Lunedi Lunacy

Now surely - I know don't call me Shirley - neither one of my faithful readers thought for a moment that I would go to Milano and not take photos of shoes????   I mean come-on now!  It was my last chance to take a look at the gloriously outrageous over-the-top fashion statements that are scarpe in Italy and more particularly Milano.  I just know I'm not going to see anything like these on the Sparks Street Mall or at Bayshore let alone adorning the tender tootsies of les belles dames d'Outaouais.

Just a reminder that a left click on the image will give you - should you really want one - a closer look at the art of the calzolaio.

As I strolled past the high-end shops on Via Monte Napoleone and Via Santo Spirito I came across footwear that once again had me wracking my brain to image where or when they would be worn.  Or perhaps more accurately why?  And let's add the remaining interrogatives?  Who would wear them and how exactly do they manage on those bloody cobblestones?

It would appear that despite a few lighter items, obviously for the beach provided you don't actually go to the beach, ladies of fashion will be sporting lots of thick leather straps and buckles this season.  And a few will even be aping my grandmother by wearing high button (okay laced) shoes as street wear.  But it also looks like they'll be changing into the comfort of ballet slippers for those more informal moments at home.

If the colourful booties at Missoni weren't enough I knew I could count on Rene Caovilla across the way to feature a few little items to stimulate the imagination and empty the pocketbook.  And notice the ballet slippers - they really are becoming all the rage.

And the rain and an approaching train departure meant I had only scratched the surface of the quadrilatero della moda.  I never made it over to Via della Spiga or the side streets for a gander at some of the more outrageous windows.  I'm going to miss the crazy world of Italian shoes - it always made for entertaining viewing.

20 giugno - Sant'Ettore

Milano - A Rain Day - Part 3 - Winter in Spring

Just prior to the Paladino exhibitions the Palazzo Reale had mounted a retrospective of the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the Renaissance painter known for his strange portraits made up of vegetables, plants, fruit, sea creatures and tree roots.  Much of his "normal" work has been overshadowed by these fantastical human heads but the Milano exhibition offered a more complete view of the Milanese artist who worked for the Hapsburg as a court painter in Vienna and Prague.

L'inverno (Winter) is one of the four oils on canvas that Arcimboldo created in 1573 devoted to the Seasons. Sadly the series was split up: Winter, Summer and Autumn are found in the Louvre while Spring hangs in the Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get up to Milano during the three months it was on but still got a bit of the flavour of Arcimboldo, howbeit at second hand. During the exhibition - and currently - passersby in front of the Piazza Reale were welcomed into the Palazzo Reale not by the madcap Milanese but by an modern artist.  Winter, created in 2010 by American artist Philip Haas,was inspired by L'Inverno, one of a quartet of oils the artist painted in 1573.

Taking as his inspiration not only Acrimboldo's work but also the elaborate decorations for court balls and fetes at the Hapsburg Courts where he served,  Haas created a 4.6 metre (15 feet) high piece in fibre glass. The monumental scale of the sculpture highlights the visual puzzle created by the natural elements - dark, branches, twigs, moss, vines, ivy even straw barriers used in the winter to protect the fruit trees all combine to create an image of a European winter.

I've been thinking about winter a great deal lately and I must admit that neither Arcrimboldo's, rather menacing, version of Old Man Winter nor Haas's, slightly more benign, rethinking have me looking forward to it.

As the blue skies would indicate these pictures where taken the day before my walk in the rain - however as I was strolling umbrella held high through the Piazza del Duomo it was hard to miss it so I did get a second look.

17 giugno - San Ranieri Scacceri

To Good .....

.... not to share.

I don't normally make political comments other than the odd clucking of my tongue about things in Canada.  And I don't tend to make comments about politics in other countries but this cartoon by CAM for the Ottawa Citizen just had to be shared.

Pretty much says it all doesn't it????


Many thanks to Gary for sending this on.

17 giugnio - Santi Nicandro, Marciano e Daria

Milano - A Rain Day - Part 2

After listening to the jazz band in the old Mercante building I popped into the tavola caldo at Al Mercante for a tuna salad, a glass of wine and a dolci. I must admit I was a little taken aback when a glass - and only a glass - of Pinot Grigio added €12.00 to the bill!!!!! €12.00 for a glass of white wine - either a touch of the old get-the-tourist or they were just preparing me for Ottawa prices. Then over to the Piazza Duomo, umbrella unfurled to take a second look at an installation that was being tended to the previous day when I passed by.

Even without the sun glistening off its white surface the Mountain of Salt couldn't help  but dominate the space between the Palazzo Reale and the Duomo.

The Museo at the Palazzo Reale is mounting a special series of exhibitions to celebrate thirty years in the creative life of artist Mimmo Paladino.  One of his more fascinating and controversial pieces has been recreated in the space between the Palazzo Reale and the Duomo.  Paladino first created Montagna di Sale (Salt Mountain) some twenty years ago in Gibellina, a small hill town in Sicily and then again in Piazza del Plebiscito in Napoli 15 years ago.

Some of the 150 quintals of salt used in Mimmo Paladino's Montagna di Sale had been washed away in a weekend of rain and a few of the horses had toppled. Several bags of the extra 100 quintals of Sicilian salt were being used to make repairs to the installation on the Monday as I walked by.

Though it may not exactly be a "mountain" it is definitely salt - 150 quintals of the finest Sicilian salt. That's 1500 kilos or 1 1/2 tons of salt transported from the mines in Agrigento and Petralia in the far South to Milan in the north - plus another 100 quintals held in reserve to keep the sculpture in good condition.   The whole - the transporting from one end of the country to the other, that 150 figure - are all meant to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy that we are celebrating this year.

Many of the horses look to be struggling, plowing through the salt or emerging from it.  Their appearance is strongly reminiscent of sculptures seen in many of the collections of artifacts of earlier Italian civilizations.

First unveiled in mid-April the installation stand 10 meters high (about 33 feet) with a 35 meter (115 feet) diameter.  However those measurements are fluid as it is salt and subject to the whims of nature.  After several days of rain there were repairs being made to it in the sunshine on Monday and Tuesday's rain suggested more repairs would be needed in the weeks until its disappears for good in mid-July.

Thirty sculptured horses in black modelled, it would appear, on ancient and primitive equine sculptures stand out against the white salt.  Some are balanced on the mound, others are emerging from or disappearing into its depths.  In some cases - though the horses are almost uniform in their appearance and featureless - they appear to be struggling against their ascent or fighting to extricate themselves from some saline prison.

 When seen against the Gothic spires and arches of the Duomo those horses take on an almost mythical appearance. 

Having made its way from South to North over a period of twenty years Paladino's has expressed the hope that it will travel the length of the country as a show of the cultural unity of Italy.  I'm trying to think of some place in Roma where it would look as stunning as it does in its Milan setting.

I only wish I had the opportunity to see it in full sunshine - I'm sure the impact, both virtually and photographically, would be stunning.

16 giugno - Santi Quirico e Giulitta

Mercoledi Musciale

As often happens with this wonderful thing called the Internet I was searching around last evening and one thing led to another. For some reason a Cole Porter song from a musical called Can-Can popped into my head and I went searching or it. I had it firmly set in my mind's ear with the voice of Lilo the first person who sang it when the show premiered in 1953 - no I didn't see it in 1953 but got the album several years later.  Despite a thin premise and almost as thin a libretto the show lasted for over two years on Broadway and transferred to London and of course there was a touring company.  It was thought it would turn its French cabaret star into an international celebrity but the big name to come out of it was Gwen Verdon, who went on to become one of the greats of the Broadway stage.  Aside from Verdon the show's biggest strength was the Porter score:  before the end of the year everyone was recording the two big numbers - I Love Paris and C'est Magnifique.  But what I remember from my original cast recording was a wistful love song filled with all the wit, talent and gift for melody that was decidedly Porter.  I had the throaty Gallic sounds of Lilo in my head but could only find a recording by Kay Starr - not a bad substitute.  Allez-vous en! topped the charts for 11 weeks in 1953 and was just one of a string of hits for Miss Starr, who is apparently still performing at the age of 88.

And that reminded me of a movie that I caught on ARTE  two years ago and immediately added to my small DVD collection.  A year after the Porter musical Jean Renoir the French filmmaker released his tribute to Paris of the Belle Epoque and the dance that set hearts - amongst other things - athumping.  French Can-Can is a glorious piece of fluff with Jean Gabin proving that old can still be sexy, Maria Félix proving that her eye brows were the best actors in the business, Françoise Arnoul proving that pert could be appealing and Edith Piaf - well she had nothing to prove.  As always Renoir treated his subject with love and a great sense of theatre.  And of course being the son of the famous painter and an artist in his own right his sense of colour and movement is galvanizing.  Here's the finale where impresario Henri Danglard (Gabin) has his faith in the old quadrilles danced in Montmartre rewarded.

Both Porter and Renoir loved Paris not just in the springtime but in their work.

15 giugno - Santa Germana Cousin

Milano - A Rain Day - Part I

"You brought the sunshine with you from Roma," beamed the always welcoming Vittoria as I checked in a week ago Monday at the Hotel Star in Milano.  And indeed after several days of continuous rain it seemed that the sun had returned to warm the Piazza Duomo and it was a glorious day for strolling through Centro.  However my gift was short-lived: the next morning Vittoria suggested that an umbrella and a sweater would be more appropriate than SF15 to the day.

Peck is a food lover's paradise however the stern warning tells you - No dogs! No Photos!  And some of the staff give a new dimension to Milan attitude - except for Bruno behind the prepared food counter who is charm incarnate. Though at those prices everyone should be.

Fortunately even in the rain Milano has much to offer - it means spending a bit of extra time studying the marvellous shop windows in the Galleria, popping into that church that I've always meant to have a look at, stopping off to have the senses of taste, smell and sight stimulated at Peck (and maybe even picking up one of their jars of tiny artichokes in olive oil - after having taken out the suitable bank loan to pay for it), seeking the shelter of the 14th century Mercato building to listen to a jazz band and wandering down to the Museo Diocesano in the San Lorenzo area to take a look at an exhibition with the rather intriguing title of Gli occhi di Caravaggio.

Now poor Michelangelo Merisi was largely ignored for a few centuries but has suddenly become all the rage. Just last year we celebrated the 400th anniversary of his rather mysterious death with a "Notte di Caravaggio" here in Roma - a decidedly festive all night celebration of a less than festive event - which had been preceded by the blockbuster exhibition at the Scuderie. And it would appear that his name on a poster draws the crowds in, no matter how tenuous the connection. In this case the exhibition was dedicated to painters and city-states in Northern Italy that may well have influenced the work of a home-town boy whose become a household name down South.  Though he was born in Milano most of Caravaggio's productive years were spent in Roma, Napoli and Sicilia.  And the poster and the title may have created the (misleading) impression that we would be seeing some of his more famous works only one was on display - his powerful The Flagellation of Christ.  But what was displayed were some very fine pieces by other artists who may well have influenced him: Giorgione, Moretto da Brescia, G.B. Moroni, Tiziano, Vincenzo e Antonio Campi, Simone Peterzano, Tintoretto, Lorenzo Lotto and Giovanni Ambrogio Figino.  So though the draw may have been the bad boy of Renaissance art there was some splendid examples of many of the great artists of the period that made the exhibition a must see.  That and the Museo Diocesano itself.

Hidden of in a rather dreary section of the city - even drearier on a rain-soaked morning - the entrance to the Museo is not particularly inviting but once inside!!!!  The collection chiefly traces the history of Christian art in Milan and the surrounding areas of Lombardy and Veneto but is wide ranging for all that.  Many of the works come from parish churches in the region that are no longer used for worship or have given works to the Museo for safe keeping and restoration.   The three collections that intrigued me most where the 41 gold backed paintings on wood that make up the Crespi Fondi Oro, the Diocesan Collection of works from parish churches and items from the now defunct Museo Ambrogio.

Three wood and gilt statutes from the Diocesan Gallery of the Museo Diocesano in Milano.

One of my pet bugaboos is  people who take photos when it is expressly forbidden and I am proud to say I have never taken a "forbidden" picture.  If there is any doubt in my mind I always ask.  None of the normal signs were posted in the Museo so ask I did in each gallery - and got three different responses.  In the Diocesan Gallery the mature lady, head buried in a musical score and singing softly to herself, raised her head and an eyebrow and murmured "One would be okay, but only one!"  So one I took of three beautiful statues in wood and gilt that once graced the church of Sant'Agnese in Sommo Lombardo in the Varese district of Lombardy.  They are by a craftsman named Rolando Botta who was active in the area during the second half of the 15th century. 

Santa Barbara

Sant'Agnese

Santa Maria Maddalena

I find these three statues have a serenity and grace that makes me curious as to the rest of this artist's work. Unfortunately a search revealed very little concerning him.

The Ambrogio Gallery contains older pieces from early incarnations of the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio. The Patron Saint of Milano - and I am ashamed to say that the only reason I know that is because it is the opening night of the opera season at La Scala - Ambrogio is credited with building four churches in the city. He is also credited - it would appear erroneously - with the creation of the Ambrosian rite that is celebrated in much of Lombardy. Again it was three carved wood pieces that caught my attention. These walnut choir stall dossals were the work of a team of artists for the Basilica between 1469-1471. Lorenzeo da Origgio, Giacomo da torre and Giacomo del Maino worked in carving, inlay, paint and lacquer to create these three beautiful panels. When I asked the guard if it was okay if I took a photo he shrugged and said, "Take as many as you like."

I mentioned last week that I was reading Aesop's Fables on my iPhone and for some reason these carvings reminded me of early wood cuts I'd seen of the old morality messages. Could they have been the inspiration for these three artists?

There was one other piece from the Visconti collection that took my breath away - a massive carved, painted and gilt redoes from Antwerp that filled one wall at the top of a staircase.  Unfortunately when I approached the guard this time I was sternly admonished that no photos were allowed anywhere in the Museum. Now I know better than to argue with someone in their own little domain so I held my peace. Though I was sorely tempted once his back was turned I didn't break my own rule.   I was sure there would be a post card or even a pamphlet about such a major piece - sometimes I should stop being so damned Anglo-Saxon and take the bloody photos!

14 giugno - San Eliseo - profeta

Lunedi Lunacy

Marco Tempest is better known as "The Virtual Magician" and does some amazing tricks with one of my favourite toys.



Now if only I can get him to show the trick for extending the battery life!!!!

Many thanks to my dear Napoletano friend Marco for sending me this.

13 giugnio - Sant'Antonio di Padova

One Last Kick at the Can

One of the unexpected thrills of the past year or so has been reporting on performances at La Scala for my friends at Opera Britannia. On five occasions I have headed up to Milano,  approached the Box Office on Via Filodrammatici  and asked for my press ticket.  How cool is that?  Me with press tickets at La Scala! How I wish my father could have seen that. 

However as the time to leave draws closer I realize I am doing things for what is probably the last time.  This past Monday's trip up to Milano was the last of that sort that I will be making to view and review a performance at what is arguably the world's most famous opera house.  And the review, which was published last evening,  will most likely be the last I will be doing with any regularity for my friends at OB.   That trip had a bittersweet flavour to it and what would be more appropriate than Charles Gounod's take on Shakespeare's most bitter-sweet tragedy - Roméo et Juliette.  Not produced at La Scala since 1934 it also had the added interest of featuring the very talented Canadian conductor Yannik Nézet-Séquin in his debut at the house. A left click on the poster will take you to my views on the opening night performance.

I can't thank Faye at Opera Britannia enough - first for taking me on as a member of her reviewing team and then for putting up with missed deadlines and using all of her editing skills to make my articles almost readable.  Big bunch of baci Faye and buon compleanno!

12 giugno - San Barnaba apostolo

Lunedi Lunacy

Why, as a dog person, does this not surprise me?

Thanks to Cathy for this one.

06 giugno - San Norberto

"Quote... Unquote"

So far the only thing I've downloaded in the way of books to my iPhone is a free version of Aesop's Fables - those short tales of the animal world meant to teach us a moral lesson.  Though it is doubtful that many of the fables now claimed to be by Aesop were actually his, whatever the origin the lessons taught still apply over 2000 years later.  I particularly enjoyed this little tale of a dog, who like one other puppy I know, was a trifle unpredictable.

The Mischievous Dog

A Dog used to run up quietly to the heels of those he met, and to bite them without notice. His master sometimes suspended a bell about his neck, that he might give notice of his presence wherever he went, and sometimes he fastened a chain about his neck, to which was attached a heavy clog, so that he could not be so quick at biting people's heels.

The Dog grew proud of his bell and clog, and went with them all over the market-place. An old hound said to him: "Why do you make such an exhibition of yourself? That bell and clog that you carry are not, believe me, orders of merit, but, on the contrary, marks of disgrace, a public notice to all men to avoid you as an ill-mannered dog."

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame

A lesson for not just a few people in the news today?

03 giugno - San Kevin di Glendalough

Beside Every Great Man

Ana Maria de Jesus Ribeiro di Garibaldi, best known as Anita Garibaldi, (August 30, 1821 – August 4, 1849)

Tuesday I took my last tour - for a while at least - with a dear friend who is  an art historian par excellence. One of the joys of living here has been to see so much of Roma through her eyes, with her guidance and encyclopedic knowledge.  And often,  because of her contacts, I've gotten into places on her Monday/Tuesday walks that most people - even Italian friends - have only seen from the outside. But with her as your guide even the "regular" walks take on a special flavour because she has the enviable ability to make things spring to life.

In 1931 Mario Rutelli designed and cast this equestrian statue in tribute to the Heroine of the Two Worlds stands in the Piazza named after her on the Juniculum Hill overlooking Rome.

This week she led us through the sites on the Janiculum Hill that figured in the Siege of Rome - that bloody two months in 1849 that saw the end of the short-lived Roman Republic. On April 30 a force of some 5,000 people including anti-clerical Travesterini, Garibaldi's revolutionary army and citizen-soldiers held the highest point in the city and drove Napoleon III's 10,000 strong French force back to the sea.  In a truly operatic gesture, that I can't imagine happening anywhere else, a band played the Marseillaises behind the Italian lines to remind the French that they were all revolutionaries.  Wounded French prisoners were treated and returned to their regiments and a truce allowed French citizens living in the city to leave.  However bad diplomacy on the part of Mazzini and duplicity on the part of the French, who broke the truce a day early, eventual led to the defeat, after a fierce defense, of the Republic on the evening-morning of June 29th-30th. On July 2 Garibaldi and his followers left the city to seek refuge in San Marino. By Garibaldi's side, as she had been so often since they first met in Brazil in July 1839, was his Brazilian born wife Anita.  It is said she was garbed as a man the more readily to avoid detection as they crisscrossed Italy pursued by French, Austrian, Spanish and Papal troops.

Of all the monuments to the Siege that dot the Juniculum today - and a phalanx of busts of Garibaldini ring the paths in the park - perhaps the most powerful and touching is one nestled in a grove of trees that could be easily overlooked.  It marks the resting place of this remarkable woman.  The story goes that when the young Garibaldi - tall, fair and imposing - saw the tiny dark but strangely beautiful 18 year old all he could murmur was "Tu devi essere mia" (You must be mine). And his she became and was to remain for the eleven years she fought beside him in both the Old and the New Worlds.

Rutelli's Anita is the stuff of legends - mounted on a rearing horse (an exceptional feat of engineering) she brandishes a pistol in one hand while holding her nursing son close in the other arm.  It may not capture the physical Anita with any great fidelity but it distills the spirit of the woman who fought as well as the men around her.

She was either already unhappily married or at least betrothed when they met - and leaving everything behind joined him on his ship, the Rio Pardo, in October 1839.  In November she was fighting along side him in the republican battles at Imbituba and Laguna.   She was to be with him in most of the battles to follow and his companion in the game of cat and mouse he played throughout South America and Europe with the pursuing authorities.  She taught him many of the riding skills that were to prove so useful on the battle field and in evading capture.

The bas-reliefs at the base of the statues elaborate on the dual image of Anita - as fighter and as helpmate.  She is shown beside Garibaldi in a charge which it appears she might well be leading.

On September 16, 1840 their first child was born and given the name Dominic after Garibaldi's father, but he was nicknamed "Menotti" in honour of Ciro Menotti a patriot and beloved friend.  On September 28 - 12 days after - she evaded capture and escaping through a window and grabbing a horse of the Imperial Guard fled to the woods.  She remained hidden for four days without food and nursing a newborn until her anxious lover/husband/leader found her.  It was not to be an unusual story for the couple. Their life was to be stuff of adventure novels and in many cases its difficult to separate the historical fact from the romantic fiction.

In the second tableau Anita is seen on the battlefield tending to the needs of the wounded and the dying - the warrior queen now the caring mother.

In April of 1849 when Garibaldi headed to Roma Anita, in her fourth month of pregnancy went to Nice to stay with his mother.  Even at that point she was suffering from what was quite possibly malaria and in a weakened state.   However on hearing of her husband's latest fight she left her four children with her mother-in-law and joined him in Roma in June.  She witnessed the fall of the Republic and was once again was with him and his followers on a forced march through Italy.  They crisscrossed the country on foot and on horseback, across mountains and rivers - getting food where they could and hiding when necessary.  Her condition worsened and in the area of Mandriole Garibaldi and his faithful adjunct Captain Leggero took her by skiff and then on an old mattress to the farmhouse of a patriot name Guiccioli.  A doctor was called but she was beyond help and died in Garibaldi's arms on August 4th at the age of 28.

Perhaps the most touching image amongst the crowded scenes of the battlefield that surround the defiant Anita leading the charge are these two solitary figures:  the grieving Garibaldi in flight with the dying Anita in his arms.

Knowing the danger that Guiccioli would be in if it was found he had given the revolutionaries refuge and mindful of their situation,  Leggero convinced Garibaldi to flee and arranged for a hasty burial in a shallow sand grave.  Six days later the body was accidentally discovered - it had been uncovered by wild dogs - and proper burial arranged in nearby Mandriole.  However even in death poor Anita was pursued and not allowed to rest in one place.  The Papal authorities exhumed the body and after an autopsy gave out that she had died from "unequivocal signs" of strangulation and stated that Garibaldi to avoid being encumbered by a pregnant wife had choked her to death.  The calumny was quickly denied by the doctor who had attended her and all facts point to a fabrication in an attempt to discredit the Hero of the Two Worlds.

In the following decade Anita's body was to be exhumed 7 times until in 1859 she was moved, at Garibaldi's request, to the Garibaldi family grave in Nice.  Finally in 1932 her remains were laid to rest at the base of the statue that had been erected to honour her on the Juniculum Hill in the city where she had fought her last battle along side her husband.

02 giugno - Sant'Erasmo di Formia