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ANATOMY OF DESIGN
The Italian futurist Renato Bertelli sculpted Profilo Continuo del Duce (1933), a
swirling portrait of Italy’s Fascist leader, because the enforced cult of personality
surrounding Benito Mussolini—il Duce (“the Duke”)—demanded his image
ubiquitously appear throughout the nation, on every wall and town square, and
on all posters and newspapers. Mussolini started this fashion for branding
dictators—like products to be consumed. Futurist artists, who understood the
power of advertising and publicity, took heroic liberties with il Duce’s round head
and protruding chin, which in its various graphic compositions was a veritable
logo for ...