Fellini’s negative art: Petrarch and Ariosto in Il Casanova

Abstract

This article examines Fellini’s use of Petrarch and Ariosto in Il Casanova. The author argues that they exemplify two different artistic conceptions: Petrarch incarnates an art that is solipsistic, perfect, self-enclosed, intellectual, and all serious; Ariosto an art that is open, collaborative, imperfect, and anti-intellectual, and that allows irony. Casanova, in the scenes when he recites lines from these two poets, subscribes to the Petrarchan type and misinterprets the Ariostean. Fellini, on the contrary, critiques the Petrarchan type by associating it with the de-humanizing intercourse of Casanova with a mechanical doll and by hinting at incest; he then embraces the Ariostean type by ridiculing Casanova’s misinterpretation of Ariosto through an Ariostean kind of irony. I demonstrate that this reflects Fellini’s artistic vision as it emerges from his interviews and other works. I conclude that Fellini makes the film Casanova the pars destruens of his art, and that the character Casanova is Fellini’s artistic negative.