Letter to the Mother from the Prison of San Vittore

Abstract

For this volume, the chosen "Classic" is a short but significant text by Fernanda Wittgens (1903-1957), the first woman in Italy to be appointed to a leadership position at the Pinacoteca di Brera. Intellectually close to Ettore Modigliani, she was actively involved during the Second World War in safeguarding artworks from the Pinacoteca, the Poldi Pezzoli Museum, the Quadreria of the Ospedale Maggiore, and many other collections in Milan. Arrested in 1944, she was imprisoned in San Vittore prison in Milan, where she maintained a prolific correspondence. From these letters emerges the portrait of a woman deeply committed both professionally and politically, for whom art held a crucial social and moral function, and could serve as a tool for enlightenment and education accessible to all. In this sense, the Letters offer intimate and profoundly clear reflections on the intellectual's role in defending the ideals of civilization and brotherhood among peoples, as exemplified by the Letter to the Mother dated September 13, 1944, presented here.