A great poster has appeared around Rome this weekend (even if our photos of it are not so great). The iconic She-Wolf sports a gas mask in support of efforts to help the environment. Citizens are encouraged to call the phone number listed to report environmental problems or to propose solutions.
Yesterday we at the eCool Compound were delighted to receive an email from a faithful reader, Jennifer, who alerted us to an Armani ad published this summer. In the ad, soccer star David Beckham sports a pair of stylish black Armani briefs while assuming a position strikingly similar to that of the Torso Belvedere.
Did Armani mean to draw this parallel? We’d bet the little money we have left that he did. Note that Beckham’s arms appear to be truncated by the drape of his robe. Note also that his torso is curved forward in that “I’m at rest but you can still see my every muscle rippling under my skin” position for which the ancient sculpture is so famous.
Wanna see the real thing? — The torso, we mean, not the football star! You’ll have to head off to the Vatican Museums as the torso plays calcio for the clerical team.
Each year, the city of Marino waits with great anticipation for the first Sunday of October, the date on which they celebrate the “Sagra dell’uva e vino” or the “Festival of grapes and wine.” The festival — during which wine runs liberally from a fountain in the center of town — celebrates the fact that Marino is a center of wine production, with its vineyards turning out liters of sparkling and fresh white wine each year.
The festival also commemorates the return of admiral Marcantonio Colonna to his hometown of Marino following his famous victory over the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto in October 1571. The town sent more than 250 sailors to the battle and the sagra is celebrated every October to give thanks for their safe return.
Though the festival has been celebrated since the 1930s, its the sagra of 2008 that’s likely to go down in history. At the kickoff of the event, Mayor Adriano Palozzi, a priest, and a crowd of locals clamored around the fountain to offer a prayer of thanks to the Virgin Mary. Armed with plastic glasses that would allow them to taste the Marino DOC when the fountain’s water turned to wine, they prayed and waited patiently, but nothing happened. Despite fulfillment of all the traditional rituals, no wine emerged and the usual water continued to pour out of the fountain.
Suddenly, however, a shout of “miracolo” rang out from a house overlooking the city’s main piazza. A woman rushed onto her balcony proclaiming that wine was flowing from her kitchen tap.
Another local woman, Anna, said:
I was in the kitchen ready to do the housework and filled up a bucket with water.
I was going to mop the floor with it but I immediately noticed a sweet smell from the tap and it was also slightly yellow - I immediately recognized that it was wine.
I called my neighbors and they turned on their taps and it was the same - the word quickly spread and everyone filled up bottles and plastic containers with the wine.
It all happened at the same time as sagra dell’uva so everyone thought it was a miracle - I don’t think that the mayor and the other officials were very happy though.
The mayor and other public officials have dismissed the idea of a miracle, claiming that the miraculous transformation of water into wine was a technological mixup rather than a theological occurrence.
Photo Friday rolls in a bit late this week because some of the eCool team have hit the road and are enjoying a long and lovely weekend in Paris. So, from the City of Light & Love, we bring you an image of the city called Eternal.
Susan Sanders took this photograph of a young tourist testing out the Bocca della Verita (or Mouth of Truth) at the church of San Maria in Cosmedin in late summer. As the brave boy dares this ancient drain cover to bite off his hand, the warm raking light of summer throws shadows across the walls and floor of the narthex of the church. (If you don’t know the how dangerous it can be to stick your hand in the Mouth of Truth, we suggest you catch up on Roman folklore with a remedial viewing of Roman Holiday!)
For more photographs by Susan, visit her Rome With A View photo blog.
Every year millions of people travel to Milan to pay homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper. Painted by Leonardo for Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d’Este in the late 15th century, the scene represents The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus’s life, as narrated in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve apostles would betray him.
Most visitors are intrigued by the complicated (and problematic) technique that Leonardo used in painting the scene: instead of painting on wet plaster as is usual in the creation of a fresco, the artist painted on a dry wall, sealing the stone with pitch, gesso, and mastic, and then painting on the sealing layer with tempera. As is commonly known, Leonardo’s invented technique did not work very well — it’s a conservator’s nightmare– and within a few years of completion it had already begun showing signs of deterioration.
Other visitors admire the fresco for its psychological expressions. The painting specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock.
Now, with the publication of a new study by art historian John Varriano in the journal Gastronomica, visitors paying homage to The Last Supper can lick their lips as gaze upon the seder meal on the Leonardo’s painted table for Varriano has figured out what Jesus and his apostles are eating.
Varriano explains why scholars have commonly assumed that lamb must be the main course:
the event takes place at Passover, a time when lamb would normally be served, but scripture is silent on the menu for this particular seder. Apart from Matthew (26:20), who notes that the dinner took place in the evening, and Mark (14:15) and Luke (22:12), who add that it was held in “a large room upstairs, already furnished,” the biblical account could hardly be less informative when it comes to the meal itself
However, close examination of the painting made possible because of extensive restoration done in 1997 has shown that the meal was a bit fishier:
There are three large serving platters in the picture, and although the one in front of Christ is empty, the two before Andrew and Matthew—the fourth figures to his right and left—are heaped with food. The plate to our left appears to contain about half a dozen whole fish, while the one on the right is damaged to the point of being all but illegible. Fortunately, the preservation of the three small serving dishes on the right side of the composition is sufficiently good to suggest that we are looking at, in fact, sections of grilled eel garnished with orange slices. Other pieces of fruit—pomegranates perhaps, some still with their leaves attached—complete the menu along with plenty of bread and wine, the only sacramental necessities in any depiction of the Last Supper.
To download Varriano’s article and learn more (it’s only 5 pages long), visit the Gastronomica website.
Click here to check out the new Rome With A View 2009 calendars!
