2008 January archive at eternallycool.net

Archive for January, 2008

Jan

Renaissance Revival

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Advertising and Art & Design

Botticelli's Birth of Venus in an Ad for Renaissance Hotels

A new advertising campaign by Renaissance Hotels has been catching our eye lately. Capitalizing on their name, the chain has produced a series of ads modeled on famous Italian Renaissance paintings.

Above, a model stands poolside in precisely the position assumed by Venus in Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (see below) as flowers shower down from the sky. In the original painting, the goddess newly-born from the sea is flanked on the left by Zephyrs and on the right by one of the Horae, a goddess of the seasons.

In the Renaissance ad above, the Zephyrs are replaced by smartly uniformed and diligent hotel employees who offer their almost-divine guest a refreshing cocktail and a carefully-composed plate of snacks, while the Hora who cloaks Venus below becomes an attentive pool boy offering a soft and fluffy towel.

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

The ad campaign is not just one of Renaissance imitation, however. The recomposed scenes incorporate elements of real Renaissance hotels. The pool, for example, in the Botticelli-esque ad at the top of this post is inspired by the swimming pool at the Renaissance Orlando Resort at Seaworld. Similarly, the loggia in the background was inspired by the arches on the facade of the Renaissance Hamburg Hotel.

Similarly, the vaults that cover the Last Supper-esque version of the ad campaign (below) are derived from the ceiling of the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel in Ohio, while the marble floor in the same image is an invention upon that found in the Renaissance Beijing Hotel.

Ad for Renaissance Resorts & Hotels

The ad campaign is in print, but there’s an interactive web version as well, in which clickable “fireflies” occupy parts of the images and provide more information about amenities offered by the hotel chain.

And there’s a third image - perhaps the cleverest of them all - that seems to be available only in print (seen most recently in December issues of the New Yorker). It’s an evocative adaptation of Raphael’s School of Athens, in which hotel guests have artfully arranged themselves in a majestic hotel lobby, assuming the positions of philosophers and thinkers featured in Raphael’s original composition. Anybody have a web version of that particular ad? We’d love a copy.

Jan

The Return of the Euphronius Vase

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Categories: Archaeology and Art & Design

Return of the Euphronius Vase to Italy

(Via AP) ROME - With the return of a long-sought masterpiece of antiquity, Italy on Friday trumpeted one of the successes of its campaign to recover what it says are looted treasures from museums and collectors around the world.

The 2,500-year-old vase by Greek artist Euphronius, which Italy regained after signing a deal with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was feted in Rome at an official presentation.

The Euphronius Krater — a large vase painted with scenes related to Homer’s epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” — is regarded as one of the finest examples of its kind. The vase was used as a bowl for mixing wine and water. (To read more about the vase itself and its brilliant paintings , we suggest this article from the Wall Street Journal.)

“It is universally considered the best work by the artist,” Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli said at the ceremony. Also attending was his predecessor, Rocco Buttiglione, who started the country’s high-profile campaign to recover art.

Rutelli sought to reassure art lovers that the Met’s artistic richness would not suffer.

Return of the Euphronius Vase to Italy

This “doesn’t mean we’re taking an opportunity away from the public,” the minister said, stressing that the deal calls for Italy to lend equally significant artifacts to the Met for four years. “The policy of exchanging items resolves a tough confrontation without hurting” museum visitors, he said.

The Euphronius Krater was at the heart of negotiations with the New York museum. And it was the focal point of Italian government efforts to recover ancient treasures that have ended up in museums or private collections with what Italy claims was false documentation after being allegedly looted from archaeological sites.

Euphronius was one of Athens’ greatest vase painters during a time of unequaled mastery for pottery in the ancient world. Like many other vessels, the krater was exported to Italy, and it is believed to have been used by the Etruscan civilization to decorate a tomb near Rome.

More than 2,000 years later, the priceless vase was looted from the site by Italy’s “tombaroli” — or tomb raiders — and smuggled out of the country, Italian authorities say.

The museum bought it for $1 million in 1972 from American art dealer Robert Hecht, who is on trial in Rome on charges of knowingly acquiring allegedly looted ancient artifacts. He denies wrongdoing.

The deal that was eventually sealed with the New York museum in February 2006 called for the return of the vase by mid-January 2008. The museum also agreed to return 20 other antiquities.

NB: The Euphronius Krater is currently on exhibit in Rome at the Quirinale Palace, in an show titled Nostoi (see our post on the exhibit here). The exhibit will remain open until 2 March, after which the Euphronius Vase will be moved to its permanent home in National Etruscan Museum at the Villa Giulia in Rome.

The Euphronius Vase

Jan

Eating Your Way Around the World

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Food & Wine and Art & Design

Plates by Seletti

Just a few days ago we featured some innovative glass bottles made by Seletti, an Italian design firm. Today we delve a bit deeper into Seletti’s stock of interesting items and present a series of plates and place mats that any Italophile would want to own.

The series of 6 porcelain plates shown above feature maps of six world cities: New York, Venice, Tokyo, Paris, London, Rome. Using these will allow you to fuel both mind and body at the same time

Seletti placemats

Want to limit your geo-culinary traveling to the Italian peninsula? They you’ll want to score a roll of 50 paper place mats with maps of Florence, Venice, Milan, and Rome. Just tear them off and put them on the table and you’ll be eating all’italiana.

Jan

International Day of Italian Cuisine, January 17

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Food & Wine

Pasta alla Carbonara

Tomorrow, 17 January, is the International Day of Italian Cuisines. For one day, everyone who makes, promotes or simply loves Italian food outside of Italy is invited to celebrate the authenticity and quality of Italian cuisine.

The unprecedented celebration is led by over 130 Italian chefs and restaurateurs in 35 countries. They all belong to the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs and each of them will be cooking Pasta alla Carbonara according to the original and authentic recipe.

Why pasta alla carbonara? The Virtual Group of Italian Chefs suggests that this simple dish is one of the most commonly abused in establishments serving “counterfeit Italian cuisine” worldwide and their preparation of the “real carbonara” is an effort to raise awareness about the principles of real Italian cuisine.

Want to join the effort and honor Italian food by preparing your own pasta alla carbonara tomorrow? On their website, the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs offers the following recipe as well as tips for making an authentic dish:

Pasta alla Carbonara

Recipe serves one

60 to 80gm spaghetti freshly cooked al dente
1 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil
30gm pancetta or guanciale
1 or 2 eggs
25 gm freshly grated Pecorino Romano and/or aged Italian Grana Cheese. (Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano)
freshly ground black pepper

Mix the beaten egg with grated cheese and ground black pepper
Slice the pancetta 7 to 10 mm thick and cut in 2 cm rectangular bites
Slowly fry the pancetta in the extra virgin olive oil in a non stick pan until crispy. If the pancetta has enough fat you will not need to add oil
Add the spaghetti with some of the cooking water, do not fry the spaghetti but rather just let it absorb the flavour of the pancetta
Simmer gently until the water is almost gone
Remove the pan from the stove
Add the egg, cheese and pepper mixture to the pasta and stir quickly making sure the egg does not overcook but remains creamy. It shouldn’t pass the 70-72 C? (158-162 F?) temperature, which is the point at which its coagulation starts
Place in a hot pasta bowl
Season with ground black pepper
Serve immediately
Offer more black pepper and more grated cheese at the table

Remarks

1. You cannot make a Carbonara with pre-cooked pasta
2. Cream is not an option but a gimmick, avoid it
3. If you like, you can mix the two cheeses
4. Timing is important when you serve this dish
5. Make sure the plate or bowl is hot
6. Do not overcook the egg, otherwise you will make spaghetti with scrambled egg.

Jan

Stairway to Anarchy

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Historic Sites and Everything Else

Balls Poured down Rome's Spanish Steps by Graziano Cecchini

Approximately 500,000 colored balls thundered down Rome’s Spanish Steps on Wednesday as self-styled artist and activist Graziano Cecchini pulled off his second eye-catching stunt in three months.

In October last year, Cecchinipoured red industrial dye into the waters of the Trevi fountain, creating a spectacle that angered local administrators, delighted tourists and was beamed around the world. Early on Wednesday, helped by three assistants, the 54-year-old ‘artist’ struck again.

Standing at the top of the famous staircase in front of the Trinita’ dei Monti church, he tipped over huge sacks of plastic balls which then went careening down the marble steps into the piazza below.

Balls Poured Down Rome's Spanish Steps by Graziano Cecchini

”This behavior is not acceptable. Trying to get publicity at the expense of the city’s image is not funny,” said city hall official Jean Leonard Touadi, who came to inspect the resulting scene.

As tourists rushed about picking up souvenir balls, police quickly cordoned off the area and called in the municipal refuse collectors. They arrived a little later with large nets to scoop up the colored spheres.

Meanwhile, Cecchini, a former militant with extreme right-wing groups, was explaining the philosophy behind his exploit to reporters.

”This is an artistic operation which documents through art the problem that we have in Italy. They’re always telling us lies, both the Left and the Right,” he said.

Colored Balls Dumped down the Spanish Steps by Grazio Cecchini

The significance appeared to be in the Italian word for balls (’palle‘) which can also mean untruths. There is also an Italian expression, meaning to be exasperated, which uses the same word.

Regardless of his artistic intention, Cecchini and his helpers were arrested for interrupting public services and taken off to the police station for questioning.

A police official said later that Cecchini would probably be fined for creating a mess in a public place. The official said the size of such fines generally depended on the scale of the mess.

Balls Poured Down Rome's Spanish Steps by Graziano Cecchini

Jean Leonard Touadi, the city hall official on the scene, complained that Cecchini had been encouraged by the media splash he made with his last escapade at the Trevi fountain.

”Of course, if someone does these things once and nothing happens, then they think they can do it again, especially if they get made into a hero”.

Cecchini won several plaudits after his first action last year and appeared on a number of TV shows. One of his admirers was Milan’s culture chief, prominent art critic Vittorio Sgarbi.

On Wednesday Sgarbi appeared full of appreciation for Cecchini’s latest action. He said it was ”consistent with the principles of contemporary art”. ”It occupies the landscape, without asking permission and also has a surprise effect. Anarchy is a typical feature of contemporary art,” Sgarbi said. (via ANSA)

Grazio Cecchini and the 500,000 colored balls he dumped down the Spanish Steps

Jan

The Museum of Beauty

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Archaeology and Everything Else

Venus de Milo

Konica Minolta has opened an excellent online Museum of Beauty that allows its visitors to better understand the Louvre’s famous sculpture of Venus de Milo. One of the world’s most famous Greek sculptures, the statue is a slightly over-life size image of Aphrodite or Venus, the goddess of love. She so fascinates the public that the gallery in which she stands in the Louvre is usually mobbed with visitors snapping photos as quickly as possible - making a real and reverential visit impossible. Now, however, with the help of Konica Minolta, devotees and scholars of the sculpture can examine her up-close at the Museum of Beauty.

Venus de Milo

Discovered in fragments on the Aegean island of Milos in 1820, the sculpture made its way to Paris where it was reassembled in the early 19th century. Now, however, Venus has extended her domain, taking the forces of love and beauty into the virtual world . How does a Greek goddess impose her image on our computer screens? Using a laser measuring instrument, Konica Minolta gathered the 3D data from the statue, then processed it and texture-molded it, in order to make a laser reproduction of the statue.

Data was acquired by means of a non-contact 3D digitizer which projects a red laser light on the statue and captures the reflected light with a CCD camera ( you can see a demo at the Museum of Beauty). Some 300 scans were made.

Venus de Milo

What was gained by the process? First and foremost, the resultant Museum of Beauty website, provides a way to see and study the Venus de Milo even if you’ve not got time to dash to Louvre. Details abound: the sculpture’s scarred surface - a testament to years of wear and tear before her discovery - is shown up-close; evidence that she once wore a golden ornament in her hair is likewise visible; and so are the holes that once bound a bracelet to her upper right arm.

The missing arms are among the most notable aspects of the Venus. Though she was found with arms, it was discovered in reconstruction that those arms were created later than the sculpture itself, thus a decision was made to leave them off. So what did her original arms look like? Was she holding a hair ornament? A mirror? Was she reaching for her lover, Mars, the god of war? The question remains unanswered, but Konica Minolta used their 3D data to recreate the sculpture in a variety of poses.

Venus de Milo

Jan

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Everything Else

Starlings

At this time of year, Rome’s evening skies are filled with massive black clouds of starlings that swoop and swerve creating amorphous constellations against the twilight blue stratosphere. Now, an Italian group of scientists suggests that the fascinating movements of these birds may help us understand ourselves better:

(ANSA) - Rome, January 11 - The regrouping techniques of Rome’s starlings could offer lessons for students of unpredictable behavior like investor trends and consumer fads, a new Italian-led study says.

The ‘Starflag’ study, co-ordinated by Italy’s National Institute for the Physics of Condensed Matter (INFM), for two years watched the flocks as they swirled at twilight over Rome landmarks, breaking down and rebuilding after the incursions of larger birds.

Like game theory guru John Nash in a famous scene from A Beautiful Mind, experts tried to figure out the dynamics behind the movement.

”If you watch a flock of starlings under attack by a predator, they split, merge and do all these incredible maneuvers,” study coordinator Andrea Cavagna of the INFM told Physics Today.

Setting out to establish ”the fundamental laws of collective behavior and self-organization,” Cavagna said, the theoretical physicists detected patterns that underlay the flocks’ ”robust resilience” to predator attack.

They found that a given bird interacts not with all birds within a certain distance, as most models had assumed, but rather with a fixed number of neighboring birds - usually six or seven.

According to another Starflag member, Irene Giardina, these interactions are much harder to disrupt than existing models of collective behavior.

Charlotte Hemelrijk, a theoretical biologist at Groningen University in the Netherlands, said the Starflag results had helped her refine her own studies with fish patterns.

Modifying the fish models to account for bird behavior and interactions, she said, ”caused a remarkable switch in emergent patterns.” The starling movements could have ‘’significant” implications for studies of human behavior, another Starflag expert believes.

Jean-Philippe Bouchard, a theoretical physicist who works with a Paris hedge fund, remarked that ”people are extremely influenced by their neighbors, by fashions and fads”.

The ’six or seven’ rule apparently governing the starlings’ movement ”might have an impact on market research,” he said.

”Events like crashes or bubbles are due to the co-ordination of people,” he noted, speculating that the Rome study might have ”broad repercussions” - just as Nash’s theories revolutionized economics.

Jan

No Deposit, No Return

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Art & Design

Seletti Glass Bottles

We’re loving these witty bottles from Italian design company, Seletti. Made of glass, their designs imitate those of the water bottles that are so ubiquitous on the boot-shaped peninsula. Each holds one liter and comes with a glass top. Available from Lekker.

Jan

The Interactive Nolli Map

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Categories: Architecture, Everything Else and On the Street

The Nolli Map of Rome

Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756) was an architect and surveyor who lived in Rome and devoted his life to documenting the architectural and urban foundations of the city. In 1748, he drew one of the most detailed and accurate maps ever created for the city of Rome. Improving on the Buffalini Plan of 1551, Nolli’s plan was drawn to an incredible precision.

The Nolli map is an ichnographic plan map of the city, as opposed to a bird’s eye perspective, which was the dominant cartographic representation style prevalent before his work. Not only was Nolli one of the first people to construct an ichnographic map of Rome, his unique perspective has been copied ever since.

The map depicts the city in astonishing detail. Nolli accomplished this by using scientific surveying techniques, careful base drawings, and minutely prepared engravings. The map’s graphic representations include a precise architectural scale, as well as a prominent compass rose, which notes both magnetic and astronomical north. The Nolli map is the first accurate map of Rome since antiquity and captures the city at the height of its cultural and artistic achievements. The historic center of Rome has changed little over the last 250 years; therefore, the Nolli map remains one of the best sources for understanding the contemporary city.

Interested in comparing Rome of the 18th century to the Rome that you know and love today? You can do so by visiting University of Oregon’s Interactive Nolli Map. The website features a digitally mastered, high resolution interactive Nolli map, designed for broadband connections. The Map Engine allows you to navigate through the city at a variety of scales, to pan in any direction and to zoom in or out from the macro-scale of the city to the micro-scale of the building. As well, layers have been created to showcase particular urban features like gardens and fountains.

The website was developed by:

Jim Tice, University of Oregon Dept of Architecture
Erik Steiner, InfoGraphics Lab, Dept of Geography
Consulting: Allan Ceen PhD., Pennsylvania State University/Studium Urbis
Graduate Students: Mark Brenneman, Ben Humphrey, & Eric Sproles

Interactive Nolli Map

Jan

Photo Friday: Mr. Money Money

By idcrome 0 Comments

Categories: Photo Friday, Photography and On the Street

Mr. Money Money, graffiti in Rome

Here at the eCool compound, we’re big fans of Rome’s finest street artists. So, today, on a dreary and gray Photo Friday, photographer Susan Sanders indulges our obsession and livens things up a bit with her image of Mr. Money Money, a graffiti composition found on the banks of the Tiber River.

Want to see more? Just click on any of the following links, for over the course of the past year we’ve featured the stencil work of Sten; an amazing graff at the Ananigna metro station that includes some of the city’s most recognizable ancient monuments; post-graffiti poster art by Lucamaleonto, Sten, and Lex; and Kemo’s “Sock it to Me” wall near the Protestant Cemetery (is that Dick Cheney exercising the power of his fist?).

While you’re at it, be sure to take yourself over to Susan’s photo blog, Rome With a View, for a mega-dose of Rome’s evocative atmosphere.