The day started with snow on the ground and the trees, the bushes, the table, the umbrella, and so on.
The concept of this menu was developed by my alter ego, Niccolo Spiro Salvatore Domenico Francesco Morosini. I confess I have an affinity to the Venetian Republic, la Serenissima, Florence, and Italy in general.
Home baked bread
Made with flour from the region of Macedonia, Drama.
Smoked salami from Corfu
There are still some artisans producing delicious food. This salami is spicy and rich. The best antipasto for a cold day. I can see the traces of the influence of Venetian rule on the island of Corfu. Corfu has never been ruled by the Ottoman Turks.
Olives from Amfissa
I served two types, the juicy salty big ones, and the sweet wrinkled (hamades), the ones made from olives that have fallen on the ground and not picked. Amfissa is a provincial city 10 km away from Delphi. The breathtaking valley of olive trees that you see from Delphi belongs to the area of Amfissa. That’s where the olives come from.
Rolled Cabbage with pork sausage cooked in duck fat
I had some sausages from the Basque country and used them as filling in the cabbage rolls. I served them with a light sauce of coriander and lemon juice.
The sausage and duck fat were produced by the artisan ANNE ROZES on France, Basque Country. The cabbage is locally produced in Marathon, and it is like silk. Very tender, sweet, the perfect companion to duck fat.
Tourte with Ewe
I roasted the ewe, cut it to small cubes and then marinated it in a mix of herbs and spices. The tradition of preparing a tourte with meat comes from the island of Crete, another place in Greece that has been ruled by the Venetian Republic.
Cheeses
Both the fresh cheese and the Gruyere come form the island of Crete.
New Year’s Gateau
A traditional gateau of the north of Greece, with butter, flour, eggs and lemon zest.
Wines
Patrimo, 2001
Feudi di San Gregorio
La Poderina
Poggio Banale 1997
Brunello di Montalcino
The Italian word “putto” is derived from the Latin word “putus”, meaning “boy” or “child”.
In this post I present sculptures with children from three periods: Hellenistic, Renaissance, and Neoclassicism.
Cupid is not included in the genre of “putti”, being a rather special child. So there will be no cupid here. Along the same line of sticking to the “ordinary”, I will not include “winged” chldren, or deities of any time.
Finally, I will not include any sculptures of the Holy Child with or without the Holy Mother.
Children (ordinary, I emphasize this) were depicted in sculpture in the Hellenistic period, and became again the subject of a sculpture in the Renaissance. The neoclassicism of the 18th century also depicted children in sculptures.
I have taken all the photos in this post.
Hellenistic Period
This sculpture of a boy with a goose, was originally created by the famous sculptor Boethus of Chalcedon, near Constantinople, in the second century B.C. The Roman Emperor Nero transported the original to his palace in Rome, where he had it copies. What survives today in Munich’s Glyptothek is the Roman copy of the original.
There is an incredible energy and motion in this sculpture, but also the spirit of having fun and enjoying life. This is what our protagonist does here, even at the expense of the goose, which seems to be rather subordinated. In real life, I would be surprised if the boy could handle the goose like this for more than one second.
From this angle, the boy has taken an almost wrestling posture.
Late Renaissance
Giambologna was a Flemish sculptor who spent most of his productive years in Florence.
Two bronze Giambologna statues depicting a child fishing are at the Bargello Museum in Florence.
The boy is playing with the fish. He is holding the remnant of a fishing rod and is having a good time. Playful and carefree.
In the second sculpture, we see the fishing boy in a different posture, something like a declaration to the world “I caught a fish!”. Simple and beautiful.
Neoclassicism
The period is represented in this post by Lorenzo Bartolini and his student Luigi Pampaloni.
Basrtolini was an Italian sculptor of the late 18th – early 19th century. I saw an exhibition of their works in Academia Gallery in Florence, the Bartolini’s birth place.
I somehow feel that this boy with the swan comes nowhere near the boy with the goose. It is an ok sculpture, but it is flat, and almost superficial.
Pampaloni’s orphan is also an ok sculpture, but it does not move me. Technically it is fine, but the sculpture has no soul.
Which reminds me, that in art as in society, we need the great and the bad and the average, otherwise, this would have been a very strange world!
In February 1925, the 58-year-old world-famous playwright Luigi Pirandello met Marta Abba, an unknown actress half his age, and fell in love with her.
She was to become, until his death in December 1936, not only his confidante but also his inspiring muse and artistic collaborator.
Pirandello’s love for the young actress was neither a literary infatuation nor a form of fatherly affection, but rather an unfulfilled, desperate passion that secretly consumed him during the last decade of his life.
Benito Ortolani, Editor and translator of the letters, Princeton University Press 1994.
Pirandello more than any other playwright has been responsible for a revolution in men’s attitude to the world that is comparable to the revolution caused by Einstein’s discovery of the concept of relativity in physics: Pirandello has transformed our attitude to human personality and the whole concept of reality in human relations by showing that the personality- the character in stage terms – is not a fixed entity but an infinitely fluid, blurred and relative concept.
Martin Esslin, Reflections
Introduction
Luigi Pirandello is one of my favorite playwrights.
Some time ago I wrote an article on Mattia Pascal, an absolutely brilliant novel written by Pirandello.
Today I want to share another dimension of the man’s personality, not necessarily and directly reflected in his plays. His love for Marta Abba. This love should, of course, be taken into context. Pirandello was a complicated man, and his life reflected this more than enough. Many dimensions of this complexity have been reflected in his relationship with Marta Abba, and even shaped it.
Pirandello met Abba in Rome, in February 1925. She was 24, he was 58. He was a Sicilian gentleman, married with children, who at the time were older than Marta. His wife was seriously ill, and about to be confined to an asylum for the mentally ill.She was a young actress, embarking n her career. During the eleven years of their “relationship”, they spent relatively little time together. They both had busy lives, Abba with her acting and Pirandello with his travels around Europe and the American Continent.
The letters Pirandello wrote to Marta are the material I will use to present their relationship. As the editor and translator, Benito Ortolani, notes they had agreed to live in a “nonintimate intimacy”.
The Letters
All the quotes that follow come from the Princeton University Press 1994 edition of the letters.
The period covered by the published letters is from 1925, when Pirandello met Abba in Rome, to 1936, when he died. Only Pirandello;s letters to Marta have been published. Abba did not approve of the publication of the letters she wrote to the “Maestro”.
Dear Marta,
….But what shall I do with the money? For that matter, what should I do with my life, if I don’t have anybody to whom I can give it? To me, life is of no use. I don’t ask for any more beyond the time I need to finish the works that are left for me to write; because I feel it as an imperative obligation of my conscience, that I must write them. Without this, who knows where I would be by now – since that horrible night spent in Como….
Luigi Pirandello
The letter was written on the 20th August 1926.The reference to the ‘horrible night in Como’ is very important. Although there is no proof of the exact date, it was a night back in October 1925. We do not have any explicit description of what happened. Only in one of Pirandello’s plays, a young woman (presumably Marta) addresses an old poet (presumably Pirandello) and throws in his face the memory of a traumatic event between them. She had offered herself to him, but he declined, offering a rational explanation.
My Marta,
…. You say that I “do not believe in anybody”. That really is a reproach. What do you mean I don’t believe? If I did not believe, what would I be living for, so far away and living alone? I can still hold out in this life only because I believe. And your advice to stay in Rome “among people who still love me” sounded to me like a mockery! Should I concentrate on the complications of your advice, perhaps then would I recognize the terrible folly of feeling as I do and of living the way I do … or not living!….
Your disappointed Maestro
This letter was written on the 8th January 1931. Pirandello was in Paris, France, and Abba in Turin, Italy. Marta had written to Pirandello, suggesting that he moves to Rome to be with his family. His children loved him, but could not quite comprehend his infatuation with Abba, while their mother was confined in a asylum for the mentally ill. Two years later, Pirandello followed Marta’s “advice” and moved to live in Rome, where he died.
My Marta,
I am writing in bed, where I have been lying since I arrived. Right on the morning of my arrival, when we were already docked in the harbor of Naples… – suddenly I felt sick: a burning pain in the chest, which took away my breath and made my legs feel weak. … You did the right thing, my Marta, in not coming to Naples…. But now I have an immense desire to see you again.If I were not in this condition, I would fly to Salsomaggiore, but I cannot…. I must stop writing, because I am too weak. I will write as soon as I can to tell you the many things that I have to communicate to you…..
Your Maestro
The letter was written on the 14th October 1935, one day after Pirandello suffered a heart attack on the day of his arrival in Naples.
My Marta,
…. I know that you are still in Italy. I know that in a few days, on the evening of Tuesday of next week, I will see you again in Milan; that still keeps me going. But what will happen to me on the evening of May 23rd when you leave for London? And what will happen to me in August, when you leave even Europe and depart for America?I fell as if I am slowly sinking, as if the ground is becoming soft under my feet; I do not know what to hold on to; I have no more support….
Your Maestro
This letter was written on the 16th May 1936. Pirandello was in Rome, and Abba in Milan. In May 1936 Abba signed a contract to perform in New York’s Broadway.In preparation for her New York appearances, she went to London, England.
My Marta
…This letter is already long, and it is time that I send it to the post office. But when will it reach you? If I think about the distance, I at once feel that I am sliding into a horrible loneliness, like into an abyss of despair. But you should not think about that! I embrace you tightly, tightly, with all, all my heart.
Your Maestro
This letter was written on the 4th December 1936, six days before Pirandello died of pneumonia. He was in Rome, and Abba was in New York City. She announced Pirandello’s death on stage at Plymouth Theater.
Marta Abba, a leading Italian stage performer of the 1920’s and 30’s and the lifetime companion of the playwright Luigi Pirandello, died after suffering a stroke on her 88th birthday Friday in a Milan nursing home, her family announced today.
The New York Times, 26 June 1988
Sources:
Pirandello’s Love Letters to Marta Abba, Edited and translated by Benito Ortolani. Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1994.
The menu draws from Germany, Georgia, Italy and France. Greece adds the traditional cake to finish the meal, and the salad.
Smoked eel is one of the delicacies I will never stop craving for.
My best man, Manolis, brought me a sealed package of two smoked eels produced by Aal-Bruns, a German specialist producer.
As if I knew, I cut the eel in small pieces.
Pairing the smoked eel with a wine was a challenge.
But not for very long.
The gentle knight from Alsace came through the door and brought the solution with him. Two bottles of wine I had purchased in the Metzger winery at the beginning of the 21st century.
A late vintage of Gewurztraminer Pflinz from Alsace, produced in 1997!
I opened the first bottle, full of curiosity: Could a white wine have lasted for almost 18 years?
As you can see in the photo, the golden color of the wine gave the first answer. But this is nothing compared to the taste. Heaven on Earth!
The almost oily wine with its sublime sweetness coats the mouth and prepares it for the infusion with the smoky taste of the eel that literally melts in it. A marriage made in heaven.
I offered to my guests two options for tasting the eel. Both had as support a rectangle of whole grain bread, the first with a touch of butter on it, and the second with a spoonful of mashed pickled cabbage, beetroot, chilli pepper, celery and garlic. I personally enjoyed both, starting with the butter and then going to the pickled mix.
Needless to say, some pieces were enjoyed on their own. In the absolute magnificence of their existence. The taste is so powerful that only a small piece can be truly appreciated and enjoyed without the human being overwhelmed.
The second appetizer was a small piroshki with minced beef, a variation of a Georgian recipe.
It is smooth and spicy and tasty, while the wrapping is an ultra light and thin crepe.
The piroshki were prepared by a good friend.
The terrain is now open for the arrival of the main course, which is veal osso bucco with risotto.
I cooked the veal in a mix of carrots, celery, onions, garlic and tomatoes.
The abundant liquid of the mix I used in the risotto, which I prepared with Arborio rice from Ca Rossa.
The wine to accompany the main dish came from Toscana.
Brunello di Montalcino, 1998, produced by Ciacci Piccolomini d’ Aragona.
I had purchased both bottles in the winery’s shop near Montalcino, in Tuscany back in 2003.
The first bottle of the 16 year old wine was moderately ok, most likely due to cork problems. Drinkable, but not as rich and full as the second bottle, which gave to all great pleasure.
The risotto was the king of the main dish. It had rich flavor with considerable depth, without any of the elements overpowering the others.
The veal was tender, tasty and the rich sauce accompanied it in the best possible way.
At the end of the meal we shared the traditional “Vassilopitta”, a light cake made with mahlepi (mahlab) spice. Absolutely divine in its simplicity.
“One must picture everything in the world as an enigma, not only the great questions one has always asked oneself […]. But rather to understand the enigma of things generally considered insignificant. To perceive the mystery of certain phenomena of feeling.” Georgio de Chirico, Eluard Manuscript.
Giorgio De Chirico was born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. His father Evaristo, was an engineer working for the railways. Among other things, he designed the railway station of Volos.
De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images.
“[T]he first artist to dwell on […] seemingly arbitrary confrontations of inanimate objects, and if the symbolic meaning of recurring images like the bananas, clocks, gloves and artichokes remain unknown, they are obviously repositories of deeply personal and experiences. It is a world that is sui generis, unrelated to any ‘isms,’ and here one can sympathise with de Chirico’s defiant rejection of the rest of modern art.” John Ashbery, “A de Chirico Retrospective”
When I visited Chicago in 203, one of the paintings that struck me at the At Institute of Chicago was the “Philosopher’s Conquest”. The gigantic clock gives the viewer an urgent message about the passage of time. As we are about ready to say goodbye to 2014 and welcome 2015, I want to present this painting and provide some relevant interpretations.
Before I proceed, it is important to emphasize that my interpretations are the ones of an enthusiast. In this sense they may also be totally arbitrary.
It is known that by the time he was well in his “metaphysical” period, de Chirico had read philosophy and that Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Heraclitus had a profound influence on him.
Decomposition
In this section I will try to identify the components that make up the painting.
In the next section I will try to make sense of the way de Chirico has put them all together.
The clock
The clock is positioned in the midpoint of the picture’s depth. De Chirico uses a clock quite often in his “metaphysical” paintings. The time shown does not seem to be significant. It is the time in abstract that is portrayed here.
The train
The train is in the background, quite visible and full of speed. As is the case with the clock, de Chirico often places a train in his “metaphysical” pictures.It is an object that brings the painter back to his childhood, when from his garden in Volos, he could see the trains passing by. Indirectly it is also a reference to his father, who was a railway engineer.
The ship
The ship on the other hand has sails, it appears not to be going anywhere. The painter may be building a contrast here between the slow, imperceptible movement of the ship and the fast and furious pace of the train. This is also the contrast between the remnants of the pre-industrial period and the industrial period.
The shadows
The two shadows are merged. Some suggest they belong to the painter’s mother and brother.
It is important to note that there are only shadows of people in the painting, and no people at all.
The huge space of the piazza is empty.
It is as if the people have been there, but they have now gone somewhere else.
The brick chimney
A phallic symbol, may be the absent father. May also be a symbol of rapid industrialization that exacerbates the alienation of people.
The tower
Another phallic symbol par excellence, the huge tower is half hidden by the clock. De Chirico placed huge towers in many of his metaphysical paintings.
The artichokes
De Chirico has used artichokes also in another of his paintings, “Melancholy of an afternoon”.
It is not clear at all what the artichokes symbolize. Huge erect female breasts?
But why not something simpler?
It is possible that the painter liked artichokes and he wanted to juxtrapose them, as a source of earthy pleasure, to the horrible presence of the cannon and the balls.
What makes me think that this “straight” reading is false is the size of the artichokes.
They are huge, they almost protrude in front of the cannon. With the multitude of shadows and the spiky leaves they are almost menacing. Definitely not a source of pleasure.
As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, there is no source of pleasure whatsoever in this painting.
The cannon and balls
The symbol of the phallus is rather too obvious here. The year is 1914 and World War I is imminent, it may have laready started. I will risk it and suggest that the cannon and the two oddly placed balls are an allusion to war.
We should not forget that according to Heraclitus “War is the father of all”.
The piazza
Last but not least, the empty space of the piazza.
Composition
The painting is silent.
There are no noises whatsoever. Even the train prodices no noise, as it is too far away to be heard.
Silence is partnered by emptiness. The vast spaces of the painting are empty.
There are people, only shadows.
It is as if something is going to happen, we do not know exactly what, but the cannon gives us a pretty good idea of what it is going to be. A was is coming.
It is melancholy that I feel, or is it anguish?
At moments like these, and this painting is about a moment, anguish allows us to access the truth of being.
Time is linked to death, and both are linked to melancholy, with a profound boredom (predating the matserpiece of Alberto Moravia) and with loneliness.
This is a painting of mood.
I am sad because time is passing by.
I am broody because I have an empty space in front of me, because I am alone, because I will die alone.
I am melancholic because the good moments have gone and I am facing the inevitability of death. The clock is not a clock, it is the opening of the gates to Hades.
The existential anguish of the individual is magnified by the dark presence of the cannon and the war that is coming. No way out. If you do not die of boredom, you will die in the military front.
So, what is the conquest the painter is talking about?
I claim it is the conquest of the fear of death.
Postscript: When all goes out of the window
As a postscript, I would like to refer to the “transformation” of de Chirico’s style and paintings.
The painting we see above is not a Renoir, it is a de Chirico! Unbelievable? Yes, but true!
How could the painter of “The Philosopher’s Conquest” paint this rather ordinary picture?
I can venture one hypothesis and hope to re-address the question in another post.
De Chirico must have suffered a traumatic experience that made him turn away from the “metaphysical” style he invented and regress to late impressionism, passing through an intermediate “fusion” state which is emplified by the “Warriors and Philosophers” painting.
I was introduced to the work of Renato Guttuso back in 1996, when Whitechapel Gallery in London exhibited some of his paintings.
Today I pay tribute to the great realist painter, whose vibrant colors remind me of the Mediterranean, the Sea, the Countryside, the smells and the tastes.
Crucifixion was the painting that led the Vatican to declare that Guttoso was a pictor diabolicus, a devilish painter.
The naked Mary Magdalen leans on the crucified Jesus.
Only the Holy Mother is dressed in her blue gown.
The Roman guards are riding their horses naked.
The influence of cubism is felt all over the landscape and the almost sculptural bodies.
The “Landscape with lovers” is another type of landscape. Guttuso here is almost poetical. And I like this more than the loaded and symbolic and rebellious “Crucifixion”.
The market of Vucciria in Palermo is one of the most colorful places on this Earth. Guttuso painted it in a glorious way.
“The Vucciria market, Guttuso said, was one of his first discoveries when he moved to Palermo as a student in the early 1930s. “When I began to paint, among my first subjects were those colors, those planes of light.” But his great painting of the market was not done until 1974, when he was living in Varese, Lombardy, “under the pallid light of the north.” He said the picture was “a great still life” imbued with all the noise, the energy and the violence of “the markets of poor countries.” In order to paint from life, Guttuso had an agent ship him the eggs, the cardoons, the tuna, by air from Palermo to Milan. He then persuaded a local butcher to loan him a side of beef “for no more than two hours” so he could sketch it into the composition. The minutes ticked by, and then the hours. The butcher was counting how long his beef would survive without refrigeration. Guttuso, meanwhile, was molding those ribs and haunches into his most powerful memento mori.” (1)
The curves of a Sicilian woman blend with the cuts of swordfish.
The beef carcass demands respect, next to the feeble rabbit.
Cheese and cured meets are plentiful.
This is why I consider Guttoso primarily a painter of the Senses. Looking into these details one cannot help but sense with her whole existence the magnificence of the goods of the market and the pleasure of being alive.
You smell the rose, you sense the presence of Mimise, even though she is looking down. The sensual overflows and overpowers everything else. Guttuso does this almost magical transformation by using colors as he has perceived them since he was born in 1912 in in Bagheria, near Palermo (Sicily).
Guttuso was a communist, and a member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
He was aware of the impact of technology on everyday life, and he painted it in his own unique way.
In 1946 with Birolli, Vedova, Morlotti, Turcato and others formed the group Fronte Nuovo delle Arti. Made frequent visits to Paris to study modern French art and for a time was influenced by Picasso. Many of his works have been inspired by the poverty and struggles of the Sicilian peasantry. His later works also include large paintings of the student riots in Paris in May 1968, the funeral of the Italian Communist leader Togliatti. (2)
I close this short tribute with another landscape painting. Santa Panagia, in Sicily. “Viale Santa Panagia is a street which runs through the ancient Greek quarters of Tyche and Akradina in Siracusa, a Sicilian city that Guttuso was fond of and visited frequently in the 1950s.” (Tate Gallery).
Today I publish the delayed review, because the osteria is one of the best restaurants in Venice, and continues to carry with pride one Michelin Star.
The amuse bouche was crispy tiny shrimp (gamberetti) on a bed of white polenta.
The first dish I tasted was a mixed raw seafood.
Misto crudo di carpaccio di tonno e scampi.
The Scampi were served on top of a creamy mix of fennel (finocchio) and fresh cheese.
The second dish I tasted was another appetizer, one of the trademarks of Venetian gastronomy: “Baccala mantecato” (dried Atlantic cod, soaked, poached and whipped until mousse-like), served with bruschetta spiced with garlic.
Overall a perfect light lunch in a wonderful environment.
Today I publish the delayed review, because the osteria is one of the best restaurants in Venice, and continues to carry with pride one Michelin Star.
The amuse bouche was crispy tiny shrimp (gamberetti) on a bed of white polenta.
The first dish I tasted was a mixed raw seafood.
Misto crudo di carpaccio di tonno e scampi.
The Scampi were served on top of a creamy mix of fennel (finocchio) and fresh cheese.
The second dish I tasted was another appetizer, one of the trademarks of Venetian gastronomy: “Baccala mantecato” (dried Atlantic cod, soaked, poached and whipped until mousse-like), served with bruschetta spiced with garlic.
Overall a perfect light lunch in a wonderful environment.
The “Ristorante Al Covo” is in Castello, near the Hotel Gabrielli, no more than 15 minutes walk from St. Mark’s Square.
This review is long overdue, as I had it prepared and filed as a draft, only to forget it.
Now that I recovered it from the archive, I want to share it, if only for the reason that it is an excellent choice to dine in Venice.
Ristorante Al Covo
My first dish was “Scampi Crudi – Raw crayfish”.
It was served as it came out of the water, without the shell, with shredded cucumber, lemon dill, olive oil.
…and a big big leaf of basil!
Scampi crudi – Raw crayfish – Ristorante Al Covo
My second dish was Baccala Batagin, a dish made with salted cod (baccala) cooked in the oven with sliced potatoes, prunes and rosemary. After being cooked, a s plash of tomato sauce is put on top and a dash of olive oil.
Baccala “Batagin”, Ristorante Al Covo
In addition, I spotted pistacchio nuts sprinkled over the tomato sauce, and lemon dill.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is wonderful, because the clientele are mostly Venetians who enjoy good food.
Overall, a highly satisfactory experience, which I hope I will have sometime again!