This lecture is mainly based on my research for Volume X of La Cultura Italiana published by UTET in 2010. The volume is in Italian and, by translating it, I can now share it with colleagues, students and friends.The relationship that each citizen has with his/her own country and culture is mediated by personal experiences matured during a lifetime. It is a delicate task to identify what motivates the consciousness of “insiders” of a culture whilst, at the same time, stimulating the interest of outsiders. To be able to observe the prodigious artistic production of one’s own country from the point of view of another culture and another genetic material offers fresh cues. Curiosity, prodded by geographical and physical distance, helps to identify in a schematic way those characteristics that define a country’s visual culture in a decisively distinctive way.
