Salotto Buono: the “Art of Conservation” and the Permanence of an Italian Room

Abstract

The salotto buono is a typically Italian room that plays a central role in contemporary domesticity and epitomizes the permanence of traditional family structures within Italian society. This essay explores how this room, and the objects contained in it, defined and consolidated Italian middle-class identity, and how they subsequently had an impact on domestic practices and cultures. Interviews and photographs collected during fieldwork in Italy illustrate how the salotto is used and decorated today, and how it has spatially evolved in the past century. Moreover, this analysis offers further considerations on the mechanisms of permanence, imitation, as well as conformity and how these played a fundamental role in the definition of Italian society and culture by influencing the design and use of domestic interiors, among which the salotto stands out. This essay ultimately demonstrates that the salotto is the room that encapsulates, both physically and symbolically, the conservative thrust that has marked Italian society and politics from the post-war period onwards.