Unknown Masters in Galatina

Finding the Unexpected

A TV show  brought us to Galatina in Puglia, Italy. We were home in Canada watching a show hosted by Anthony Bourdain on his travels in southern Italy. It featured a small bit of an old documentary that filmed incidents of  tarantism, a peculiar and local form of psychosocial malady affecting some women of the countryside. You can click here to see the original Italian documentary, La Taranta, 

La Taranta shows women seized by an apparently uncontrollable urge to move and keep moving. Witnessed by others in their community, they typically may end up at the local church, where a religious rit may relieve them of their spasms of movement. The dance, the Tarantella, reportedly derives from this malady. Quite different from the rawness of the movements shown in the documentary, the Tarantella dance is a festive celebration. You can read more the fascinating history of this dance in my related column on Taranto.

Galatina  

spider/Taranta motif at restaurant in Galatina

My focus now on Galatina will show you why this city needs special mention. The cult of the Tarante, with  its spider-dance, is only one reason -- though it is a prevalent one, as you can see by its motif adorning a local restaurant.

Galatina has been a focal spot for the preservation and reinvention of the Taranta cult. In late August, tourists may join The Night of the Tarantula (La Nottte della Taranta), an all-night music festival marking the importance of the Tarantella to this area. 

More traditionally in Galatina and surrounding villages, St Paul, patron saint of the tarantate, is celebrated to this day in an all-night event on June 28. It starts with a procession from Piazza San Pietro to the chapel of St Paul, followed by performances by drummers and other musicians lasting until dawn the following day, June 29 – the feast day of saints Peter and Paul. At early dawn the musicians, dancers, tarante and visitors gather at St Paul’s chapel to pay their respects before the crowds arrive for the official early morning Mass.

This Site Came as a Total Surprise: Church of Santa Catherina 

There is another, and for me, even more impressive reason to visit Galatina. And it came as a surprise. 

After a brief but rather dull drive from Lecce, Galatina surprises you as a  pretty city. We looked into its large and expectably-decorated Cathedral of Peter and Paul  (featured in the La Taranta documentary mentioned).  It was impressive outside, but rather grim inside. The real treasure was to come.

We took a moment to peek into the city's perhaps less-known church of Sta. Caterina. I was absolutely blown away by the stunning art I saw, and that I'd never previously known even existed. It was way beyond any expectations I had ...  and that's a real joy when travelling and just exploring for its own sake.

 Unfortunately, the outside of the church was wrapped up for renovation, and you could see nothing of its features. Nevertheless, we walked through the wooden scaffold to find that the interior was open. WOW!

part of ceiling (Janet Strayer photo)

frescoes in Sta. Catarina/Galentina (photos by Janet Strayer)

nave (natural light, Janet Strayer photo)

ornately painted pillars, Sta. Caterina (Janet Strayer photo)
 

The church of Santa Caterina in Galatina is a marvel to behold. Almost every inch of this large church is covered in beautifully intact frescoes. You can insert some coins for  lights come on, and then see almost everything covered in painted narratives. Ceilings, walls, even columns are painted. The style is consistent: a mix of Byzantine and early Renaissance influences that works to make a unique artistic and religious statement.

Gorgeous frescoes occur throughout Italy, with the Sistine Chapel being perhaps the most famous. But on a more intimate yet complete scale, the frescoes here hit home. Not since Fra Angelico's work in Florence or Giotto's in Padua, have I been so impressed by a single structure so completely filled with such interesting and original religious art.

Dating mostly from the early1 5th C, the frescoes are in remarkable shape. Not all were completed, and you can sometimes  see cartoons of the intended works on the prepared walls (an extra attraction for many artists). A few frescoes are in need of repair, but most are perfect. In general, they are just stunning in overall impact, plus they beckon you to come closer and see more.

wall and part ceiling of series of "Mary frescoes" (Janet Strayer photo)

We don't know the artists' names for sure, but they were stylistic masters (click for some suggestions and a good link for photos and text). They must have seen and been influenced in compositional motifs and stylistic concerns by early Renaissance work further north in Italy (Umbria, Tuscany). Yet, their work favours a different palette and the dramatic contrast of night-time settings.Talented in both stylistic and technical matters, the feast of frescoes beckons you to keep looking at them: the faces, the settings depicted, the flow of narrative, the use of space.

The Romanesque-Gothic church of Santa Caterina dates back to the late 1300's, and the frescoes are dated about 1420. Endowed by the wealth of the Count of Solento and his widow, the nave alone consists of a self-contained fresco composition that includes 140 picture compartments. The nave paintings extend across four bays. The largest group  presents the Apocalypse according to St John. It extends across three walls in the first bay of the nave and includes some fifty separate scenes. The Apocalypse is aways a show-stopper, in my opinion. But I'm also drawn to depictions Genesis and Adam and Eve. You can pick your own favourites, as I'm sure the parishioners did when "reading" this extensive pictorial narrative.

 

I took a mass of photos under the poor lighting conditions. I've given you just a taste from a few samples I liked for different reasons: their blend of Byzantine and early Renaissance styles, references to their time (knights' armour),  their refinement, expressive quality, linear emphasis, spatial sense, or composition.

Other fresco series are dedicated to Mary, and yet others to Sta. Caterina. You can find something remarkable in any of them, in the different depictions of John the Baptist, of the slaying of the Dragon, or even of the small touches in the little figures (perhaps patrons) only marginal to the main scene.

incidental figure (Janet Strayer photo)

One can tire of visiting so many notable churches and cathedrals in Italy. But truly, this is one not to miss. 

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about Italy, plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News click  https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet

Taranto, Italy and the Dance of the Spider

Taranto 

You've heard of the dance, the Tarantella? Its origins are an oddity, and  it is linked to Taranto, a small city in Puglia, on Italy's Ionian coast. It's an odd distinction for a town, but that is its fate and fame. Another nearby city in Puglia, Galatina, with similar links to the tarantella -- plus some incredible art worth seeing--  is featured in a separate column here.  

Title still-shot of documentary, credits and link

The Origins of the Tarantella 

The peculiarity of the tarantella is that its origins are associated with a psychic disorder, a form of hysteria, known as tarantism that was recognized in Italy as early as the 15th C.  Tarantism has lingered on in isolated rural areas through the 20th C. This has been recorded n a documentary clip from nearby Galatina the 1950's and aired on TV by another off-beat traveller, Anthony Bourdin. You can click here to see the original Italian documentary, La Taranta, which filmed incidents of tarantism occurring in the nearby countryside. Filmed in the 1950's, it looks much earlier in time and is quite different in its rawness from the holiday tarantellas celebrated in festivals now. 

Spider Bite or Hysteria? 

Said to be caused by the bite of a tarantula spider (a form of wolf-spider or black-widow), its victims  (mostly women) display distressed and feverish symptoms that include vomiting and sweating, fear and delirium, depression and paranoia. They are seemingly cured by a rite that involves feverish 'dancing' that can last for days. It's not so much dancing as it is impulsive, pulsing movement: jumping, hopping, gyrating upright or on the floor. The frenetic movements are accompanied by music played fast, in 6/8 time, with the pace of both music and movements reciprocally urging each other onward, all in  the company of  family and neighbors who attend the seized woman. The often delirious victim, with attendant crowd, eventually is guided to the local church where, still trance-like and tired-out, she is finally 'danced-out 'of her throes with religious help. 

A Fascinating History of a Malady and a Dance 

The tarantella has a fascinating history. It is thought that the town of Taranto, in particular, gave its name to the dance because a particular variety spider, popularly believed to be venomous, was common to this region.So, the dance was  named the tarantula.

Dancing Maenad on Vase by Python, 330 B.C. credits

The origins of the dance, however, may lie much deeper in history and cult. This dance is  speculated to be a surviving remnant from ancient rites of Diana or of Dionysius. 

We know that all of Puglia was originally more Greek than Latin/Roman. By early Roman times, Bacchanalian rites were suppressed, which may have driven them underground ... where they lingered and were transformed into another collective ritual in the cult of Tarantism. What is known for certain is that Tarantism dates back centuries in this region, appearing in early manuscripts. 

The music, originally played on  local  instruments  available  at the time (tambourine, drums, fiddle, accordion, guitar)  developed into folk dance forms. These dances became popular in several regions of southern Italy. In the Salento region, the dance is  also known as the pizzica. 

The tarantella also made its way to the more formal dance-floor for nimble-footed partners. And the stellar choreographer, George Balanchine, adapted it to ballet. Remarkable in its journey from dirt floors to concert halls, the tarantella also appears in the work of such dignified composers as Franz Liszt and Frederic Chopin. But the original  forms of the dance, very obscurely caused by a spider's bite, were inspired by each individual's almost hypnotically frenzied, trance-like movements in response to the dancer's delirium, then set to music's beat.

Archaeology in Taranto: the MARTA

We visited Taranto, the city etymologically linked to this curious dance, We were unlikely to see the tarentella danced today. Our motivation for visiting was to see Taranto's well-recommended archaeological museum, the MARTA. 

 a navigation scene with figure carved on cup, 2,000 BC

We were not disappointed. The MARTA  (Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto) is  easy to navigate and fun to explore, with excellent staff to help, if needed. The access and lighting are modern, and the items just enough to give a sense of the particularity of each item and its context. The displays are very well presented (many in English and Italian), with computer-screens that let you look further into particular items and context. 

This is a museum you can appreciate, one that takes both its informative function and audience satisfaction into consideration. We left, feeling both intellectually and aesthetically satisfied. And maybe we even learned a thing or two. Especially notable is how much the language, artifacts, art, and customs derived from ancient Greece (magna-Graecia) and cross-cultural interactions influenced this southern region that is now Italy.

One of the reasons I love museums like MARTA, which focus upon what we call "prehistory" and "protohistory", is that they show as well as inspire a special blend of skillfully investigative research +

imagination in order to unearth, literally, what the displayed objects likely meant when they were fully alive. 

The museum is arranged chronologically as you walk through its levels. Here are some of the many intriguing and beautiful objects in the museum -- a random and non-chronological sampling from photos I took. They include 20,000 year-old figurines of a female/goddess, a polychromed head with its colours intact, anthropomorphic pots from the 6th century B.C., one of the most intricate gold earrings I've seen (4th century B.C.),  a nutcracker in the shape of black hands, representations of African faces ( 3rd-4th century B.C. cross-roads of many cultures), wonderfully designed functional pots from different epochs, and Medusa as she looked across ancient time.

 

Communication and Cross-Cultural Influences

It's a gift to us that a focus of  such museums is to illuminate the earliest forms communication within this region of multiple cultures. We come to appreciate the intents and meanings behind the many quotidian, functional, ceremonial, religious and just plain beautiful objects displayed. 

Given that there are no extant traces of the language that accompanied many of the objects  shown, we're left with marvellous clues to decipher: technological artifacts of the time, items relating to food production/consumption, houses and settlements, burial remains, ritual or ceremonial objects, human adornments, decorative motifs and representations (animal, human, gods), aesthetic styles, art. 

Almost any human act can have both functional and symbolic or ideological meaning, and meanings can change across generations and different communities. In this way, archaeology s remains a living story precisely because it remains open to be deciphered, by us  now... as it was then. 

Quite a time-travel adventure when we visited Taranto!

More Creative Life News

You can read and see more about Italy, plus other travels and creative adventures by this itinerant artist at Creative Life News click  https://www.janetstrayer.com

Regards, Janet 

 

Living in Lecce, Part 2

Catholic Baroque in Lecce 

This southern region of Puglia is a very Catholic part of Catholic Italy. Visiting the many churches in Lecce (and in other nearby excursions), the daily masses are well attended, in contrast to other parts of Italy we've explored.  Cathedrals and churches abound in all directions, and all seem to have some special treasure to gaze at, some historical feature to note, and many, many confessionals, should you need them. 

In Lecce you can find an impressive church at literally each turn you take, with more than 20 elaborate stone churches in the historic centre alone! Given all these structures, no wonder Lecce's is famous for its own style of elaborated Baroque. Santa Croce is often heralded as the most ornate of these (under renovation as I write), but none are negligible.  I've looked at and into each one, and the photos taken would fill an album. (All photos here were taken by me)

An overall impression that remains is, of course, the baroque stone elaborations outside and inside the churches, something for which Lecce is known. Particularly, however, I've been delighted by how all of the churches seem to love cherubs: chubby little angels appear again and again, entwined with flowers, plants, and ornaments or with each other. And what's not to love? They seem spirited, hopeful, and add a touch of gaiety to otherwise somber matters.

inside one of Lecce's grand churches

Given the many notable chuches in Lecce, I'll  highlight just one of the lesser known, dedicated to Saints Nicolo and Cataldo.Walking to it takes you away from the hub of the city and near a cemetery and park. Once we thought we were in its vicinity, but still couldn't locate it, we asked for directions from a young local couple walking with their child. They had no idea it even existed. So we walked together to find the place, and it was a pleasure sharing our delight with them at this discovery.

Contrasting architecture of domed church,  cloister and pergola

tree near S. Nicolo 

A lovely guide welcomed us and provided a wealth of information, easily converted into English for our ease. She led us into the cloisters so that we could see both the otherwise unseen campanile and the original Latin inscription, testifying to its medieval architect and patron, Tancred, the Norman ruler from Sicily (a rarity to have both inscribed). 

I inquired about a fresco I thought was by a medievalist who seemed herald Giotto in style. No, she informed me. The artist had already been impressed by Giotto's work in the north and had tried to apply it here. The result was what I mistook for pre-Giotto (because of its more naive style). So much for artistic appropriation! Still, to my eye, it retained a naive and very authentic quality, a "presence" of its own, even in fragmented form.

Having feasted richly on the Leccese Baroque style, coming to Saint Nicolo cleansed the palate. It is set in an open surround with trees and a cemetery nearby, and with no other buildings to compete. The church is notable in its Norman arches and architecture, as well as its Norman-Byzantine interior, with parts of frescoes remaining from the middle ages (as noted in my "Giottoesque" example). 

Obelisks instead of Skycrapers

 

oblelisk near Porta Napoli +  my favorite one at roundabout

Along with its churches, this is a city that also loves its obelisks, many of which you can see while trying to negotiate the traffic roundabouts. Though I've snapped one of its major ones while walking near the Porta Napoli, my favorite one is more whimsical, with  birds flying out of  and atop it. It's inconvenient to stop and photograph it, and I'd never hazard this while driving around its roundabout. But here's a photo of it, too (cannot find its name or information about it). I like its composite structure and birds flying off from it.

Paintings and Structural Flourishes

Lecce's paintings and architectural flourishes reside not only in its churches. The homes on its streets are filled with interesting surprises at the cornices of buildings, on balconies, and other places you might look. Even the pavements offer changing patterns.

Cultural Crossroads

This small city has a wealth of architectural and archaeological treasures, including its Greek, Norman, Roman, Byzantine and Baroque influences. Just imagine having a house in the old city and needing to make some basement excavations because of sewage problems. This led one family to the chance discovery of multiple strata of archaeological wonders. This home stands in the historic town and has now been turned into the easily accessed Faggiano museum. As you travel downward, its deepest finds take you back to the Messapii culture of the 5th century BC; then up through Roman crypts, medieval ramparts, Jewish insignia and Knights Templar symbols.

Nothing missing so far except a castle. Oh, wait, there IS an unmistakably grand one here. The emperor Charles V thought Lecce was key to his defenses, so he built a mighty castle-fortress here. It guards the city now at less than casual attention, open to any and all who wish to walk through it.  It's fun taking a short-cut through the castle to get from the main square where you've been drinking a cappuccino at Alvino's café and looking over to the ancient Roman amphitheatre (not yet excavated in Charles V's time). The castle can be and is treated as a short-cut  from this main piazza to the streets behind that house theaters, beauty shops, wineries, boutiques and other shops catering to a lively modern city. How many cities offer such impressive short-cuts for daily use?

Historic Walled City of Lecce

 

I especially like walking into around the old walled city from its different portals. The central one is Porta Napoli, to and from which you see university students streaming. We live nearest the Porta Rudiae, right inside which is the art academy, the Accademia Belle Arti, with its stately old entranceway (photo at right).

Porta Napoli  photo Janet Strayer

  

Accademia Belle Arti

Accademia Belle Arti photo credit

Given the contrast it offered, I couldn't resist a picture of this old bicycle parked outside the ornate entrance to the Art Academy in Lecce. This bicycle frame seemed to me like a Dada-esque sculpture left always outside the ancient entrance to the Academy -- symbolic of all that is old and young in this vibrant city. 

Bicycles seem to be an icon this city -- easy to ride on the level (even if cobblestoned) paths, and many are ridden in traffic as well. On the first day of exploring old Lecce by foot, I even  spotted a wooden bicycle outside a shop.

 

wooden bicycle in Lecce 

Entering the Accademia for a quick peek, I loved the young faces seen in this ancient place, toiling or bluffing away at their creative studies. 

I snapped some photos as I peered inside the Accademia halls showing well-used printing presses, a class at work, and samples of contemporary sculpture and painting found inside its walls (I wish I could credit the artists but could not find this information and was asked not to interrupt the staff). As well as the Accademia, Lecce also hosts a more generic university. An assortment of international faces could be seen  among  students and residents.

photos inside Accademia Belle Arti by Janet Strayer

class inside Accademia Belle Arti (Janet Strayer photo)

artwork inside Accademia Belle Arti Lecce
 (my photos)

art store in Lecce, photo Janet Strayer

Art Supply Shop

A meandering distance away, from the Accademia I found a wonderful old and crammed art supplies store: Belle Arti Caiulo. I love such tucked-in shops with their wooden shelves and counters, somewhat dark in places, with the aroma of years. Lovely Fabriano papers of all types are in stock and really everything one could need, plus a knowledgeable and helpful staff, understandably proud of their shop.

Outside the Walls of the Old City

The pleasure of Lecce lies not only in the historic old city but spills out into its surrounding streets. On the streets outside the historic center, the traffic is brisk. I much prefer walking to driving, when possible. Especially because some of the houses lining "ordinary" streets  make you stop and marvel at them. 

On one of the main avenues leading to our own side-street is lined with privately-owned mansions in styes ranging from Renaissance balance to high Baroque with a Moorish twist. We fantasize about which of these remarkable houses we would live in. Of course, we'd have to restore most of these structures properly (as seems to be happening to some, properly or not). And then we'd need to decorate their interiors appropriately ...  in our dreams! But what fantastic fun to imagine.
 

Moorish-inspired mansion on Gallipoli, Lecce (Janet Strayer photo)

We're quite happy where we are, though. It's wonderful to sit in outdoor cafés (even in winter jackets, if needed). The wintertime sunshine is ample (compared to Vancouver!), and we can enjoy the local treats as we people-watch. The treats include puccia, a local bread that is somewhat like a fuller and richer pita, its dough sometimes flavoured with spices and olives. There's also  rustico, a delicious puff pastry filled with various savouries and cheese. And then there's pasticciotto, an egg-custard pastry with a rich and buttery baked crust. 

So I'll leave you with this taste of Lecce as we rest up for more of Puglia.

More Creative Life News

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

Regards, Janet @ https://www.janetstrayer.com