The Z-Marque
It all begins with an image, and then the questions begin.
Long a fan of Zagato coach-built cars, I often linger over its unique logo, the infamous "Z" emblazoned upon the side panel of many coach-built cars I've gazed upon over the years. Recently, I realized why.
Certainly, the fantastic swoosh of the "Z" has graphic appeal. Regard.
But was it only graphic appeal? As a photographer, I am a passive observer similar in some ways to The Lady of Shalott. My shutter finger is faster than my brain and it often takes many years of solitary obtuse observations to weave my finished artwork and stories. Such is the case with my obsession over the infamous Z marque.
As a student at Duke University, my worldview exploded during my class on "Intellectual History" taught by Harold Parker--one of the great thinkers to whom I was introduced during college. Professor Parker, a slight man with a big brain, always had his pockets full of Lance peanut butter crackers fresh from the vending machine. I thought he must subsist on Nabs, as they were branded. After observing his classroom nibbling, I began to bring him tidbits of food from my early culinary concoctions and we became friends after I baked madelines while we were reading Proust. Another important female lesson learned.
Professor Parker's European intellectual history theory held that significant cultural ideas arise simultaneously in multiple disciplines. His syllabus proved his premise through an intense examination of the Romantic movement from the 18th and 19th centuries. Ideas bubbled up from the collective unconscious and were expressed concurrently by multiple artists, mathematicians, and authors whose works continue to inform our world.
Many years later, I wonder if Romanticism ever ended. With recent developments in physics and entanglement theory, it is possible our understanding of Romanticism is still expanding.
Modern rock lyrics even acknowledge this phenomenon. Witness the modern song lyrics of Sting in Synchronicity 1
With one breath, with one flow
You will know
Synchronicity
A sleep trance, a dream dance,
A shared romance
Synchronicity
A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectible
Yet nothing is invincible
Synchronicity may be involved in the famous Z marque used by Zagato to brand his undulating coach-built cars. Was the immense popularity of a dime novel published in 1854 entitled "The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta: The Celebrated California Bandit" at the root of Zagato's chromed "Z" logo?
John Rollin Ridge, (whose Cherokee name was "Yellow Bird") wrote a fictional biography of the popular true-life bandit, Juan Murieta from California's Gold Rush days. This was the first book written by a native-American. The best-selling book was translated into multiple languages and hit a nerve in 19th century Europe where multiple national conflicts ultimately exploded in the first world war.
Juan Murietta, a native Mexican from the state of Sonora, followed his older brother to California soon after gold was struck in 1848. Murietta and his beautiful young wife traveled northward to join his brother in mining gold. Their luck was good but took a tragic turn when a group of jealous white miners hijacked their rich claim after claiming Murietta stole a horse from them. In reality, Murietta's brother bought the horse for Juan.
The mob whipped Murietta while tied to a tree, gang-raped and murdered his wife in front of him, then left Murietta for dead as they tracked down his brother and hung him. Murietta vowed vengeance on his American oppressors and used his prodigious knife skills to systematically hunt members of the white mob one by one, killing them and marking their bodies with a three-stroked "Z".
Murietta's revenge on the white thieves who stole his mine and killed his family led him to begin a new life as an outlaw. He assumed the role of a witless foreigner, uninterested in money, but secretly exacting restitution on a terrified California population. The state government posted a large bounty for Murietta's head, dead or alive, and he was ultimately tracked down and killed by the California Rangers.
Murietta's legend resonated throughout culture for standing up for his human rights, despite his nationality.
Ugo Zagato was born into a world of similar nationalistic strife in 1890 near Gavello, Italy just three years after Karl Benz invented the first automobile--the Benz patent motor car.
Motorcar mania, a different kind of gold rush, bubbled throughout world culture alongside the conflicting nationalistic passions of Europe. The Germans were wary of the Russians, the Baltic states were splintering, and France was thunderstruck by Bismark, but every country was intent on dominating automotive production.
In 1905, after Zagato lost his father at age fifteen, he left his home in Italy for Cologne, Germany to seek his fortune in the automotive trade. Cologne was then one of the most robust centers of vehicle and motor manufacturing in the world. The American manufacturer, Ford, also began production in Cologne soon after Zagato's arrival to keep pace with burgeoning demand for the Model T.
Zagato worked in Germany for four years as the booming new business of automobile production developed. During this interval, Germany aligned with Italy to form the Triple Alliance agreement with Austria-Hungary. Italy was always seen as the weakest member of this new military block formed for mutual defense and perhaps Zagato felt like a second-class worker with his Italian citizenship.
The Triple Appliance opponents were opposed by a formidable block composed of Great Britain, France, and Russia. Each alliance, roughly equivalent in military power, pledged to aid one another in the event of war. Italy was the wild card and although officially aligned with Germany, the French avidly solicited their attention. As car culture enthusiasts know, the French were the most enthusiastic adopters of the new-fangled automobile and quick to follow production after Karl Benz.
Kaiser Wilhelm's ambitions may have turned off a young Ugo Zagato who realized the Germans were building a war machine. In 1909, Zagato returned to Italy for military service and a job at the Carrozzeria Varesina. While there he began studying at the Santa Marta design school.
By 1915, at the ripe old age of twenty-five and the threat of war hanging overhead, Zagato began work at the Costruzioni Aerodinamiche Pomilio of Turin in the exciting new field of aerodynamics. Airplane fever engulfed a world still wrestling with profitably producing automobiles.
In 1919, Zagato opened his first business at the age of twenty-nine, beating out the aluminum-bodied Fiat 501 upon a wooden frame. Its lightweight body melded Zagato's knowledge of aviation manufacturing with Italian-flavored metal sculpture to shape the car body. With wings now figuratively mounted on the consuming interest of his life, the motorcar, inspirations for Ugo Zagato's life work were planted.
And what a life's work it was.
Now we return to Murietta's legend, still percolating in society's unconscious, but given new life when Señor Zorro, a character created in 1919 by Los Angeles-based pulp fiction writer Johnston McCulley, was featured as a serialized set of published stories derived from the Murietta fable in "All-story Weekly".
Thus, Zorro leapt off the page into the global psyche as a sensational new superhero certain to capture the young Zagato's attention. Most importantly, Zorro expressed himself as an individual over any nationalistic dogma. He "signed his deeds" with three deft cuts of his sword or bullwhip, an act that surely engaged the mind of Zagato whose own logo bears a remarkable resemblance to Zorro's branding.
In the post-World War I era, Zagato's knowledge of aerodynamics and coachbuilding helped Italy gain recognition as a significant auto manufacturer. His novel production techniques changed the way automobiles could be designed. Nicola Romeo, head of Alfa Romeo, called upon Zagato to produce the Alfa Romeo P2 alongside Vittorio Jano and Enzo Ferrari. The Alfa Romeo P2 won all Grand Prix races for Italy in 1924 and 1925.
(Some photos)
Soon Zagato began signing his innovative deeds with the unique "Z" brand on the Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 (which won the Mille Miglia four times), followed quickly by the fabulous swooping Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 in 1929.
In 1937, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the Depression, Zagato delivered the Fiat 500 A, the Topolino, to a continent of customers seeking affordable transportation after the ravages of the Great Depression, and in 1960 he and his sons partnered with Abarth to produce the Fiat Abarth which won the Compasso d'Oro for its industrial design excellence.
Grazie, Zagato. We salute you.
reprinted. First publication © 2019 Automobilia II, LLC. All Rights Reserved