Mantegna in Mantua

May 28, 2015

1. The reason I most wanted to come to Mantua was to see the Camera deli Sposi.

2. The 15th century painter Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) was the court painter for the Gonzaga family who ruled the Italian city of Mantua. During his time there one of his most important commissions was the fresco cycle in the Camera degli Sposi (Bridal Chamber).

3. And now to speed ahead to the 21st c.,
here is an interesting tale.

Three years ago in 2012 an earthquake shook Mantua's historic Palazzo Ducale, closing the Renaissance-era frescoed 'bridal chamber' of the palace. Fortunately, this was reopened April 2, 2015 , in time for our visit.
On the west wall Ludovico, in official robes is meeting with his son, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, the holy Roman Emperor.

4. This is a portrait of the Gonzaga family: the Marquese Ludovico II and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg are surrounded by their children and members of the court.

5. On the ceiling Mantegna's presents an oculus that opens into a blue sky, with foreshortened putti playfully frolicking around. A pot is about to fall off a bar on our heads. haha

6. The Gonzaga name is prevalent in the palace.

7. The Palazzo Ducale in Mantua was more than a palace, rather a town within the city, the largest residence in Italy after the Vatican. For 400 years this was the home of the Gonzaga family, the dukes of Mantua who ruled until 1707.

The estate included a castle, basilica, courtyards, sumptuous galleries, gardens and many rooms. There is plenty to see, from precious tapestries to beautiful decor and paintings.

8. A labyrinth ceiling

9. A imaginative zodiac is painted on this 16th-century ceiling fresco by Lorenzo Costa.

10. Typical palace hallway.

11. Ideas for your garden.

12. An Italian family strolls through the palace.

13. Elsewhere in Mantua is this Romanesque round church.

14. A simple space for worship.

15. Then, also in Mantua, is the ornate Basilica San Andrea designed by famous Florentine architect, Alberti.

16. The kids are amazed at the huge size.

17. We liked riding bikes.

18. This is a leafy glade by the lake near the campground where I explored on bicycle. Mantua was one of my favorite places on our trip.

Giotto in Padua

The Arena Chapel in Padua has a fresco cycle of 38 large narrative scenes created by the artist, Giotto (1266-1337), that were completed by 1305.

Many of these poignant images of humanity in the Arena Chapel make Giotto the most remarkable precursor and one of the greatest sources of the Italian Renaissance of the 15th century.

The subjects are the life of the Virgin Mary and the life of Jesus. Artists had other sources beside the Old and New Testaments to consult including the Golden Legend of Voragine and Meditations by a monk in the 13th c.

This is how we had to access the chapel: A limited group of visitors (including us) with timed-ticket reservations entered a de-humidifying area watched an introductory video. After 15 minutes we went inside the Arena chapel to view Giotto's frescoes. In 15 minutes we were dismissed from the space.

Here are some of my favorite scenes.

5. Meeting at the Golden Gate:
Joachim and Anne had been childless and were elderly. Barrenness was considered a sign of God's disfavor and Joachim had been expelled from the temple. Then Anne received an angelic visitation.
In this fresco Joachim and Anne reunite and embrace joyfully after learning of Anne's unexpected conception of Mary.

6. The patron Scrovegni is offering up the Arena Chapel to atone for his sins and redeem the family reputation. His father was a wealthy and notorious usurer of Padua who was so widely despised that even author Dante made a place for him in the Divine Comedy.

7. Kiss of Judas: Violence is suggested by the clash of bodies, bristling array of staves, and torches that radiate out of the crowd converging on Jesus. Peter is shown severing the ear of the servant of the high priest.
In the Gospels Judas offers to identify and betray Jesus by kissing him. In Giotto's painting, it is Judas's embrace that betrays Jesus. His yellow robe envelopes Jesus. Giotto focuses all attention on the two heads - the nobility of Jesus's profile with the brutishness of Judas. The intensity of Jesus' gaze seems to stay the kiss.

8. Lamentation: All eyes are on the dead body laid in the foreground. Giotto presents the human tragedy of death and of the bereft. In the sky, ten angels provide their own lament in counterpoint to that of the human mourners. It is a powerful representation of great loss and grief.

9. Flight into Egypt: An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to flee with his family to Egypt because Herod wanted to kill the child who would become king of the Jews. In this scene the Madonna is a monumental figure. Her figure and the mountain behind her create a ledge of space that implies a sense of danger. The Madonna appears beige, but her robes were originally painted with azurite which has disappeared over time.

10. Raising of Lazarus: in the foreground the two sisters of Lazarus, presented as a unified mass, prostrate themselves in earnest belief in Jesus's power to restore life. The large sloping rock leads the eye to Jesus and to his hand, which is above the heads of Mary and Martha. The slope simultaneously expands his gesture - carrying the miraculous power from his hand across the composition to Lazarus.
This painting is divided down the middle, with Jesus, his disciples, and the sisters on the left and those with Lazarus and the tomb at the right - the division between life and death.
In a memorable touch that is part of Giotto's genius, the sisters are not yet aware, as the viewer is, that Lazarus's eyes and lips are already opening.

I hope you enjoyed this visit into the Arena chapel of Padua.

Credit for the art notes goes to William Kloss, Smithsonian art historian, an inspiring teacher.

Venice II

May 27, 2015

Buon Giorno!

We spent the day on the water.

1. I am standing at San Giorgio Maggiore Island across the lagoon from St. Mark's Square, near the church with Palladio architecture, Tintoretto paintings, and fine views back on Venice.

2. Our first stop, however, was the Island of Murano.
A 1292 law restricted glass production with it's dangerous furnaces to the isle of Murano to prevent fires on the mainland. This arrangement protected the secrets of Venetian glassmaking for a few centuries.

3. The Glass Museum displays 700 years of Venetian glassmaking including these fancy chandeliers.

4. Approaching the isle of Murano.

5. Next our vaporetto motored alongside the Castello District where the Biennale, a world's fair of contemporary art, is held.

6. A little further along is more of lush Giardini Park. . .

7 . . . And someone's impressive yacht. (British? American?) Alas, no one came out to welcome us aboard.

8. These are the same parked gondolas I photographed yesterday from the seashore.

9. San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance.

10. Looking back at St. Mark's Square.

11. The Doge's pink palace on the square.

12. Later we visited Ca' Rezzonico, a posh Grand Canal palazzo where I took this photo from the top floor.

We have seen many wonderful sites. Here is a list to help my memory in case you have questions later.

Arrivederci Venice

St. Mark's Square
Doge's Palace
Rialto Bridge
Correr Museum
Academia
Frari Church
Campanile
Bridge of Sighs
La Salute Church
Ca' Rezzonico
Ca' Pesaro
San Giorgio Maggiore Island
Murano Island

Venice I

The rain on our first day, Saturday, did not dampen the magic of Venice.

1.Checking out rainy St. Mark's Square from the Correr Palace windows.

2. From this print it seems gondola cruising has been popular for some time.

3. The rain may have kept some people indoors, but not these intrepid tourists.

4. Gallerie dell’Accademia is Venice's top art museum containing great Venetian painting by the Bellini family, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Tiepolo, Giorgione and Canaletto.

Here is a favorite by Tiepolo who specialized in paintings on ceilings, "San Domenico in Gloria", 1723.

5. This impressive church, Santa Maria della Salute, was built and dedicated to the Virgin Mary by the grateful survivors of the 1630 black plague.

6. Sunday brings sunshine and no motor boats on the canals.
Instead there is a colorful armada of rowing craft from around Europe, called Vogalonga, embarking on a 20 mile non-competitive route around Venice.

We saw German and French teams staying in our 'Rialto' campground preparing for the event.
It was fun to see the variety of participants.

7. A rare moment of repose on a stairway over a canal. Venice is laced together by 400 bridges.

8. Gondola passengers and gondoliers make interesting scenery.

9. We encountered this beautiful impressionist painting in the Ca' d'Oro: "Cucendo la Vela" (Sewing the Sail)
by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1896.

10. Rowing standing up is the Venetian style.

11. Ceilings in the Doge's Palace were all about power and impressing visitors.
This painting on the ceiling is "Juno showering gifts on Venice" by Paolo Veronese, 1553.

12. Gondolas at rest.

13. A view from the Bridge of Sighs where prisoners sentenced in the palace crossed to their black and dank cells.

14. A view of St. Mark's Basilica's glorious mosaics.

15. Some of that elusive Venetian Magic.