Along with another, taken in the same museum on the same day at the same hour...
And I wonder whether they represent the same experience....savoring a sense of beauty in the world.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Back home
So I am able to write...have been living in a tent for four days (with access to a bathhouse, a kitchen (but had my own camp stove), sauna, hot springs in various locations...and a photo catches my eye.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Morning
Crawled out of my tent while the stars were still out against the dark sky...came down to the reception office, made the first pot of coffee, set myself down at the table by the wide window that looks over the valley, and watched the earth rotate toward the sun.
The light spreads down from the peaks of the San Juans...these mountains are known locally as the Saguaghe range (from the Ute word for "sand dunes" which are located south of the hot springs). Light crosses the foothills and, then, hits the valley floor.
It takes about an hour for the sunlight to shine on the eastern slopes of the Sangre de Cristo, the Crestone range, where I sit at the table, drinking coffee and feeling the day slowly warm up.
Location:Valley View Hot Springs
Sunday, August 9, 2015
Art along the road
N
Venturing beyond our east-west trajectory on I-80, we drove north toward Cleveland. It was Day 10 of our road trip from Colorado to Maryland and back, taking out a trailer of Jose's belonging after he had spent a year in Denver. His future lay in his past...going back to the communities he had lived in for the previous three decades. After helping to get him and his family reestablished in the DC suburbs, we had spent some days with Charlotte's siblings and mine. Now we were on our way back to the high plains and the Rocky Mountains. Going home.
Yet time for art. Cleveland Museum of Art...a 1916 classic building with a wrap-around addition that blends with its Greek temple facade.
But it is the art inside that lends a sense of calm after the miles of interstate traffic...those stretches of grey concrete that ribbon across the Pennsylvania hills before hitting the soft plains of Ohio. Inside its walls, the visitor shares space with objects and images that communicate ideas of the human condition and the worlds around.
So many images...select a few to contemplate in the cool marble walls and terraces.
Which could be what we see in art...at least in part...a place to contemplate our place in this world.
Friday, October 10, 2014
Over the Alps
We left Florence, passed through Milan, then up and over a pass in the Alps to Switzerland. And entered a different world. I had never before understood the extent of this mountain range nor the role it has played in differentiating the cultures of Europe. This trip has given me a new appreciation of these mountains.
We rode to Basel. On the subsequent day, we had lunch with our friends, Marco and Ann Ferroni, whom we had not seen for several decades. Wonderful lunch. Great friends. We had much to catch up on in the two hours we spent together.
Spent the afternoon noting the austere, plain facades of buildings in its old town along the Rhine...
and, then, at a contemporary art museum along the waterfront, under the guise of saying I thought it was "performance art," photographed a workman getting the walls ready for a new exhibit...but isn't so much of our lives and our work "performance art" anyway?
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:On train to Frankfort
Wow
Yes, "wow" is what I said to myself as I rounded a corner in Florence off the Via Roma. It was the "Duomo," Santa Maria del Fiore"...the most famous of its many churches. And, though, I had read about it...just finishing a book on the building of its dome by Brunelleschi (author Ross King, subtitled "How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture")...I was unprepared for the sight.
It was not so much the dome as
the incredible use of the three colors of marble: green, red and white...the white coming from the same quarry where Michelangelo got the stone for his David...
I had never seen anything so ornamented on this scale before...
Nor do I expect I will after...
-
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
It was not so much the dome as
the incredible use of the three colors of marble: green, red and white...the white coming from the same quarry where Michelangelo got the stone for his David...
I had never seen anything so ornamented on this scale before...
Nor do I expect I will after...
-
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Florence
Out of the garden
We had an apartment on the other side of a 14th century church with a famous fresco containing a scene from the "expulsion from the garden." The times for viewing were somewhat irregular, as was our wandering in the city, so we did not get to see it.
But in a narrow street just off the piazza had a modified copy, dealing the with gradual expulsion of cars from the central city.
How sad. And, yet, it is happening all over the world as people pour into the cities...limiting the access of cars to city centers...replacing them with pedestrian streets and efficient public transport.
Gotta keep one's sense of humor about it.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
But in a narrow street just off the piazza had a modified copy, dealing the with gradual expulsion of cars from the central city.
How sad. And, yet, it is happening all over the world as people pour into the cities...limiting the access of cars to city centers...replacing them with pedestrian streets and efficient public transport.
Gotta keep one's sense of humor about it.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Florence
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Troy again
So one of the first stops on this trip was Troy...the site of Homer's great story...and I wondered why people went there...what is it that causes us to want to connect with a pile of stones? The chance to be photographed with a wooden horse?
But then in Denmark at cousin Erik's museum was a painting of the death of Petrokolus, an important scene in Homer's story of the Trojan war.
Petrokolus was the partner of Achilles and his death led Achilles to reenter the war against Troy and to kill Hector, Troy's principle warrior. But Achilles, in turn, was then killed. You know, the old Achilles' heel. His mother was a goddess and when he was a baby, she dipped him in the waters of immortality. But she held him by his heel which remained mortal. An arrow to that heel, after he avenged the death of Petrokolus, killed him.
And, then, in Florence, the same scene...the death of Petrokolus...now in marble in the loggia just across from the statue of David...
So perhaps these stories follow us in our lives in different forms. Perhaps it is that that is what our lives are...stories. Almost all of which become lost, but some endure over time and space and help to shape what we consider to be human. At least "in the west", though, judging by the large number of Asian tourists maybe for more of humanity than that.
But then in Denmark at cousin Erik's museum was a painting of the death of Petrokolus, an important scene in Homer's story of the Trojan war.
Petrokolus was the partner of Achilles and his death led Achilles to reenter the war against Troy and to kill Hector, Troy's principle warrior. But Achilles, in turn, was then killed. You know, the old Achilles' heel. His mother was a goddess and when he was a baby, she dipped him in the waters of immortality. But she held him by his heel which remained mortal. An arrow to that heel, after he avenged the death of Petrokolus, killed him.
And, then, in Florence, the same scene...the death of Petrokolus...now in marble in the loggia just across from the statue of David...
So perhaps these stories follow us in our lives in different forms. Perhaps it is that that is what our lives are...stories. Almost all of which become lost, but some endure over time and space and help to shape what we consider to be human. At least "in the west", though, judging by the large number of Asian tourists maybe for more of humanity than that.
David
OK, well what can you say about a statue?
A lot, I guess, when it is Michelangelo's David...a symbol of the emergence of art from the Middle Ages...into a classic mode when being just what we are as human beings was ok...heroic, yes, but just a guy looking to take out the Big Guy (in this case Goliath).
Of course, this version in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence's town hall) is a copy...the real one being inside protected from air and other forms of pollution. But in this same plaza in Florence is a host of other statues...like the REAL Cellini's version of Perseus's cutting off the head of the Medusa...whoosh, was that a blow...
Boy, did that hurt....
And the Rape of the Sabine Women...
It's all there...in the same public square...which is what makes this city so unique. Florence does not just have museums. Florence, like Venice, is a museum that people live and work in. And around each corner is another collection of the art and architecture that has come to define much of what we call western civilization.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
A lot, I guess, when it is Michelangelo's David...a symbol of the emergence of art from the Middle Ages...into a classic mode when being just what we are as human beings was ok...heroic, yes, but just a guy looking to take out the Big Guy (in this case Goliath).
Of course, this version in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence's town hall) is a copy...the real one being inside protected from air and other forms of pollution. But in this same plaza in Florence is a host of other statues...like the REAL Cellini's version of Perseus's cutting off the head of the Medusa...whoosh, was that a blow...
Boy, did that hurt....
And the Rape of the Sabine Women...
It's all there...in the same public square...which is what makes this city so unique. Florence does not just have museums. Florence, like Venice, is a museum that people live and work in. And around each corner is another collection of the art and architecture that has come to define much of what we call western civilization.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Florence
Urban fashion
Two aspects of Florence surprised me. On the first morning after walking across the Arno from our apartment, I found myself on a narrow street lined with small, high fashion shops...all elegant in design. Each one had only a few items on display. I suppose a buyer trusts the name on the glass door that these few items will aid in presenting oneself to the world as a person of taste.
Well tailored clothing, fine leather bags, soft materials. Italians seem to have a much more formal version of "the public self" than I am used to, but, then, I realize that if I lived in Italy, I would dress a lot better than I am doing on this trip.
And the second thing was the intense urbanity of the city, the narrow streets blocked in by the huge, rough-cut stones of the palazzos. On the street level, the shops are carved out of these palace blocks...except where the palace is still the home of a noble family (I think Italy still maintains noble titles if not royal ones...but now they probably live in New York).
But this kind of intense urbanity is itself the result of these noble families coming down from their towers and castles in the countryside in the 13the century. They came into a new form of living together...but still felt the need, and it was a real need, to defend themselves against neighboring families.
So they built these urban palaces as huge fortresses (not really palaces as we think of places like Versailles or Windsor Castle) behind whose thick walls they were safe. Only narrow public spaces, the streets, separated them. They mixed in the plazas and in the churches (though they sponsored different churches as extensions of their family's wealth), but most of all in the city's administrative buildings...even after the Medici's took power.
In these settings these families achieved a new form of urban culture: becoming patrons of the arts...again as an extension of their wealth. Art as an extension of power. Well, perhaps, not that different from a multimillion dollar apartment in a high New York tower overlooking Central Park, an apartment filled with "great art." Our palazzos now are just higher in the sky.
Well tailored clothing, fine leather bags, soft materials. Italians seem to have a much more formal version of "the public self" than I am used to, but, then, I realize that if I lived in Italy, I would dress a lot better than I am doing on this trip.
And the second thing was the intense urbanity of the city, the narrow streets blocked in by the huge, rough-cut stones of the palazzos. On the street level, the shops are carved out of these palace blocks...except where the palace is still the home of a noble family (I think Italy still maintains noble titles if not royal ones...but now they probably live in New York).
But this kind of intense urbanity is itself the result of these noble families coming down from their towers and castles in the countryside in the 13the century. They came into a new form of living together...but still felt the need, and it was a real need, to defend themselves against neighboring families.
So they built these urban palaces as huge fortresses (not really palaces as we think of places like Versailles or Windsor Castle) behind whose thick walls they were safe. Only narrow public spaces, the streets, separated them. They mixed in the plazas and in the churches (though they sponsored different churches as extensions of their family's wealth), but most of all in the city's administrative buildings...even after the Medici's took power.
In these settings these families achieved a new form of urban culture: becoming patrons of the arts...again as an extension of their wealth. Art as an extension of power. Well, perhaps, not that different from a multimillion dollar apartment in a high New York tower overlooking Central Park, an apartment filled with "great art." Our palazzos now are just higher in the sky.
Location:On the train to Milan
Maria
So she is everywhere: in the names of the churches: Santa Maria de
Fiore, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Maria Novella,
She is on small niches on street corners....
On plates....
-
and everywhere in art... everywhere...
And, so, yes...Maria is the inheritress of Isis and Aphrodite and Athena...the pre-Christian goddesses honored and worshipped throughout the Near Eastern Empires and the Roman world...but Mary is also an approachable virgin goddess. So much more sympathetic than God the Father and Son who, after all, are going to send a large number of us to Hell.
I can see how lighting a candle, asking for a favor or thanking her for a good outcome, can be a moment of respite in an uncertain world. I understand now a bit better....just by seeing the constant repetition of her image (both with and without the bambino) and her presence...how she is both the Queen of Heaven and someone whom one knows.
She plays that role that in many evangelical traditions is played by Jesus...being "a friend," someone whom one can know...yet, I must admit that if I had to choose (which, of course, I don't), I would go with Mary. In all this art, in all these churches, she is, well, simply beautiful.
Fiore, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Maria Novella,
She is on small niches on street corners....
On plates....
-
and everywhere in art... everywhere...
And, so, yes...Maria is the inheritress of Isis and Aphrodite and Athena...the pre-Christian goddesses honored and worshipped throughout the Near Eastern Empires and the Roman world...but Mary is also an approachable virgin goddess. So much more sympathetic than God the Father and Son who, after all, are going to send a large number of us to Hell.
I can see how lighting a candle, asking for a favor or thanking her for a good outcome, can be a moment of respite in an uncertain world. I understand now a bit better....just by seeing the constant repetition of her image (both with and without the bambino) and her presence...how she is both the Queen of Heaven and someone whom one knows.
She plays that role that in many evangelical traditions is played by Jesus...being "a friend," someone whom one can know...yet, I must admit that if I had to choose (which, of course, I don't), I would go with Mary. In all this art, in all these churches, she is, well, simply beautiful.
Location:Florence
Monday, October 6, 2014
War
I wandered into a naval museum on a hill off the port of Split. It shared space with a school inside the high walls of an old fort. Perhaps built by the Venetians or the Ottomans who contested for control of the Adriatic for hundreds of years.
The museum had a variety of rusting munitions in addition to a few ships: anti aircraft machine guns, mines to protect a harbor or blow up a ship, torpedos...set on a terrace above a church built within the fortifications.
And, later, in one of the city's museums, I came across some early engravings of battles in this area...identifying the positions of Turk and Venetian forces...
as they fought for control of the city...
And then along one of the walls a series of pikes used way before the time of machine guns and mines...
And what was gained, what was lost...Croatia is an interesting spot of consider these weapons...the battles have gone on for so very long and continue so close to the present date.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The museum had a variety of rusting munitions in addition to a few ships: anti aircraft machine guns, mines to protect a harbor or blow up a ship, torpedos...set on a terrace above a church built within the fortifications.
And, later, in one of the city's museums, I came across some early engravings of battles in this area...identifying the positions of Turk and Venetian forces...
as they fought for control of the city...
And then along one of the walls a series of pikes used way before the time of machine guns and mines...
And what was gained, what was lost...Croatia is an interesting spot of consider these weapons...the battles have gone on for so very long and continue so close to the present date.
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Split, Hvratska
Diocletian's palace
So in the Croatian town of Split is a palace built by Diocletian in the 3rd century for his retirement...coming back to the place of his birth after ruling the empire for decades...he must have been tired. As were the slaves who built it if they had not died from exhaustion.
In the 7th century, new arrivals began to settle in the palace, carving shelters out of its rooms, walls, temples, and very stones. Over time this process accelerated...the palace walks became streets...
the outer walls formed back walls of houses and places for ships to unload their cargoes.
A process which continues...wash is hung out along the walkways of these same outer wall....
-
shops take over former doorways with clear glass to display their wares...
but perhaps the most symbolic of these transformations has been the conversion of the mausoleum of Diocletian into a cathedral, honoring the relics of Saint Doimus and Anastasius, some of the many thousands who were prosecuted by the emperor's anti-Christian edicts.
So it is "Sic gloria transit mundi" even for Diocletian.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
In the 7th century, new arrivals began to settle in the palace, carving shelters out of its rooms, walls, temples, and very stones. Over time this process accelerated...the palace walks became streets...
the outer walls formed back walls of houses and places for ships to unload their cargoes.
A process which continues...wash is hung out along the walkways of these same outer wall....
-
shops take over former doorways with clear glass to display their wares...
but perhaps the most symbolic of these transformations has been the conversion of the mausoleum of Diocletian into a cathedral, honoring the relics of Saint Doimus and Anastasius, some of the many thousands who were prosecuted by the emperor's anti-Christian edicts.
So it is "Sic gloria transit mundi" even for Diocletian.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Split, Hvratski
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
