Old Ferries of Istanbul
Istanbul is my favorite city in the world. And one of my great loves are the old ferries that go across and up and down the Bosporus. During my last visit, in October of 2016, I took one of the ferries out to the Princess Island, a day trip to one of the city’s real treats. Cars aren’t allowed there, and people go about in Phaetons or horse-drawn carriages like in the old days. The boat ride itself is the main treat, but when you get there you can have a nice lunch, walk around, and catch the next ferry back. It’s a great half-day trip. But the old ships like this one are quickly being replaced by modern ferries that don’t even look much like boats. I know the new ones are safer and more efficient and probably less polluting, but I still have a real nostalgia for these boats, and when they’re all gone, I don’t think I’ll ride in any more. It just won’t be the same.
Sacred Offerings
When boating on the Ganges River in India, here at Varanasi, the most holy site of all, it is a tradition to pay homage to the mighty goddess river by making her an offering. On the ghats of the river children sell tiny trays with a candle surrounded by marigold blooms, appropriate since orange is the colour of devotion in Hinduism. It is the colour of the sun, of fire, and of the saffron thread and the robes of the Buddhist monks of the Thereveda tradition. I love this picture because it’s so rich in orange and fire and light. See the post below for the following moments.
Floating Votives
I know this looks like one of those ‘colour selection’ photographs, where you select a single colour and leave the rest black and white. But this is actually how the scene looked as we lit our little trays of marigold blooms and set them on the the great river, the Mother Ganges, in Varanasi, India. It was a ghostly dusk, silent and mysterious. Downstream the lights of the burning ghats flickered. The river of life and death flowed silently.
Say No to Crackers
The title of this post is a joke maybe only my good friend Constance Penley will appreciate. I’ll give you a hint: she’s from Florida. I arrived in New Delhi about a month and a half ago just in time for the worst air quality the city had ever experienced, with particulate matter and toxic gas amounts well over the ‘severe’ rating. Face masks were in such demand the price for them was inflating day by day. I was staying in a little 20-dollar-a-night hotel in a district called Karol Bagh, in the wonderful Channa Market area. The hotel was called ‘The King’s Inn’, though my bet would be no royalty ever stayed there. I think the idea was that they tried to treat all their customers like kings. They were very nice. Near the hotel was a small pre-school, and this was its facade. I loved the hopeful and colourful iconography. I saw six panels encouraging positive thinking: a happy birthday wish to Nehru, India’s post-independence leader, a drawing celebrating friendship, an homage to a Santa Claus-like guru, a pot brimming with flowers, and the hopeful saying “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. Only one of the panels is specific to the moment, current events as it were. “Say no to Crackers” was part of an anti-fireworks campaign circulating in the city at that time. The poor air quality was caused by a perfect storm of contributing factors: the farmers’ burning of fields in north India, the out-of-control automobiles and motor-rickshaws and motorcycles of the city of 16 million people, the toxins from coal-burning plants and other industries, the perpetual burning of garbage in the streets, and, the week previous, of the flagrant use of fireworks to celebrate the season. Hard to imagine there being so many fireworks in a city that it effected air quality but there you have it. So say no to crackers. Now if we can just get to the point of “say no to coal, say no to internal combustion engines, say no to burning”, well, we just might be able to have fireworks now and again.
Mother Mary Come to Me
Mosaic is my favorite visual art form. I’m not sure why, but I think it has to do with its colour and abstraction. It’s durability is also admirable. I have so many favorites, and this is one of them. It’s a detail of the face of Mary in the Deisis mosaic (a depiction of the triad of Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist) in the upper western gallery of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It dates from around 1200, over 5 centuries after that famous church’s construction. Mary bows her head towards Christ, in worship but also with sad eyes because her son has been taken from her and sacrificed for humanity’s sins. She wears over her head the purple Maphorion, edged in gold; an indication of her imperial nature. Underneath that we see the edge of her blue robe, indicative of her role as Queen of Heaven (imperial purple; royal blue). On the brow of her Maphorion is a golden star, an ancient symbol that predates Christianity and was associated with the fertility goddess cults of antiquity. Her eyes appear on the verge of producing tears, while her lips seem to quiver with the pain of Christ’s crucifixion. But as she sees him in the Deisis he is in splendour, victorious over death: the Pantocrator, ruler of all and judge of the universe. By 1200 Byzantine mosaic artists had begun imitating the subtleties of painting in their art, trying to reproduce shading and gradations of colour and shadow, articulating the careful play of light over a cheek or swath of waving drapery. Here, we have a good example of these experiments with the medium.
Vishnu Saves the Day
The Hindu god Vishnu has many avatars or reincarnations. One of them is Varaha, the Cosmic Boar [Not Cosmic Bore; though whenever I meet someone who is one I can’t help thinking about this sculpture]. The legend recounts that a demon imprisoned the Earth, known as Prithi or Bhu-Devi, in the depths of the ocean. Vishnu, as the powerful boar, dipped down into the ocean and brought Prithi up to the light of the heavens once again. This rock sculpture showing the event–Prithi is represented as a female figure, a goddess, being lifted in Varaha/Vishnu’s tusks–is found at a site called Udayagiri, which is near the town of Vidisha, India. It dates from the Gupta period, around 400 C.E. In the scene, a host of holy men witness the miracle of Vishnu’s power and the victory of order and good over evil. The Ocean, personified as a male figure with a hood of multiple serpents, worships Varaha. Good to see the good guys winning every now and again. He sort of reminds me of a 1600 year-old superhero, like Superman, who rescues Lois Lane…again. One suspect he had an emphatic “V” painted on his chest at one point.
Years and Years
The Fascist period in Italy saw, as did the same era in America, a huge increase in government spending in order to allay the economic effects of the Great Depression. Many public works projects were undertaken to employ people and keep the economy going. In Italy the Fascists built up their military, as did Germany, in the 20s and early 30s, but in Italy great architectural projects were also begun. Much of Italian Fascist architecture is not very attractive, but some of it is quite good. One of the things that’s interesting is trying to find the dates of building. Sometimes they’ve been eradicated because of the Fascist connotations. Here’s one that’s the most unapologetic and monumental that I’ve ever seen. It’s on the Central Post office of Naples. When Mussolini came to power he instigated a new system of the years, zeroing out the calendar in 1921-22. So for awhile dates were given in regular years and also in EF dates or ‘Era Fascista‘ dates. The same was true for buildings as well as books. This structure was built in 1936, or year 14 of the Era Fascista.
Arrivaderci Paradise!
This mosaic is a detail from an enormous 900-year-old mosaic flooring from the Norman cathedral in Otranto, Italy. The whole thing is huge, about 40 by 20 meters. There’s all kinds of subjects: religious, pagan, historical, and just plain made up. This one shows Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden. Adam seems quite happy and gives a cheery wave goodbye. In fact, rather than being expelled by the angel it looks more like Adam is saying “We’re outta here” and the angel is imploring them to reconsider. Anyway, I love these cartoonish mosaics and they’re one of the many great things to see in the south of Italy.
Trulli Amazing
The ‘trulli’ of the region around Alberobello in Puglia, south Italy, are one of the most amazing examples of vernacular architecture anywhere in the world. Built of local stone, unmortared, the courses form a dome in the interiors using the technique of corbelling (setting the courses slightly further in each time). This one was a beautiful rustic one, not quite as refined as some others. They might look like the homes of trolls, but they’re well suited for the heat of summer and cold of winter. The most concentrated area of trulli houses in Alberobello has been designated a UNESCO world heritage site for the uniqueness of the structures. A few masons still are able to construct and repair these remarkable buildings.
Boyz ‘n the Hood
There are few more eloquent documents of the elegant swagger of late 15th century courtly masculinity as this high relief from the Arch of Alfonso of Aragon in the Castello Nuovo in Naples. Alfonso marched into Naples in 1443 and the arch was completed around 1470, involving the work of several sculptors. It was very much an expression of renaissance ideals of courtliness and classical tastes. The arch itself uses classicizing architectural elements and antique subjects cover every inch of the ensemble. It’s Naples’s most impressive 15th century monument.
Last Supper, Otranto
Whenever you mention a painting of the Last Supper everyone always pictures Leonardo da Vinci’s famous mural in Milan, but many, many Last Suppers were painted before his stole the spotlight. Here’s one in a small Byzantine Church in Otranto, on the Achilles Heel of the boot of Italy. The scene is crammed onto one side of a small barrel vault in the church of St Peter. Christ is on the far left, and the Apostles are arrayed along the table. Judas scuttles below, smaller in scale and on the ‘wrong’ side of the table. He’s the betrayer. It may seem cartoon-like compared to Leonardo’s triumph of vanishing point perspective, but I like it anyway. It does the trick and tells the story, which is all it was supposed to do.
A Moment in Time
This is a detail from one of the world’s most famous works of art: Lorenzo Ghiberti’s competition panel depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac, dating from around 1403. It’s famous not only because it’s a great work of art and it won Ghiberti the lucrative contract for the ‘Gates of Paradise’ doors of the baptistery of Florence, but because of the panel that hangs right beside it in the Bargello Museum–Filippo Brunelleschi’s competition panel depicting the same subject. Hoping to spur great artistic achievement, the Cathedral works department had sponsored the competition, setting the subject matter and frame of the pieces. Only these two survive. According to Vasari, the great biographer of Renaissance artists, Brunelleschi was livid when he lost to Ghiberti. Humiliated, he fled to Rome and lost himself in the study of ancient Roman buildings and the techniques used to construct them. Brunelleschi would return to Florence to gain the biggest commission of all: to build the dome of the cathedral. As good as his panel was, Ghiberti’s was better. He chose to depict the moment that Abraham is concentrating on the jugular where the Old Testament patriarch will thrust his knife. The wind blows on the mountaintop of Sinai; Abraham’s sleeve catches a gust. The angel has not quite arrived to stay Abraham’s hand. His determination to do god’s will is evident in his set features. Isaac has discerned the angel, and, while looking up, has exposed that very neck which is the knife’s target. Ghiberti chose the narrative moment of greatest tension and showed himself to be current with recent classicizing trends with the body of the boy being as well-muscled as a Greek demigod.
Behind the Mask
Naples is an enigmatic city. It is dirty and crime-ridden, yet it is my favorite Italian city; or at least in a tie with Palermo. The city does not reveal itself easily; it takes time and effort. But the rewards are many. The city’s art and architecture, its vibrant street life, and its unrivaled vernacular culture, all make it one of the world’s most engaging cities. Here fish mongers still break out into song in the streets. As a traveler, you must have a little courage to peel off the mask of Naples so that it may reveal itself to you in all its mystery and magnificence.
