the impact of Rome and the language of colour, the strength of film

It disturbs me that many people who flow through Rome run between famous things and do not see the city, do not allow the colour of the city to impact upon them. They seem to want to filter through the colours of home. What's the point of that then?


....Rome is full of colour. As is much of Italy, except where things are made of stone or carved of stone or made from baked clay.


The colours of Tuscany and Umbria also reflect the historically available palette of earthy colours. Look in a child's paint box and see Burnt Sienna and Light Umber. The paints are traditionally applied without the fixatives that would make them permanent, that prevent fading and streaking. That inhibit beauty evolving, that prevent ageing such as is normal in organic life.

You see on those walls, photo at left or left above on your browser, the street where we are in Rome, with diverse messages, some angry, some about football teams, some with bad words... and the very cute figures in the right foreground of the photo, by a graffitist whose works bring us to a halt here and there as we wander.

That scene comes into our minds now with sounds: the sound of the metal worker in the first door down there on the right, the sounds of coming and going from the market in the door behind the camera, and the crash-bang-screech-squeeze of the garbage truck at 3 in the afternoon or 6.30 in the evening. The sounds of the wheels of travellers' suitcases on the cobblestones before dawn, hastening for far away places at the end of time here... reminding us sometimes of frogs in the ponds at home when it rains, planes leaving...reminding us other times of the sounds of, of...of suitcases of travellers.

It is not all travellers here. There was, just along the street, a combined unions festival two weeks ago, three nights, about the role of women, focused on three of the women from here: Anna Magnani, Monica Vitti and Gabriella Ferri. The sounds of which floated to us, here my camera out the window. See again the colour, colour in the night, inseparable from mood.

To understand a little about colour, 

attend to the great master of colour in cinema of the twentieth century, 

Vittorio Storaro.
Do continue through to where he speaks of discovering who you are.
And speaks of his discovery of his own ignorance and self-discovery
as a path to maturity.

This week we ventured into the crowds at Piazza di Spagna. A place of great beauty, though it's so easy to be swept up in the mood of the crowd, see only the crowd, my crowd or the crowd of others.
This occasion very happy, not too crowded.
Colour shapes the crowd and mood, shaped by the sky, whatever mood. See what I mean.

This next embedded movie is set a tiny bit in Africa, a lot next to the Spanish Steps,
and very very deeply in the heart. There is a lack of special effects and Hollywood:
It goes mysteriously and gently: a magic of light and colour and two special actors.
Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Storaro as a gift to the world

and
Moravia + Bertollucci + Storaro
taking the anti-fascist novel Il Conformista of Alberto Moravia, 

the major Roman writer of the twentieth century

to show how people can slide graciously into fascism.

WARNING, THIS IS NOT FOR ALL

The insidious process of that story – the violent outcome of a refined man's pursuit of "fitting in" with power – has lessons for us now. 

Norman Mailer said, in a speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, February 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq:

Fascism is more of a natural state than democracy. To assume blithely that we can export democracy into any country we choose can serve paradoxically to encourage more fascism at home and abroad. Democracy is a state of grace that is attained only by those countries who have a host of individuals not only ready to enjoy freedom but to undergo the heavy labor of maintaining it.

The Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini

Alongside Babuino himself (earlier blog entry, see "smiles on the Spanish Steps"), in Via del Babuino, between the Piazza di Spagna and Piazza del Popolo, there appeared a curious eating place.

We have generally avoided, unless legs defeated, eating in the centre of tourist things. Legs were nearing defeat and curiosity overwhelmed. At the entry it seems improbable. One says to oneself, well it may be fake but whoever suggested that Margaret Thatcher at Madame Tussaud's is not a fake. So we were walking into a jumble, a bigger jumble than that mess in the Roman Forum.

One is not aware immediately
that the massive figure on horseback one is approaching is Simon Bolivar, the 'real' figure being in Lima, Peru. Apart from the one in Caracas and the other in San Francisco.

We sat and ate, as did others, under the watchful gaze of Pope Leo XIII

and an unknown (to us) watcher of table manners

The menu says we are in the Museo Atelier Canova Tadolini

and here up on a shelf out of the way is a smaller version of that in the Borghese Gallery—

 Pauline Borghese née Bonaparte, who appears to be rubbing noses with... could it be V.I. Lenin?

He looks happy, but they lived in different times. Otherwise, maybe, maybe. 

click on images to enlarge

The menu assisted understanding that this had been the Tadolini atelier, used also by Canova.

Here on the web I learned that in his Roman Walks, 1829, Stendhal set out a ten day walking program for Rome and suggested this place on day 4. 

I also learned from the first link in the previous paragraph that in 1805 in Bologna Napoleon came upon Adamo Tadolini sculpting and asked "who was your teacher". Tadolini said Canova and Nap said then we must go to see this Canova in Rome. This was Canova's atelier until 1818 when he passed it to Tadolini and it remained in the Tadolini family as workshop until 1967.  Photos below show the way in which there are bits of this and that scattered. 

But we remain with an interesting question. 

Canova's famous nude figure of Napoleon's sister in the Borghese Gallery was done by Canova between 1805 and 1808. Did Napoleon, hastening from Bologna to Rome in 1805 make a recommendation of sculptor or did he, rushing in on artist and model, have to say "Oh I see you two have already met."

If you know the answer, please comment below!

I think the date on the newspaper is 1953,
it says that in a few days, as long awaited by Romans,
there will be a declaration of this atelier of four generations of Tadolini, with the ghost of Canova
as a national monument. Perhaps someone reading this will find out and comment below.

The food was better than museum cafe standard, 

and I've never been in a museum cafe up close to art, like this.

Prices modest, especially if you build in a bit for the location!

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With all those bits of work on the wall I'm reminded of the Casa dell'Architetto

in Mantova we hoped to stay in once, but have failed to do so.  

It is the former arcitectural studio of the father of the present apartment host.

Breakfast's dog

Everything hoped

caffe per me?

howdy schnauzer, see you later... maybe

Sorry, I can't text now, I'm having a conversation with my dog

"The heart of a dog is a bottomless thing"  Tilda Swinton

The exhibition "Je suis l'autre" part 3.

click on images to enlarge

sorry about the fuzziness, this is label for work just below

from here to part 4—next blog entry

Smiles on the Spanish Steps 25 October 2018

Happiness

She danced, I caught it on a movie with her parents smiling,
but I have no parental consent, so not posted.

Then into Via del Babuino

Exchanging notes with Silenus,
whose sculpture deemed so ugly when put in place in the 1580s that people called it Babuino, a baboon.
The name stuck, to the extent that the street was eventually renamed Babuino.
Restored and recapitated in recent years.

Exchanging notes with a Chinese man. His wife, my wife in the 'Luxury Outlet' behind me.
He took my photo, I took his photo, we smiled, I went to his side of the road.
From Beijing but living in London, in investment.
We talked a little in Chinese, with his use of phone to find the word investment.
He said the economy in China was bad, things in China were bad.
He may be one of those who made money and who have run from campaigns in recent years.

outside the Hotel de Russie

and a final note from Piazza del Popolo