Historian on iconography at the Frankfurt Book Fair: “The propagandists are very clever”

The slogan of the host country in Frankfurt is “Radici nel Futuro”, “Rooted in the Future”. If you know the language of the Italian fascists, you lose all innocence, says art historian Luciano Cheles.

Italian art historian Luciano Cheles’ specialty is actually the Renaissance. But he has also been researching the iconography of the Italian right for more than thirty years. His study “Iconografia della Destra” was published in Italy last fall and is now on the table in front of him during the interview at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Cheles repeatedly opens the book, looks for pictures, shows them: on the left a poster of the Italian neo-fascists from 2007, on the right a poster of the Hitler Youth. Almost identical, right? The conversation takes place in the press area of ​​the exhibition center, with international journalists working concentrated around them on their texts; you always have the feeling that you are speaking a little too loudly.