Luigi Polacco

Luigi Polacco (born October 16, 1917 in Stra ; died February 25, 2007 in Venice ) was an Italian classical archaeologist .

Luigi Polacco was the son of Alessandro Polacco and his wife Sofia, née Ruol. He began his studies of classical antiquity at the spiritual Istituto Cavanis in Venice. At the University of Padua , he was in 1939 in Humanities , 1943 in philosophy laureiert . During the Second World War he was deployed in Yugoslavia . After his return he became assistant to Carlo Anti , who from 1947 held the chair of archeology and ancient art history at the University of Padua.

In 1956 he was appointed to the corresponding chair at the University of Pavia , and in 1959 he returned to Padua, where he succeeded Carlo Anti. He taught here until his retirement in 1991. During this time he was Counselor for Cultural Affairs and Director of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Turkey in 1977 and 1978 .

Polaco's interests were widespread. Architecture and sculpture played a particularly prominent role in the 1950s, whereby he expressed himself equally to studies of high-class sculpture - for example in his monograph on the athlete type Kyrene-Perinth - and of iconographic questions of the Roman portrait using the example of the Tiberius portrait. The Etruscan and pre-Roman architecture of Italy was his focus as well as dating questions about the Hellenistic Stoa des Eumenes at the foot of the Athens Acropolis . From the 1960s he began his extensive field research, which took him to Turkey for many years, where he led the excavations in the Cappadocian village of Topaklı near Avanos . Developed at this time sympathy with Turkey led not only to his official positions of the year 1977/78, but were reflected in his Memorie also literary 1,992 down.

Further excavations led Luigi Polacco in the Bronze Age hill fort Nössing in Brixen , in the mansio Sebatum in St. Lorenzen in South Tyrol by and nahgelegenen Burgkofel at Lothen. Above all, he continued the extensive research he had begun with Carlo Anti on the theater of ancient Greece in Greece and Sicily , especially on the theater of Syracuse . In this context he dealt intensively with the work of Thucydides, especially with regard to the Athenians' expedition to Sicily .

Luigi Polacco was a member of the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti from 1961 , whose secretary for the Classe di scienze morali, lettere ed arti he was from 1979 to 1986. In his own studies, this connection led to numerous articles for the institute, which were particularly devoted to the relationship of Venice to ancient art and questions about continuity in this regard.

The preoccupation with Thucydides, to which Polacco kept coming back, led him to broader investigations, which he published in his book on the cyclical worldview among the Greeks.

Luigi Polacco belonged to the Istituto Nazionale di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte , the Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene , the German Archaeological Institute , the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici , the Istituto Italiano di Preistoria e Protostoria and other scientific institutions. From 1984 to 1999 he was head of the trade journal Numismatica e antichità classiche. Luigi Polacco received the gold medal of the State of Italy for services to school, culture and art (medaglia ai benemeriti della scuola, della cultura e dell'arte) . The city of Syracuse honored him with honorary citizenship for his research on the theater and territory of Syracuse, as well as his studies on Thucydides .

Publications (selection)

• Tuscanicae Dispositiones. Problemi di architettura dell'Italia preromana. CEDAM, Padua 1952.
• Cronologia del portico presso l'Odeo di Erode Attico ei "Porticus Eumenicae". Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 1954.
• L'atleta Cirene-Perinto. "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, Rome 1955.
• Il volto di Tiberio. Saggio di critica iconografica. "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, Rome 1955.
• Arte antica e astrattismo. Pozza, Venice 1959.
• Il museo di scienze archeologiche e d'arte dell'Universita di Padova. Storia e ordinamenti. Stamperia di Venezia, Venice 1967.
• with Carlo Anti: Nuove ricerche sui teatri greci arcaici. CEDAM, Padua 1969.
• Scienza e creazione. CEDAM, Padua 1969.
• Archeologi oggi. CEDAM, Padua 1971.
• Problemi di scenografia nell'Aiace di Sofocle. Gaggini-Bizzozero, Lugano 1990.
• Il teatro antico di Siracusa. Two volumes. Maggioli, Rimini 1981 and Programma, Padua 1990.
• Il teatro di Dioniso Eleutereo ad Atene. "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, Rome 1990.
• Ataturk bulvari. Memorie di un italiano in Turchia, 1966–1978. Garangola, Padua 1992.
• Kyklos. La fenomenologia del cerchio nel pensiero e nell'arte dei Greci. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 1998.

literature

• Irene Favaretto: Ricordo di Luigi Polacco. Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice 2008 ( PDF ).