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The Ode to Memory (And Other Thoughts)

The poem A Thank You to the Wonders of Photography is currently one of the Challenge Poems during the National Poetry Month celebrated in the United States throughout the month of April. It could not escape my attention for a number of reasons. It celebrates memory, and it celebrates photography, but above all, the author mentions the “erasable” state of modern incriptions, which is what I found the most valuable. Now, when I write this blog, I usually do so through a platform’s interface. But when I write poetry, it best comes out when I am out there with a pen and paper. This is not to say that I do not organise my writing with the help of a computer program; or that I never edit my writings once they were transmitted to a Word document. But when I said what I said in this post about Petrarch’s lamenting the state of his manuscripts, I meant just that. And what saddens me the most is that with more and more people using word processors to compose works there is little room left for palaeography or in depth literary criticism – precisely because we cannot see and review the editing process.

Click on the link to read Ode to Memory — a Challenge Poem for National Poetry Month by Sheri Fresonke Harper.
A poem about the way photographic memories have been and will be stored and praising the technology.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1690448/ode_to_memory_a_challenge_poem_for.html

I reacted to the final stanza:

The future is calling with memory sticks
and all worry erased with many neat tricks,
will I haul on my neck more memory so slick,
that never will I doubt a thought arrived with a flick,

of a switch and all sorrow will diminish in time,

as set into blocks more rigid than lime,

my words and my touches my senses sublime

can compete with the fading marches of time

for memory will never fail and arrive so quick.

It brings to mind many thoughts and references. First, of course, is Barbra Streisand’s Memories: “can it be that it was so simple then, or has time rewritten every lie?” While we undoubtely capture a moment with the help of a camera, one cannot fail to agree with some photography critics that the art of photography is the art of choosing. The choice may not be seemingly affected by any rational effort, but it still manifests itself in the choice of angles, models, lighting, etc. So what gets stored on our memory stick is the history of making choices, and it may be particularly interesting to ask ourselves: how do we choose what to remember, when it comes to capturing a moment on camera?

Which makes this a fitting post to reflect on the recent Capture Manchester competition and exhibition at the Cube Gallery. My personal “problems” with the entries have been, as follows: 1) digital art not being distinguished from photography; and 2) the truly narrow focus of entries. The competition invited the photos of any area in Greater Manchester; on display, there were innumerable captures of Manchester’s Town Hall, the Manchester Eye, and other well-known city centre locations. Among the winning entries, the majority were collages or artwork – quite against the suggested focus on photography. But what this ultimately illustrates is how people understand and respond to their own city. As a cameraman myself, I cannot disagree that the Town Hall is an enviable spot to commemorate on film. So is the Manchester Eye. But what about the University? Or Bridgewater Hall? Or indeed, many smaller and less media-savvy areas of Greater Manchester that are poetic in just the same way as the better-known locations? Is Manchester’s best asset in its Edwardian Gothic edifice in Albert Square?

This may have to do with how we understand Beauty, Art, and Poetry. Apparently, as the Textfestival website tells us, in Britain “art” and “poetry” are often considered two different entities. I can relate to that, having once confused an academic with my all-embracing usage of the word “art” in a talk about an individual’s response to an artistic exercise. But we actually deprive the language and our understanding of things by lumping “art” and “painting” together, or by extending the notion of “fine arts” on Art as a philosophical category. We also miss out on an important link between Beauty, Poetry, and Art, thus ending up asking questions whether a mathematical formula or a programming code can be a specimen of Beauty. The title of the film, A Beautiful Mind, is a good insight into if, and how, something seemingly unpoetic can be beautiful and have the state of the art. I am sure many mathematicians and scientists would agree.

I am hoping to visit Textfestival this Saturday, but just for now it is really striking to see how we select places to remember (=capture on camera) and how we then proceed to explain our choice. And the choice seems to be more often described in such terms, as “dazzling”, “lasting”, than “poetic”. We therefore seem to attribute a quality to an image’s impact – but not to the image itself. Undoubtedly, not all is gold that glistens, so a visually impressive (and maybe digitally processed) image is by no means a good image, let alone a poetic image. The question that rises from the above is: can it be that our choice of what to remember bedazzles us and confuses our actual memory? How much are the angles from which we look at different objects belong to our own vision and how much – to what we have seen before?

Below is a slide show of my photos of Stockport (which is to this day a disputed area for Greater Manchester and Cheshire). For my photos of Manchester, visit this link.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649

A Day at Heaton Park

You know that it took me six years to get to Urbis. Well, it took me seven years to visit Heaton Park, despite the fact that for 4.5 years I lived in Clifton which is only 15 mins by car from Prestwich and the park. Perhaps, these are just some of the most unexplainable things that can happen in one’s lifetime.

I wasn’t planning to go anywhere this Saturday. My week at work was substantially busy. I’m doing basically the same thing as I have been doing since 2006 or even prior to that date – blogging, writing a copy, producing Social Media coverage of events, and also looking into how businesses can incorporate Social Media and Networks in their business routine. So, with a plenty of research, presentations, proposal writing, and even one business meeting the week was busy enough for me to almost forget about St George’s Day.

On Friday evening I relaxed with a glass of German wine. A ‘glass’ is an understatement, really, but then I don’t want to make a bad impression… Nevertheless, I still woke up at 8, and by the afternoon I was wondering if I should stay home or go out. I was well tempted by the sunny weather… and then I remembered that I never yet went to Heaton Park.

Rather than taking a Metrolink tram, I went by bus, and in some 20-25 mins I was near the park. A friend of mine went there before me and found the park mildly disturbing, mainly due to the relief of the land. Indeed, the hills and heaps of trees that conceal ups and downs can produce a weird effect, and as I said, the park would be a perfect place for a Surrealist study of space and our psychological response to it.

The park previously belonged to the Egertons, the wealthy landed aristocratic family. Sir Thomas Egerton, under whom the Hall enjoyed the first phase of its flourishing, was elevated to the peerage by the turn of the 18/19th cc with the title of Baron Grey de Wilton (1784) and then 1st Earl of Wilton (1801). Heaton Hall that is presently enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year was designed in the 18th c. by James Wyatt (British architect) and bears some distinct Italian traits both in outside and inside decor. The orangery that on the day of my visit hosted some private function was added to the house in 1823.

The considerable part of family’s income came from coal mining in North West of England, particularly Radcliffe and Siddal Moor. Sir Thomas purchased many of the paintings we see on display at the Hall, while on the Grand Tour in Europe in 1787-88. His own records indicate that he was collecting English contemporary paintings and the copies of Old Masters in Italy. In Paris, as well, he purchased large quantities of furniture, clothing and porcelain and brought it back, to adorn the Hall.

The rooms that are open to the visitors comprise, on the ground floor: a hall with sculptures in the four semispheral niches; an ante-library and library; the sumtuously decorated Music Room with a Greek harp, a harpsicord, a square piano and a Samuel Green organ; a billiard room; a saloon; and a dining room; and on the first floor: a master’s bedroom; the Cupola Room; the Pink Bedroom; and the Yellow Bedroom. The Cupola Room on the first floor was decorated by the Italian master Biagio Rebecca, but throughout the Hall the technique of grisaille is used extensively.

It is interesting to note the engravings and paintings in the room. In the dining room, for instance, one would be expected to stare at the sad, if not rather gruesome, demise of Dido. A copy of Giercino’s (left), the painting depicts a dying Dido, but what one notices instantly is the wound on her chest and the sword on which she thrusted herself. Arguably, this is not the most fitting painting for the room where people were expected to thrust knives and forks into meats, although the masters of the house had evidently had a different view. On the other hand, the upstairs boudoirs are all decorated with reproductions from the paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds and some contemporary artists, depicting children or mother with a child. And in the library one can see an engraving “The Birth of Shakspeare” where the English Bard is shown greeted by Mother Nature and Passions.

The Hall was sold to Manchester Corporation at the very beginning of the 20th c., and in the recent years was managed by Manchester Art Galleries. Photography is not permitted; apparently, some visitor made the photos and then sold them off, so a snapper is now a no-no, and for the most intrepid of us there is a CCTV in every room. I have to say, though, that a good colour catalogue of the Hall is very due… and I would be up to participating in making it.

The park’s grounds were visited by the Duke of Wellington and recently – by the Pope John Paul II who spoke the Mass. The place is now marked by the so-called Papal Monument. And the Old Town Hall Colonnade (left) is the remaining piece of the town hall that stood in King St in Manchester’s city centre before the new building was erected in Albert Square.

After four hours of walking and talking photographs I was obviously too tired. At one point, as well, I walked up the steep hill, only to find myself within the limits of a golf course, and there I had to make an uneasy choice about climbing over the fence. The uneasiness was in that I was afraid I could fall over, since I haven’t done this kind of exercise for a good number of years. I managed OK, though.

Some information was taken from Peter Riley’s book, Heaton Hall and the Egerton family.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=70933

René Magritte Revisited… at Heaton Park

René Magritte’s Man with a Newspaper (Tate London, 1928) is currently exhibited as a part of Subversive Spaces at Whitworth Art Gallery. The exhibition ends on May 4th, and is the celebration of Surrealist legacy, on its own as well as the influence on contemporary art.

As you already know from my feed, I went to Heaton Park yesterday, and, being my own cameraman, I used this small gallery at Heaton Hall to make some pictures. I took a photo of the bench, as well, but it wasn’t until later on that I realised that altogether the photos could be a kind of subversive version of Magritte’s painting… so, with the kind help from my friend, I put the photos in a collage.

On an interesting note, a friend of mine went to Heaton Park long before me, and told me that he was found the park somewhat disturbing. The hilly relief, the vast grounds, and the heapes of trees produced this kind of effect on him. Personally, I was delighted by the very same features, but at the moment an idea for a thrilling ghost story is boiling in my head, which story would most certainly have a generous sprinkle of Surrealism in it.

Inspired by Magritte

It’s a Dog’s Life…

“Well, now you know that your cat has nine lives, baby,
Nine lives to itself.
You’ve only got one, and the dog’s life isn’t fun.
Mamma, take a look outside”

-John Lennon, Crippled Inside

Yes, dog’s life in the dog’s house can be well and truly sad – unless this is life in the care of the loving masters, or at a dog hotel. My first dog, as you may remember, was presented to me as a birthday present, and what a present it was! To this day, three years after her passing away, we still feel as if she is still here – and it doesn’t change with the fact that I’m in England, I feel her presence just as much.

I had lived with two dogs in England, too, they were siblings, Belgian Shepherds, although the brother had left us in 2008. And back in Moscow, we had a cat, too, who also departed in 2008. It was the so-called Russianblue cat – and if you’re wondering about the look, here is an example (left). The picture (by pepleo of Flickr) illustrates well the regal air persona of the Russianblues: somehow the queenly “we’re not amused” becomes them well.

These days my mother and grandmother have adopted a kitten who is about to provide a whole new experience of having a cat in the house. The new cat, by what I hear, is tenfold more mobile than the cat and the dog we’ve had before, put together. She hasn’t yet criss-crossed the ceiling, but apparently this is in the making.

Still, the dog’s life has never meant something really bad for me. In fact, as you can see on the photo on the right, it has always been more about trying to emulate the dog, rather than pity her. You see me, back when I was in Russia, most probably as a student, and my dog I told you about. I have to say, being as old as I was on that picture, I probably didn’t find sleeping in the armchair as comfortable, as my dog evidently did. But I vividly remember falling asleep in an old chair when I was about 5 years old, which was quite lovely. Shall we say that the comfort of such sleep prominently depends on one’s height??

Latte Art

Update: When I wrote this post at the end of September 2006, just over a month after I started blogging, I wouldn’t know that in nearly three years time it would have become one of the most read posts on the blog. In fact, as of now, it is just inside the Top 15 at #13, and is usually found in Google Images. I’m obviously tempted to think that the post, as well as the Coffee Art site, have been the orchestrating forces behind the surge in Latte Art in Russia, as the TV report from Russia Today channel well illustrates.

And if you’re up to trying your hand at drawing with milk and chocolate, to adorn your latte with exquisite designs, here’s something to help you get started, from Vinko @ Hong Kong and Toronto.

Original post from 26 September, 2006.

For one of my projects, I’ve been researching into coffee, its origins, sorts, etc. On the way I came across an intriguing term ‘latte art’ and went on to look for images. Well, this is a 3-page gallery of latte art images, which, despite being generally similar, sometimes are real gems.

Also, check out another fantastic website, Just Coffee Art, where art images are painted with coffee.

 

Amanda Lear – Gold


I‘ve seen this video clip a while ago, but it’s never stopped me fascinating for the reaction of the French cinema and music stars. As I understand it, artists like Jean Rochefort, Charles Aznavour and Catherine Deneuve must’ve been watching Amanda’s clip while taking part in a TV programme. And as all of us would agree, their reaction couldn’t be more peculiar.

I was introduced to Amanda Lear’s songs by a good friend, and I never regretted this. I may be more interested in the work she did with and for Salvador Dali, but at the same time she as a performer certainly has the spell.

Amsterdam Bed-In 40 Years On: Memories and Reflections

They say that Twitter helps you find ideas. With regards to this post, Twitter helped me find the most of it… starting with a reminder about the famous Amsterdam bed-in at the Hilton Hotel staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono between 25 and 31 of March, 1969. Although a seasoned Beatlomaniac myself, I have forgotten about the 40th anniversary. But then someone reminded me of it.

It was Joel Warady from Chicago with whom I share both professional activity (marketing, see Joel Warady Group website) and the passion for the Grand Four from Liverpool. His first tweet was a mere mention of the 40th anniversary, but he also mentioned that at The Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam there was a plaque on the room’s door. I was curious, so I asked if one could actually see the room. Joel’s answer was positive… and next I was asking him if he would be willing to answer a few questions. The Q&A exchange happened at Facebook, so in a nutshell here is an example of harnessing the potential of some Social Networks to do the work.

So, off to Joel 🙂 And many thanks to him for agreeing to answer the questions.


Joel Warady: This was the room where John asked for peace…

JD: Let’s start with your visit to Amsterdam. Did you deliberately choose to stay at The Hilton?

JW: I tend to go to Amsterdam for work purposes, and in 2007 I decided to stay at The Hilton. I didn’t actually think that it was there that John and Yoko had staged their bed-in. But once I arrived, I recognised it straight away and asked some questions. The front desk person was the one who confirmed it, and told me that if I wanted to see the room, the General Manager would be happy to show it to me.

JD: You mentioned there was a plaque at the room commemorating the bed-in. So, you got to see it – what was the impression?

JW: I did have a chance to see the room. I saw it many times before in the clips, but it was still very inspiring to physically be there. It was very cool, it felt historical, but also a bit sad. I was thinking that this was the room where John asked for peace, but then remembering that he was shot in an act of violence… it really got to me.

JD: Do you remember your reaction to the news on December 8, 1980?

JW: When I first heard that John was killed, I was in my car, driving in the suburbs of Chicago. Ironically, I was selling life insurance at the time, and when I heard he had been killed, I pulled off the road, and cried.

JD: John seems to be an important figure for you… am I right?

JW: John’s humour was always what made me smile the most. While I enjoyed his singing, his personality was what made it for me.

JS: And what about the Beatles, then? I notice on Facebook you list them among your favourite artists.

JW: Beatles did mean a lot for me. I’m old enough to remember their US introduction, but still young enough to introduce their music to younger coworkers. Even today when I hear certain Beatles songs, I tear up thinking of when I first heard the song. It also saddens me to hear John’s and George’s voices on certain songs, knowing that they both are gone.

JS: Do you have a favourite song?

JW: This would be a tough one! Obviously, there are so many… but if I have to choose one, it is ‘If I Fell‘ from A Hard Day’s Night album.

JS: As everyone knows, we the fans love going to our stars’ concerts, visiting the places where they lived or worked, collect memorabilia. What about yourself – have you seen the Beatles perform? Or went to Penny Lane, perhaps?

JW: Well, here is what really sad: although I’ve been to the UK over 70 times, I still didn’t get to visit Liverpool or Abbey Road. I do keep promising myself to do so, of course. At the same time, I have visited the site in Soho where they had their store. The same goes for those sites in London where I know they used to be in their early days, I love going there. I’ve never seen them live, but a few years ago I went to see Paul in concert, and that was awe-inspiring. Seriously, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended.

The Significance of the Amsterdam Bed-In

The 40th anniversary of the Bed-In (commemorated in The Ballad of John and Yoko) was highlighted in the media, as well as marked by a special exhibition organised by Yoko Ono and The John Lennon Estate. The exhibition at The Hilton this year showcased John’s art work, posthumously fulfilling his dream to achieve recognition as a visual artist. On a personal note, I own what must be one of those collections of coloured prints that Yoko produced to popularise John’s work. To quote John Lennon Arts Projects,

Lennon’s style as an artist has been written about extensively, and consisted of two main techniques: quick sketching and the art of sumi ink drawing, which involves the use of a fine sable brush with very black ink and water. This Oriental art technique leaves very little room for error; the consistency of the water and ink has to be carefully controlled, and the brushstrokes must suit the consistency of the ink. Quick sketching was also well suited to Lennon, as he could draw extremely fast; many of his quick sketches were made in one continuous movement in which he did not lift his pencil from the paper, thereby creating an entire complex image with a single line.

Of course, for all of us who in one way or another were influenced by Lennon’s work, and by The Beatles in general, there will be those who are more or less immune to their charms. Michael Archer of The Guardian, for instance, attempts to explain the significance of the bed-in, but ends up speculating more about the phonetic similarity between Lennon’s “peace” and Ono’s “piece”, as she called her own artwork (now, of course, “piece” as a term has been so much appropriated by artists and art critics alike, it is probably impossible to appreciate the 1969 pun in its own terms). He also puts the bed-in in the context of the Vietnam war and compares it to the Grosvenor Square demonstration of 1968. What he forgets to mention, however, that 1968 was generally the year of protests (May’68 in Paris was fittingly commemorated in Bertolucci’s Dreamers); these happened in many countries, and the Vietnam war wasn’t the only cause. Lennon wasn’t too idealistic, after all, and certainly didn’t expect the world leaders to stop fighting to watch him and Yoko possibly having sex. The bed-in was an attempt to seize the moment, to get the world come to the Amsterdam Hilton and to “give peace a chance”. To quote one of the commentators on Archer’s article:

I was in NYC the night John Lennon was shot. Driving by the Dakota the next day on the way out of town was one of the saddest experiences in my life. In some ways, it has seemed to me that that day was a turning point in our civilisation and that everything went downhill since then… I still miss John Lennon for his music also, of course, but the world today could certainly use more of his wit, wisdom, and sarcasm. A special thanks to Yoko for keeping John’s memory alive…

P.S. I was hoping to add more “value” to Joel’s interview, as I found a video on YouTube (a Social Media channel, by the way) of Hans Schiffers, a Dutch journalist, interviewing Hans Boskamp at The Hilton Hotel. The video went online in February 2009. I tried to connect with Hans via YouTube mail, but was far less successful. My attempts at securing help of other Dutch speakers I knew, sadly, failed, but the readers of this post who know Dutch are very welcome to participate. You can leave comments or email me with the transcript. Either way, it will be quoted, and a full credit will be given to you.

You can also view a series of bed-in clips at Mojo4Music.

Tina Turner In Concert At MEN Arena

If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I was all excited about going to Tina Turner’s concert at MEN Arena on Friday, 3rd of April 2009 (as were a few of my colleagues and fellow Tweeps). I’ve come to know her through Simply the Best video clip; but she really has entered my horizon after her duet with Eros Ramazzotti for Cose della Vita. The clips were often shown on Russian TV, although I also remember some Russian critics laughing off her performance skills. That was at the time when the “Western” music began to make mainstream waves onto the post-Soviet Russian music scene.

Speaking in online marketing terms, my return was higher than the investment. Comparing Tina’s concert to Barbra Streisand’s visit to Manchester in 2007, it was cheaper and more fan-friendly – in the precise sense that none of us, as you will be able to see for yourself, was stopped from taking photographs and otherwise commemorating Tina’s performance. Of course, I won’t compare their styles, as both Turner and Streisand are energetic and inspiring, but in very different ways.

The concert, however, made me think about one thing. I shared my thought on my Russian blog, and it was confirmed by a friend who went to Johnny Winter’s concert. It is possible to forget, when you see Tina’s dancing on the elevated stage above the viewers, that at the end of November 2009 she turns 70. The whopping 70 years. As much as I understand that music has been her life and love since the early age, it is incredible to see such power, talent and beauty producing a show that is emotionally, physically and logistically demanding. I mean, there were no less that 5 changes of costumes!!! Yes, there is experience, of course…

…but what it makes me think about is today’s “stars”. Be they actors or singers, now and again you find them going out of ideas by the time they’re barely 40. At 40 years of age they consider themselves accomplished enough to say that they want to retire. I don’t deny the fact that one CAN accomplish a lot by the time they’re 40… but it would be such a pity had that “lot” been everything a person could really achieve in their professional lifetime. And I’m not talking of the likes of John Lennon who was killed two month after celebrating his 40th birthday. I’m talking about perfectly able – and apparently gifted – people who somehow burn out of desire to explore their potential further after a certain period of time. Again, we could cite entertainment and show business as extremely competitive industries, and maybe admit that to always stay on top in these industries is extremely hard. And perhaps even speculate about whether being critically acclaimed, commercially successful and infinitely creative always go hand in hand or follow each other simultaneously – and look at Tina Turner as one of examples.

But then there will be the likes of Clint Eastwood, Johnny Winter, Michel Legrand, and many more artists whose creativity didn’t burn out with age. Maybe the real question should be why they were there – at stage, in cinema, etc – in the first place? Was it just a way to earn money, a job that could be changed or abandoned? Or was it something more? A desire to push the world somewhere, even if the benefits thereof were rather blurry? Or even merely a desire to say something in your own voice and make it resonate for decades? I’d like to think it is “something more”. And let Tina show us what it is.

Links of interest:

More photos from Manchester concert on Flickr
Official Tina Turner website
Tina Turner’s world tour official site
Tina Turner on YouTube
Tina Turner fan blog
Tina Turner official fan site
Tina Turner on Wikipedia

And Once Again About Leonardo’s Portraits

Update: a National Geographic video report about Nicola Barbatelli’s discovered portrait of Leonardo.

Yes, again on the subject of Leonardo’s portraits, for there is an exhibition currently at Manchester Art Gallery showing ten drawings by Leonardo da Vinci that are kept at the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. The exhibition marks the 60th birthday of His Royal Highness Prince of Wales, and I will be coming back to it as a subject, although I shall duly express my commendations to MAG for treating Manchester residents and visitors to what can easily be compared to Raphael’s first exhibition in England back in 2004 at the National Gallery.

In addition to the ten drawings by Leonardo, there are two more reproductions. One is a binding of the artist’s disegni (drawings), and another is a red chalk portrait by Francesco Melzi, apparently completed around 1515, just four years before Leonardo’s death in 1519 (left). And it is the latter that got me standing in front of it for several minutes thinking….

… about the personality of the sitter, for example, as well as the artist’s skill. Melzi is known as the pupil of Leonardo, and had become the artist’s heir. Leonardo’s influence cannot be denied either when we look at Melzi’s own paintings, or when we consider certain similarities between Melzi’s chalk portrait of his master and Leonardo’s Portrait of a Young Woman (right). The attention to detail (hair, particularly) and the conveyance of eye expression are present in works of both master and student. The transition of a sitter’s character onto canvas is also impressive. The young woman’s contemplative regard shows her in the state of day-dreaming. In Melzi’s sitter, on another hand, we discover a truly intelligent man; Leonardo seems either to have been caught while turning around (=looking for something/at something, being curious, or responding to something or someone), or to have had his mind sparked by something of interest.

… and I was also thinking of how similar Melzi’s sitter is to the recently discovered portait of Leonardo (left). In spite of the obviously different depiction (which most likely means that the discovered picture isn’t a self-portrait by Leonardo), the main features are the same. But rather than helping with the puzzle, the portrait by Melzi only complicates it. For Melzi’s drawing is dated to be around 1515; and this well-known self-portrait by Leonardo (right; in Turin) is dated between 1512 and 1515, and the two men portrayed could hardly be any more different. It is possible, however, to conjure that what is kept at the Biblioteca Reale in Turin may be Leonardo’s self-caricature, much in the spirit of the drawing from the Royal Library at Windsor (below, left). Or perhaps, Turin holds the great man’s contemplation of himself as an old man, which may very well link Leonardo’s work to today’s techniques of aging an image.

In general, 2009 seems so far to be the year of Leonardo da Vinci related discoveries. After Nicola Barbatelli’s victorious visit to the village of Acerenza on which The Times reported, Telegraph has had its own share of news-making. The paper has reported that

the journalist, Piero Angela, enlisted the help of art historians, Carabinieri police forensic experts and graphic artists to tease out more detail from the ghostly image (right).

The image is thought to date back to 1480s and was found in da Vinci’s Codex on the Flight of Birds, composed between 1490 and 1505.

All the above conjectures can be faint and may even collapse, and then there’ll be a thunderstorm caused by Leonardo’s having a hearty laugh upstairs. It must really be good when you conjure your own legend in such way that 500 years after your death people still twist their brains trying to figure you out. The point is not that we shall never succeed at understanding Leonardo, at unlocking all of his mysteries. The point is that, whether willingly or not, he did create this legend. Some Mancunian folk can recall the framed quote from the late Tony Wilson that we can see at The Northern in Tib St: “when people ask me whether to choose the truth or the legend, I say: choose the legend“. As for me, I like to bring up The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (and Martin Scorsese). In one particular scene Jesus, already on the Cross, has a feverish vision of himself being saved from death, returning to life as a simple man, and one day walking in the market and seeing one of his pupils telling people about the Saviour who had died on the Cross and then resurrected. In Jesus’s vision, he was alive, so he called the pupil and asked, why he was telling the lie about Jesus, for Jesus hadn’t died. The answer of the pupil was short but clear: “they don’t need you alive“. The greatest thing about Jesus was that he resurrected after death; and even it had indeed been a lie, it wouldn’t have mattered for as long as it fed hopes and illusions.

The question, of course, is: had it not been for all those mysteries, would we have really been interested in Leonardo da Vinci? I have already heard some critical comments about his drawings. A point to remember, of course, is that we often approach the past on our terms rather than on the terms of the past. The age of Renaissance showed great aptitude as in conveying one’s individual character, as in concealing it under the layers of symbols. The fact that we’re now trying to process all this kaleidoscope of meanings into something that can be easily digested in the age of celebrity gossip is, well, sad.

The previous post about Leonardo’s portraits on this blog (and many thanks to Sheila Lennon for findings it useful and including it in her report). Also, speaking of various representations of Leonardo, check out this article. It suggests, in particular, that the Turin self-portrait may be a portrait of Leonardo’s father or uncle. Without disputing this possibility, I think we may really have the situation when Leonardo had drawn his would-be self-portrait at the late age.

Images are the couresy of The Times, Telegraph, Wikipedia, Manchester Art Gallery, and About.com.

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