Category: Written Word

Postcard from Provence, France: Monumental cemeteries where Impressionists rest

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Blue postage stamp featuring a scenic view of Nice, France, with trees and hills, inscribed with 'République Française' and 'CFA'.

Above: Monument in Cimitiere du Chateau, Nice, France

A military citadel once crowned a hill overlooking the Bay of Nice. Bearing in mind that Nice did not become a permanent part of France until 1860, as part of one of the many wars fought during his reign, King Louis XIV (1638-1715) of France ordered the castle-fortress destroyed in 1706.

A portion of the grounds of the old citadel were opened as Cimetiere du Chateau in 1783. Instead of sentinels, monuments in the cemetery now occupy the most prominent vantage points for viewing the bay and surrounding countryside.

The cemetery* is an open space among the ruins, covered in winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death, to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.”

Preface to Adonais, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1821

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Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: Modern art seems a culture clash

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Postage stamp depicting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk unveiling the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, symbolizing a cultural shift.

Above: “Racing Car,” Mehmet Guleryuz, 2017, Istanbul Museum of Modern Art

But I’m not going for realism…. I’m not going to paint his cage. Lemon will be perched in front of the window like a wild bird who has alighted there of his own free will.”

The Museum of Innocence, Orhan Pamuk, 2009

Birdcages. Potent symbols. Ever since visiting Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in Istanbul on this same trip, it seems I have been seeing birdcages incorporated in artworks everywhere I go. Often with human figures inside – women.

A large projection screen dominating a gallery in Istanbul Modern Art Museum confronts you with a discomforting cage, a performance art piece by Nezaket Ekici (1970-), wearing an Alice-in-Wonderland-style dress.

In ‘But All that Glitters Is Not Gold,’ the challenge is to choose the right one from among the many identical-looking keys hanging at various distances around the cage. What initially looks like a fun game over time becomes an agony.”

Curator’s Notes, Istanbul Modern

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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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