It's gone by many names over the course of its 2600-year existence: Byzantion, for its mythical founder, Byzas; New Rome, for the role it was to play in the restructured Empire; then Constantinople, after the Emperor who willed that new role and restructuring; and most recently Stamboul, then Istanbul, from the Greek "eis tin Poli," "(in) The City," as that was how the conquering Turks heard its inhabitants refer to it. Even today, for Greeks the world over, it is simply The City.
Wherever I look here, I can't help wondering what I would be seeing if I were standing on the same spot at another moment in The City's history: a hundred years ago, before the fall of the Sultanate and the birth on the secular Turkish state, when more than a third of its one million inhabitants were Greeks and Armenians (today, there are 1500 Greeks, and far fewer Armenians, in a population of 15 million); 560 years ago, before its conquest by the Ottoman Turks; 810 years ago, before its sacking by the armies of the 4th Crusade; 1480 years ago, before the fires of the Nika Riots burned to the ground an earlier version of the Church of Haghia Sophia; 1680 years ago, as Constantine the Great was creating from the raw material of an ancient Greek city a New Rome, even grander than the Old; 2500 years ago, when the hill on which Haghia Sophia now stands was the site of a temple dedicated to a pagan goddess. I wish there was a way of pealing back the layers, like transparencies in an anatomy textbook, lifting away first the skin of the present, then the various systems of the past, and so on until the bones.
In fact, there is a website that makes it possible to envision The City as it may have looked at its most glorious, from an Orthodox Christian or Byzantinist perspective: www.byzantium1200.com. The purpose of the site is to provide as best as possible, based on physical remains, historic descriptions, and artists' renderings, reconstructions of buildings as they might have appeared in Constantinople on the eve of its sacking by the Crusaders in 1204. Those of you who checked out the wikipedia article on the Milion mentioned in one of my previous entries will have seen that nothing remains of that great monument but a broken and scarred marble pillar. Go to www.byzantium1200.com, read the "Important Notice," click on "contents" from the column on the left, and then click on item no. 40, "Milion." See what I mean? The site is especially helpful for the Hippodrome, of which only three monuments remain; the Great Palace, on the site of which the Blue Mosque now stands; and the Blachernae Palace complex, of which there is only a single wall today.
Certainly the greatest monument The City has ever produced is the Great Church of Haghia Sophia. It is referred to as the Great Church rather than as the Cathedral, because that title belongs to the nearby church of Haghia Eirene. (Neither of these churches, by the way, is dedicated to a woman saint. Haghia Sophia is the Holy Wisdom of Christ, and Haghia Eirene is His Holy Peace. Both of these attributes, Wisdom and Peace, are in the Greek language feminine, and are also used as names for women; hence the confusion.) It was, famously, the overwhelming beauty of the building and of the worship that took place within it that won the Russian people for Orthodoxy. The Tsar's emissaries, upon experiencing the Divine Liturgy as celebrated within the Great Church, reported back to him that they didn't know whether they were in heaven or on earth, so powerfully were they moved by the symphony of sights and sounds being conducted in its massive yet miraculously open space. The building itself is the third church of the same name on the same site; the previous two were largely wooden structures which were brought down by fires set by rioters. The present structure was built in the unbelievably short period of 5 years, between 532 and 537, during the reign of Justinian the Great. For over 900 years, it was the most magnificent Christian temple in the world. For nearly 500 years after the capture of The City by the Ottoman Turks in 1453, it was one of the world's most important mosques. For the past 70 years, since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the modern Turkish state, it has been a museum, though still decorated as if it were a mosque. Once again, wikipedia offers an excellent survey of the Church and its long history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia), and there is an impressive virtual tour available on line as well, at http://www.kultur.gov.tr/tr/ayasofya/ayasofya.htm. (If you've never done a virtual tour, the trick is to point your cursor in the direction you want to go, then click.)
If I had arrived in The City on November 24, 1437, exactly 571 years to the day before I actually arrived this past Monday, I would have been just in time to witness a singularly spectacular sight: The Holy Roman Emperor John VIII Paleologus and His All-Holiness Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople boarding separate ships, with an entourage of hundreds of hierarchs, clergymen, lay theologians, noblemen and courtiers from throughout the Orthodox Christian East. They would have been preparing to set sail for Italy, to attend a Council summoned by Pope Eugenius IV for the purpose of healing a schism between the Churches of East and West that had been in effect, technically speaking, since Sunday, July 16, 1054, when three papal legates disrupted the Divine Liturgy in Haghia Sophia by depositing a Bull of Excommunication on the Holy Altar before storming out of the building. And I will be returning to the sad story of what happened in that Council when I myself return to Italy early next week!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
The Constantinopolitan Connection
The following is from NPR's website. I was frankly quite surprised to learn that Constantinople had a part to play in this most American of holidays!
Why A Turkey Is Called A Turkey
by Robert Krulwich
Morning Edition, November 27, 2008 ·
Here's the puzzle:
The bird we eat on Thanksgiving is an exclusively North American animal. It is found in the wild on no other continent but ours. It evolved here. So why is this American bird named for a Eurasian country?
To find out, I went back to an interview I did almost 30 years ago on NPR's Morning Edition with Mario Pei, a Columbia University professor of Romance languages, who died shortly after our conversation.
I return to his answer because it is still the best one available.
Professor Pei had two theories.
First, in the 1500s when the American bird first arrived in Great Britain, it was shipped in by merchants in the East, mostly from Constantinople (who'd brought the bird over from America).
Since it wholesaled out of Turkey, the British referred to it as a "Turkey coq." In fact, the British weren't particularly precise about products arriving from the East. Persian carpets were called "Turkey rugs." Indian flour was called "Turkey flour." Hungarian carpet bags were called "Turkey bags."
If a product came to London from the far side of the Danube, Londoners labeled it "Turkey" and that's what happened to the American bird. Thus, an American bird got the name Turkey-coq, which was then shortened to "Turkey."
Or…Theory No. 2 (and maybe both theories are correct): Long before Christopher Columbus went to America, Europeans already had a wild fowl they liked to eat. It came from Guinea, in Western Africa. It was a guinea fowl, imported to Europe by, yes, Turkish merchants. It was eaten in London. So it got the nickname Turkey coq, because it came from Constantinople.
When British settlers got off the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay Colony and saw their first American woodland fowl, even though it is larger than the African Guinea fowl, they decided to call it by the name they already used for the African bird. Wild forest birds like that were called "turkeys" at home.
Why not use the same name in Plymouth? And Boston? And Rhode Island? So a name attached to an African bird got reattached to an American one.
The point is for 500 years now, this proud (if not exactly brilliant) American animal has never had a truly American name.
And just to keep this ball rolling…all over the world, people now can eat American Turkeys, but they don't call them Turkeys.
Across Arabia, they call our bird "diiq Hindi," or the "Indian rooster."
In Russia, it's "Indjushka," bird of India.
In Poland, "Inyczka"— again "bird from India."
And what, we wondered, do the Turks call our turkey?
Well, they call it "Hindi," again, short for India.
So in 1492, because Columbus wanted to be in the "Indies," our North American bird got robbed of its American-ness, which is why tonight, when you look down at your turkey, don't call it "sahib."
Call it "dude."
Why A Turkey Is Called A Turkey
by Robert Krulwich
Morning Edition, November 27, 2008 ·
Here's the puzzle:
The bird we eat on Thanksgiving is an exclusively North American animal. It is found in the wild on no other continent but ours. It evolved here. So why is this American bird named for a Eurasian country?
To find out, I went back to an interview I did almost 30 years ago on NPR's Morning Edition with Mario Pei, a Columbia University professor of Romance languages, who died shortly after our conversation.
I return to his answer because it is still the best one available.
Professor Pei had two theories.
First, in the 1500s when the American bird first arrived in Great Britain, it was shipped in by merchants in the East, mostly from Constantinople (who'd brought the bird over from America).
Since it wholesaled out of Turkey, the British referred to it as a "Turkey coq." In fact, the British weren't particularly precise about products arriving from the East. Persian carpets were called "Turkey rugs." Indian flour was called "Turkey flour." Hungarian carpet bags were called "Turkey bags."
If a product came to London from the far side of the Danube, Londoners labeled it "Turkey" and that's what happened to the American bird. Thus, an American bird got the name Turkey-coq, which was then shortened to "Turkey."
Or…Theory No. 2 (and maybe both theories are correct): Long before Christopher Columbus went to America, Europeans already had a wild fowl they liked to eat. It came from Guinea, in Western Africa. It was a guinea fowl, imported to Europe by, yes, Turkish merchants. It was eaten in London. So it got the nickname Turkey coq, because it came from Constantinople.
When British settlers got off the Mayflower in Massachusetts Bay Colony and saw their first American woodland fowl, even though it is larger than the African Guinea fowl, they decided to call it by the name they already used for the African bird. Wild forest birds like that were called "turkeys" at home.
Why not use the same name in Plymouth? And Boston? And Rhode Island? So a name attached to an African bird got reattached to an American one.
The point is for 500 years now, this proud (if not exactly brilliant) American animal has never had a truly American name.
And just to keep this ball rolling…all over the world, people now can eat American Turkeys, but they don't call them Turkeys.
Across Arabia, they call our bird "diiq Hindi," or the "Indian rooster."
In Russia, it's "Indjushka," bird of India.
In Poland, "Inyczka"— again "bird from India."
And what, we wondered, do the Turks call our turkey?
Well, they call it "Hindi," again, short for India.
So in 1492, because Columbus wanted to be in the "Indies," our North American bird got robbed of its American-ness, which is why tonight, when you look down at your turkey, don't call it "sahib."
Call it "dude."
Feast on this
Among the myriad gifts I'm grateful for, today and every day, is the gift of artistry, our God-given ability to share in creating the world, not out of nothing, but out of those things which He created from the beginning to be good, to be put to good use by us, created to reflect His glory by participating in His creative life. The art of storytelling, in its various forms, including the cinematic, is a way of reordering creation, of giving inarticulate creation a voice, of discovering in creation God's word for us. The art of cooking is another gift, and can be a way of transforming our awareness of and appreciation for the world around us, of turning it into a means of communion with God and His creation and each other, and a cause for giving thanks to God for His creation and each other. These forms of artistic expression, the narrative and the culinary, come together most perfectly in the 1987 Danish film, "Babette's Feast." It is itself cause for celebration and thanksgiving because, through the collaborative story-telling genius of author Karen ("Isak Dinesen") Blitzen and director Gabriel Axel, we see for ourselves, with the eyes of the heart, the sacred at the heart of a meal, prepared with self-emptying love, received in loving gratitude.
If you haven't seen "Babette's Feast," you are hereby directed to correct that failing at your earliest convenience, and certainly no later than Christmas. It's for your own good. It will make your celebration of Christmas a richer one. In fact, I'm so certain you will thank me for it, you're already welcome!
Unconvinced? Go to the link below and watch New York Time's film critic A.O. Scott offer his appreciation of the film. Consider it an appetizer.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/24/movies/1194833387303/critics-picks-babettes-feast.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Alleluia!
If you haven't seen "Babette's Feast," you are hereby directed to correct that failing at your earliest convenience, and certainly no later than Christmas. It's for your own good. It will make your celebration of Christmas a richer one. In fact, I'm so certain you will thank me for it, you're already welcome!
Unconvinced? Go to the link below and watch New York Time's film critic A.O. Scott offer his appreciation of the film. Consider it an appetizer.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/24/movies/1194833387303/critics-picks-babettes-feast.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Alleluia!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A Milion to one
No, I spelled it correctly. I'm not referring to the number, but to a historic monument and what remains of it. The Milion was a building in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), at the northern corner of the Great Church of Haghia Sophia, a few meters from the entry to the Basilica Cistern and few more from the site of the ancient Hippodrome, at the very beginning of the Mese Odos (Constantinople's Central Avenue/Broadway). Built by Constantine the Great in imitation of a similar structure in Rome when he recreated Byzantium as New Rome, it was the point from which the distance to all other cities of the Empire was measured. Over the centuries, it developed into quite a complicated monument, described in detail at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milion. It was destroyed in the early 16th century by the conquering Ottomans, to accommodate other building projects in the immediate vicinity. All that remains of it today is a single pillar; hence the title of today's entry. Why am I writing about it at all? Because the hotel where I'm staying for the week is about 200 yards away from it. Sure, I could've said 200 yards from Haghia Sophia, but I wanted to respect the ancient practice of measuring distances from that particular, even though no longer extant, monument.
Yes, I'm in Constantinople, a day earlier than I'd planned to be. Alitalia Airlines announced late last week that there'd be a work stoppage on Tuesday, and as I had to be at the Patriarchate on Wednesday morning, I had to reschedule for a Monday departure. I'd planned to be here through Thursday, then go back to Florence on Friday. That won't be happening, for a couple of good reasons. The first: His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew has designated Saturday, November 29 to be the day of the ordination to the Holy Diaconate of Nikolaos Tsimalis, a Greek-American who has been working as an intern at the Ecumenical Patriarchate since graduating from Holy Cross School of Theology last May. Niko is a very gifted young man who communicates with equal ease in Greek and English, chants beautifully, and most importantly loves the Church of Christ with his whole heart. He has been looking forward to this coming Saturday, he says with complete sincerity, for his whole life.
Niko is a native of Merrillville, Indiana and a life-long member of Sts Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral there. When I was growing up, it was not yet a cathedral, nor had the parish yet relocated from Gary, my hometown, to Merrillville, but in all other respects Niko and I are from the same community. My youngest sister Maria was one of his first Sunday School teachers (and remembers him as quite a handful back then), and he and my nephews Matthew and Aaron served as altar boys together. He will be ordained by His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas of the Dardanelles, formerly of Hong Kong, and long before that, a priest of Sts Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Merrillville. The Metropolitan is here as a member of the Patriarchal Synod, which is in session this week. How could I not stay for such a blessed occasion? (I didn't know about it before coming here, as Niko was only informed about it himself by the Patriarch only a few days ago.) Because he will be ordained as a celibate, the Patriarch has indicated that he will be given a new name, of His All Holiness's choosing, which he is keeping to himself. My money's on "Paphnutios." Call it a hunch.
I mentioned two good reasons for extending my stay. The second is that Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the Founder of the Church at Byzantium and Patron of the Ecumenical Throne. It was my great honor to serve on the occasion of that feast at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George at the Phanar eight years ago, when I was still an archimandrite. I was one of two priests, two deacons, and thirteen Patriarchs and Metropolitans serving that day. I remember having only recently come over from the States and being severely jet-lagged that morning. Had it not been for the crush of people in the sanctuary (every hierarch had an assistant nearby at all times) I would probably have keeled over from exhaustion a couple of times. As it was, there was simply no room to fall. I'm pretty sure, though, that I slept through parts of the morning, on my feet. I look forward to experience the whole morning this time with my wits, such as they are, about me.
So that means I'll be here, unless the Lord has other plans for me, until Monday morning, and back in Florence later that day. And back in the States a week after that.
Before calling it a day, let me tell you about a conversation I had just before sitting down to update this blog. I'd stepped out of the hotel to walk around the neighborhood, maybe catch a bite - okay, to catch a bite - when I noticed I was being waved over to a little restaurant across the street by what I assumed was its proprietor. I turned out to be right about that. He was a charming and dignified gentleman named Osman, the name of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. "My American friend!" he called to me. "Come! You look hungry!" I'm not sure what about me said "American" or "hungry," but he such an amiable character I played along. There were only a couple of other people in the place, younger Turkish men, one in his early thirties in the other ten years younger. No sooner had I accepted a seat than Osman began presenting me with the typical range of Turkish mezedhes, and the older of the other two started questioning me politely about my background. Within minutes, Ramazan (that's his name) and I were talking more easily than I would have thought possible about topics which I thought were not discussed in Turkey. Ramazan is, by the way, a Kurd, and despite his end-of-a-long-day-at-the-garage look, is well educated and very articulate in English, which he claims to have taught himself. He wanted to discuss my faith, what I thought about his, whether I thought Turkey would ever be ready for EU membership (he expressed himself pessimistic - "there is no respect here for human rights!"), and the legacy of Attaturk. This last topic in particular surprised me, as I thought the Father of Modern Turkey was beyond criticism. Ramazan brushed that aside: "No man is God. Only God is God! He was a man who made many mistakes." I asked him if he spoke like this all the time, or was just putting on a show for an American. He assured me that the times, they are a-changing. He described himself as a conservative Muslim but not a radical when it came to violence. I waited for him to look the other way before I mopped my brow and sighed with relief. No, I'm just kidding. It wasn't an uncomfortable conversation. He struck me as a sincere person, trying to understand what other people think about him and his people and his country and his faith. Oh, and he offered me rock bottom prices on his cousin's carpets, which are in the shop next door. I told him I wasn't here to shop. He assured me I'd change my mind before leaving. I hope he's wrong. Who can afford a Turkish carpet these days?
Yes, I'm in Constantinople, a day earlier than I'd planned to be. Alitalia Airlines announced late last week that there'd be a work stoppage on Tuesday, and as I had to be at the Patriarchate on Wednesday morning, I had to reschedule for a Monday departure. I'd planned to be here through Thursday, then go back to Florence on Friday. That won't be happening, for a couple of good reasons. The first: His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew has designated Saturday, November 29 to be the day of the ordination to the Holy Diaconate of Nikolaos Tsimalis, a Greek-American who has been working as an intern at the Ecumenical Patriarchate since graduating from Holy Cross School of Theology last May. Niko is a very gifted young man who communicates with equal ease in Greek and English, chants beautifully, and most importantly loves the Church of Christ with his whole heart. He has been looking forward to this coming Saturday, he says with complete sincerity, for his whole life.
Niko is a native of Merrillville, Indiana and a life-long member of Sts Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral there. When I was growing up, it was not yet a cathedral, nor had the parish yet relocated from Gary, my hometown, to Merrillville, but in all other respects Niko and I are from the same community. My youngest sister Maria was one of his first Sunday School teachers (and remembers him as quite a handful back then), and he and my nephews Matthew and Aaron served as altar boys together. He will be ordained by His Eminence Metropolitan Nikitas of the Dardanelles, formerly of Hong Kong, and long before that, a priest of Sts Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Merrillville. The Metropolitan is here as a member of the Patriarchal Synod, which is in session this week. How could I not stay for such a blessed occasion? (I didn't know about it before coming here, as Niko was only informed about it himself by the Patriarch only a few days ago.) Because he will be ordained as a celibate, the Patriarch has indicated that he will be given a new name, of His All Holiness's choosing, which he is keeping to himself. My money's on "Paphnutios." Call it a hunch.
I mentioned two good reasons for extending my stay. The second is that Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the Founder of the Church at Byzantium and Patron of the Ecumenical Throne. It was my great honor to serve on the occasion of that feast at the Patriarchal Cathedral of St George at the Phanar eight years ago, when I was still an archimandrite. I was one of two priests, two deacons, and thirteen Patriarchs and Metropolitans serving that day. I remember having only recently come over from the States and being severely jet-lagged that morning. Had it not been for the crush of people in the sanctuary (every hierarch had an assistant nearby at all times) I would probably have keeled over from exhaustion a couple of times. As it was, there was simply no room to fall. I'm pretty sure, though, that I slept through parts of the morning, on my feet. I look forward to experience the whole morning this time with my wits, such as they are, about me.
So that means I'll be here, unless the Lord has other plans for me, until Monday morning, and back in Florence later that day. And back in the States a week after that.
Before calling it a day, let me tell you about a conversation I had just before sitting down to update this blog. I'd stepped out of the hotel to walk around the neighborhood, maybe catch a bite - okay, to catch a bite - when I noticed I was being waved over to a little restaurant across the street by what I assumed was its proprietor. I turned out to be right about that. He was a charming and dignified gentleman named Osman, the name of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. "My American friend!" he called to me. "Come! You look hungry!" I'm not sure what about me said "American" or "hungry," but he such an amiable character I played along. There were only a couple of other people in the place, younger Turkish men, one in his early thirties in the other ten years younger. No sooner had I accepted a seat than Osman began presenting me with the typical range of Turkish mezedhes, and the older of the other two started questioning me politely about my background. Within minutes, Ramazan (that's his name) and I were talking more easily than I would have thought possible about topics which I thought were not discussed in Turkey. Ramazan is, by the way, a Kurd, and despite his end-of-a-long-day-at-the-garage look, is well educated and very articulate in English, which he claims to have taught himself. He wanted to discuss my faith, what I thought about his, whether I thought Turkey would ever be ready for EU membership (he expressed himself pessimistic - "there is no respect here for human rights!"), and the legacy of Attaturk. This last topic in particular surprised me, as I thought the Father of Modern Turkey was beyond criticism. Ramazan brushed that aside: "No man is God. Only God is God! He was a man who made many mistakes." I asked him if he spoke like this all the time, or was just putting on a show for an American. He assured me that the times, they are a-changing. He described himself as a conservative Muslim but not a radical when it came to violence. I waited for him to look the other way before I mopped my brow and sighed with relief. No, I'm just kidding. It wasn't an uncomfortable conversation. He struck me as a sincere person, trying to understand what other people think about him and his people and his country and his faith. Oh, and he offered me rock bottom prices on his cousin's carpets, which are in the shop next door. I told him I wasn't here to shop. He assured me I'd change my mind before leaving. I hope he's wrong. Who can afford a Turkish carpet these days?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
The shape of things to come
The clock is running down, friends.
Fr Nikolaos, who can be very persistent, wouldn't let a little thing like the fact that I hadn't brought episcopal vestments with me prove an insurmountable obstacle to his desire that I preside at worship here. He arranged for a bishop in Greece to lend me a set, and had his brother Demetri bring them over from Kastoria earlier this week. Of course, it's not for Fr Niko to decide whether or not I can serve here; that's up to the local hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios. As he, too, is eager that I should do so, I will celebrate the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple tonight at the Church of St Iakovos. We will chant Great Vespers beginning at 6pm, follow with Orthros, and conclude with the Divine Liturgy. In fact, I'm grateful that Fr Niko was so adamant, as I was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on this feast, 16 years ago.
I'll be in Constantinople from Tuesday through Friday of next week. (That means I'll be in Turkey for Thanksgiving, for a change.) When I get back to Florence, I'll have nine days left to collect myself for the return home. *sigh*
Between now and then, I have a lot of loose ends to tie off: Dante, my trip to Venice, the Greeks of Florence and their role in the Renaissance, the Medicis, Patriarch Joseph and the Council of Florence, and, at last, Savonarola. I'm working on a way to bring them all together in a single narrative. Brace yourselves.
Lastly, fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have complained that I've written about Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello, but not Raphael. I'll try to think of something nice to say about him in the days remaining.
Fr Nikolaos, who can be very persistent, wouldn't let a little thing like the fact that I hadn't brought episcopal vestments with me prove an insurmountable obstacle to his desire that I preside at worship here. He arranged for a bishop in Greece to lend me a set, and had his brother Demetri bring them over from Kastoria earlier this week. Of course, it's not for Fr Niko to decide whether or not I can serve here; that's up to the local hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Gennadios. As he, too, is eager that I should do so, I will celebrate the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple tonight at the Church of St Iakovos. We will chant Great Vespers beginning at 6pm, follow with Orthros, and conclude with the Divine Liturgy. In fact, I'm grateful that Fr Niko was so adamant, as I was ordained to the Holy Diaconate on this feast, 16 years ago.
I'll be in Constantinople from Tuesday through Friday of next week. (That means I'll be in Turkey for Thanksgiving, for a change.) When I get back to Florence, I'll have nine days left to collect myself for the return home. *sigh*
Between now and then, I have a lot of loose ends to tie off: Dante, my trip to Venice, the Greeks of Florence and their role in the Renaissance, the Medicis, Patriarch Joseph and the Council of Florence, and, at last, Savonarola. I'm working on a way to bring them all together in a single narrative. Brace yourselves.
Lastly, fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have complained that I've written about Leonardo, Michelangelo and Donatello, but not Raphael. I'll try to think of something nice to say about him in the days remaining.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Taking it to the Matt
Matthew Mallonee, that is, eldest son of my youngest sister Maria and her husband Steve, who is not only my nephew but my godson. Today, November 16th, is the feastday of his patron Saint, the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, the subject of today's entry. Many years, Matt.
In fact, this is not so much about Saint Matthew as it is about a statue of him by Lorenzo Ghiberti, situated in one of 14 external tabernacles at the Church of Orsanmichele. But in order to appreciate the importance of this particular statue, dear Readers, we have to take a few steps back, to see it in its larger context.
Let's start with the church itself." Orsanmichele" (the "ch" is pronounced "k," not "sh" as in French) means "in the 'orto,' or kitchen-garden, of St (Archangel) Michael." It was originally an open-air loggia, a roofed, open gallery, probably attached to a no -longer-existing Monastery of St Michael, in central Florence. From the late 1280's, grain merchants from around the region gathered to sell their produce there. In 1292, a series of healing miracles began to take place which were attributed to an icon of the Mother of God hanging from one of the loggia's inner columns. Soon the site became a place of pilgrimage, where people from near and far would come to pray for healing or offer thanks for prayers answered, and often to leave money for distribution to the poor. Beginning in 1337, at the direction of the Signoria, or City Hall, the arched spaces between the supporting columns of the loggia were closed over with stone, turning the formerly open space into a proper church, while the grain market/pantry was relocated to an upper level. The Signoria also decreed that the exterior of the building be decorated with statues of the patron saints of 14 of the city's guilds, at the expense of the guilds themselves.
The guilds were at the heart of Florentine commercial and political and, in a sense, religious life. Guilds were associations of master craftsmen and craftsmen. There were 21 such associations, ranging from butchers to lawyers (which, come to think of it, isn't that much of a range). Of these, 7 were considered "major" and the rest were minor. Moreover, only members of the major guilds were eligible for election to civic office. In his excellent "Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art" (1997), A. Richard Turner writes, "Beyond strictly business matters, the guilds were centrally involved in religious activity and charity. Each guild participated in the major religious holidays of the city, and each had responsibility for the celebration of the feast day of its specific patron saint. The guilds also oversaw and had financial responsibility for the city's major churches, and for its hospitals and charitable foundations" (p. 13).
Now back to the Orsanmichele. Each guild rightly understood that its niche would serve not only to glorify its patron saint but also as advertisement for the goods or services the guild provided. Everyone coming into Florence would come to Orsanmichele, which is a short walk south from the Duomo and even closer to the Piazza della Signoria. The statues were to be in niches which began about seven feet from the ground, and would stand above the insignia of the sponsoring guild. It was therefore in a guild's best interest to use the most impressive (read, "expensive") materials and commission the most talented craftsmen for the task. What makes Orsanmichele such an important site in the history of art is that, simply by walking around its walls, we can witness the evolution of modern statuary in the competition between guilds and artisans.
Consider, for instance, the bronze statue of St John the Baptist, a couple of photos of which are on my flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas). (The original of that statue is now on the upper level of the Orsanmichele; all the exterior statues are now copies.) It is the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, the artist most in demand in early 15th-century Florence, who was working at the time on the first of his two sets of bronze doors for the nearby Baptistry. (I've included a self-portrait of the artist, poking his head out of his last set of doors to observe what he's certain are admiring crowds, on my flickr page.) St John was the patron of the incredibly rich Wool Merchant's Guild, which demonstrated its wealth by commissioning the statue in bronze, a material ten times as expensive as marble. No one had ever cast a bronze statue the size of St John (8'4") since antiquity. To display such a large statue by such a prominent artist in such a costly material spoke volumes about the wealth of the Wool Merchants. the statue itself is in a late Gothic style, with St John staring expressionless into the space ahead, his likewise inexpressive body draped in beautiful but unlikely folds of material. Ghiberti delivered a thing of great beauty, but neither he nor anyone else at the time had counted on what the young Donatello was doing at the same time, in marble, for the Linen Workers' Guild. Again, Turner: "The linen-workers probably expected something along the stylistic lines that Ghiberti produced, but instead received a work that can only be described as an artistic mutation, a figure at once more physically and psychologically compelling than anything produced for centuries. [The guild's patron, the Evangelist] Mark stands with his weight heavily on his right leg, a pose that activates the whoile body.... In stunning contrast to Ghiberti's wholly decorative treatment of drapery, Donatello used drapery to reveal the forms and relations of the body beneath it.... The psychological vitality of the figure (is evident in) St Mark's gaze into the space of the spectator's on the street, forehead furrowed, deep-set eyes intense.... This contrast between Ghiberti and Donatello is the defining moment of the waning Gothic versus the new Renaissance of forms" (p. 56).
Of course, it didn't stop there. Donatello went on to sculpt, again in marble, the stunning St George for (who else?) the Armorers' and Sword Makers' Guild. (The fourth-century saint is depicted wearing the last word in armor, gear no self-respecting knight of the early 15th century could afford to be without.) And Ghiberti responded to the challenge of the young upstart with another bronze, incorporating elements of the new style being pioneered by Donatello. He produced, this time for the Bankers' Guild, another of the city's richest and most powerful guilds, an enormous bronze of its patron saint, the former tax-collector, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew (we finally got to him!), in a far more psychologically engaged manner than John the Baptist's. Matthew looks down at the street-level observers, directing their attention with his right hand to the book he holds in his left, which is open to the beginning of his Gospel. His weight is clearly on one leg, and the cloth draping him appears to cover an actual body, although Ghiberti is still evidently committed to Gothic conventions of arranging the folds into repetitive crescents. Donatello responded with a massive bronze of his own, his first, of St Louis of Toulouse. And the rest is art history.
I wish I could provide you with my own pictures of these great works of art, but my internet connection here is criminally slow, and it takes forever to upload new material on youtube or flickr. I've often waited for over an hour for a short video clip or a handful of pics to upload, only to be told within minutes of completion that the connection had failed. I will post my best stuff when I get back to the states next month. meanwhile, for those who are interested in seeing for yourself everything I've been describing, go to www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/orsanmichele.html.
One last note: the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God which was responsible for the creation of this particular sacred space was destroyed in a fire. The image presently enshrined at Orsanmichele, "Our Lady of the Graces," is a work of the mid 14th century. It is displayed to the right of the main altar, in an enormous marble tabernacle of incredible delicacy and complexity. No photos or videos are allowed in the church, so I have reproduced a photo from a book on my flickr page, just to give you an idea.
In fact, this is not so much about Saint Matthew as it is about a statue of him by Lorenzo Ghiberti, situated in one of 14 external tabernacles at the Church of Orsanmichele. But in order to appreciate the importance of this particular statue, dear Readers, we have to take a few steps back, to see it in its larger context.
Let's start with the church itself." Orsanmichele" (the "ch" is pronounced "k," not "sh" as in French) means "in the 'orto,' or kitchen-garden, of St (Archangel) Michael." It was originally an open-air loggia, a roofed, open gallery, probably attached to a no -longer-existing Monastery of St Michael, in central Florence. From the late 1280's, grain merchants from around the region gathered to sell their produce there. In 1292, a series of healing miracles began to take place which were attributed to an icon of the Mother of God hanging from one of the loggia's inner columns. Soon the site became a place of pilgrimage, where people from near and far would come to pray for healing or offer thanks for prayers answered, and often to leave money for distribution to the poor. Beginning in 1337, at the direction of the Signoria, or City Hall, the arched spaces between the supporting columns of the loggia were closed over with stone, turning the formerly open space into a proper church, while the grain market/pantry was relocated to an upper level. The Signoria also decreed that the exterior of the building be decorated with statues of the patron saints of 14 of the city's guilds, at the expense of the guilds themselves.
The guilds were at the heart of Florentine commercial and political and, in a sense, religious life. Guilds were associations of master craftsmen and craftsmen. There were 21 such associations, ranging from butchers to lawyers (which, come to think of it, isn't that much of a range). Of these, 7 were considered "major" and the rest were minor. Moreover, only members of the major guilds were eligible for election to civic office. In his excellent "Renaissance Florence: The Invention of a New Art" (1997), A. Richard Turner writes, "Beyond strictly business matters, the guilds were centrally involved in religious activity and charity. Each guild participated in the major religious holidays of the city, and each had responsibility for the celebration of the feast day of its specific patron saint. The guilds also oversaw and had financial responsibility for the city's major churches, and for its hospitals and charitable foundations" (p. 13).
Now back to the Orsanmichele. Each guild rightly understood that its niche would serve not only to glorify its patron saint but also as advertisement for the goods or services the guild provided. Everyone coming into Florence would come to Orsanmichele, which is a short walk south from the Duomo and even closer to the Piazza della Signoria. The statues were to be in niches which began about seven feet from the ground, and would stand above the insignia of the sponsoring guild. It was therefore in a guild's best interest to use the most impressive (read, "expensive") materials and commission the most talented craftsmen for the task. What makes Orsanmichele such an important site in the history of art is that, simply by walking around its walls, we can witness the evolution of modern statuary in the competition between guilds and artisans.
Consider, for instance, the bronze statue of St John the Baptist, a couple of photos of which are on my flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas). (The original of that statue is now on the upper level of the Orsanmichele; all the exterior statues are now copies.) It is the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, the artist most in demand in early 15th-century Florence, who was working at the time on the first of his two sets of bronze doors for the nearby Baptistry. (I've included a self-portrait of the artist, poking his head out of his last set of doors to observe what he's certain are admiring crowds, on my flickr page.) St John was the patron of the incredibly rich Wool Merchant's Guild, which demonstrated its wealth by commissioning the statue in bronze, a material ten times as expensive as marble. No one had ever cast a bronze statue the size of St John (8'4") since antiquity. To display such a large statue by such a prominent artist in such a costly material spoke volumes about the wealth of the Wool Merchants. the statue itself is in a late Gothic style, with St John staring expressionless into the space ahead, his likewise inexpressive body draped in beautiful but unlikely folds of material. Ghiberti delivered a thing of great beauty, but neither he nor anyone else at the time had counted on what the young Donatello was doing at the same time, in marble, for the Linen Workers' Guild. Again, Turner: "The linen-workers probably expected something along the stylistic lines that Ghiberti produced, but instead received a work that can only be described as an artistic mutation, a figure at once more physically and psychologically compelling than anything produced for centuries. [The guild's patron, the Evangelist] Mark stands with his weight heavily on his right leg, a pose that activates the whoile body.... In stunning contrast to Ghiberti's wholly decorative treatment of drapery, Donatello used drapery to reveal the forms and relations of the body beneath it.... The psychological vitality of the figure (is evident in) St Mark's gaze into the space of the spectator's on the street, forehead furrowed, deep-set eyes intense.... This contrast between Ghiberti and Donatello is the defining moment of the waning Gothic versus the new Renaissance of forms" (p. 56).
Of course, it didn't stop there. Donatello went on to sculpt, again in marble, the stunning St George for (who else?) the Armorers' and Sword Makers' Guild. (The fourth-century saint is depicted wearing the last word in armor, gear no self-respecting knight of the early 15th century could afford to be without.) And Ghiberti responded to the challenge of the young upstart with another bronze, incorporating elements of the new style being pioneered by Donatello. He produced, this time for the Bankers' Guild, another of the city's richest and most powerful guilds, an enormous bronze of its patron saint, the former tax-collector, the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew (we finally got to him!), in a far more psychologically engaged manner than John the Baptist's. Matthew looks down at the street-level observers, directing their attention with his right hand to the book he holds in his left, which is open to the beginning of his Gospel. His weight is clearly on one leg, and the cloth draping him appears to cover an actual body, although Ghiberti is still evidently committed to Gothic conventions of arranging the folds into repetitive crescents. Donatello responded with a massive bronze of his own, his first, of St Louis of Toulouse. And the rest is art history.
I wish I could provide you with my own pictures of these great works of art, but my internet connection here is criminally slow, and it takes forever to upload new material on youtube or flickr. I've often waited for over an hour for a short video clip or a handful of pics to upload, only to be told within minutes of completion that the connection had failed. I will post my best stuff when I get back to the states next month. meanwhile, for those who are interested in seeing for yourself everything I've been describing, go to www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/orsanmichele.html.
One last note: the wonder-working icon of the Mother of God which was responsible for the creation of this particular sacred space was destroyed in a fire. The image presently enshrined at Orsanmichele, "Our Lady of the Graces," is a work of the mid 14th century. It is displayed to the right of the main altar, in an enormous marble tabernacle of incredible delicacy and complexity. No photos or videos are allowed in the church, so I have reproduced a photo from a book on my flickr page, just to give you an idea.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Woodn't you nose it?
In my remarks a few weeks ago about my visit to the glorious Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, I mentioned that the grounds contain a cemetery in which are buried several prominent Italians from the second half of the nineteenth century to the present day, among them Carlo Collodi, author of "Pinocchio." It wasn't until today that I realized that Collodi wasn't just Italian but in fact a lifelong Florentine, making "Pinocchio" fair game. (Reminder: I'm only reading books about or set in Florence or by Florentine authors.) Now if you get the impression, because I read a book about Shakespeare (who, though he set 13 of his 37 plays entirely or in part in Italy, never so much as referred once to Florence!) and seem eager to read a children's book, that my enthusiasm for Dante might be waning - well, you wouldn't be far from the truth. Maybe if you all pray hard enough for me, I'll get out of "Purgatory" quicker!
In my defense, I've never read "Pinocchio" before, so when I saw a brand new translation, just out this month, by Geoffrey Brock, with an introduction by no less than Umberto ("The Name of the Rose," "Foucault's Pendulum") Eco himself, how was I supposed to resist? Yes, it may be just a children's story (if you believe there is such a thing) but the new (alas, unillustrated) translation's 160 pages long, followed by another 25 pages of scholarly evaluation by Rebecca West! So I wasn't exactly taking the afternoon off to read it. And even if I was - hey, I'm on sabbatical!
In his introduction, Eco recalls the "discomfort" he and his fellow Italian friends experienced when watching for the first time Walt Disney's version of the story they had grown up with. ("Pinocchio" was first published serially between 1883 and 1885, making him an exact contemporary of "Huckleberry Finn," which came out in late 1884.) I came to the original having grown up with the adaptation - but my reaction was the same: discomfort. Collodi's creation is a good deal less cuddly than Disney's. He's born kicking: no sooner does Geppetto (Collodi's spelling) finish carving the feet than he gets kicked in the nose by one of them, and his suffering at the hands of his ungrateful creation doesn't stop there. (Comparisons to "Frankenstein" have been made on this point.) There is an unnamed talking cricket, but he's not the narrator. He tells Pinocchio upon first meeting him that he's been living in Geppetto's room for more than a hundred years. Two pages later, the enraged puppet flings a wooden mallet at him, squashing the poor bug to death! (Collodi offers an excuse, "Perhaps he didn't mean to hit him at all," but Pinocchio expresses no remorse.) There's no Blue Fairy but rather a fairy with sky-blue hair, who doesn't enter the story until it's nearly half over. In the early days of her relationship with the puppet, he considers her his sister; later, he calls her "mother." The first pages were so different in incident and tone, so much starker and darker, that I was surprised by the end to see how much Disney had actually managed to retain: he got the Fox and Cat right, and the transformation of the boys (and puppet) into donkeys, and improved on the episode in the whale (in the book, a shark).
I'm not suggesting that one version is better than the other. Both Collodi's original and Disney's rewrite are wonderful in their different ways. (Eco acknowledges this himself, pronouncing the movie "delightful.") But there's something deeper and more mysterious going on in the book than in the movie. It's a story full of pain and punishment (just and otherwise), mutilation and metamorphosis, death and rebirth, repentance and redemption. I'm not at all surprised by Pinocchio's perrenial popularity. I have little doubt that he'd just as famous today even if he'd never met Jiminy Cricket or wished upon a star. Stories such as his, that go to such deep places within us, aren't easily forgotten. They make their home in our hearts.
POST SCRIPT
Since I first posted this yesterday, a couple of friends have already written, calling me knotty for having gone so far out on a limb for my punny title. And here I thought I'd nailed it! I guess that's the planks I get for trying to keep yew from getting board!
In my defense, I've never read "Pinocchio" before, so when I saw a brand new translation, just out this month, by Geoffrey Brock, with an introduction by no less than Umberto ("The Name of the Rose," "Foucault's Pendulum") Eco himself, how was I supposed to resist? Yes, it may be just a children's story (if you believe there is such a thing) but the new (alas, unillustrated) translation's 160 pages long, followed by another 25 pages of scholarly evaluation by Rebecca West! So I wasn't exactly taking the afternoon off to read it. And even if I was - hey, I'm on sabbatical!
In his introduction, Eco recalls the "discomfort" he and his fellow Italian friends experienced when watching for the first time Walt Disney's version of the story they had grown up with. ("Pinocchio" was first published serially between 1883 and 1885, making him an exact contemporary of "Huckleberry Finn," which came out in late 1884.) I came to the original having grown up with the adaptation - but my reaction was the same: discomfort. Collodi's creation is a good deal less cuddly than Disney's. He's born kicking: no sooner does Geppetto (Collodi's spelling) finish carving the feet than he gets kicked in the nose by one of them, and his suffering at the hands of his ungrateful creation doesn't stop there. (Comparisons to "Frankenstein" have been made on this point.) There is an unnamed talking cricket, but he's not the narrator. He tells Pinocchio upon first meeting him that he's been living in Geppetto's room for more than a hundred years. Two pages later, the enraged puppet flings a wooden mallet at him, squashing the poor bug to death! (Collodi offers an excuse, "Perhaps he didn't mean to hit him at all," but Pinocchio expresses no remorse.) There's no Blue Fairy but rather a fairy with sky-blue hair, who doesn't enter the story until it's nearly half over. In the early days of her relationship with the puppet, he considers her his sister; later, he calls her "mother." The first pages were so different in incident and tone, so much starker and darker, that I was surprised by the end to see how much Disney had actually managed to retain: he got the Fox and Cat right, and the transformation of the boys (and puppet) into donkeys, and improved on the episode in the whale (in the book, a shark).
I'm not suggesting that one version is better than the other. Both Collodi's original and Disney's rewrite are wonderful in their different ways. (Eco acknowledges this himself, pronouncing the movie "delightful.") But there's something deeper and more mysterious going on in the book than in the movie. It's a story full of pain and punishment (just and otherwise), mutilation and metamorphosis, death and rebirth, repentance and redemption. I'm not at all surprised by Pinocchio's perrenial popularity. I have little doubt that he'd just as famous today even if he'd never met Jiminy Cricket or wished upon a star. Stories such as his, that go to such deep places within us, aren't easily forgotten. They make their home in our hearts.
POST SCRIPT
Since I first posted this yesterday, a couple of friends have already written, calling me knotty for having gone so far out on a limb for my punny title. And here I thought I'd nailed it! I guess that's the planks I get for trying to keep yew from getting board!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
a correction, and an added detail
In yesterday's post, I wrote that April 26, 1478, the date of the assassination attempt on Lorenzo de' Medici (and the assassination of his brother Giuliano) was Easter Sunday. In fact, it was the Fifth Sunday of Easter, the Sunday before the Ascension.
I also mentioned that the assault was made during the celebration of Mass. In fact, the cue was the elevation of the Host and the words, "This is My Body."
For those with time and interest in this famously violent event, I recommend Lauro Martines, "April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medicis" (Oxford 2003). Martines is also the author of an excellent book on Savonarola which i referred to in my first post and have listed in the sidebar.
I also mentioned that the assault was made during the celebration of Mass. In fact, the cue was the elevation of the Host and the words, "This is My Body."
For those with time and interest in this famously violent event, I recommend Lauro Martines, "April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medicis" (Oxford 2003). Martines is also the author of an excellent book on Savonarola which i referred to in my first post and have listed in the sidebar.
Where there's Will, there's a way to say it
A couple of years ago, as I was nearing my fiftieth birthday, it hit me hard that my time was running out and I'd left too many important books unread.
For the purposes of calculation, I gave myself another 20 years, and considering that, in a good year, I get through about 40 books, that meant I had another 800 to go before the Final Exam. Among the books I'd never read at the time: Homer's "Iliad" (and I'd been Bishop of Troy for five years already!), Virgil's "Aeniad" (see previous parenthesis), two-thirds of Dante's "Divine Comedy" - the list goes on and on and on. To my particular shame (as my first degree was in English literature), I had only read or seen performed, at most, ten plays by William Shakespeare: "Hamlet," "The Merchant of Venice," "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," "Othello" (my favorite), "Richard III," "As You Like It," "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Now ten may seem like a lot, but the man had written, in whole or collaboratively, a whopping 37! Looking over the list, I forgave myself for not having gotten around yet to "Coriolanus" or "Timon of Athens" or "A Winter's Tale," but "Antony and Cleopatra"? "The Taming of the Shrew"? "Measure for Measure"? "King Lear"??? No, something clearly had to be done about it! So I set myself the goal of reading all 37 plays, in approximate chronological order, from "Two Gentlemen of Verona" to "Two Noble Kinsmen," before I turned 51. And it wasn't to be a matter of getting through a text as quickly as possible, just to say that I'd done it. No, I invested in recorded performances of every play, which I'd listen to while commuting to and from work, and filmed versions, including adaptations, which I'd watch in the evenings, and whenever possible, I took in live performances. And I read books and essays about the man and his times, and about the men and times he wrote about. And a year into it, I'd made it through "Hamlet," the 19th play (according to order I was following). In other words, there were another 18 to go! As much as I'd enjoyed myself getting to the halfway point, it seemed to me a good time to take a break of a few months. Unfortunately, with one thing and another, I haven't returned to my project, but I genuinely look forward to doing so. Next up: "Twelfth Night."
One of the reasons I came to Florence for my sabbatical, as I've mentioned before, was to read Dante here, and it was exactly the right thing to do. I've been reluctant to burden you with my thoughts on him so far, though I do plan to write something on him some time next week, when I get through "Purgatory." You may also recall that I planned while here to read only books about Florence or by Florentines, and up until now I've kept to the program. A couple of nights ago, though, I allowed myself a little break and read Bill Bryson's latest, "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage." Those of you who've read him before will know how much fun he is, and those of you who haven't had better get a move on! Pick up anything by him; he never disappoints. In fact, I can recommend this little Shakespeare book (190 pgs) with the warmest enthusiasm. I felt all the while like I was in the company to a good and wise and funny friend, discussing a mutual, much admired, if ultimately mysterious friend. I can't imagine anyone with even the faintest interest in the greatest writer ever to use the English language not finding something to love in this gem of a book.
I leave you with a couple of passages in which Bryson calls attention to how profoundly Shakespeare enriched our articulate world:
"[Shakespeare] coined - or, to be more carefully precise, made the first recorded use of - 2,035 words, [...including:] abstemious, antipathy, critical, frugal, dwindle, extract, horrid, vast, hereditary, excellent, eventful, barefaced, assassination, lonely, leapfrog, indistinguishable, well-read, zany, and countless others (including 'countless').... His real gift was as a phrasemaker: one fell swoop, vanish into thin air, bag and baggage, play fast and loose, go down the primrose path, be in a pickle, budge an inch, the milk of human kindness, more sinned against than sinning, remembrance of things past, beggar all description, cold comfort, to thine own self be true, more in sorrow than in anger, the wish is father to the thought, salad days, flesh and blood, foul play, tower of strength, be cruel to be kind, blinking idiot, with bated breath, pomp and circumstance, foregone conclusion."
For the purposes of calculation, I gave myself another 20 years, and considering that, in a good year, I get through about 40 books, that meant I had another 800 to go before the Final Exam. Among the books I'd never read at the time: Homer's "Iliad" (and I'd been Bishop of Troy for five years already!), Virgil's "Aeniad" (see previous parenthesis), two-thirds of Dante's "Divine Comedy" - the list goes on and on and on. To my particular shame (as my first degree was in English literature), I had only read or seen performed, at most, ten plays by William Shakespeare: "Hamlet," "The Merchant of Venice," "Romeo and Juliet," "Macbeth," "Othello" (my favorite), "Richard III," "As You Like It," "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Now ten may seem like a lot, but the man had written, in whole or collaboratively, a whopping 37! Looking over the list, I forgave myself for not having gotten around yet to "Coriolanus" or "Timon of Athens" or "A Winter's Tale," but "Antony and Cleopatra"? "The Taming of the Shrew"? "Measure for Measure"? "King Lear"??? No, something clearly had to be done about it! So I set myself the goal of reading all 37 plays, in approximate chronological order, from "Two Gentlemen of Verona" to "Two Noble Kinsmen," before I turned 51. And it wasn't to be a matter of getting through a text as quickly as possible, just to say that I'd done it. No, I invested in recorded performances of every play, which I'd listen to while commuting to and from work, and filmed versions, including adaptations, which I'd watch in the evenings, and whenever possible, I took in live performances. And I read books and essays about the man and his times, and about the men and times he wrote about. And a year into it, I'd made it through "Hamlet," the 19th play (according to order I was following). In other words, there were another 18 to go! As much as I'd enjoyed myself getting to the halfway point, it seemed to me a good time to take a break of a few months. Unfortunately, with one thing and another, I haven't returned to my project, but I genuinely look forward to doing so. Next up: "Twelfth Night."
One of the reasons I came to Florence for my sabbatical, as I've mentioned before, was to read Dante here, and it was exactly the right thing to do. I've been reluctant to burden you with my thoughts on him so far, though I do plan to write something on him some time next week, when I get through "Purgatory." You may also recall that I planned while here to read only books about Florence or by Florentines, and up until now I've kept to the program. A couple of nights ago, though, I allowed myself a little break and read Bill Bryson's latest, "Shakespeare: The World as a Stage." Those of you who've read him before will know how much fun he is, and those of you who haven't had better get a move on! Pick up anything by him; he never disappoints. In fact, I can recommend this little Shakespeare book (190 pgs) with the warmest enthusiasm. I felt all the while like I was in the company to a good and wise and funny friend, discussing a mutual, much admired, if ultimately mysterious friend. I can't imagine anyone with even the faintest interest in the greatest writer ever to use the English language not finding something to love in this gem of a book.
I leave you with a couple of passages in which Bryson calls attention to how profoundly Shakespeare enriched our articulate world:
"[Shakespeare] coined - or, to be more carefully precise, made the first recorded use of - 2,035 words, [...including:] abstemious, antipathy, critical, frugal, dwindle, extract, horrid, vast, hereditary, excellent, eventful, barefaced, assassination, lonely, leapfrog, indistinguishable, well-read, zany, and countless others (including 'countless').... His real gift was as a phrasemaker: one fell swoop, vanish into thin air, bag and baggage, play fast and loose, go down the primrose path, be in a pickle, budge an inch, the milk of human kindness, more sinned against than sinning, remembrance of things past, beggar all description, cold comfort, to thine own self be true, more in sorrow than in anger, the wish is father to the thought, salad days, flesh and blood, foul play, tower of strength, be cruel to be kind, blinking idiot, with bated breath, pomp and circumstance, foregone conclusion."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
There's no place like Duomo!
For starters, when I refer to the Duomo, I'm referring not to the justly-celebrated Dome of the Florence's Cathedral, but to the Cathedral itself. In other words, "Duomo" isn't Italian for "dome," but derives from the Latin "domus Dei," meaning "house of God." There are duomos throughout Italy, most of them without domes.
Florence's Duomo is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or Holy Mary of the Flowers. No one calls it that, except tour guides, and only once. Although the Holy Virgin is revered throughout the city, she is not its patron saint. That honor belongs to Saint John the Baptist, whose principal place of worship is an octagonal baptistry dating back to at least the eighth century and situated directly opposite the Duomo's entrance. But there's more: the Cathedral of Florence was, from the fourth- to the thirteenth centuries, dedicated to an obscure woman martyr of Syrian origin, Saint Reparata. The remains of that basilica lie under the floor of the present-day Duomo, and in recent decades access has been created to that lower level. The ruins cover about a third the length of the current building. Santa Maria was built around Santa Reparata, which continued to serve as the cathedral until there was enough of a structure around it to permit its demolition - that is, for nearly eighty years after construction began! And St John's Baptistry was not, as it were, created out of nothing; it was built on the site of a Roman temple to, of all "people," Mars, the god of war!
Some have wondered, given their long history of civil strife, whether the Florentines ever did end their association with the war god. A couple of examples, both of which took place within the Duomo itself, will make the point. Those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning of my stay here four weeks ago will recall Fra Girolamo Savonarola. The Prior of the Dominican brotherhood of San Marco, a few hundred yards north of the cathedral, he rose to fame - and power - as the Duomo's preacher. The Dominican Order was dedicated to and distinguished for preaching, and Savonarola was by all accounts a preacher's preacher. He was renowned throughout the region for his dramatic and soul-stirring sermons, in which he claimed for himself prophetic status and divine inspiration. It is estimated that at the height of his influence he preached to as many as 15,000 at a time! (That the Duomo can hold a crowd of that size is not hard to believe; it is the fourth largest church in the world. That a person could make himself heard by so many people without modern day amplification is a more challenging claim.) Of course, not everyone responded to his calls for repentance (or else!) in the same spirit. On one occasion, he arrived at the Duomo to discover the high wooden pulpit from which he commanded the attention of the city smeared all over with animal excrement and draped with a donkey's carcass, with nails driven into it at strategic areas in the hopes that he would injure himself while pounding to make a point, so to speak.
The other example is even more dramatic. On Easter Sunday, April 26, 1478, during the celebration of High Mass, in the presence of 10,000 fellow Florentines, a group determined to put an end to the de facto rule by the Medici family of what was supposedly the Republic of Florence, attacked two of its most illustrious members, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" and his younger brother Giuliano. Lorenzo escaped into the sacristy, the room where the clergy vest for the services, with serious but non-fatal injuries. Giuliano was less fortunate. He was stabbed 19 times by a gang that included at least one priest who'd participated in the Mass, and bled to death within a few feet of the Holy Altar. The Medicis and their supporters quickly gained control, and within the hour arrested the visiting Archbishop of Pisa, one of the principal ringleaders of the plot. By the end of the day his naked body hung from the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio, the fortress-like center of government not far from the Duomo. What a way to spend Easter!
Of course, Florence's Duomo isn't the only House of God that has witnessed ungodly violence perpetrated within its walls; think of what the Great Church of Haghia Sophia in Constantinople suffered at hands first of the Crusaders and later of the Ottomans. Which brings me, by an admittedly roundabout way, to what I wanted to talk about in the first place: a holy relic of Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, which is neither in Constantinople nor at the Vatican, but right here in Florence, in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo.
Let's connect the dots: St John was, not unlike Savonarola, a preacher's preacher. He is remembered throughout the Christian world, east and west, as The Preacher par excellence. Savonarola no doubt learned from his much-studied sermons, as did Martin Luthor shortly after him, how to direct people's attention from vain pursuits to the pursuit of the genuinely Christian life. Chrysostom, however, didn't resort to the kind of spiritual violence that characterized Savonarola's preaching at its worst. He did not so much breathe out fire and brimstone as he did entice with a language described by his contemporaries and all subsequent generations as golden in both style and content. Like the Florentine, however, he was no respecter of persons, and his denunciation of immorality was directed against the mighty as well as the man on the street. As punishment for his attacks that hit too close to the Imperial Palace for its occupants' comfort, he fell asleep in the Lord in the year 407, at the age of 53, while in exile, dying of exhaustion en route from one village to another in the Armenian mountains far distant from his patriarchal see. (Although he actually reposed on September 14, so that the commemoration of his memory would not be overshadowed by the celebration of the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross which was came to be celebrated four centuries later on that same date, his feastday was transferred to November 13.) Thirty years after his death, in the year 438, his sacred remains were brought back from exile to Constantinople and laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Peace of God (Haghia Eirene). The transfer - or in the language of the Church, "translation" - of the saint's relics from Armenia to Haghia Sophia is commemorated annually on January 27. He was to remain at rest there for nearly eight centuries thereafter.
In 1204, Constantinople was sacked by Crusaders from Western Europe, who established Latin control over the City that was to last for the next half century. During that time, churches and mansions throughout the City were ruthlessly stripped of their treasures, many of which were delivered to Venice and Rome. Holy relics were particularly prized, and the tombs of saints were everywhere plundered. The relics of two of the greatest men to ever associated with the City, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory the Theologian, were among those taken to Rome. Four years ago this month, on November 30, the Feast of St Andrew the First-Called Apostle, elder brother of the Apostle Peter and Patron Saint of the Church of Constantinople, Pope John Paul II directed the return of a large part of these sacred relics of these two saints to Constantinople. One of the last acts of his Papacy, this was a demonstration of John Paul's longing for and commitment to the reconciliation of the Churches of Rome and the Orthodox East. Some relics were retained at the Vatican, and some had already been distributed to other churches throughout the west. Among the relics of St John which did not return was his holy skull, which had been presented centuries ago as a Papal gift to the Duomo of Florence. (I'm still looking into this, but I wouldn't be the tiniest bit surprised if the gifting Pope turned out to be one of the Medicis.)
Yesterday morning, by arrangement of Fr Nikolaos Papadopoulos, the priest of the local Greek Orthodox Church of St Iakovos the Apostle and Brother of the Lord, I was granted an opportunity to venerate this holy relic. Fr Nikos has lived here for nearly ten years now and is well known and well liked by the clergy of the Cathedral, of which there are about 20. (I'll have more to say about relations between the Roman Catholics and Orthodox here in a future post.) One of his closest friends is Archdeacon Allesandro, one of whose responsibilities appears to be Guardian of the Relics. He was more than happy to spend an hour with me yesterday, taking me to chapels and crypts off limits to tourists. His historical knowledge of the Catholic Church, the Cathedral (and other churches) of Florence, and of the city itself, is profound and impressive. He has traced his family's Florentine association back to the sixteenth century; prior to that, his people were associated with nearby Sienna. By Florentine satndards, that makes him kind of a newbie. (One of the complaints against the Medicis was that they assumed to much authority too soon after appearing on the scene; they'd only been here about a century before they presumed to get involved with local government. The nerve of some people!) The Archdeacon is a mild-mannered, unassuming fifty-year old, who treated me with gthe utmost respect. The skull of St John is kept throughout the year under the altar table in one of several chapels at the eastern end of the Cathedral. The chapel, which is to the left of the High Altar and faces north, is dedicated to the Saint, and a Mass is offered on the altar there every morning. The relics of several saints are visible there at all times, through the latticework that surrounds the altar. The Archdeacon was good enough to bring the reliquary out from under the altar so that I could venerate it. He also allowed me to take a few photographs. I thank God that I'm able to offer these images to you for your own veneration on www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas .
Florence's Duomo is the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, or Holy Mary of the Flowers. No one calls it that, except tour guides, and only once. Although the Holy Virgin is revered throughout the city, she is not its patron saint. That honor belongs to Saint John the Baptist, whose principal place of worship is an octagonal baptistry dating back to at least the eighth century and situated directly opposite the Duomo's entrance. But there's more: the Cathedral of Florence was, from the fourth- to the thirteenth centuries, dedicated to an obscure woman martyr of Syrian origin, Saint Reparata. The remains of that basilica lie under the floor of the present-day Duomo, and in recent decades access has been created to that lower level. The ruins cover about a third the length of the current building. Santa Maria was built around Santa Reparata, which continued to serve as the cathedral until there was enough of a structure around it to permit its demolition - that is, for nearly eighty years after construction began! And St John's Baptistry was not, as it were, created out of nothing; it was built on the site of a Roman temple to, of all "people," Mars, the god of war!
Some have wondered, given their long history of civil strife, whether the Florentines ever did end their association with the war god. A couple of examples, both of which took place within the Duomo itself, will make the point. Those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning of my stay here four weeks ago will recall Fra Girolamo Savonarola. The Prior of the Dominican brotherhood of San Marco, a few hundred yards north of the cathedral, he rose to fame - and power - as the Duomo's preacher. The Dominican Order was dedicated to and distinguished for preaching, and Savonarola was by all accounts a preacher's preacher. He was renowned throughout the region for his dramatic and soul-stirring sermons, in which he claimed for himself prophetic status and divine inspiration. It is estimated that at the height of his influence he preached to as many as 15,000 at a time! (That the Duomo can hold a crowd of that size is not hard to believe; it is the fourth largest church in the world. That a person could make himself heard by so many people without modern day amplification is a more challenging claim.) Of course, not everyone responded to his calls for repentance (or else!) in the same spirit. On one occasion, he arrived at the Duomo to discover the high wooden pulpit from which he commanded the attention of the city smeared all over with animal excrement and draped with a donkey's carcass, with nails driven into it at strategic areas in the hopes that he would injure himself while pounding to make a point, so to speak.
The other example is even more dramatic. On Easter Sunday, April 26, 1478, during the celebration of High Mass, in the presence of 10,000 fellow Florentines, a group determined to put an end to the de facto rule by the Medici family of what was supposedly the Republic of Florence, attacked two of its most illustrious members, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" and his younger brother Giuliano. Lorenzo escaped into the sacristy, the room where the clergy vest for the services, with serious but non-fatal injuries. Giuliano was less fortunate. He was stabbed 19 times by a gang that included at least one priest who'd participated in the Mass, and bled to death within a few feet of the Holy Altar. The Medicis and their supporters quickly gained control, and within the hour arrested the visiting Archbishop of Pisa, one of the principal ringleaders of the plot. By the end of the day his naked body hung from the walls of the Palazzo Vecchio, the fortress-like center of government not far from the Duomo. What a way to spend Easter!
Of course, Florence's Duomo isn't the only House of God that has witnessed ungodly violence perpetrated within its walls; think of what the Great Church of Haghia Sophia in Constantinople suffered at hands first of the Crusaders and later of the Ottomans. Which brings me, by an admittedly roundabout way, to what I wanted to talk about in the first place: a holy relic of Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, which is neither in Constantinople nor at the Vatican, but right here in Florence, in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Duomo.
Let's connect the dots: St John was, not unlike Savonarola, a preacher's preacher. He is remembered throughout the Christian world, east and west, as The Preacher par excellence. Savonarola no doubt learned from his much-studied sermons, as did Martin Luthor shortly after him, how to direct people's attention from vain pursuits to the pursuit of the genuinely Christian life. Chrysostom, however, didn't resort to the kind of spiritual violence that characterized Savonarola's preaching at its worst. He did not so much breathe out fire and brimstone as he did entice with a language described by his contemporaries and all subsequent generations as golden in both style and content. Like the Florentine, however, he was no respecter of persons, and his denunciation of immorality was directed against the mighty as well as the man on the street. As punishment for his attacks that hit too close to the Imperial Palace for its occupants' comfort, he fell asleep in the Lord in the year 407, at the age of 53, while in exile, dying of exhaustion en route from one village to another in the Armenian mountains far distant from his patriarchal see. (Although he actually reposed on September 14, so that the commemoration of his memory would not be overshadowed by the celebration of the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross which was came to be celebrated four centuries later on that same date, his feastday was transferred to November 13.) Thirty years after his death, in the year 438, his sacred remains were brought back from exile to Constantinople and laid to rest in the Church of the Holy Peace of God (Haghia Eirene). The transfer - or in the language of the Church, "translation" - of the saint's relics from Armenia to Haghia Sophia is commemorated annually on January 27. He was to remain at rest there for nearly eight centuries thereafter.
In 1204, Constantinople was sacked by Crusaders from Western Europe, who established Latin control over the City that was to last for the next half century. During that time, churches and mansions throughout the City were ruthlessly stripped of their treasures, many of which were delivered to Venice and Rome. Holy relics were particularly prized, and the tombs of saints were everywhere plundered. The relics of two of the greatest men to ever associated with the City, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Gregory the Theologian, were among those taken to Rome. Four years ago this month, on November 30, the Feast of St Andrew the First-Called Apostle, elder brother of the Apostle Peter and Patron Saint of the Church of Constantinople, Pope John Paul II directed the return of a large part of these sacred relics of these two saints to Constantinople. One of the last acts of his Papacy, this was a demonstration of John Paul's longing for and commitment to the reconciliation of the Churches of Rome and the Orthodox East. Some relics were retained at the Vatican, and some had already been distributed to other churches throughout the west. Among the relics of St John which did not return was his holy skull, which had been presented centuries ago as a Papal gift to the Duomo of Florence. (I'm still looking into this, but I wouldn't be the tiniest bit surprised if the gifting Pope turned out to be one of the Medicis.)
Yesterday morning, by arrangement of Fr Nikolaos Papadopoulos, the priest of the local Greek Orthodox Church of St Iakovos the Apostle and Brother of the Lord, I was granted an opportunity to venerate this holy relic. Fr Nikos has lived here for nearly ten years now and is well known and well liked by the clergy of the Cathedral, of which there are about 20. (I'll have more to say about relations between the Roman Catholics and Orthodox here in a future post.) One of his closest friends is Archdeacon Allesandro, one of whose responsibilities appears to be Guardian of the Relics. He was more than happy to spend an hour with me yesterday, taking me to chapels and crypts off limits to tourists. His historical knowledge of the Catholic Church, the Cathedral (and other churches) of Florence, and of the city itself, is profound and impressive. He has traced his family's Florentine association back to the sixteenth century; prior to that, his people were associated with nearby Sienna. By Florentine satndards, that makes him kind of a newbie. (One of the complaints against the Medicis was that they assumed to much authority too soon after appearing on the scene; they'd only been here about a century before they presumed to get involved with local government. The nerve of some people!) The Archdeacon is a mild-mannered, unassuming fifty-year old, who treated me with gthe utmost respect. The skull of St John is kept throughout the year under the altar table in one of several chapels at the eastern end of the Cathedral. The chapel, which is to the left of the High Altar and faces north, is dedicated to the Saint, and a Mass is offered on the altar there every morning. The relics of several saints are visible there at all times, through the latticework that surrounds the altar. The Archdeacon was good enough to bring the reliquary out from under the altar so that I could venerate it. He also allowed me to take a few photographs. I thank God that I'm able to offer these images to you for your own veneration on www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas .
Monday, November 10, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Believe me, believe me...
Other worthies, including the King himself, have covered it, and many have covered it well, but why did they bother? No one will ever own "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" but the woman who gave it to us a full 42 years ago, the late, very great Dusty Springfield. Believe it or not, it was her only #1 single in her native Britain! (It only went as high as #4 in the States.) Her only #1? You read me right, and I share your sense of outrage. What about "I Only Want To Be With You"? "Wishin' and Hopin'"? "The Look of Love"? "SON OF A PREACHER MAN"? What was the record-buying public thinking at the time? It boggles the mind.
Before going any further, I must insist you watch her perform the song, in all its over-orchestrated glory, live on the BBC. Yes, she looks like she's made up for Kabuki, and at times semaphoring the lyrics, but that was part of her very considerable charm. Go right away to www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7n0HJEMqjA . Everything else can wait.
Welcome back. Have you collected yourself? Yeah, they don't perform that like that anymore. (Eat you heart out, Duffy!) But what's my point? What does Dusty have to do with Tuscany? Nothing, really. But there is an Italian connection. Dusty recorded an English version of an Italian song, "Io che non vivo (senza te)," by the immortal (here) Pino Donaggio, which she first heard and fell in love with at the Sanremo Festival in 1965. (You can watch that very performance, which was televised live, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AOqOZwcwt0 - this one's optional.).
That's not so surprising in and of itself. It sounds like I imagine many Italian pop song of the period sounded. What is surprising is that it appears to represent a high water mark for Italian pop. I mean, the schlock I have to endure here at the Internet Train, you wouldn't believe! It's a wonder sometimes that I can put two sentences together, given the distraction of this drivel. It's like Zucherro's "Senz' una donna" is on a loop. Thank God it's interspersed with more palatable stuff. The other day was pretty wonderful: KLF featuring Tammy Wynette, "Justified and Ancient;" Terence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well;" and Charles and Eddie's "Would I Lie To You?", in a row! You don't easily forget days like that.
Before going any further, I must insist you watch her perform the song, in all its over-orchestrated glory, live on the BBC. Yes, she looks like she's made up for Kabuki, and at times semaphoring the lyrics, but that was part of her very considerable charm. Go right away to www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7n0HJEMqjA . Everything else can wait.
Welcome back. Have you collected yourself? Yeah, they don't perform that like that anymore. (Eat you heart out, Duffy!) But what's my point? What does Dusty have to do with Tuscany? Nothing, really. But there is an Italian connection. Dusty recorded an English version of an Italian song, "Io che non vivo (senza te)," by the immortal (here) Pino Donaggio, which she first heard and fell in love with at the Sanremo Festival in 1965. (You can watch that very performance, which was televised live, at www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AOqOZwcwt0 - this one's optional.).
That's not so surprising in and of itself. It sounds like I imagine many Italian pop song of the period sounded. What is surprising is that it appears to represent a high water mark for Italian pop. I mean, the schlock I have to endure here at the Internet Train, you wouldn't believe! It's a wonder sometimes that I can put two sentences together, given the distraction of this drivel. It's like Zucherro's "Senz' una donna" is on a loop. Thank God it's interspersed with more palatable stuff. The other day was pretty wonderful: KLF featuring Tammy Wynette, "Justified and Ancient;" Terence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well;" and Charles and Eddie's "Would I Lie To You?", in a row! You don't easily forget days like that.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Slow train coming
I've been a little under the weather the past couple of days, Dear Readers, and so have been spending more time at the apartment or the doctor's than here on the Internet Train. It's nothing serious, just a vexing cough I develop pretty much every November, but it's been keeping me up the past couple of nights so I haven't been myself. I expect to have a new entry up tomorrow, along with a video or two. Meanwhile, I've posted a few new pics at www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas. Check them out, why don't you? And don't be afraid to click on the "size" option and open them up. They generally look better large.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
This is the day that the Lord has made!
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Or as my late father, Skevos ("Steve") Zembillas, used to say (generally, when the stock market went up), "Wow! Isn't it wonderful to be alive today?"
I know I'm taking a risk of alienating or angering or confusing or scandalizing some of my readers, those who identify the Democratic Party with an ungodly, anti-family agenda, and who imagine the Republicans are the Children of Light, but I really can't contain myself today. No party's agenda is identical with God's plan for humanity. That plan is embodied in the Church, the Body of Christ. The Body Politic is another body altogether. The only way the one can approximate the other is if the goal of government were to fulfill the law of Christ, which is to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal 6:2). "Have you seen your neighbor?" asks one of the Desert Fathers of the Church, and continues, "You have seen your God." Blasphemy? Reread St John's 1st Epistle.
The goal of government ought not to be to protect us from one another, to teach us to treat the other as competition or nuisance or threat, but to help us to help one another. I will always remember my shock when I walked into Boston's Old North Church for the first time several years ago, the church from whose steeple Paul Revere watched for the signal light. I wasn't struck so much by the starkness of the interior, the walls bare of any sort of decoration, as I was by the cubicles. Families or individuals would own their own space, surrounded on all sides by white wooden walls six feet high. The only thing visible from within the blinders of the family cubicle was the pulpit, from which the preacher would deliver God's word not to the People of God, but to godly persons. How different from the message conveyed by the great Orthodox worship spaces, such as the paradigmatic Haghia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. There, people of all ages and all walks of life gather in a wide, uncluttered space, everyone embraced from above by a dome in which is depicted the Creator God, the Father of all, the Loving Judge, who has told us through His Son that we will be judged on the basis of how we treat others, the least significant, the strangers, and not on how little we managed to disturb them. (How ironic, that the people for whom Darwinism is anathema should in their politics reveal themselves to be Social Darwinists.)
Do I expect miracles from the President-Elect? Am I confusing the man with the Messiah? Of course not. But neither is he the Antichrist, as some of his opponents would have you believe. Americans did a good thing yesterday, an inspired thing. They didn't voice their opinion, they shouted it. A new day has dawned, a day that the Lord has most emphatically made. Are you as delighted as I am? Send up thanks to the Lord our God! Are you for any reason unhappy? Pray to the same God for our President-Elect's enlightenment.
[On a personal note, last night was a surreal experience. Two Italian networks were reporting election results all night long, showing scenes from American television. Whenever an American spoke, I had to strain to listen for the English under the simultaneous translation into Italian. On one of the programs, a group of Italian-American university students were in the studio, offering commentary and opinions. I was surprised at their fluency! (I can't speak for the accuracy of their Italian, but they sure spoke it quickly!)]
Or as my late father, Skevos ("Steve") Zembillas, used to say (generally, when the stock market went up), "Wow! Isn't it wonderful to be alive today?"
I know I'm taking a risk of alienating or angering or confusing or scandalizing some of my readers, those who identify the Democratic Party with an ungodly, anti-family agenda, and who imagine the Republicans are the Children of Light, but I really can't contain myself today. No party's agenda is identical with God's plan for humanity. That plan is embodied in the Church, the Body of Christ. The Body Politic is another body altogether. The only way the one can approximate the other is if the goal of government were to fulfill the law of Christ, which is to "bear one another's burdens" (Gal 6:2). "Have you seen your neighbor?" asks one of the Desert Fathers of the Church, and continues, "You have seen your God." Blasphemy? Reread St John's 1st Epistle.
The goal of government ought not to be to protect us from one another, to teach us to treat the other as competition or nuisance or threat, but to help us to help one another. I will always remember my shock when I walked into Boston's Old North Church for the first time several years ago, the church from whose steeple Paul Revere watched for the signal light. I wasn't struck so much by the starkness of the interior, the walls bare of any sort of decoration, as I was by the cubicles. Families or individuals would own their own space, surrounded on all sides by white wooden walls six feet high. The only thing visible from within the blinders of the family cubicle was the pulpit, from which the preacher would deliver God's word not to the People of God, but to godly persons. How different from the message conveyed by the great Orthodox worship spaces, such as the paradigmatic Haghia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. There, people of all ages and all walks of life gather in a wide, uncluttered space, everyone embraced from above by a dome in which is depicted the Creator God, the Father of all, the Loving Judge, who has told us through His Son that we will be judged on the basis of how we treat others, the least significant, the strangers, and not on how little we managed to disturb them. (How ironic, that the people for whom Darwinism is anathema should in their politics reveal themselves to be Social Darwinists.)
Do I expect miracles from the President-Elect? Am I confusing the man with the Messiah? Of course not. But neither is he the Antichrist, as some of his opponents would have you believe. Americans did a good thing yesterday, an inspired thing. They didn't voice their opinion, they shouted it. A new day has dawned, a day that the Lord has most emphatically made. Are you as delighted as I am? Send up thanks to the Lord our God! Are you for any reason unhappy? Pray to the same God for our President-Elect's enlightenment.
[On a personal note, last night was a surreal experience. Two Italian networks were reporting election results all night long, showing scenes from American television. Whenever an American spoke, I had to strain to listen for the English under the simultaneous translation into Italian. On one of the programs, a group of Italian-American university students were in the studio, offering commentary and opinions. I was surprised at their fluency! (I can't speak for the accuracy of their Italian, but they sure spoke it quickly!)]
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
From a distance
How difficult it is to be here today! The people from whom I'm renting my apartment don't have satellite television, which means there's no CNN or BBC or any English-language programming at all (unless "The Hills" qualifies). No, that's not entirely true. CNN's on from 4am to 6am. Of course, if I set the alarm to get up for the news, the rest of my day is seriously effected by it, so it's not something I can do regularly. That means that, in order to stay on top of what's happening, I either have to buy the International Herald (2 euro!) or New York Times (6 euro!!) or wait for the Sunday Times (14 euro!!!) or hang out at the Internet Train (the name of the franchise). What news I get, in other words, is what news you get, but less regularly. I say this because some have asked me what the election looks like from here, presumably from the perspective of the average Italian. Alas, I can't say that I know. To my shame, although I invested in a Rosetta Stone "Teach Yourself Italian" program in plenty of time to learn the basics before I got here, I even now haven't done anything with it. I have no idea what's going on around me and pretty much limit my communications to sign language, as in pointing to the pizza I want and then indicating how many slices. I know what you know: that if the Europeans had a say, Obama would be President of the Western World. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that Obama campaigned here. In any case, I'm sure that doesn't come as news to anyone back home, or as a good reason to vote for him. In fact, I'm sure many would find that reason enough not to vote for him. After all, we don't want our allies to think we give a hoot about their opinions!
We're 6 hours ahead of New York here. Do they still wait until Alaska and Hawaii close before announcing how other states voted? If so, that should happen around 6am here - just as CNN goes off the air, and 3 hours before the Internet Train leaves the station! Of course, Italian TV will be covering the election results, and "red" and "blue" looks the same here as there, so I should be able to follow the plot, if not the dialogue. Aaarrrgghhh! Maybe if I get through enough Rosetta Stone lessons between now and then...
We're 6 hours ahead of New York here. Do they still wait until Alaska and Hawaii close before announcing how other states voted? If so, that should happen around 6am here - just as CNN goes off the air, and 3 hours before the Internet Train leaves the station! Of course, Italian TV will be covering the election results, and "red" and "blue" looks the same here as there, so I should be able to follow the plot, if not the dialogue. Aaarrrgghhh! Maybe if I get through enough Rosetta Stone lessons between now and then...
We venerate Your Cross, O Christ
I'm 51 years old. I grew up at a time when there were three major television networks, a public television station, and, in the Chicagoland area anyway, some ghostly channels on a dial marked UHF that catered to those like my father who needed the live stock market feed or who, like yours truly, watched Don Cortez Cornelius host the Soul Train after school. It was not a time of round-the-clock news coverage. A news junkie was one who read the morning and evening newspapers, or watched the early evening and late night news. It took a crisis of epic proportions, the death of a figure of world-wide stature, or a NASA launch, to interrupt our regularly scheduled programming, or to make a dent on my consciousness. Really important news stories reached me, cutting through my mental preoccupation with the latest Beatles or Monkees song, or Batman episode, by means of the weekly LIFE magazine. Those of us my age or older make an annual ritual of recounting exactly where we were when we first heard that President Kennedy, or his brother, or Martin Luther King, was assassinated, but there were other stories which, I'm sure, left their marks on our memories: the deaths of Pope John XXIII and of Sir Winston Churchill, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the starvation brought on by the war in Biafra, the Chicago Riots.
Today is the 42nd anniversary of one such event: the flooding of Florence by the River Arno on November 4, 1966. (Appropriately, it's been raining all day.) At its highest point, the waters were 22 feet high. I remembering poring over images of the destruction, in some cases irreparable, caused by the muddy water to works of art which I'd never seen before then, but which, through their reproduction in LIFE and National Geographic magazines, were to haunt me from then on. One image in particular has never left me: that of a severely damaged 13th-century Crucifix by Cimabue, which had been hanging in the refectory of the Franciscans at the Church of Santa Croce (Holy Cross), in the area of the worst flooding. It was a more genuinely Byzantine image of the Crucified than any I was at the time familiar with from my own local parish, Sts Constantine and Helen of Gary, Indiana. I was 9 years old and much more comfortable with a less stylized Jesus - the Byzantine revival had yet to reach the churches of the American Midwest - and so I remember thinking His arms and legs were too long, too thin and His face too strange, too Oriental. But more importantly, I remember being troubled by the fact of its vulnerability. What had happened to it was unfair; God should have intervened to protect his image. I'm sure I didn't appreciate the irony at the time. The image of the Crucified is, of course, the very image of injustice, the very image of the Invulnerable presenting Himself without defense, vulnerable to the worst we could do to Him, to demonstrate the immensity of His love for us. The scars inflicted by nature did not diminish it; in a mysterious way, they enhanced it. As I stood at the foot of that enormous, still-scarred Christ this past Saturday, nearly 42 years after I'd first encountered the image in the pages of LIFE, I realized at last that it retains its power to pierce the heart not in spite of, but because of, its damaged state.
Here's what it would have looked like before November 4, 1966: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cimabue_025.jpg. I've posted a couple of my own photos of it in its present condition on www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas. I've also included a couple of the Arno in a calmer mood, taken this past Sunday afternoon, from the Ponte Santa Trinita, the Holy Trinity Bridge, which is just west of the Ponte Vecchio. The whitish building to the south of the river (on the right side of the picture, as I was pointing east) is the apse of St Iakovos Greek Orthodox Church.
Today is the 42nd anniversary of one such event: the flooding of Florence by the River Arno on November 4, 1966. (Appropriately, it's been raining all day.) At its highest point, the waters were 22 feet high. I remembering poring over images of the destruction, in some cases irreparable, caused by the muddy water to works of art which I'd never seen before then, but which, through their reproduction in LIFE and National Geographic magazines, were to haunt me from then on. One image in particular has never left me: that of a severely damaged 13th-century Crucifix by Cimabue, which had been hanging in the refectory of the Franciscans at the Church of Santa Croce (Holy Cross), in the area of the worst flooding. It was a more genuinely Byzantine image of the Crucified than any I was at the time familiar with from my own local parish, Sts Constantine and Helen of Gary, Indiana. I was 9 years old and much more comfortable with a less stylized Jesus - the Byzantine revival had yet to reach the churches of the American Midwest - and so I remember thinking His arms and legs were too long, too thin and His face too strange, too Oriental. But more importantly, I remember being troubled by the fact of its vulnerability. What had happened to it was unfair; God should have intervened to protect his image. I'm sure I didn't appreciate the irony at the time. The image of the Crucified is, of course, the very image of injustice, the very image of the Invulnerable presenting Himself without defense, vulnerable to the worst we could do to Him, to demonstrate the immensity of His love for us. The scars inflicted by nature did not diminish it; in a mysterious way, they enhanced it. As I stood at the foot of that enormous, still-scarred Christ this past Saturday, nearly 42 years after I'd first encountered the image in the pages of LIFE, I realized at last that it retains its power to pierce the heart not in spite of, but because of, its damaged state.
Here's what it would have looked like before November 4, 1966: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cimabue_025.jpg. I've posted a couple of my own photos of it in its present condition on www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas. I've also included a couple of the Arno in a calmer mood, taken this past Sunday afternoon, from the Ponte Santa Trinita, the Holy Trinity Bridge, which is just west of the Ponte Vecchio. The whitish building to the south of the river (on the right side of the picture, as I was pointing east) is the apse of St Iakovos Greek Orthodox Church.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Short answer: "Hell, yes!"
Someone asked, "You said in an earlier post you planned to read Dante while on sabbatical. Have you followed through with your intention?"
Long answer: "Hell, yes! I have my doubts about Purgatory, but I sure hope I make it to Paradise!"
I'm referring, of course, to Dante's "Divine Comedy," which I am thoroughly enjoying, even though I haven't laughed out loud even once yet. Either the jokes don't translate or, like in Shakespeare, they don't age well. I confess I've giggled a couple of times at some of the tortures. I mean, the hypocrites really get what they deserve, don't they? Such losers!
But seriously, friends, I ain't got much for you today. My mind's not so much on Renaissance Florence as it is on my homeland in the present day, in this critical hour. I wish I could come back for the next couple of days. I hate the thought of missing out on history in the making. But then, come to think of it, I was out of the country the last two times a Democrat won the White House. Hmmm... Never mind. I'm happy to stay put.
Long answer: "Hell, yes! I have my doubts about Purgatory, but I sure hope I make it to Paradise!"
I'm referring, of course, to Dante's "Divine Comedy," which I am thoroughly enjoying, even though I haven't laughed out loud even once yet. Either the jokes don't translate or, like in Shakespeare, they don't age well. I confess I've giggled a couple of times at some of the tortures. I mean, the hypocrites really get what they deserve, don't they? Such losers!
But seriously, friends, I ain't got much for you today. My mind's not so much on Renaissance Florence as it is on my homeland in the present day, in this critical hour. I wish I could come back for the next couple of days. I hate the thought of missing out on history in the making. But then, come to think of it, I was out of the country the last two times a Democrat won the White House. Hmmm... Never mind. I'm happy to stay put.
A foodnote to Ciao Time
One of my readers expressed an interest in preparing ribollita, which sounds like a great idea to me. Unfortunately, though it is simple, it takes time to prepare properly. The name means "reboiled," as in "boiled again on the second day," and is said to best eaten no earlier than the third day. Ideally, it should be thick enough to eat with a fork. Here's a link to what sounds to me like a very tasty version:
http://www.divinacucina.com/code/ribollita.html
Another local favorite takes guts to eat. Tripe, as in intestines, are big here, as in popular - in soups, sandwiches and salads. Locals also eat pigeon, which I won't, as I'm among those who think of that bird as a rat with wings, and I don't do rat. There's even a local delicacy that is made of rooster's combs and tongues and private parts. I'm not surprised not to have heard of it before. I haven't seen it on any menu, but am not likely to seek out a restaurant that offers it. Some things are best left to the locals.
http://www.divinacucina.com/code/ribollita.html
Another local favorite takes guts to eat. Tripe, as in intestines, are big here, as in popular - in soups, sandwiches and salads. Locals also eat pigeon, which I won't, as I'm among those who think of that bird as a rat with wings, and I don't do rat. There's even a local delicacy that is made of rooster's combs and tongues and private parts. I'm not surprised not to have heard of it before. I haven't seen it on any menu, but am not likely to seek out a restaurant that offers it. Some things are best left to the locals.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Ciao time!
I'm not a gourmand. I'm okay with just about anything (as my substantial girth bears witness), though I'd have to be starving to eat cuttlefish, okra, and most internal organs, excepting liver. I prefer fresh fruit and cheese to dessert (unless it's Hagen Daaz) and Diet Coke (with lots of ice) to wine. Back home, I'm happy with Taco Bell. I tell you all this as a way of lowering your expectations.
Florence is glutted with eateries. Most are the Italian equivalent of fast food, offering slices of pizza and/or panini (sandwiches) and/or gelati. Most of it is run-of-the-mill. New York pizza leaves the local variety in the dust. They put dumb stuff on their pizza, like tuna, or french fries, and never enough sauce, and the crust is too much like bread. Most of the sandwiches are ham. The chicken sandwiches are made of reprocessed chicken cutlets, and are to be avoided. And it's all sort of pricey for an American these days - 4 euro ($5.50) a slice, 5 a panini. The only bargains I've discovered are (gulp) the Turkish kebab (=gyro) places, where for 4 euro you can eat well (if you go for the chicken - the other type looks too scary to think about). MacDonald's is also a bargain, but I've managed to find only one of them, and it's kind of far from my apartment, like 10 minutes by foot. You can get a burger there for a euro! Of course, you need 4 of those to satisfy, and satisfaction is followed within minutes by regret. (My first time there, I spent a couple minutes pondering what its cloth banner meant - "ti 'nivol m'i" - until I realized it was meant to be read from the other side.) There are no Starbucks, and people look at you funny if you ask for a venti in the coffee shops. And here I thought I knew some Italian!
But that's not what you want to know about. You want me to go on about the local cuisine, the tastes of Tuscany! Well, I haven't had a lot of experience with that so far, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I didn't come here to feed my face. I came here to nourish my intellect, to feed my soul on art. I'm so taken by my surroundings, I often find that the day is drawing to a close and I've forgotten to eat! Secondly, and more honestly, real food is expensive! I get by most days with fresh fruit and yogurt (to wash down the taste of the inadequate pizza). Sometimes I eat at a cafeteria, which offers a wider variety of choices, including various kinds of pasta, roast chicken and beef. About every third day or so I treat myself to a real meal at a proper trattoria (restaurant), of which there are several on every block. There are 4 on via delle Terme alone! Most are small, no more than 20 small tables. Just about everything I've eaten in them has been good; some has been much better than that. The best stuff I've had so far has been the simplest. I will always remember, for example, a split pea soup I had a few nights ago. It was made with yellow split peas and was soupier than I'm used to; the Greek equivalent, fava, can be almost pasty by comparison. The chef had thrown in a handful of barley, and seasoned it, unexpectedly, with rosemary. Had I known, I wouldn't have ordered a second dish. I wanted to carry the taste of the soup home with me. I've also taken to a vegetable soup called "ribollita," which is made of carrots, leeks, garlic, tomatoes, parmesan, olive oil, all cooked with chunks of bread that go mushy and fall apart in it and give it its peculiar body.
Like I said, I'm no gourmand, but if I eat anything between now and the time I leave that I think you should know about, rest assured, I'll fill you in.
Florence is glutted with eateries. Most are the Italian equivalent of fast food, offering slices of pizza and/or panini (sandwiches) and/or gelati. Most of it is run-of-the-mill. New York pizza leaves the local variety in the dust. They put dumb stuff on their pizza, like tuna, or french fries, and never enough sauce, and the crust is too much like bread. Most of the sandwiches are ham. The chicken sandwiches are made of reprocessed chicken cutlets, and are to be avoided. And it's all sort of pricey for an American these days - 4 euro ($5.50) a slice, 5 a panini. The only bargains I've discovered are (gulp) the Turkish kebab (=gyro) places, where for 4 euro you can eat well (if you go for the chicken - the other type looks too scary to think about). MacDonald's is also a bargain, but I've managed to find only one of them, and it's kind of far from my apartment, like 10 minutes by foot. You can get a burger there for a euro! Of course, you need 4 of those to satisfy, and satisfaction is followed within minutes by regret. (My first time there, I spent a couple minutes pondering what its cloth banner meant - "ti 'nivol m'i" - until I realized it was meant to be read from the other side.) There are no Starbucks, and people look at you funny if you ask for a venti in the coffee shops. And here I thought I knew some Italian!
But that's not what you want to know about. You want me to go on about the local cuisine, the tastes of Tuscany! Well, I haven't had a lot of experience with that so far, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I didn't come here to feed my face. I came here to nourish my intellect, to feed my soul on art. I'm so taken by my surroundings, I often find that the day is drawing to a close and I've forgotten to eat! Secondly, and more honestly, real food is expensive! I get by most days with fresh fruit and yogurt (to wash down the taste of the inadequate pizza). Sometimes I eat at a cafeteria, which offers a wider variety of choices, including various kinds of pasta, roast chicken and beef. About every third day or so I treat myself to a real meal at a proper trattoria (restaurant), of which there are several on every block. There are 4 on via delle Terme alone! Most are small, no more than 20 small tables. Just about everything I've eaten in them has been good; some has been much better than that. The best stuff I've had so far has been the simplest. I will always remember, for example, a split pea soup I had a few nights ago. It was made with yellow split peas and was soupier than I'm used to; the Greek equivalent, fava, can be almost pasty by comparison. The chef had thrown in a handful of barley, and seasoned it, unexpectedly, with rosemary. Had I known, I wouldn't have ordered a second dish. I wanted to carry the taste of the soup home with me. I've also taken to a vegetable soup called "ribollita," which is made of carrots, leeks, garlic, tomatoes, parmesan, olive oil, all cooked with chunks of bread that go mushy and fall apart in it and give it its peculiar body.
Like I said, I'm no gourmand, but if I eat anything between now and the time I leave that I think you should know about, rest assured, I'll fill you in.
Noble Joseph
A couple of days ago - last Thursday, to be exact - I spent the afternoon in the Church of Santa Maria Novella, a few blocks to the west of the city center. It's among the oldest and most beautiful churches in a city full of old and beautiful churches. The facade is particularly satisfying, and that alone helps to set it somewhat apart from the competition, so to speak. The churches of the Santa Maria del Fiore (that is, the Duomo), Santa Croce, and San Lorenzo are, as it were, let down by their facades. Those of the first two were only put up centuries after the buildings were erected and say more about the architectural fashion of the nineteenth century than they do about what lies behind them, within the buildings themselves; San Lorenzo, famously, remains without a facade, half a millennium after its construction. Santa Maria Novella's is in an uncluttered, Romanesque style, a style to which I am particularly partial, in white marble, with its designs marked out in green and occasionally pink marble, and is fronted by a large piazza that allows the visitor plenty of space from which to appreciate it.
Here are images of the churches I've mentioned, so that you can see for yourselves what I'm going on about:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Santa_Maria_Novella.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Santa_maria_del_fiore_-_retouched.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Santa_Croce_exterior_Firenze_Apr_2008.JPG
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/michelangelo-buildings-3.jpg
The basic ground plan of the church is cruciform. The main body of the church makes up the long vertical of the cross, from which two short arms extend near the top, which in this case is at the northern end of the building. Like all of these great churches, the interior is decorated in a variety of artistic styles, reflecting the evolving (or some might say devolving) tastes of the centuries over which it was completed. This is especially true of the chapels that line the walls. It can take hours, if not days, to work your way around a building like this, which is crammed with art (admittedly, of varying quality) from floor to ceiling. I began at the southernmost point of the cross, the entrance, and worked my way around to my left. I came in particular for the enormous frescoes cycles behind the altar, which are among the greatest works by Domenico Ghirlandaio (pronounced Geer-lon-DYE-o), the man from whom Michelangelo learned the art of painting on fresh plaster walls. They did not disappoint. Facing the huge altar (which is itself a marvel of varicolored marble), on the left, are panels depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary; on the right, scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, patron of the city. There isn't time for me to go on about the power and charm of these images. I've included a very small detail, of a beaming nursemaid holding the newborn Virgin Mary in her arms, on my flickr page, just to give you a taste.
Proceeding on from the frescoes, I climbed up a small flight of 14 steps to the Rucellai Chapel, named for the family that had it built and decorated, in what would be the arm of the cross to which Christ's left hand was nailed - in this building, the one pointing east. Descending from the chapel, on the southern wall of that arm of the cross, is a white marble monument, maybe 10 feet tall, in which is displayed an inexpertly painted image of an obviously Byzantine hierarch. His vestments - a blue episcopal sakkos and white and gold omophorion - give him away. He's bare-headed - in fact, bald - without a halo, and has a full white beard coming to a point halfway down his chest. Two Giottoesque angels hover behind him, holding out what looks like a red cloak. His blue sakkos is shortsleeved and his lower arms are covered in darker blue. He is holding what is presumably a Gospel book, closed and decorated with a gold cross, and is smiling. I could see no identifying inscription on the image itself. In the white marble beneath it are carved two more angels, holding along a carved banner on which is inscripted, in black, a long text, almost entirely in Latin. The last line is in Greek, and reads, in translation: + JOSEPH, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH, YEAR 1439.
I have gone into some detail to describe the monument because Santa Maria Novella is one of those churches which does not allow the taking of photos or videos, and my courage of a couple of days earlier (see previous post) had abandoned me. As I could find no clearer images on the internet, I've include on my flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas) photos of photos which appear in the official guide book, one of the general setting and one of the monument itself. Sorry: the quality wasn't great to begin with.
Now the question is: why is a Patriarch of Constantinople entombed in the wall of a Roman Catholic church in Florence, Italy? For the answer to that, stay tuned.
Here are images of the churches I've mentioned, so that you can see for yourselves what I'm going on about:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Santa_Maria_Novella.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Santa_maria_del_fiore_-_retouched.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Santa_Croce_exterior_Firenze_Apr_2008.JPG
http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/michelangelo-buildings-3.jpg
The basic ground plan of the church is cruciform. The main body of the church makes up the long vertical of the cross, from which two short arms extend near the top, which in this case is at the northern end of the building. Like all of these great churches, the interior is decorated in a variety of artistic styles, reflecting the evolving (or some might say devolving) tastes of the centuries over which it was completed. This is especially true of the chapels that line the walls. It can take hours, if not days, to work your way around a building like this, which is crammed with art (admittedly, of varying quality) from floor to ceiling. I began at the southernmost point of the cross, the entrance, and worked my way around to my left. I came in particular for the enormous frescoes cycles behind the altar, which are among the greatest works by Domenico Ghirlandaio (pronounced Geer-lon-DYE-o), the man from whom Michelangelo learned the art of painting on fresh plaster walls. They did not disappoint. Facing the huge altar (which is itself a marvel of varicolored marble), on the left, are panels depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary; on the right, scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, patron of the city. There isn't time for me to go on about the power and charm of these images. I've included a very small detail, of a beaming nursemaid holding the newborn Virgin Mary in her arms, on my flickr page, just to give you a taste.
Proceeding on from the frescoes, I climbed up a small flight of 14 steps to the Rucellai Chapel, named for the family that had it built and decorated, in what would be the arm of the cross to which Christ's left hand was nailed - in this building, the one pointing east. Descending from the chapel, on the southern wall of that arm of the cross, is a white marble monument, maybe 10 feet tall, in which is displayed an inexpertly painted image of an obviously Byzantine hierarch. His vestments - a blue episcopal sakkos and white and gold omophorion - give him away. He's bare-headed - in fact, bald - without a halo, and has a full white beard coming to a point halfway down his chest. Two Giottoesque angels hover behind him, holding out what looks like a red cloak. His blue sakkos is shortsleeved and his lower arms are covered in darker blue. He is holding what is presumably a Gospel book, closed and decorated with a gold cross, and is smiling. I could see no identifying inscription on the image itself. In the white marble beneath it are carved two more angels, holding along a carved banner on which is inscripted, in black, a long text, almost entirely in Latin. The last line is in Greek, and reads, in translation: + JOSEPH, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE, NEW ROME AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH, YEAR 1439.
I have gone into some detail to describe the monument because Santa Maria Novella is one of those churches which does not allow the taking of photos or videos, and my courage of a couple of days earlier (see previous post) had abandoned me. As I could find no clearer images on the internet, I've include on my flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/bishopsavas) photos of photos which appear in the official guide book, one of the general setting and one of the monument itself. Sorry: the quality wasn't great to begin with.
Now the question is: why is a Patriarch of Constantinople entombed in the wall of a Roman Catholic church in Florence, Italy? For the answer to that, stay tuned.
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