Website Update

A short post to let you know that I have updated my website with some new paintings from the  Wrap series.

Giants

In the past weeks I was fortunate enough to see shows of the most eminent figurative painters of today. I am now trying to make sense of what I saw, the amount of information I have gathered on these three artists and what influence they had and will have on my work.

I wrote about seeing Antonio Lopez Garcia's show in Spain here a few weeks ago, I went to the National Portrait Gallery for Freud's "Portraits" on Friday and I visited  Hockney's "A Bigger Picture" today.
The shows were all retrospectives, Lopez Garcia's being the most complete as it spanned all his life and took into account all aspects of his work, all painting genres as well as drawing and sculpture. All these shows are impressive for the amount of exceptional works the painters have produced, particularly considering the slow pace of Freud and Lopez when painting.

Of the three, Lopez is my favourite. Technically unsurpassed and with an enormous emotional content in all his paintings. The tenderness of his feelings towards the subject, his love for Madrid's light, his everyday objects, food, flowers, the quiet of his empty studio, his family, is always there beneath the surface.

Hockney's show was a total surprise. I had overlooked his work for many years, I didn't get it and found it technically unsatisfying, but I understand now I just wasn't ready for it. My sympathy for Hockney started really when he published his book " Secret Knowledge".  How liberating it was having formal permission from dozens of old masters to paint from photographs and be merry and guilt-free !
Visual technology is not evil, an enemy, is something that can be used, submitted.
What I admire in Hockney is his mental youth, the enthusiasm with which he stays up to date, doing something new within the framework of centuries past.

I think that painting is the least suitable art form to speak about current times: video, installations, assemblage, sound, they can do the job so much better. Painting, though, can speak about human nature, about those elements of human nature that have not changed in the whole history of mankind. And painting talks in the language of painting, the language of portraits, landscape, still-life. What I loved in Hockney's show is the fact that he is sticking to traditional landscape, might it be in his studio or in the field ( I generally preferred the paintings he did from observation) without trying to revolutionise anything, just doing the same thing hundreds of others had done before him, with modesty and serious commitment.
The work is about man and nature, vision, the passing of time. What can be more human than that?

Actually what he tries to revolutionise instead is technology: he looks for a new and different way of filming nature ( still referencing his previous photographic works) that is more akin to human vision, and he is the most popular testimonial for using the newest gadget as a traditional medium.
The display is just a feast for the eyes, and one comes out of the show slightly lightheaded and certainly uplifted.

The opposite happens coming out of Lucien Freud's show. Fascination for the painter, for his dedication, for his immense personality, but after seeing all those paintings I felt almost empty, void.
Freud often said he wanted his models to be like animals: fall into that state of just living in the moment, like dogs do.
At the end of the show, having looked at all his sitters, almost always alone, neutral if not sad, their gaze rarely meeting the viewer's, makes me wonder if there was any emotion at all in this man, any concern for his sitters. Many of them are there like a lump of meat, a deaf heap of molecules.

I saw the latest documentary about Freud on the BBC and the image that emerges is one of a man that has had many lovers but hasn't loved anyone except his time at the easel.
He fathered three children from different women in the same year. The daughters that appear in his paintings talk fondly about him in the documentary, but I wonder about the feelings of the other eleven ones.

Freud's little involvement with the sitter, his dominating point of view, the unforgiving light, those clumsy feet, they all made me feel chilly. I used to revere his paintings but less so now. 

Anyway I feel very fortunate for being able to see all these works of art and I am sure they will resonate in my mind for a long time.

More Shows/2

 

So I set out to see the Galleria di Arte Antica once again, as it is very close to where I stay when I am in Rome, and I find that the museum has been completely renovated, the display has been rearranged and there are many new rooms, 34 in all.

If you have previously visited the museum, once shabby and outdated, you will be mesmerized by the restoration. For once something we Italians can do like no others. 

On the ground floor the suite of new rooms, all the walls decorated with historical colour schemes, culminate in the Sala delle Colonne, an indoor garden of delight with the harmonious fountain with statue of Bacco. Downstairs you can see Bellini, Filippo Lippi, Perugino. 

Apart from the meditative St Mary Magdalene the collection includes Raffaello's La Fornarina- exceptionally they were juxtaposing it with Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man, on loan from the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum of Madrid.

On the first floor the magnificent hall with the ceiling decorated by Pietro da Cortona is now flooded with natural light and on display you can find Caravaggio, Holbein, Poussin, Tiziano, Bernini just to name a few. A second floor has also been added and it hosts the Lemme collection of art of the XVIII century. 

The museum has a website with a non existent English version, one of the things we Italians can not do, but you can try and navigate the Italian pages: I wonder how they hope to reach the intended target for the next years which is to double the visitors. anyway this is a must see for tourists !

When I visited in December the temporary exhibition was "Guercino".  I never realised why he had this nickname, but it is eveident in a portrait in the show ( guercio in Italian means cross-eyed) ! 

 He mainly painted religious compositions, although ambitious and complex, one soon tires of them when there are so many all together. The painting that stayed with me from the show was the only portrait included, Ritratto del Cardinal Bernardino Spada.

The softness of the reds and the elegance of the composition are stunning. A great painting lesson in simplicity as a result of a process.

I was going to see the Cardinal again the following day in the portrait painted by Guido Reni, Guercino's arch-rival, on display in Palazzo Spada, his home, now the Council of State and a cultural venue, in a show on Renaissance in Rome.  Guercino wins hands down. 

The show was a comprehensive collection of paintings, sculptures, fresco pieces and more, and an excellent document on the wealth of artistic activity in the capital during the period.

If you visit Rome, don't forget to check what's on in these venues for temporary exhibitions: Galleria di Arte Antica, Scuderie del Quirinale, Galleria Spada, Chiostro del Bramante, Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

More Shows/1

During my Christmas holidays in Rome I saw a few shows worth of notice.

 At the Scuderie del Quirinale: Filippino Lippi e Sandro Botticelli. This was somehow a disappointing exhibition although it displays many masterpieces. The reason is that both the title and the introduction to each section of the show create expectations for works that are actually not there, rather than concentrating on the beautiful paintings on the walls. Sandro Botticelli's works are barely present at all ! The scuderie is a rather grand location and perhaps there were not enough artworks to fill it completely, although there was a good variety of paintings, medals, drawings and woodwork. I particularly liked the Lippi's Madonna with stories from the life of S. Anna, and the Madonna con Bambino from the Cappella Nerli in Florence.

Note the compositional structure of the painting

Filippino was the son of  Filippo Lippi, a friar, and Lucrezia Buti, a nun. By special papal dispense he was given the status of legitimate child, and he started his apprenticeship with his father. After Filippo's death he then worked in Botticelli's studio, hence the pairing of the show.

Apart fron Lippi's paintings there were two beautiful and as usual surprising paintings by Piero di Cosimo, Perseus frees Andromeda from the Uffizi and a beautiful San Gerolamo.

                                        

There was another Piero di Cosimo that I was going to visit, as I do most years, was the St Mary Magdalene in the Galleria di Arte Antica. It wasn't on display, but I was in for a surprise...

The Last One to Know

Facebook, Twitter and...

oil on linen, 2012

( just joking, the title is Two Wrapped Boxes )

Am I the only person who was completely unaware about Tumblr until now?
If there is still someone out there who is interested in visual arts, has come across the name of the website and ignored it, think again.
The place is a goldmine !
So, Tumblr is something like Twitter, but for images ( and video and audio I guess, but I care less about those). Many users, in my limited exploration of the huge website, collect and share inspiring images of all kinds.
I have come across a few very good collections but I know there are many many more to discover.

I have now set up two mini blogs, one has images of my paintings, the same you can find on my main websites. The other will feature images of paintings I like and find inspiring.


So, how does Tumblr work ?


I would say it is not too difficult to use, I guess any twitterer would get to grips with it faster than me ! The photos upload fast and display in a large format, and you can post your own pictures, images from the internet or share ( reblog) images from other Tumblr users.

Once you sign up for an account you will find yourself on a dashboard page where you can/will see images of the users you follow as well as your own posts, and then if you wish you can also create your own blog.
The idea is to find and follow users whose photos are of interest to you, or for example you can search for painters you like in the "Search Tag" field on your dashboard and find out who has posted images of their work, assuming that you might have the same tast in art.
I typed my name and found out that three users had published images of my paintings !


What is good about Tumblr?

It seems to me that this is a no-fuss website. Facebook for example allows and calls for more exchanges, so that painters get to know each other a bit. Tumblr is more stern, more anonymous: if you share someone else's image you don't need to acknowledge it to them,  but at the same time the whole process is quicker, less time consuming.
Images are large and clear, and many users have organised their blogs so that it is easy to access and consult the archive.
Below, for example, a screen shot from the archive of the blog " Neon Fruit Supermarket" which has kindly featured an image of my latest painting.

It seems to me to be a much better platform than Facebook albums for paintings. I have weaseled my way into the FB contacts of a few very good painters who post lots of interesting images and it would be great to see them on a Tumblr page instead.

Tumblr seems to me quite a funky community, where users find inspiration in paintings, photos, illustration all jumbled up for a change.

I hope you might be curious to explore !

AAAAA help wanted

Stevejobs, I love you but you let me down.

Dear Stevejobs, a few months before you abandoned us, your vision left me out of the picture. You have decided that your Apple wasn't going to host my carterpillar anymore. You moved everything on a cloud in the sky, and I'll be soon left without a home, unless I quickly manage to find out how to grow a pair of wings.

I come from a rather computer-illiterate country, I had to teach myself how to deal with computers when I already was of that age when your brain might not take in new things straight away. I taught myself what I needed to know, not much but enough to interact with the virtual world.

So, dear Stevejobs, I got a Mac and I built my new website on it, and I paid you a few quids every year and pushed a button and my website was online. If my links weren't working, if I had to add one tiny photo it took about thirty second to make the correction and the little icon for iWeb was jumping about to tell me everything was done.

So dear techno-savvy friends and readers, I am now looking for instructions on how to grow wings.  From my B.M.S. years ( before MobileMe Subscriptions) I remember hours of wait to upload my very, very heavy website, with lots of high-res photos on a server. For each change I made to a single page or for each page I added, I uploaded all the website again. Every time I tried to only upload one page the website was not working properly.

In my ignorance, this is what I understood about my options now that Apple has cancelled web-hosting.
1: I redesign and rebuild a new website from scratch on a server with an online design software. Auch.
2: I hold on to my website and I use an FTP carrier software to upload my ninetyfour pages all over again for every update. Auch too.

Hopefully someone can suggest me a solution or confirm that the late Stevejobs ( RIP) has hung me out to dry.

The Flagellation, Part Two. Who's Who

So, who are these mysterious characters that populate the painting ?
The argument has been going on for decades, and Ronchey adds her theory while at the same time mentioning past interpretations and explaining why she agrees or not with them

The first key to understanding the painting is to try and put a date on its execution. This is another element that has been controversial. Ronchey agrees with many in placing it around 1458-1459 mainly because of the influences of Leon Battista Alberti's architectures that are echoed in the painting. This means Piero has ultimated the Flagellation just before the Council of Mantova, the one in which Bessarion and Pope Pius II were trying to find funds and members for the crusade.
In Ronchey exegesis the work does not refer to the Council of Mantova, though, but to the previous attempt at saving Bysantium, the Council of Ferrara/Firenze ( it had moved from one city to the other because of the threat of a plague epidemic). The procession of hundreds of Byzantine personalities with their colourful and strange clothes was seen by a huge crowd, among which probably Piero.

The artist who got to get a privileged view of the dignitaries and of the Basileus ( then Giovanni VIII Paleologo)  himself was Pisanello. There is a large group of drawings by Pisanello ( Louvre) where the artist had sketched people and costumes. Pisanello also was the author of at least one medal, bearing the profile image of the Basileus, that had a wide circulation and became his definitive image in those years.

So we can affirm that the first figure in the Praetorium is Giovanni VIII Paleologo, who is pictured as Pontius Pilatus, and is wearing the red  footwear that were the attribute of  the Basileus.

Giovanni, argues Ronchey, is not the one who is letting the flagellation happen ( this is a more contemporary view of the gospel's figure), but rather a powerless witness to it.

The person who is responsible for ordering the flagellation is actually the figure standing barefooted with our back to us. He is identified with the Sultan Mehmet II, the conqueror of Costantinople. After the occupation of the town Mehmet had his men look for the body of the dead Emperor: He was after the red footwear  embroidered with the double-headed black eagle, symbol of imperial power. That is why he is now pictured without footwear ( at the time of the Council of Mantua Constantinople had yet not fallen). The two men performing the flagellation seem to be two pirates of which there's an iconographic precedent again in Pisanello's drawings.

The body of Christ represents symbolically the church of Bysantium. He is tied to a column on top of which is a golden sculpture that might be identified with the huge bronze statue of Emperor Costantino, of which only a few fragments now remain, that was in Rome in front of the Lateran. The whole space in fact represents the town of Constantinople. 

In this vision, the two spaces in which the painting is divided are not removed in time from one another, but in space. What happens to the left of the painting, the torture of Constantinople, picture symbolically as the flagellation of Christ,  is happening WHILE the three figures on the right are discussing the situation. 

As we have seen the painting refers to the Council of Ferrara-Firenze. The first figure on the left, the greek mediator, is identified by Ronchey with Bessarione. We don't have any confirmed image of the Cardinal at a younger age, but the double pointed beard, the cloak and hat all point to the charismatic Cardinal. 

Elements of the architecture in the right hand side are another sign that point at the Council of Ferrara. The roof on the left is found in a painting by Francesco del Cossa and reference the tower by Leon Battista Alberti.

If this negotiation is happening in Ferrara, it is likely that the figure on the right is Niccolo' III D'Este, Lord of Ferrara and host of the council. His son Lionello would be pictured with a similar brocade overcoat in a painting by Jacopo Bellini in 1441. Niccolo's sons, Lionello and Borso, were filo-Byzantium and had ties with Bessarione and his neo-platonic circle; they also helped Giovanni VIII Paleologo's brother Tommaso when he escaped to Italy in 1460.

There is only one last figure to identify, the striking young man dressed in crimson that echos the posture of the tortured Christ. "Porfirogenito", this was what the basileus was called, "he who was born in porpora ( crimson, the imperial colour). The man looks like other figures painted by Piero:  a fragment of a fresco in Sansepolcro, an angel in the National Gallery Baptism, a prophet in the fresco from the Duomo of Arezzo. Ronchey argues that this is an idealised portrait of Tommaso Paleologo, the youngest brother of the Emperor who could inherit the throne if it was to be saved.

 A bearded Tommaso, twenty years older but still fair and " of great aspect", would arrive in Italy for his melancholic exile, where he would die as ever assisted by Bessarione in 1465. 

In 1474 the Cardinal was still looking for help for the Empire. Tommaso's daughter Zoe was the csarina of Russia, and Bessarione left for France and England to try and organise yet another crusade. He knew his health was declining and he had planned to come back to his great friend Federico da Montefeltro who  had already prepared an abode for him at Castel Durante. 

Bessarione took with him all his precious books, which he had left in legacy to Venice ( they would become the initial core of the Biblioteca Marciana). He left them with Federico whom he trusted, perhaps he had a foreboding feeling about his trips.

Bessarione didn't make it back to Urbino, and died in 1472 in Ravenna. His books, after having been detailed in an accurate inventory, were handed to Venice by Federico in 1474. Is it possible that another of Bessarione's treasured possessions was left back in the hands of his loyal friend, thus becoming the most precious treasure of the city of Urbino ?

I cannot recommend enough the book by Ronchey if you read Italian. The exegesis is of course much more detailed  and complex than I could cram in these few lines. The book analyzes many other contemporary works of art such as Benozzo Gozzoli's Cappella dei Magi, Vittore Carpaccio's Visione di Sant'Agostino,  Pisanello's San Giorgio e la Principessa and many others ( view iconography ). The research was huge and conducted with great respect for other scholars, the result is convincing and profound.