Tag: house museum

Postcard from Istanbul, Turkey: A far from innocent obsession

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Above: Detail of 4,213 cigarette butts collected and dated for exhibition in the Museum of Innocence

When those visiting my museum note that beneath where each of the 4,213 cigarette butts is carefully pinned, I have indicated the date of its retrieval. I hope they will not grow impatient, thinking I am crowding the display cases with distracting trivia: Each cigarette butt in its own unique way records Fusun’s deepest emotions at the moment she stubbed it out.”

Kemal, the main character and the narrator of Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk

Nothing I could possibly dream up could convey obsession with such immediate clarity.

The top quotation from Kemal’s thoughts in Orhan Pamuk’s 2009 novel, Museum of Innocence, does not appear until Chapter 68 of the 83-chapter book. The entire chapter is devoted to these fetish souvenirs of unobtainable love.

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Postcard from Merida, Mexico: A house that henequin built

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Texas farmers’ need for a digestible binding material for bales of hay tossed to cattle gave rise to incredible wealth in the Yucatan, a boom that lasted from 1880 to 1915. Operating under the favorable conditions for the wealthy to further enrich themselves, aristocrats in Mexico were able to take advantage of a native plant – henequen – and cheap native labor to bankroll a lavish lifestyle built upon production of the requisite fiber. In 1914, more than one-million bales of henequen were exported from the Yucatan.

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Postcard from Naples, Italy: Snippets shot in final four museums

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Detail of “The Devil and the Holy Water,” Salvatore Postiglione, 1887, Gallerie d’Italia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano

Inartistically and illogically clumping works from four museums in this one post – 15th-century religious paintings, a Joan Miro retrospective, a house museum, contemporary art. The museums are getting short shrift in treatment because they are the final ones the blog will visit in Naples before moving across the boot of Italy. The grouping does offer a glimpse of how diverse and rich the art offerings found in Naples are.

Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
“San Michele Arcangelo,” 1490, Museo Capodimonte
Carriage House cat, Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Salottino di Porcellana, Museo Capodimonte
Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Gallerie d’Italia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
Salottino di Porcellana, Museo Capodimonte
devilish detail, Museo Capodimonte
“Museum,” Paolo Vetri, 1875, Gallerie d’Italia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
Gallerie d’Italia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
devilish detail, Museo Capodimonte
Gallerie d’Ilalia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
“Shock Wave,” Mario Merz, 1987, Museo Capodimonte
PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Gallerie d’Italia – Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Joan Miro Exhibition, PAN – Palazzo delle Arti Napoli
Museo Diego Aragona Pignatelli Cortes
Museo Capodimonte

As is oft the case, our camera lens seems to often focus on the devils lurking in religious art, but what dark thoughts were in the mind of Neapolitan painter Salvatore Postiglione when he conceived of “The Devil and the Holy Water” are unclear to me.

I never had thought of holy water as dangerous before. But, indeed in hindsight, it should have been obvious that the Coronavirus devil was lurking in fonts at the front of Catholic churches everywhere. Catholics always pause to dip their fingers in the communal pool of water and immediately raise them up to touch their face to make a gesture symbolizing the Holy Trinity and baptism.

March brought the draining of the fonts, but how many viral contaminants were shared by the faithful by then? So very, very sad to think of those who might have been harmed by turning to their religious rituals for reassuring comfort….