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The Stiff-Armed Salute
These days the stiff armed salute, as recently performed by Elon Musk, is almost exclusively associated with the Nazis- and doing it in public can get you into serious trouble, but it has a much longer history, though not as long as you might think.
Hitler got it from Mussolini and received some stick from super-patriots for copying the Italians- to which he replied, brazen-facedly, that it was actually of German origin and Luther had done it.
But Mussolini wasn't the first. Among those who had used it before him was an American patriot called Francis Bellamy who thought it the appropriate gesture for saluting the flag- and got schoolchildren to do it while making the pledge of alliegance.
Mussolini probably thought he was reviving an ancient Roman practice- but there is no evidence in Roman art or writing that the stiff armed salute was ever in their repertoire.
So where does it begin?
It begins here, in J-L David's iconic Oath of the Horatii- the first work of art from any culture which shows it being done-
And gets repeated in his Serment du Jeu de Palme (see previous post)
In both paintings it is a gesture of self-sacrificing Republican virtue.
So far as we know he invented it.
And it caught on. Such is the power of Art.
Little did he know what he had started....
Hitler got it from Mussolini and received some stick from super-patriots for copying the Italians- to which he replied, brazen-facedly, that it was actually of German origin and Luther had done it.
But Mussolini wasn't the first. Among those who had used it before him was an American patriot called Francis Bellamy who thought it the appropriate gesture for saluting the flag- and got schoolchildren to do it while making the pledge of alliegance.
Mussolini probably thought he was reviving an ancient Roman practice- but there is no evidence in Roman art or writing that the stiff armed salute was ever in their repertoire.
So where does it begin?
It begins here, in J-L David's iconic Oath of the Horatii- the first work of art from any culture which shows it being done-
And gets repeated in his Serment du Jeu de Palme (see previous post)
In both paintings it is a gesture of self-sacrificing Republican virtue.
So far as we know he invented it.
And it caught on. Such is the power of Art.
Little did he know what he had started....
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i wonder if he knew what he was saying
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