«Nell’arte il bello, nella scienza il vero»: «Alla ricerca della verecondia»

(«In Art the Beautiful, in Science the Truth»: «In Search for Prudishness»)

Abstract

The essay aims at highlighting the different perception of the feeling of modesty in late nineteenth century culture. To do so, it analyzes the definition of modesty as it is proposed by the divulger-scientist Paolo Mantegazza, with special reference to the essays that comprise the Trilogia dell’amore [Trilogy of Love]; it also retraces the famous querelle of which Gabiele D’Annunzio was part on the occasion of the publication of Intermezzo di rime. Modesty and science, and modesty and literature give rise to an enflamed polemics that engages well-established readers and critics and that ultimately leads to an analogous conclusion—namely, that it is time to give up falsehood because, as Mantegazza claims, “everything human belongs to science” and must also belong to art, far once and for all from all forms of insincerity and any “moral or political transformism.”