Analysis of a Photo of Benito Mussolini

Napoleon Bonaparte adage ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ holds true with regards to the photograph of a topless Benito Mussolini. This profound image captures the essence of the relationships, intersections and overlaps between historical discourses of reality and propagated realism. Discourses where one is historiographical and the other is philosophical. The historical aspect depicts the subject at a particular time and place in Italy’s past. The review examines the historical and philosophical relationship and perspectives of the image’s content and context; in particular, the contextualisation of the image in terms of propaganda diffusion.

The black and white photograph (Fig.1), taken 20 January 1937, show a topless Benito Mussolini on the Mount Terminillo snow covered ski-field. Mussolini is posed in an upright skiing position with legs slightly splayed and hands gripping ski poles at chest height in front of him. He is looking to his right as if observing something in the distance and has his chin slightly thrusted forward. The photo was taken during the period of Mussolini’s fascist rule of Italy, from 1922 to 1943. According to the Archivio Storico Istituto Luce website the photograph was taken by the Ministry of Press and Propaganda’s News Department. The Istituto Luce, founded in 1924 by Mussolini’s was a key organisation in his propaganda machine. Given this information and the form of the staged topless pose in the winter setting, it is not unrealistic to presume that the photo was taken for propaganda purposes. And it was not unexpected, as Hibbert noted, Mussolini was well-known for his “insatiable appetite for self-dramatisation”, and created “part fact and part fantasy” images of himself, for purposes of...

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