Via Margutta
3959408
224768193
2008-07-10T09:47:36Z
Lightbot
7178666
Units/dates/other
'''Via Margutta''' is a small street in the center of [[Rome]], in the
old quarter of [[Campo Marzio]], also known as ''"the foreigner's quarter"'',
located near to the slopes of [[Pincian Hill|Mount Pincio]]. It is a place with many
art galleries and fashionable restaurants, where before the [[Renaissance]] there were only modest craftsmen workshops and stables.
In the 1950s, after the film ''[[Roman Holiday (1953 film)|Roman Holiday]]'' it became an exclusive road, and a residence of many famous people, like film director [[Federico Fellini]]. It can be reached from the north traveling by the [[Via Cassia]] or by [[Via Flaminia|Flaminia]] until arriving to the large square [[Piazzale Flaminio]], and then passing through the city door in the wall that leads to [[Piazza del Popolo]] square, from this point it is a walk of several meters to the left of the [[Flaminio]] [[Obelisks in Rome|Obelisk]] towards [[Via del Babuino]], on the left side of this road there is an alley that leads to Via Margutta.
=== Etymology and history ===
The name probably originates from the word ''"Marisgutia"'', meaning ''"Sea Drop"'', a gentle [[euphemism]] for a dirty stream that came down from the hill of the villa of the Pincii, used like a natural Roman [[Cloaca Maxima|Cloaca]]. Via Margutta was behind the palaces of Via del Babuino (Baboon road), where warehouses and stables were found.
To the base of [[Pincio]] hill, there were houses of masons, marble cutters, coachmen and in the small road the activity of laborers had a large space.
In the Middle Ages an unknown artist opened the first workhouse where the finest craftsmen of Rome made portraits, cut marble for fountains and forged metal plates, giving birth to a flourishing industry that attracted the migration of foreign artists (including [[Flemish people|Flemish]] and [[Germans|German]]), as well as other [[Italians]]. They slowly replaced the shacks and stables with houses, workshops and gardens.
A Belgian monsignor, [[Saverio de Merode]], in the years of [[Pope Pius IX]], understood the change: he bought the territories of the slopes, built drains and transformed the alley into a street in the public city plan.
Now it is a charming, calm road, smog is absent, scents from flowers is present, and since its beginning, whilst being in the full center of Rome it seems an "outside door road", perfumed by trees and vineyards, and this has made it a perfect choice for artists, painters, sculptors, antiquarians, even if today many of these studies have become private flats.
=== Yearly exposition of ''"100 Painters of Via Margutta"''===
''"One hundred painters of Via Margutta"'', is a traditional [[arts festival]] usually warmly acclaimed by citizens. The expo is sponsored by the Major and Province of Rome, the Lazio Region, and for many years has been an interesting opportunity to help critics discover new artists.
The meeting makes Via Margutta a true public [[art gallery]], presenting more than 1,000 works, including oil paintings, drawings, watercolors, also of unknown or less-famous artists, accurately chosen by a jury, coming from many countries. They work in every expressive typology like figuration, abstractionism, portrait, symbolism, surrealism, etc.
Admission is free, the exposition is open to everybody, the viewing of the works is casual and an easygoing attitude is the norm.
=== Famous residents ===
Between the historical inhabitants of the street we can remember [[Giulietta Masina]],
[[Federico Fellini]], [[Renato Guttuso]], [[Marina Punturieri]].
=== Fountain of the Arts ===
[[Image:Fontana of the Arti.jpg]]
Along the way is situated the small ''"Fontana delle Arti", with a triangular base, crowned by a bucket of paint-brushes (in relation to the presence of artists prevailing in the area dating from XVII century). Carved in 1927, in marble, according to the project of architect Pietro Lombardi, who had also designed other small fountains ''"fontanelle"'' located all around Rome, usually inspired to the coats of arms of the ancient roman quarter [[rione]] or to their traditional activities.
Two [[masks]] are to the opposite sides, mounted over marble painter supports, one is sad and the other happy, this showing the alternate mood typical of artists, sprinkling their weak water jet in two small bathtubs.
=== Books and film on the life to Via Margutta ===
* ''[[Roman Holiday (1953 film)|Roman Holiday]]'', 1953. Film by [[William Wyler]] with [[Audrey Hepburn]] and [[Gregory Peck]].
* ''[[My first forty years]]'', 1987. Film by [[Carlo Vanzina]] with [[Carol Alt]] and [[Elliot Gould]].
* ''Quelle Belle Ragazze di Via Margutta''. ''(the directors, painters and writers who made the Rome of the 1950s the center of the World ''), 2004. Book by [[Giampiero Mughini]]
[[Category:Streets in Rome|Margutta]]
[[it:Via Margutta]]