Brussels and Siena in London

If you accused me of being extravagant, I would have to agree... Have been flitting around Europe in the pursuit of pleasure ever since the Rites of Spring party. The weekend before last took me to the Millenium Documentary Film Festival for the International premiere of my distant cousin Elisabet's (AKA Pussy Galore) film Dreams of Djenne.  Of course I went. How many more chances will I have to walk up the red carpet for an International film Premiere where I figure as one of the main protagonists? To the right below is Linda Mutawi, the producer of the film.

There was not, in fact, any red carpet rolled out for us at the charming Art Deco cinema which hosted the Festival, but never mind. The film was well frequented and many people asked questions at the discussion afterwards, when we were interviewed. 

The surprising and unexpected realization was the splendour of Brussels! Rather than the grim, grey, administrative, bureaucratic non-entity I though it would be,  it turned out to be a grand, fun place made for eating, drinking and jolly making- ah, those moules/frites! Ah, those blonde beers!  And the sun kept streaming down on us as we discovered street after street, neighbourhood after neighbourhood with fine buildings, particularly of the Art Nouveau period, with their intricate  bay windows protruding from the Piano Nobile.  

                                                                                   

          A more sombre, and moving,  note was struck when we ran across a large Palestinian Demonstration. Linda is Palestinian but she has grown up in Sweden. She is passionately involved in the frequent Stockholm demonstrations, so we joined in...                                                                          

The following weekend saw me flitting over to London, 'just' to see the Siena exhibition, which started at the Metropolitan in New York before Christmas and was transferred to London's National Gallery at the beginning of March. I went with Kathy, (AKA The Mona Lisa, who better to see it with?)

I had had my doubts about the need to see it 'in the flesh', because I have after all seen all the pictures in books, as I have slowly deepened my interest in 'all those golden Madonna's', which to start with seemed of little interest, but which have grown into something of a passion during my nearly four years in Siena.

Of course I had to go, and I was not disappointed. There were not very many paintings from Siena, as a matter of fact, but the majority were on loans from art galleries across the world: Europe and America. Many were reassembled with their 'partners' and seen together for the first time in many centuries. 

This one above, The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew' is one of my favourites, it was once part of the great series of scenes from the Life of Christ painted  on the back of Duccio's Maesta (In the Opera dell Duomo, Siena) but now sits in Washington's National Gallery of Art.

The one above is one of the few loaned from Siena: Pietro Lorenzetti's Birth of the Virgin, which I know well from the Opera della Metropolitana, Siena. I love the precious details showing what would have been a medieval Sienese interior. 

The largest and most ambitious piece exhibited is Ambrogio Lorenzetti's 'Pieve Polyptych' from the Chiesa Santa Maria delle Pieve in Arezzo, commissioned painted and installed in that church in Arezzo around 1320, and never moved from that day for 700 years until now, a fact which caused certain controversy as people were wondering if is should have been moved at all...

The interesting premise of this exhibition is that western painting did NOT, as always assumed, originate with Cimabue and Giotto in Florence, but it was in fact in Siena, with Duccio and his spectacular Maesta altar piece for the Siena Cathedral, and particularly the narrative and dramatic power of the series of small vignettes from the life of Christ at the back of this altarpiece.  That, joined with the fact that it was  Duccio, not in fact Giotto, who  painted the Rucellai Madonna, now in the Uffici, Florence. This very large and prestigious painting was commissioned by the Santa Maria Novella church in 1285, and was always assumed to be painted by Giotto until documentation surfaced which confirms Duccio as its painter. 

All this is of course quite fun for me who is developing a sense of Sienese civic pride and belonging...