election Palmiro Togliatti, leader for the Italian Communist Party, declared the Sassi di Matera “a national shame” due to the poor health and hygiene conditions present. This led to the sassi evictions of the ’50s and ’60s, only to be declared a few decades later a world heritage site, after the government set up a scheme in the eighties to refurbish the troglodyte dwellings.

In his memoir () artist had chronicled region but also spoke of its immense beauty. His painting , housed in Palazzo Lanfranchi, describes three scenes of everyday life in all its hardship and purity. It was commissioned to represent Basilicata at the Italia 61 exhibition in Turin to commemorate the centenary of the unification of Italy. He decided to dedicate this piece to the poet Rocco Scotellaro, a man whom he described as “dear to me above all men.”