1. The Strange Case of Signor Gioanni
Se谩n Williams unpacks the mysteries and realities of a murder in Trieste in the 1760s that still informs ideas and mythologies about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex and death.
Murder! In hotel room ten, with a rope and a knife. By a fellow guest. If this were Cluedo, we鈥檇 have given the game away. But it鈥檚 true crime, turned cultural history. And travelogue: Se谩n Williams follows in the footsteps of the most famous art historian of all time. The German Johann Winckelmann 鈥� killed in Italy, in June 1768.
In a series that takes us to Trieste, Venice, and Rome, Se谩n uncovers skeletons in the closet. One crime becomes a way of conceiving a certain sort of life, death, art. Winckelmann鈥檚 end has written the script for a classic gay tragedy that has been adapted over the centuries. It鈥檚 a dramatic story told by Goethe, Oscar Wilde, and Thomas Mann, to name but a few.
But what are the facts of this fiction? Ranging from supposedly tolerant and intellectual Enlightenment Europe to the nonchalant nineties, and to Italy today 鈥� where the government are ramping up anti-LGBT rhetoric 鈥� Se谩n asks what it means that a historic murder has become cultural myth. To us. To him. Because it was also Winckelmann the historian who taught us a haunting truth. We always read art of the past personally, in the present.
The programme was made with the help of the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities, Universit脿 Ca' Foscari; Marzia Vidulli, Museo Winckelmann, Trieste; Grand Hotel Duchi D'Aosta, Trieste; Villa Albani-Torlonia, Rome; the University of Sheffiel and Marcello Cattaneo.
In Part One, we learn about the incognito couple involved in the murder.
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An appetite for murder
Duration: 02:40
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- Mon 22 May 2023 22:45成人快手 Radio 3
Death in Trieste
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