Da Roma verso il mondo. Note di arte cristiana del Secondo dopoguerra

This article aims to explore the presence of Christian artworks in the context of a series of post-World War II events aiming to promote a new image of the resurgent Italian nation worldwide. The survey will center on the traveling exhibition Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, touring twelve American museums between 1950 and 1953. Being regarded as a crucial event for promoting the contemporary Made in Italy production, the presence of Christian art within such a secularized context has never been assessed. Based on unpublished archival documents, this article will consider the exhibition a testimony to the Church’s postwar struggle not to be socially marginalized from the contemporary world. Although looking inappropriate in a context merging cultural and commercial issues, the article will discuss the way the chapel designed by Roberto Menghi and religious artifacts displayed at the Italy at Work exhibition played an important role for the Church in unveiling a Christian spirit in everyday life while pairing the rhetoric of manual labor within a process of evangelization through art.