Benedetta: Futurist Sacred Art 'in, of, and from the Feminine'.

This article focuses on Benedetta Cappa Marinetti’s role as a pioneering woman artist within Italian Futurism, emphasizing her development of a “feminised” Futurist sacred art that integrates spirituality, occult influences, and early feminist ideas. Benedetta’s work, including her murals Syntheses of Communication (1933–1934) and her experimental novels, explores the concept of synthesis as a dynamic harmony between masculine and feminine forces, drawing on Theosophical and occult philosophies that advocated gender parity and the “divine feminine” as a creative principle. While she operated within the Fascist regime and Futurist circles dominated by masculine ideals, Benedetta’s art and writings articulate a distinct feminine sensibility that celebrates motherhood metaphorically as a generative creative force, negotiating women’s place in both private and public spheres. Her oeuvre challenges dominant narratives of modernism by foregrounding spirituality and gendered dualities, offering an alternative avant-garde perspective “in, of, and from the feminine” that intersects abstract art, occultism, and early twentieth-century feminist discourses.