Iconografia e paesaggi del lavoro. Riflessioni e prospettive di ricerca

In the field of studies regarding the historical iconography of the city and the landscape, the spaces of industry still lack an in-depth study. Artistic historiography has underlined an absence or a significant marginalisation of the places of work in modern iconography. It has encountered a process of legitimation of the "factory" as a subject representing the urban and rural landscape only in reference to the figurative culture of the Industrial Age. Nevertheless, more recent historiographic studies regarding the theme of productive and industrial landscape architecture have allowed for the acknowledgment and the realistic restitution of the work space as an iconographic practise of a much longer period, with its cultural roots embedded in the Flemish matrix. This essay takes on the themes from a historic perspective and proposes to individualise further research possibilities through some essential considerations.