Portrait of the baptist.

Saint

Mother & Child

Home time.

Italian visit is coming to an end, soon i'll post photo's of the "work" i've done.

Where's your piece of YBA?

Mine's saved on my computer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2008/dec/09/art

Discovered last week that a few Accademia Students will be exchanging with students from Cleveland College of Art & Design, my previous college, in my home town.

I've offered my services to the students, to help them setting up in Middlesbrough, and to warn them. Ha.

So far no one has contacted me... just wait until they get there!

Identity

The identity of the character is obviously an integral part to any religious work, however their true identities are lost after years of interpretation in european art.

The most foremost characters in religious paintings are often depicted with relics based on their lives or often deaths.

I have complied a list of those who i have come across.

Jesus of Nazareth - often holding a piece of fruit or a flower.
St. Mary (Madonna) - Also holding fruit/peach.
St. Peter - Keys, Book, Popes robes.
St. Paul/Saul of Tarsus - Sword/Knife.
St. John - Serpent in a Challis, Book, Eagle, Cauldron.
St. Matthew the Evangelist - Tax book.
St. Thomas - Square, Spear, Finger testing the resurrected Christ's wounds.
St. Bartholomew - Flayed Alive, Holding Skin,
St. Philip the Apostle - Tau Cross, holding basket of Bread.
St. Andrew - Holding scroll, Saltire.
St. James (Maj), son of Zebedee - Scallop, Fisherman's hat.
St. James (Min), son of Alphaeus - Carpenters Saw, Fullers Club, Book.
St. Jude Thaddeus - Axe, Club, Boat, Oar, I.H.S Medallion.
St. Simon the Zealot - Boat, Cross and Saw, Fish (or two fish), Lance, Man being sawn in two longitudinally, Oar.
Judas Iscariot - Bag of Money, 30 pieces of Silver, noose.
St. John the Baptist - Ragged Clothing, staff.
St. Mary Magdalene - Pot of perfume, Red Egg, At the feet of Christ.
St. Peter of Verona - Sword in head and chest, Palm.
St. Nicholas - Baubells
St. Benedict - Book, Staff.
St. Sebastian - Arrows, Tree.
St. Roch - Stabbed in leg, Cloth tied to staff, Bag.
St. Job - Sores
St. Gotthard of Hildesheim - Bishops robes, Book.
St. Helena of Constantinople - Cross
St. Constantine the Great - Armour, Chains, Crown.
St. Francis of Assisi - Stigmata, Grey Robes.
St. Bernardo of Sienna - Grey cloak, Book, IHS Medallion.
St. Jerome - Stone in Hand, Book, Skull, Lion, Red Robes & Hat, Crucifix, Hour glass. (Doctor of the church)
St. Barbara - Castle, Lightning, Palm.
St. Cyprian - Bishops Robes, Palm.
St. Catherine of Alexandria - Wheel, Sword.
St. Clare - Lamp,
St. Dominic - Book, Black and White Robes, Monk.
St. Anthony the Great - Bell, Red Robes.
St. Philip Benizi - Light, Palm.
St. Augustine - Books, dove, Bishops Robes. (Doctor of the Church)
St. Prosdocimus - Jar, Bishops Robes.
St. Scholastica - Dove, Beads, Book, Nun.
St. Pope Gregory the Great - Dove, Book. (Doctor of the Church)
St. Ambrose - Whip, Beehive, Bones. (Doctor of the church)
St. Justina of Padova - Sword in chest, Palm.
St. Stephen - Stones, Palm.
St. Alexander of Bergamo - Red Sword, Palm.
St. Julian - Staff, Book.
St. Lucy - Chalice, Dish, Eyes.
St. Louis of Toulouse - Gothic French Crest on cloak.
St. Vittore - Fur Robe, Palm.
St. Alexander Nevsky - Russian Robes, Armour.
St. George - Lance, Sword, Armour.
St. Apollonia - Tongs, Palm, Crown.
St. Nicholas of Tolentino - Augustinian holding Bread, Basket of Bread/Money, Crucifix with lilies, Star.
St. Michael - Archangel

I'd like to take a minute...

to talk about Mark Wallinger's 'Via Dolorosa'

The work, currently housed in the Duomo di Milano's crypt is a 17 minute clip of Franco Zaffirelli's, 'Jesus of Nazareth'. However Wallinger has blocked out all of the image with the exception of a two inch border, using this limited amount of information, its is just possible to determine what is going on, for example you can see the four points of the cross as the crucifixion is taking place and the indistinguishably roman, centurion's red feathered helmet.

I am discussing this as this seems to be the way in which my work is currently moving, there is a rich tapestry of religious art in italy (as i am sure you are aware) and each has a specific positive, composition (Raphael), Lighting (Carravagio) or utter genious (Michelangelo) and common enemy, the true depiction of the culture and ethnicity of Palestine.

However, the thing that interests me most is the (almost) universal image of Mary/Christ/Paul/Judas.

Saw this fella too.

Oh Florence, how i love thee.

Photo from the Uffizi Gallery.
The bloody people shut the drawing cabinet with Michelangelo and Da Vinci's drawings in, and to add insult to injury, they only bloody closed the Rembrandt room too. Saw lots of Titian, Botticelli and Raphael though.



This is where Hannibal Lecter hangs the italian police man from.





The Florentine Duomo and bell tower.




Donatello painted part of this fresco.


The view from Piazzale Michelangelo

Trip to Venice.

The biennale.


Ghost of a trip to venice, not actually a trip to venice?

Christo & Jeanne-Claude

Today Joe and I went to padiglione d'arte contemporanea, which coincidentally had many of Christo's drawings, coincidentally, because if you look down two post i made reference to Christo in a photo of Arco Delle Pace.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, if you are not familiar did this sort of thing




An example of a drawing by Christo:

Spherical Painting

Interesting white (crop) circle on a new shop window.

Christo?

The Last Supper

Went to see Da Vinci's last supper today.

It was pretty amazing, although you only get 15 minutes in with the actual painting, its plenty of time to take it in.

I was unaware that so much restoration had taken place and that they'd had changed so much of the original.

Here are a few drawings i did.

The hands of Judas and Jesus.



The complete line-up

Day 36 in Milan

The beginning of another slow week... or not.

Started a small painting today, influenced mainly by several points i've been considering,

No.1

The beautiful, but somewhat ridiculous depictions of the Virgin Mary with child that adorn every single wall in every gallery, museum and church, were all but eclipsed by one painting by Niccolò of Cremona, inventively titled 'Virgin Mary with Child' (1520) which, despite being severely damaged, still Luca Pignatelli titled Madonna del Neve (2007), stands tall at the apex of one of Chieza Santa Maria Delle Grazie's many alters. The painting itself is extraordinary, it has faded to such an extent that only the creamy pink blobs that once held usually hold the same, perfect, idealistic (Italian) features of Mary and Child are left surrounded by a gold floral patterning, the piece actually made me think of Klimt, Dumas and Tuymans among others.

[edit. I'm an idiot]



An example of Luca Pignatelli's work

No.2

Mark Rothko.
With the tate retrospective coming up/already on. I've been re-thinking my opinions on Rothko, who i once thought of as merely decorative. How wrong i was. I am still a great believer of Art as an experience, like in the way people describe the experience of viewing Guernica, they are moved by it, some brought to tears, i want my work to influence emotion. Not just intellect.


(Incase you didn't know)

No.3

Francis Bacon (tate again). Need i say more? Fantastic portraits...



No.4

The Black Paintings of various different artists.




I will post some photos shortly.

Joe and I are going to see Il Cenacolo tomorrow, for those who don't speak italian, that means 'The Last Supper' quite excited, especially as its free to accademia students.

Fermata Uruguay

Parla Italiano?

no.

Simple answer.

Today was the day of our first italian lesson, or should i say...

"Oggi noi abbiamo avuto nostro primo classe italiano" (this sentence is brought to you by Thomas Burton, in assosiation with Penguin Italian Phrase Book.)

It was dire.

The whole lesson was conducted in Italian, fair enough, but it was conducted in italian-for-people-who-speak-some-italian-already-and-laugh-at-those-who-don't-know-very-much-italian's speed.

Meaning that nothing was explained, things were left out and i was picked on. Nice.

The next italian lesson is on Monday, i'll be sitting at the back next time.

Darwin

Videos are intended to sit side by side on the same screen, unfortunately i don't have the correct software to do that in Milan!

2 extra days??

Today we were told that we might have to come back to Milan after christmas to spend two days in the accademia to make our stay exactly 3 months. Which is utterly ridiculous.

I am looking forward to getting back to Camberwell and back into a studio!

Obviously this wont go ahead, as we have told many people in the application process that we would be coming home in december and not returning.

However, Toby is a completely different matter, he seems to have taken to italian art school like a duck to water! has made friends in high places (the dictato... i mean director of the accademia, none the less) and is trying his hardest to win a scholarship here!

On a positive note, i completed the filming of a piece of work i've been contemplating for about a week. i'll upload this tomorrow.

A new part of town...

Down by the Canals,

Its a beautiful area with a funky jazzy quintet playing funky jazzy songs to you, Second hand book shops, book shops selling cheap Moleskine's and beautiful creperies, and yes, Choccolate and mascarpone before you ask. MMMMMMMMMmmmmm!

Work is becoming somewhat of a null factor at the moment. I have ideas, and then from said ideas i want to make paintings, which as i explained before, i cant! Which sends me into a spiraling depression and hence i make no work. Pah!

I promised my self i'd make some work this week. We've been filming little things that intrest us since we got here, so as soon as we get a firewire cable, i can start getting those uploaded to here.

You see what i have to deal with?

Bored

Martyrdom

Been back to the PInacoteca di Brera today to do a couple of drawings, i've come to realise that i am very interested in the Martyred Saints, i wish to limit the use of the word martyr because everytime i say it "JIHAD" shoots into my head, and i'm not interested in making a political statement about early Christian Extremism Vs Muslim Extremism because not only is that cheesy but its what you want me to do, right?

I love how literal the early pre renaissance religious paintings were, here depicts a painting of St Stephen, the first martyred saint, he was killed by stoning.



Two images of St Peter of Verona, who is often depicted with a sword in his head. (he was decapitated)






I think it would be a mistake to ignore the reference to todays "martyrs" and i find the similarities between the aesthetics quite appealing





Just found this image, it was the first to come up on Google images under Martyr.

Definition of Martyr :

1: a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion
2: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle

?

Discovered this painter, who's work is cheesy but i quite liked the references to classical painting

http://www.notnoahbuchananart.com

What to do?

Finding it increasingly difficult to actually do any work.

Question: With no studio space and nowhere really to work in the Accademia, what can a painter do?

Answer: Something else.

But what? After going to the Bilblioteca Ambronesia, yesterday and seeing the cartoon of Raphael's "Scuola di Atene" (School of Athens) and Caravaggio's fruit bowl, which i must add are awesome (in the truest sense of the word), i've been craving drawing and painting, but like is said earlier, there is a problem.





So a solution is what is needed!



Anyone?

p.s

On a side note, the figure of Plato (middle left) is believed to be the image of Da Vinci, and in the final fresco in the vatican, Raphael used his own image and the image of Michelangelo for two of the other figures. Interesting eh? no? ok.