Art: War in the Treasure House

More monuments to human genius are crowded into the Italian peninsula than into any other like area in the world. If Italy is steadily bombed or shelled, man's most concentrated cultural record may be destroyed. This dilemma reverberated in the letters column of the London Times last week. The issue—Art v. Human Life in Wartime—was first raised by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Lang of Lambeth (see p. 62). "It would indeed be lamentable," he wrote, "if by the action of our armies . . . incomparable treasures of the history of art and of religion were destroyed or even seriously damaged. . . . Even if this [Allied avoidance of bombings] were to involve the loss of some temporary military advantage, such a loss could not be compared with a loss of civilization and religion which would be for all time, and irreparable."

Times readers reached for their pens; wrote the Rev. L. F. Harvey, of Shrewsbury: "He [Lord Lang] would have made the matter clearer had he said 'even at the cost of the lives of British and Allied troops.' . . . Does the Archbishop wish to convey that he regards human life as of less value than a monument?" Wrote Poet Sir John Squire, former editor of the London Mercury: "The Reverend Gentleman seems to think that stones are stones and St. Peter's but an organized quarry instead of a crystallization of the human spirit, building ad majorem Dei gloriam. But even in quarries men lose their lives. . . ." The most telling retort was written by one David Naylor: "May I enquire if any of the gentlemen so deeply concerned over the ancient monuments of Rome have an only son whom they are prepared to sacrifice on the altar of St. Peter's? If not, may I then ask them to moderate the enthusiasm with which they propose to substitute mine?"

A glance at the British War Office report—War Damage to Historic Monuments of South Italy—might have moderated some letter writers' fears. The report, compiled by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley, archeological adviser to the British War Cabinet, who visited the Allied sections of Italy to check up on war damage, was comparatively optimistic.

It showed that some priceless architectural monuments had already been wiped out or ruined. But in view of the ferocity of the Italian campaign, the damage was remarkably small. Few irreplaceable buildings were destroyed in Apulia or Calabria. Farther north the destruction was greater. Among the monuments completely demolished were: the 12th-Century cathedral at Benevento; Naples' Santa Chiara Church—the finest Gothic church in the city; the Church of the Incoronata, at Naples, which contained frescoes of the Sienese School.

Gutted but not destroyed was the Castel Nuovo (probably the most imposing monument in Naples).

Intact were the Cascades at Caserta, a famed waterway lined with baroque sculpture; the Castel del Monte, near Bari (depository for all the art treasures of the Bari area); the 12th-Century cathedral at Bari.

Pompeii was bombed chiefly in its most recently excavated areas; the older, archeologically more valuable sections of Pompeii were very slightly damaged. "Fortunately Herculaneum," wrote Sir Charles Woolley, "which from the scientific point of view is much more important than Pompeii, received no hurt at all."