Once again a misunderstood sense of the “Sacred” brings the ecclesiastic hierarchies to impose censorship.
The recital should have taken place in Assisi between the 2nd and the 5th of June but it would have most certainly caused a scandal. Not from a religious point of view, no, Dario Fo solely had the intention, through this new performance of his, of proving that a highly diffused belief is wrong.
The paintings within the Upper Basilica or Basilica Superiore attributed to Giotto in fact are not Giotto’s work. And the interesting thing about the matter is that besides being supported by the Franciscan friars of Assisi, Dario Fo’s thesis regarding those extraordinary paintings/frescos proves that Giotto was not the author but another or other great contemporary Maestro/s realized those breathtaking frescos.
Dario Fo created a lecture-performance based upon the above thesis. The performance in divided into three separate evening events, the time needed to argue his thesis basing it upon different historical and technical details. In particular, the fact that every school from Roman to Tuscan, had a particular, diverse and personalized technique of representing images through painting and the outlines or silhouettes used to reproduce the paintings themselves diversified in style and execution.
All these technical elements create a sort of fingerprint hidden behind the painting itself, fingerprint that guarantees and assures that Giotto can’t have participated to the realization of the masterpiece in the nave of the Upper Basilica unless in the role of simple assistant or apprentice.
But the cultural importance of the performance that should have been rehearsed by Dario Fo with the support of the Mayor of Assisi Claudio Ricci, wasn’t enough for the Bishop Domenico Sorrentino who did not withdraw his veto.
Pop songs in front of the Basilica of San Francesco are fine, young girls dancing and even cabaret is acceptable but, please, do not perform anything from the history of art!
Incredible that in the year 2009 in Italy someone still can veto or forbid a Nobel Prize Winner of speaking of Art in front of a church.
The performance “ Giotto o non Giotto” (Giotto or not Giotto) will be recited in July as follows:
2-3 July in Cesena at the Rocca Malatestina
8-9 July in Florence in front of the Basilica of Santa Croce
25-25 July in Perugia in the San Francesco in Campo square