Today at the wonderful Borghese Gallery I was reminded again that we are all twins. In a broad sense, all men are enough alike to be called twins. Women are twins. In fact, men and women,together, have enough in common to even be called twins.
The ratio of user-friendliness to artistic significance may be the most optimal in the world at the Borghese. (I stole that line.) But, as far as I know, not one woman artist is represented there. Which brings me back to the subject of the twinship of men. Why do all these guys - at least the ones shown at the Borghese - display women's breasts so often in their paintings and sculptures? Is it that they, themselves, had a "thing" for boobies? Or were they pandering to their patrons, feeding their fixations. Think about this: In addition to royalty and rich merchants, Catholic Church hierarchy were serious patrons of art. Twins, all of 'em.
And even though I'm delivering this seminar, sad to admit, I must also be a twin. Today I found myself mildly aroused by one of the more breastigious religious paintings. It was a ceiling fresco of the Virgin Mary, for God's sake! That's just wrong.
At the end of our two-hour visit, we went to a separate building to see a special modern art installation by the Bulgarian artist, Nedko Solakov. Called "The Tunnel," it was two paintings of a light-filled hole. They were placed on easels perhaps 20 feet apart. They represented the tunnels of light that dying people supposedly see. According to the artist we must, at the moment of death, choose one or the other.
On closer inspection, way more was going on than just those choices. Since the paintings were on easels, I could look at the backs of them. Solakov wrote on the non-painted linen that was pulled around and behind the inside frame of the painting. Remember, the paintings are about death. But the writings and some other elements in the installation were whimsical. For example, he wrote, "I'm not significant." Elsewhere on the back he wrote, "I'm significant. There are too many of us." A reference to our twinship? Maybe.
Important news from Italy for my mango-loving friends. Mango gelato is fantastic!
Italian people are great. Last night on the street I asked a family in my very best halting Italian if there was a good restaurant nearby. Another woman joined the conversation, she and the family debated. I couldn't follow their conversation. Then the interloper woman said in her best halting English, "Follow me." She walked us considerable distance through dark streets and an alley to a very nice restaurant. Tonight we go the Colosseum. We didn't get there last night. Too many wonderful distractions.
PHOTO NOTE: Photo by Jack. Colosseum at night.
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