1911 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy, proclaimed in Turin on March 17, 1861, designating Rome as its capital, though it had not yet been annexed to Italian territory. The event was celebrated with a series of ethnographic exhibitions, the most notable of which was held in Rome in a space on the banks of the Tiber, then free from urban development. Wood and plaster pavilions were built, intended to be dismantled at the end of the celebrations. One pavilion might seem familiar to those who have studied the history of seafaring and fisheries in the Mediterranean. It faithfully reproduces the form and style of the Rialto Fish Market in Venice, built only four years earlier but in the early Gothic style.

This is, in fact, the pavilion dedicated to fishing, rightly considered one of the most important and representative activities in Italy, a long peninsula stretching from north to southeast, embraced on all sides by the Mediterranean, what in ancient Rome was called Mare Nostrum. But the emphasis was not only on industrial and commercial activities, but also, and above all, on the human beings who played a key role in them. It was therefore decided that the pavilion’s loggia would be decorated with canvas paintings illustrating the fishing cycle, alternating with others depicting fishers with their catch and the gear they used.

The material collected was intended to be, and indeed was, the core of what became, thanks to the scholar Lamberto Loria, the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, currently incorporated into the larger complex of the Museum of Civilizations. It is located in Rome in buildings constructed for another major exhibition, the Universal Exhibition of Rome (EUR, as the neighborhood is still known today). It was planned for 1942 but was never held due to the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

On that occasion, large frescoes depicting some of the most important human activities were installed in the grand hall of what would later become the Museum. Here too, a significant space is dedicated to maritime life, with the vivid depiction of the tuna slaughter by the Calabrian artist Pietro Barillà (1887-1956).

The Museum also still displays numerous models of artisanal fishing boats, powered by sails or oars, along with nets and various gear, often from acquisitions made in 1911. They bear witness to fishing systems that were still human-scale and, above all, marine life-friendly, while today’s technology has allowed the use of systems that are too often predatory, with no thought for the future and no respect for the dignity of every living species.

The Fishing Cycle (Ciclo della Pesca), created in 1911 by the Roman artist Umberto Coromaldi (1870-1948), remained lost for a long time. Finally rediscovered almost intact but in a degraded state at CREA (an institute for agricultural economics research and analysis), it was entrusted to the ICR, the Central Institute for Restoration, for a demanding restoration (the following photo is from the Institute’s Facebook page). It will soon be accessible to the public again, offering a glimpse into the important past of artisanal fishing in Italy, but perhaps also sparking thoughtful reflections on the future—in Italy, in Europe, and around the world.

Operazioni di restauro presso la sede dell’iCR

A recent publication, „The Fishing Cycle by Umberto Coromaldi at the 1911 Roman Exhibition“ (Il Ciclo della Pesca di Umberto Coromaldi nell’Esposizione romana del 1911 (ISBN 978-88-492-5244-6)), provides insight into the history of its discovery and restoration, and above all, offers a deeper understanding of the history and genesis of this crucial piece. In the following pages, we will examine in more detail some of the five panels (out of six) that were recovered, along with some of the – idealized yet significant – portraits of fishers.

The images accompanying this article are partly from the publication cited, partly from the public domain. Others were taken personally by the author at the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions section of the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, in August 2025. Also in this series – and this could not be left out due to its spectacular drama, but also its roots in centuries-old traditions – is the tuna slaughter. This recurring theme allows us to highlight the commitment of entire communities toward a common goal and their fundamental respect for the natural cycle of marine creatures, albeit often largely due to the absence at that time of the more effective, but more destructive modern technologies.

In the remainder of this article, we will briefly illustrate Umberto Coromaldi’s Fishing Cycle, attempting to highlight its artistic, documentary, and, above all, emotional value. This will allow us to relive, over 100 years later, the hard but profitable and sustainable daily work of the fishers of the past century.

It should be noted immediately that it is not yet possible to enjoy the Fishing Cycle in its entirety: a dedicated room will have to be set up to display all the works, while at the moment the canvas depicting The Tuna Slaughter is on display in the hall of honor of the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and The Beach seine in the atrium.

The Fishing Cycle as a whole (op. cit. p. 31). The black-and-white image represents a lost canvas.

The work „La sciabica,“ a detail of which is depicted on the cover of the aforementioned book, offers a glimpse into another typical artisanal and traditional fishing system: the beach seine. This involves a net pulled from the shore in as wide a semicircle as possible, and then hauled up onto the beach by hand. This method is not applicable to stony or deep bodies of water; it was, in fact, a widespread technique on the sandy stretches of the Tyrrhenian Sea around Rome, where, given the shallowness of the water, it is possible to set the net by wading through the water, as it does not necessarily require the use of a boat or a simple vessel. The environment in which the fishers move as they haul in the net—we see only a few of them—is reminiscent of the Lazio coastline with its low Mediterranean vegetation. But it is a fishing method widely used from late spring to early autumn elsewhere as well, for example on the Adriatic coast. It is often present in the paintings of other artists as it is highly representative of the cooperation between human beings aimed at overcoming the limitations of the individual.

Although this is a potentially invasive method, as it mainly captures juvenile specimens that remain close to the shore, the completely manual nature of the technique means that the catch is unlikely to be significant and consequently the impact is limited, provided that the seine is not used excessively and concentrated in restricted areas.

Photograph of the work exhibited in 1911, belonging to the Vatican Photo Library and published in the book

The panel The Beach Seine exhibited today at the Museum.

The panel dedicated to taking to the sea, here intentionally shown in its pre-restoration condition, confirms what was already evident in the previous panel, when we see the fishermen busy recovering the nets (ropes) of the beach seine. These are entirely artisanal activities, relying on modest means and solely on human power. They are therefore less invasive, but also carried out with greater attention to the conservation of the fish stocks that provide the community with food and a source of exchange, just as our ancestors have always done.

Taking to the sea at dawn

We draw the viewer’s attention to another work from Coromaldi’s cycle: The Landing. The catch is not in such quantities as to endanger the fauna, and is carefully handled by both men and women, united in their work.

The Landing of the Catch. Detail

To the right of the work, we can glimpse some sailing boats, larger than the small rowing boat we saw in the Taking to the Sea, but still not even remotely comparable to the enormous vessels used today for industrial fishing.

Landing the catch. Detail.

A model in the Museum’s fishing section helps us evaluate these vessels. The photo shows a model of a typical Adriatic fishing boat, the Venetian bragozzo.

The six large canvases depicting fishing activities are highly realistic and, appearing spontaneous, almost like snapshots. They suggest intense research and field observation. This was not the first time that Umberto Coromaldi, along with many other contemporary ethnographic themes, had explored life, work, and tragedies on and of the sea. His 1893 work, The Return of the Shipwrecked, was acclaimed and awarded the title to an artistic pension, which allowed him to further his studies.

Archive of the Fine Arts Academy of Rome (Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma): The Return of the Shipwrecked (Il ritorno dei naufraghi)

Careful preliminary studies from a more academic and formal perspective are, however, also perceptible. This is revealed by the studies and sketches that the study group was able to obtain from the artist’s family or from the material deposited in the archives of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, where the artist first studied and then taught.

Umberto Coromaldi. Sketches in preparation for the opera The Tuna Slaughter

On the other hand, the panels depicting portraits of fishermen are approached in a noticeably different way. It was predictable that only men were depicted; women’s work was closely tied to the land and typically did not involve an active role in the catch. However, in contrast to the realism of the large choral panels, these portraits are idealized. The fishers appear in so-called „heroic nudity,“ and their gestures are somewhat emphatic, not entirely natural.

It is unknown whether this was the artist’s choice or a specific request from the client. Perhaps it was a heartfelt homage to a class of workers considered humble, who were depicted in a manner comparable to that of the gods and heroes of antiquity. Perhaps it was a reference to the emerging 20th-century artistic movement, which called for a return to classicism.

We’ve already seen many women appear in The Return of the Shipwrecked, still protagonists, albeit less obviously, in the epic story of artisanal fishing. In The Landing of the Fish, men appear, whose responsibilities include landing the catch, and women whose job is processing and marketing.

The hard and often lengthy work of artisanal fishers and their self-image are centered on the boat, nets, and other means of catching fish. In the division of tasks along the value chain, women in the household were generally responsible for processing and marketing, and given the men’s long absences, they were also responsible for managing the assets.

Despite the important role of women, outside attention focuses primarily on men, and they themselves stand out for both their valuable skills and the frequent dangers they face at sea. But a commodity as perishable as fish quickly loses value if not marketed expertly, and production beyond self-consumption is only possible if there is a market. Yet society’s predominantly patriarchal values mean that women’s crucial work is often invisible, undervalued, and even unpaid.

Umberto Coromaldi. Landing the fish. Detail.

As an example that is still valid today, in a country heavily dependent on fishing for both food and trade, both internally and with neighboring countries—Senegal—the selection and marketing of the catch, both retail and wholesale, are entrusted to women.

Saint Louis, Senegal. April 2013

In a painting by an unknown artist, roughly contemporary with the 1911 Ethnographic Exhibition, we can also see women busy collecting mollusks. The canvas is titled „The Harvest of Clamshells,“ bivalves common throughout the Mediterranean. Although not large in size, they have a strong flavor and are therefore highly sought-after. Today, they are almost impossible to find on the market.

The Clam Collection. Unknown artist, circa 1900

Moreover, in some types of fishing and in some parts of the world, women played and still play an active and important role. For example, in the Pacific Ocean, 56% of the catch is due to women. In Japan, beyond the ancient example of pearl divers and others, known to many, we have this testimony from the great artist Hokusai: women engaged in sea bream fishing

Katushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

Although there remains some uncertainty, in Pietro Barillà’s large fresco The Tuna Slaughter on the wall of the Museum’s main hall, a woman seems to appear, and this time she is engaged—we might say on the front lines—in the authentic bloody battle that concludes the fishing of tuna caught in nets in the narrow space delimited by the fishermen’s boats, known as the death chamber.

Pietro Barillà, The Tuna Slaughter. Detail.

The Museum of Civilizations of Rome was established years ago by merging three different adjacent museums: the Pigorini Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of the Early Middle Ages, which primarily houses important finds from Lombard settlements in Italy, and the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions, which, as we know, arose from the ashes of the 1911 Exposition.

Over the years, the Oriental Museum and the African Museum have also moved here. The museum is located in the EUR district in buildings constructed for what was supposed to be the 1942 Rome Universal Exposition. It is currently undergoing expansion and renovation, and houses artifacts related to the sea and fishing in various sections, such as this photograph from the archive of founder Lamberto Loria, likely dating to the late 19th century.

Typical canoes (kepo) from Bulala, Papua New Guinea

CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy): Its headquarters are in Rome, in the 17th-century Palazzina Mattei, within the villa of the same name near the Colosseum, which later became Villa Celimontana. It encompasses numerous research centers established in Italy since the early days of national unification. Coromaldi’s works were discovered at CREA, having arrived there after several transfers that had ultimately led to their disappearance.

CREA’s headquarters are located in the historic Villa Celimontana.

The Central Institute for Restoration (ICR) was founded in 1939, primarily at the instigation of the scholar Giulio Carlo Argan, who recognized the need for such a project in a nation with millennia of history and a crossroads of many different cultures. Its objectives included strengthening cultural heritage protection activities, ensuring centralization and coordination, and ultimately creating a certified training system for restoration professionals. The extraordinary abundance of cultural heritage in Italy gradually increased both the Institute’s importance and the skills of its restorers, to the point of becoming an indispensable point of reference for other restoration projects at numerous cultural sites around the world.

It is currently housed in the San Michele complex, built in Baroque style in the 17th century and later expanded with the addition of several buildings. It was intended to accommodate minors in need who needed care, whether in hospital or hospice, but unfortunately also in prison. This was the only function it maintained for a long time, even if disguised as a reformatory, a facility dedicated to redemption rather than punishment. Abandoned in the years following the Second World War, it underwent lengthy and complex restoration efforts, given its impressive size (over 300 by 80 meters). It eventually became home to the Central Institute for Restoration.

It is necessary to emphasize the complex’s connections—coincidental?—with the sea, with inland waters, with cultural and commercial exchanges between human beings of different cultures. It stands on the banks of the Tiber, at the spot that almost three thousand years ago was the site of the first encounters and exchanges between the Etruscan, Sabine, and Latin communities, who would later merge to create the city of Rome. The side where San Michele stands belonged to the Etruscan community, who primarily traded in salt from the coast and transported it there along the river. Until recently, the opposite bank was called Via della Salaria Vecchia. There, trains of wagons carrying goods for trade arrived from the Sabine area, to depart loaded with salt along the road that is still called the Salaria today, which reaches the opposite coast on the Adriatic Sea. The Latins descended to this place from the historic settlements in the Alban Hills that overlook Rome.

Although significantly diminished over the centuries, river traffic nevertheless continued until the early 20th century. In this late 19th-century image, we see Rome’s largest river port, Ripa Grande. In the background, on the left, is the San Michele complex. For further details on the connections between Rome and the sea, which have been intense since antiquity, see the article „La vivaria“ on this site.

Photo by unknown author

Paolo Bottoni, August 2025.