Artist En Route: Umbria, Italy (earlier version in Art Avenue magazine)

Living in the Umbrian Countryside

It's April as I write from high green hills in the Umbrian countryside, midway between Florence and Rome. We live in Morruzze, a tiny village in which nothing happens. The bells jingle on new lambs in the pasture up the rocky road from our house. Wild boar hide in nearby forests, as do truffles. The bees are out, and the silvery olive trees are growing fuller. The birdsong is absolutely operatic as I walk the 6 km to and from the nearby village, looking for wild asparagus along the way. The views are spectacular coming up through worn paths overlooking rolling green hills and patchwork agrarian plots typical of this region. Walking here each day I'm sure Leonardo developed his sfumato technique from these smoky landscapes that soften edges and blend contrasts. Except for some hard winter months, it's been idyllic. 

 What Shopping Does a Visiting Artist Do?

Art Interest: So much to see. Just stick a pin anywhere and go!

A visiting friend wants to go on the Piero tour (click here). I'm glad to oblige this pilgrimage for a local boy from a nearby Tuscan village. Piero della Francesca is high on my list of Renaissance masters. His sense of serenely sculpted light, of physically solid yet beyond-real forms in space, of emotion perfectly contained yet dramatically expressed, remains remarkable to me. 

You could pick any of your favourite Italian Renaissance masters and plan an interesting tour of Italy just by following the trail of their displayed works. Following the trail of Perugino, for example, will take you to Perugia, home also to delicious chocolates as well as savouring the equally sweet and highly decorative paintings by his associate, Pinturicchio. Like many ancient towns in Italy, there is so much to see and enjoy just by walking around and looking, and often festivals to add to the celebration. 

Nearby in the Cathedral in Orvieto  are the muscular and fascinatingly original Last Judgment frescoes by Signorelli (from whom Michelangelo learned a thing or two). In the other direction there are the lovely painted ceramics in Deruta to take home with you. Go eastward and there's the region of Le Marche, with Crivelli as its local wonder, whose paintings provide an odd mix of Renaissance perspective and Medieval decorativeness. 

The art treasures continue, with fresco-lined chapels by the vigorously emotive Giotto (Padua and Assisi) and the sensitively ethereal FraAngelico (Florence, with some of his most personal work on site, as they were painted in his home, the Convent of San Marco). 

Pick your favorite early to late Renaissance master: it seems they're all here

Where Artwork and Setting Are One 

It's especially impressive is when you see these magnificent artists' creations in the settings for which they were painted. Even Leonardo's crumbling Last Supper retains much of its gravitas in the actual chapel in Milan whose architecture it replicates! 

I especially enjoy scouting for treasures in relatively lesser-known places. But who would want to ignore the big showplaces of art-filled Italy? Rome, where the ancient Colosseum nods to Renaissance feats like the Pantheon and the dome Brunelleschi's derived from it. Then there are the dizzying treasure troves of the Vatican, shown in its museum. And unsurpassed Florence. Art is everywhere in the architecture, statues, fountains, museums and public works of such cities.

 

Two duomos (cathedrals) that I like especially are some distance apart. The one in Milan is staggering. Coming up from the metro station, it's a filigreed vision in honey-white marble that took nearly six centuries to build. It hardly seems real in its intricacy and apparent weightlessness. The best of it for me (sated by now on church interiors, no matter how magnificent) was walking outdoors on its huge, multi-tiered roof. It was stunning being surprised by gargoyles, fanciful architectural flourishes, statues standing on pillars in the air, and vistas across the city.

In contrast, Orvieto's duomo seems to me more humanly appealing in size, proportion, and narrative flourishes. Sitting outside on stone benches built into buildings lining the piazza, you watch as the sun glints on golden mosaics illuminating biblical narratives and assorted statues on its facade. Inside are the Signorelli frescoes I mentioned and, to top it off, in this piazza is the best gelato I've tasted. 

Surprises and delights abound: just keep your eyes open and venture on!

 Contemporary Art and Tradition

What I've noticed about contemporary art seen throughout my travels is that it seems  much the same everywhere. That is, trends seem global rather than regional, with influences like Twombly, Basquiat, and Richter variations everywhere, especially in abstract painting. I'm particular fond of major if not as well-celebrated modern Italian painters, like Morandi in still life and (my favourite) Burri in uniquely abstract works, have pushed new stylistic boundaries. 

No longer apprenticed to guilds or schools, emerging artists now seem to gravitate towards their preferred international icons. Historically, however, Italian art has shown recognizable regional stylistic variations and "schools". Tradition remains important here where people live with centuries of art history at their doorstep. The great humanistic emphasis of the Italian Renaissance, especially, is a tradition that endures even in contemporary paintings. For example, look how many figurative works are included in Saatchi's online Focus on Italy.  

Old Artists and the Avant Garde

Visiting the Sforza castle (Milan) and seeing Michelangelo's final and compelling Pietá emerge unfinished from stone, I thought about his spending his final decade on earth working, on and off, on this sculpture. I wondered why some master artists turn away from their attained mastery and refinements to produce, in their old age, something apparently more raw, unsettling, dramatically different, and far less popular with their contemporaries -- but seeding the future avant garde. True of Rembrandt, Turner too, and others, this development runs contrary to the too common clichés for old age.

Practical Matters: Art as a Way, Not a B

P   Art is a Way, Not a Brand

Wh    When I left Canada more than a half year ago I thought that, whil  I'd settle my continuing argument with my painterly self to mov  pursue one track instead of many and do what art-marketeers advi  advise: develop a brand. I haven't. Instead, away from the

         marketplace, I've decided this isn't for me.  Not for lack of self-dis    discipline or indeterminacy in directions to take, Instead, I have a genuine preference for working and lear  learning that is broad in scope. I don't think I'm alone in this conflict between way and brand, and many of     you may feel similarly. But I've come to respect this as a stylistic preference in how one chooses to expl  explore, experiment, and bring things together in order to create. Away from the usual influences at hom  home, it seems clearer to find one's own creative direction.

Travel's End and  Journey Onward

Looking back over the art I've seen, and done, and the life I've had here, I hope to have shared some enjoyable and useful facts and personal insights with you, wherever you are en-route. The artwork I've produced while travelling has been plentiful and surprising to me, as fitting into several unpredictable "series" resulting from new ventures into fluid painting and mixed techniques .A practical note to travelling artists is that duties for mailing artworks are often prohibitively high. So stay light, if you can. .    

            

It's been a remarkable journey, with a month remaining before returning home. This way of life has become 'home' now --- travelling from place, setting up one's life anew in each place for awhile, learning the necessary, exploring, making do. Never long enough to lay down roots ... or ruts. The only constant has been one's own sense of continuity and of change throughout this voyage. I haven't finished. I'm not ready to "go home." I want to find a way to take some of this way of living with me, even when returning to all the comforts of home, friends, and family.

                                

This trip has been about lots of things, both external and internal. Learning to do without the familiar, reassessing priorities, decisions, needs, and desires. A bit of a juggle between making and making-do, keeping to a plan or letting the winds decide, moving on or staying safe. Living away from home provides opportunity to re-examine decisions and expectations, to re-align oneself without the supports, stimulation and constraints of family, friends, and the familiar buzz of art shows and fellow-artists wanting to get their work noticed. It's been an opportunity to expand, to break out of molds that need breaking, and move in ways that feel authentic and rewarding, whether or not they are applauded by anyone else. 

 My artwork has taken different directions, depending upon where I've been: inside and out. I've met with local artists, seen shows, visited sites, museums, and galleries in each town. Everywhere I've been I've keenly felt how art, whatever form it takes, is a vital part of living life. How this is personally vital for me is the lesson I'd like to take home with me ...  plus a few gallons of gelato.

I hope, in reading these articles, you've shared in this sense of adventure, each of us being artists-en-route in our lives and in our work.

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about Italy at Creative Life News here. plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News here

 @ janetstrayer.com

FIRENZE/FLORENCE, Italy

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Flourishing city on the Arno river, capital of Tuscany, center of the Italian Renaissance for two centuries, there is little new I want to write about Firenze (Florence). The tourist books have had a long time to cover all there is to see in this long-admired city. One can most agreeably saunter through the city’s many, many artistic treasures in paintings and sculpture, museums, architecture, food, and literary history.

The view at left is of Florence along the Arno, taken from the Ponte Vecchio, The view below is of the Piazza della Signoria, possibly the most famous of the many famous squares in Florence.



You can see standing beside little you a huge statue (a replica) of Michelangelo's startling David. The original stands in the Galleria dell' Academia, along with other sculptures by our local hero, as well as paintings and sculptures from the 13th-16th centuries. It also contains an interesting collection of musical instruments, begun by the Medici family

But it's nice that the Piazza della Signoria, at the heart of the historic center, offers a free open-air sculpture exhibit... and some great pigeon-on-statue shots (I'll spare you that).  Also shown is the medieval Palazzo Vecchio --   Florence's town hall and  political center since the middle ages.

Of course you want to see (many times) the Galleria degli Uffizi, a museum housing what may be the world's finest collection of Italian Renaissance art (the Vatican Museum does pretty well, too). But it's a crowded place, especially as tourist season hits high gear. So, I avoided it this time round.

Because this blog is not a Firenze tour-guide  (click here for one) but only an idiosyncratic report of things that strike me while engaged in the art of living well in this sojourn in Italy, I will mention only a little about this eternal city that keeps calling its visitors to return.

I wanted to spend my time in Italy on the less-travelled paths, even just wanting to stay at home and experience what “home” felt like in Italy. Yet, as in previous visits to Italy, I had to visit Firenze again.

The drive into the city is heralded by flowers lining the center of the boulevard that creeps with traffic beside the Arno. The compensation for the traffic snarl is the smell of jacaranda all around you. Then, as you enter the historic city, it is always a surprise. No matter how recognizable the sites have become, the magnificent Duomo and the intricate architectural plans of palaces and piazzas make you part of something splendid to behold. And the same stones that you feel underneath your humbly hurting feet were tread by so many Florentine giants.

Marking a major literary and linguistic turning-point, the Florentine Dante Alighieri walked these streets.  Among the events in his politically active and sadly exiled life, he managed to be the first to write in (thus partly creating) vernacular Italian. The exalted Divine Comedy gave rise to more truly ‘vulgar’ literary works by another Florentine coming not long afterward: Boccaccio and his Decameron. The Florentine literary influence spread even to  Chaucer, whose vernacular English Canterbury Tales were certainly influenced by Boccaccio, whom he also likely met on a trip to Italy. Even today, Firenze holds a place of honor in the Italian language. Italians I’ve asked in different regions tell me that their language is best spoken here, in Tuscany.

Dante Alighieri, attributed to Giotto

Even across the Atlantic, the culturally enlightened U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson (living at a time when culture was not anathema to democracy) was influenced by Italian humanism in his scholarly interests in arts and sciences, his skills as an architect (literal and metaphoric as nation-builder), and even his love of music. Jefferson wrote in a 1778 letter to the humanist Florentine scholar, Giovanni Fabbroni, about his love of Italian music: If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world, it is to your country its music. This is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism.

We went to see only one thing the first day we visited Firenze. It remains a personal favorite: San Marco, the convent which intimately houses the fresoes of Fra Angelico. (Mendicant orders like the Dominicans and Franciscans use the word convent for both men's and women's establishments.) 

Among all the splendid art in Florence and the emphatic paintings and sculpture and architecture of Michelangelo and tributes to his influence, there rests this relatively small Dominican convent with its cloisters (above).  In it, on the second floor among the small cells of its former monks, are the quietly serene, even humble, frescoes of  Fra Angelico. Their gentle colors and modeling, lyrical contours and somewhat shy expression are just so quietly beautiful. As you walk up the stairway to the second floor (first floor above the ground),  you are greeted  at the landing by a ‘just-so’ masterpiece of the Annunciation. You can see the cloister of San Marco in it, can't you? In contrast to Michelangelo's work, I would not call  grand; but it is glorious.

Then, peeking into the monastic cells, their wooden doors open but the entrance barred by rope, you see the frescoes on the walls, many done by Fra Angelico. This strikes me as so much more impressive than frescoes on museum walls, no matter how important they are and even if I feel thankful to see them at all. But here, here is the context (handed down to us) that gave immediate meaning to the work. I wonder if the individual brothers got to request a particular theme for their meditations and wonder how the paintings were assigned to the different cells.

Today’s Thought

Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.

--Marcel Proust

I don't want to quarrel with Proust, but I’d qualify the “only through” bit. Still, I very much agree that art is a transporter, a conduit to many different realities. And I fear when art and art appreciation are cut from the "essentials" in public school programs.

Lest the quiet dignity of many of Fra Angelico’s works leaves you wishing for more drama, there’s always a visit to the corner cell at San Marco, where you can feel the lingering presence of Savonarola, who was a toddler when Fra Angelio died. Savonarola's cloak remains, and if  one has any imagination at all, it is chilling. Savonarola was a friar and Prior at San Marco for over a decade. For a brief time, he even became the notorious ruler of Florence during the plague, and met his end in 1498 by execution via hanging and then burning in the Piazza della Signora.

Walking in Florence, with masterpieces everywhere around you, it's not surprising to find street artists kneeling and finishing their Michelangelo on the pavement. Art lives everywhere.

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Today’s Food for Thought

Florentine steak - Bistecca a la Fiorentina 

This is not for the tender-hearted (in several senses). You’ve just got to love red meat. I've excerpted this recipe from this site you can click on.

The meat must be from a young beef, at least two finger-widths high of choice sirloin and include the bone (e.g., a porterhouse steak). As Prezzolini writes in his Life of Machiavelli, "cut from the young steer, with the rib attached, you look like a slab of brocatello marable, red and veined with white". To cook the steak, opinions vary. Some recommend rubbing it with oil, salt and pepper first. Some consider this blasphemy and place it, as is, on the grill over a glowing charcoal fire (there are also different thoughts on the correct kind of wood). It should be turned only once and the grill must leave its mark on both sides. When it is nearly done, season with salt and pepper (never beforehand, since it would dry the meat) and, as soon as you see that the salt has stiffened, serve with a pat of fresh butter on top. 30 min. After a suitable time for digestion, go for a 10 mile walk.

Today's Painting

Susannah, painting by Janet Strayer

I slide easily from the religious to the profane. So, after a stop for gelato, we went on to the Ponte Vecchio to look for some earrings.

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This old bridge is always festive. But it’s always been part of a working city, too. Florentine wools. Florentine gold. Florentine leather and paper. I got a pair of small earrings on this crowded sunny day. Also some beautiful presents. Nearby, off the bridge and thinking of home in Canada, I got a pair of gloves.