Category: Written Word

Japanese woodblock prints at Blanton reflect ‘Floating World’ values

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Above: “Shadows on the Shoji,” Kikukawa Eizan, 1815

The two fashionably dressed courtesans in the foreground appear to have just stepped away from a lively party and are chatting on a veranda. The drinking and flirting figures inside cast shadows against the shoji (lattice-and-paper screen doors) of the brothel behind them.”

Curatorial notes for “Shadows on the Shoji,” Blanton Museum of Art

1815. The date surprised me, due to my lack of understanding the accepted restrictive roles assigned courtesans and geishas in Japanese culture. The witty social commentary and humor contained in Edo-era (1603-1868) woodblock prints in “The Floating World: Masterpieces from the Edo Period” on display at the Blanton Museum of Art prove captivating.

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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Byzantine mosaics and Moorish muqarnas

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Adam and Eve, 10th-century mosaic in the Palatine Chapel inside the Norman Palace

The Palatine Chapel is the most beautiful in the world, the most surprising religious jewel ever evolved up by the human mind and executed by the hand of an artist…. where the harshness of the Gothic style brought here by the Normans is tempered by the wonderful art of Byzantine ornamentation and decoration.”

Guy de Maupassant, “La Vie Errante,” 1901

The facade of the immense Norman Palace is so cold and boring, I could not bear to take a photo of it. The original stark building was built to serve as the residence of kings installed after the Norman conquest in 1072. But one should never judge a book by its cover….

Proclaimed the King of Sicily by papal bull in 1130, Roger II (1095-1154) had been exposed to the various architectural influences that had ebbed and flowed with invasions of the island for centuries. For the eight-year construction of the royal chapel within the palace, he recycled some rather wild Corinthian columns and tapped both the talents of Moorish builders to craft the honey-combed muqarnas of the vaulted ceilings and Byzantine artists for the exquisitely detailed mosaics of the transept. The mosaics of the nave, a little bit cruder but still stunning, were commissioned from local artisans by William I (1120-1166), known as William the Bad; and William II (1153-1189), known as William the Good.

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Postcard from Palermo, Sicily: Are the tales about nudes nunsense?

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Above: A portion of Fontana Pretoria, nicknamed Fontana della Vergogna

Officially it’s called Fontana Pretoria, so-named because of its location in the plaza fronting the palazzo that houses City Hall. But its nickname is Fontana della Vergogna, or Fountain of Shame. But shame on whom?

Well, obviously this fountain would be branded as more than shameful, downright pornographic, by some in Florida where a school principal recently was forced to resign after a teacher held up an image of Michelangelo’s “David” as part of a Renaissance art lesson for sixth graders. But art of the Italian Renaissance, even religious art, is not known to be puritanical in nature.

Amongst the theories, spouted off by guides to the huddled groups they shepherd, is that the name first was muttered by offended neighboring nuns, who would slip out onto the plaza under the cover of darkness and apply modest garb to the most exposed statues. Some guides magnify the vigilante efforts undertaken by the Dominican sisters to include amputation of numerous limbs and offensive protrusions. The sisters naturally were upset after they were coerced into giving up a large portion of their property to accommodate the grandiose plaza for the government.

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