The mystique of progress. Urban landscape at the beginning of the twentieth century

Abstract

The idea of progress, so closely linked to the liberating conception set by modernity, presents in its own formulation a series of paradoxes. One of the most obvious, relates to the sacred character acquired inside a secularized society. Taking this issue as a starting point help us to analyse some of the artistic implications that certain early twentieth century movements associated with this concept through the iconographic signifi cance and the discursive prominence granted to the city. Although the idea of progress is not equivalent to that of metropolis or to that of machine, it is interesting to state how, in the mentioned years, was carried out a covert use of all these notions. At the same time, the urban phenomenon and its plastic treatment are going to promote, in the fi rst avant-gardes, a clashing change within the landscape genre. Th e new scenery, not only circumscribes its iconographic modality to the citizen, but also to the metaphors associated with such an environment. In particular, to those related with the machinery and the technological progress.