Napoleon Bonaparte's adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" is true regarding the topless photograph of Benito Mussolini. This profound image captures the essence of the relationships, intersections, and overlaps between historical discourses of reality and propagated realism. Discourses in which one is historiographical and the other philosophical. The historical aspect depicts the subject in a particular time and place in the Italian past. The review examines the historical and philosophical relationship and perspectives of the image's content and context; in particular, the contextualization of the image in terms of propaganda diffusion. The black and white photograph (Fig.1), taken on 20 January 1937, shows Benito Mussolini topless on the snow-covered ski slope of Monte Terminillo. Mussolini is posed in an upright skier's position with his legs slightly apart and his hands gripping the ski poles at chest height in front of him. He looks to his right as if observing something in the distance and has his chin slightly jutted forward. The photo was taken during the period of Mussolini's fascist rule in Italy, from 1922 to 1943. According to the Istituto Luce Historical Archive website the photo was taken by the News Department of the Ministry of Press and Propaganda. The Istituto Luce, founded in 1924 by Mussolini, was a key organization in his propaganda machine. Given this information and the form of the topless pose staged in the winter setting, it is not unrealistic to assume that the photo was taken for propaganda purposes. And it was not unexpected, as Hibbert noted, that Mussolini was well known for his "insatiable appetite for self-dramatization" and created images of himself "partly real and partly fantastic", for the purposes of... half of paper ......uto Light. http://www.archivioluce.com Accessed Nov 27, 2013.Pisani, Vittorio, Il Duce, great sportsman, allowed himself excellent physical recreation by skiing bare-chested in the snows of Terminillo. He was Romano's companion, the Younger than his children" Illustrated supplement of "La Tribuna" Year XLV - N. 6 - 7 February 1937 - Year and Matthew Serafin, Scarpone e Moschetto: Alpinismo in Camicia Nera (Series: CDA & Vivalda, 2002).Smith, Denis Mack, Mussolini (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981).Stone, Marla, 'A Flexible Rome: Fascism and the cult of Romanity'. Catharine Edwards (ed.) Roman Presences: Receptions of Rome in European Culture, 1789-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.205-220.