Friday, February 29, 2008

Considering two of Italy?s jewels


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

The Community Library's annual celebration, called Our Moveable Feast, chose Ann Tyler's "The Accidental Tourist" as its theme book, and travel as its overall theme for the March 9 event, to be held at the library in Ketchum.

Rooms within the library will be a reflection in decor and food of one of the chosen travel books. The books are "The Road to Oz," "Shadow of the Silk Road," "The Travels of Marco Polo," "On the Oregon Trail," "The Accidental Tourist" of course, "The Wilder Shores of Love," and two Mary McCarthy tomes: "Venice Observed" and "The Stones of Florence."

Husband-and-wife team of Marybeth Flower and Joe Bauwens created a stir last year with the release of their gorgeously photographed coffee table book, "Piazza: Italy's Heart & Soul." In an international competition, "Piazza" was named 2007 Independent Publisher Coffee Table Book of the Year.

Over a 50-year career, Mary McCarthy wrote about politics, literature, theater and art. Though she was incredibly prolific, she may be best known for her best-selling novel "The Group." Her work is notable for her skill at observation, particularly seen in her two small books about Italy, both published in 1956.

Our Moveable Feast

What: A silent auction and dinner fund-raiser.

When: March 9, 5:30 p.m.

Where: The Community Library, Ketchum.

Tickets: $100, with $90 tax-deductible.

Available at www.thecommunitylibrary.com or at the library.

Flower on Florence

Marybeth Flower

Mary McCarthy, a prolific American author writing between 1940 and 1989, wrote two books about Italy, one depicting life in Venice and the other Florence.

In "The Stones of Florence," McCarthy gives a narrative of the history and political and social life of Florence as well as a detailed synopsis of the art and artists of the Renaissance. She brings the personalities of the time to life, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Giotto, Donatello and Lorenzo the Magnificent. As well, she highlights the numerous conflicts that took place among the leading families of the town and between neighboring independent city-states such as Sienna and Pisa. Having visited Florence on numerous occasions, I enjoyed reading about the many historical incidents that took place in the streets and public buildings of the city.

It's clear that the author loves her subject and would have preferred visiting Florence during the years of the Renaissance rather than in modern times. She opens her book bemoaning the fact that Florence is hot in summer, bitterly cold in winter and filled with tourists and noise. While all that is true, she doesn't go into the wonders and beauty confronting the contemporary tourist. When the book was published 52 years ago, there were numerous cars and dowdy Florentines in Piazza Signoria, the central town square, which then had only a few cafes. Now the square is free of automobiles and populated by well dressed Italians and tourists in shorts. Cafés ring the square, providing some of Italy's best people watching. Gone is the weekly food market, replaced by horse-drawn buggies and throngs of tourists.

The author's real strength is in making the artists come alive through idiosyncratic anecdotes that make these titans of the Renaissance seem very human.

Although McCarthy's descriptive observations are no longer accurate, "The Stones of Florence" is recommended reading for anyone wanting a non-linear history of Florence and for people with an interest in the Renaissance.

Bauwens on 'Venice Observed'

Joe Bauwens

Within the first few pages of "Venice Observed," Mary McCarthy writes that Venice is "part museum, part amusement park living off the entrance fees of tourists." She continues for 158 pages describing Venice as it was in the 1950s, and offers a survey of historical facts and a wonderful overview of early and late Renaissance artists and paintings.

As a guidebook this work has lost its usefulness. For example, she describes the economics of the lace-making industry in Burano in the 1950s, while today there is essentially no lace making there. Later she notes that the outer islands are dying, but in fact today Murano and Burano are thriving. Burano, not to be confused with Murano, the glass-blowing island, no longer produces lace but it's a beautiful gem with many canals and marvelously colored homes and commercial buildings. Burano should not be missed.

McCarthy writes that the Crusades were considered great economic opportunities by the Venetians, who first and foremost were businessmen. She states that the Venetians started with nothing and therefore needed to decorate their city with stolen treasures, including the bodies of three saints: St. Mark, St. Nicolas and St. Isidore.

From this book I learned that Venice had only one philosopher--Paolo Sarpi--and that many celebrated painters had long lives, including Titian who lived into his 90s. In a chapter on Sarpi, she shows her true colors. After covering Sarpi's life as a monk, thinker, writer and hero to the Lutherans, she fantasizes on how various Venetian painters would have painted the learned friar.

While describing the mosaics of St. Mark's and Torcello's Cathedral, McCarthy shows an intellectual preference for the mosaics of Torcello. However, when she addresses the Venetian Renaissance painters her passion shines and her enthusiasm for Giovanni Bellini's "Virgin with Saints," Giorgione's "La Tempesta" and La Vecchia" and Titian's "Frari Assumption" clearly shines through, and I heartily agree.

The next time I visit Venice I will carry a copy of "Venice Observed" and enthusiastically revisit all the many wondrous paintings of the Venetian Renaissance described by her.

McCarthy ends the book with a glimpse of her sense of humor. She reports that at the end of World War II the Allied command "captured Venice with a fleet of gondolas!"




 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.