Category: italy

Postcard from Vicenza, Italy: Art packs punchlines and metaphors

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A brightly colored postage stamp depicting the architectural outline of a building with bold geometric shapes and vibrant colors, labeled 'ITALIA 800' for an event in Vicenza.

Above: Blogger’s unnecessary and intrusive fusion of Javier Jaen’s “Goya” banana (see below) with Francisco Goya’s “The Naked Maja.”

I have an interest in making things as immediate and easy to understand as possible…. It’s not always about how things look technically, but about what they say.”

Javier Jaen interviewed by Molly Long for Design Week, October 20, 2020

And artist/graphic designer Javier Jaen (1983-) succeeds in that immediacy. Without glimpsing the “Goya” title, anyone familiar with “The Naked Maja” by Francisco de Goya (1748-1828) would instantly recognize the banana as referencing it.

A large, artistic representation of a banana peeled and lying against a vibrant pink background.

“Goya” by Javier Jaen

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Postcard from Padua, Italy: How could I forget Giotto’s Hell?

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A postage stamp depicting a scene from the Scrovegni Chapel, showing the Nativity with the Virgin Mary, Joseph, and angels, artistically rendered.

Above: The devil lording over Hell as depicted in “The Last Judgment” by Giotto (Ambrogiotto di Bondone, 1266-1337) in the Scrovegni Chapel

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Book of Revelation, Chapter 21, Verse 8

Slides in Professor Bill White’s Renaissance art course at Hollins University groomed me into a Giotto groupie prior to standing in awe before Giotto’s actual frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel. And Professor Henning surely pointed out Giotto’s horrific visions of Hell when I was on summer tour about a half-century ago, but I had sharper memories of gazing upward toward his Heaven.

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Postcard from Catania, Sicily: Where’s the cannoli?

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Alt text for clams and mussels with orecchiette in pumpkin sauce.

Above: Clams and mussels with oricchiette in pumpkin sauce at Trattoria da Antonio

Loosen your belt because I’m squeezing our reviews of meals we consumed in Catania into one post. Alas, no more than one cannolo though.

The alphabetical list starts out with Bat il Trattore. Tucked away in the Monserrato neighborhood where few tourists would ever stumble upon it, we were the only customers on the simple backdoor patio who were not longtime acquaintances of the mom-and-pop owners. But they made us feel welcome.

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