Notes on the Classic in Italian Philately between the Unification of Italy and the End of World War II

Abstract

Defined by Aby Warburg as "organs of perception of the outer and inner life of their time", stamps constitute an important graphic and iconographic expression, commissioned by the state, which draws on the collective imaginary and at the same time constitutes an active part of it.   Through the analysis of a series of issues dating from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of the Second World War, the study aims to highlight the importance of the use of antiquity in philatelic graphic expressions, as well as the wide possibilities of meaning that can be attributed to it.