Frescoes By Bogdanoff

I’ve been asked throughout my career to explain my fresco secco technique. I’ve taught on the subject, which is most effective when doing live demonstrations. Since I can’t technically do that with a blog post, I decided that a “virtual” classroom is the next best thing.

I’ve got two demonstrations to show you today, and I hope this helps anyone who wants to experiment with painting on a plaster canvas.

My first demonstration documents a step-by-step process that I use when I am commissioned to create a fresco that has very specific dimensions. For this exercise, I’m using still images and text.

The Commission Process: A Residential Project

For this project, the client requested a fresco to fit in an arched niche in her home. She required that it follow the shape of the arch.

From the measurements she gave me, I created the shape on my computer using Photoshop (Fig. 1).

(Fig. 1)

Because the home was in California’s wine country, the client wanted the subject matter to reflect her environment, and to capture a historic aspect. She came upon a fresco that I created several years earlier, which depicted Bacchus, the God of Wine, eying Flora, the Goddess of Flowers, in an Italian countryside setting (Fig. 2), and she wanted to use it as the basis for her fresco.

(Fig. 2)

I re-sized the image to fit into the arch using photo manipulation techniques in Photoshop (Fig. 3).

(Fig. 3)

I requested a swatch of the paint color of her arch from the manufacturer, and I applied the color to my arch image via scanner and Photoshop (Fig. 4).

(Fig. 4)

I curved out the top of the image to follow the curve of the arch (Fig. 5).

This was the final rendering, which the client approved. Up to this point all of my work was performed on computer. Also, all imagery was e-mailed to the client for input and any modifications.

I sent her, via FedEx, a hard copy of this image, so she knew what to expect without relying on her computer monitor, which can look very different due to monitor calibration issues.

At this stage, my client and I both had a document to work with, to assure that no surprises would arise later.

With all the computer work completed, it was time for me to take paintbrush in hand. I proceeded to create the actual fresco. This is similar to actually created a painting on canvas, except I am painting on plaster, lime and gypsum. My initial layers absorb into the plaster to become one with my canvas. I continue to apply thin layers to prevent the paint from tearing during the upcoming “vandalizing” process. Painting on plaster takes much longer than painting on canvas due to the application of the thin layers of paint.

(Fig. 5)

The completed painting (Fig. 6) is approved by the client before I move on to the next step (Notice that the colors are brighter than the computer image in Fig. 5. This is because I have not yet “aged” the painting.

(Fig. 6)

Now it’s time for me to “vandalize” or “age” my work. I start by breaking up the canvas into large pieces, so I can get an initial feel for how the paint and plaster will cooperate for me (Fig. 7). The number of layers painted onto and into the plaster has an effect on how it will perform for me during this process, so I have to develop a rhythm with each fresco. In this example, there were more than usual layers due to so much detail in the painting.

(Fig. 7)

I then continue the process through breaking and chiseling the work [Fig. 8]. The breaks are not planned, but I do work out the shape and composition during this process so I will know when it’s time to stop.

Towards the end of this phase, I arrange the pieces back together on the ground to see where I need to make adjustments. Taking an inch away from just one piece can make all the difference in the look and feel of authenticity of the work.

Once I complete this step, I create a hardboard template that will become the backing for the fresco. I custom this backing to follow all of the curves of the outer pieces of the fresco, to give it maximum strength.

(Fig. 8)

I pile all of the pieces in my studio while I prepare my backing (Fig. 9).

I will re-assemble these pieces, which feel like thick tiles, onto my backing, much like one would put a jigsaw puzzle together. I use cement to secure the pieces.

(Fig. 9)

Once the pieces are cemented to the backing and cured, I work towards completion of the fresco through sanding, staining and sealing. More chiseling will most likely take place prior to the final sealing application. The finished fresco (Fig. 10) is now ready for final client approval.

(Note: I install heavy-duty hanging hardware on the back so the fresco is ready to hang).

(Fig. 10)

With the client’s final approval secure, the work is ready to be prepped for shipping.

The fresco is a painting, as well as a sculpture. I add spacers which bring the fresco out away from the wall approx. 1.25 inches. This enhances the fresco’s three-dimensional quality, and allows beautiful shadows to cast on the wall from all of the irregular edges of the fresco (Fig. 11).

(Fig. 11)

Compare the final fresco that is hanging in my client’s home (Fig. 12) with the computer-generated image in Fig. 5, and it is difficult to find any differences. The final dimensions at the furthest points for this fresco are 42.5×53″.

(Fig. 12)

Video Demo
My next demonstration is through a 7:17 minute video. My videographer filmed me throughout the process of creating the fresco entitled “Edith Bouvier Beale circa 1946.” The finished fresco measured 48×46″ and weighed approximately 60 pounds. This video also includes a brief background of my giclée print work.

Questions
Feel free to contact me with any questions. Have fun!

Blog catalog

The modern Mother’s Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May, though also in March, as a day to honor mothers and motherhood. In the UK and Ireland it follows the old traditions of Mothering Sunday.

Historians believe that this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (the 15th of March) to March 18th.

The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day. Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars, Minerva and Vulcan. Her Greek equivalent is Hera (see my reference to Hera, and my fresco of her, below).

Following is a look at mothers of ancient times, mythical and real alike.

Penelope and Telemachus

Penelope and Telemachus

A mythological figure, Penelope is known for being faithful to her husband, but she was also a courageous mother whose story is told in the Odyssey.

Penelope kept the suitors at bay until her son, Telemachus, was fully grown.

When Odysseus left for the Trojan War, his son was a baby. The war lasted a decade and Odysseus’ return lasted another decade. Meanwhile area men were trying to sin over Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. She didn’t want to marry any of them and when she was pressed to choose said she would do so after she had finished weaving the shroud of her father-in-law. Each day she wove and each night she undid her day’s work. In this way, she would have kept the suitors at bay (albeit eating her out of house and home), but one of her serving women told one of the suitors about Penelope’s ruse.

Medea and Her Children

Medea and her children

Medea, known best from the story of the Golden Fleece, represents the worst in mothers.

Medea may have killed her brother after she betrayed her father. It therefore should not be too surprising that Medea, as the woman scorned, did not exhibit what we think of as motherly instincts. When the Argonauts arrived at Medea’s homeland of Colchis, Medea helped Jason steal her father’s golden fleece. She then fled with Jason and may have killed her brother in her escape. She lived together with Jason like a married couple long enough to have two children, but when Jason wanted to officially marry a more suitable woman, Medea committed the unthinkable and murdered their children.

Queen Hera

"Return of Hephaistos" fresco by Steve Bogdanoff

Hephaistos was the god of fire and metalworking. His return to Olympus was a main topic with numerous red-figure vase painters. Here we see a besotted Hephaistos being helped up from a lounge by a small satyr. Also seated on the recliner is Dionysus, the god of wine. Dionysus coaxed Hephaistos back to Olympus by inebriating him. Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus, and the mother of Hephaistos, angrily sits on her thrown, holding a sceptre. Hera was the one responsible for banishing Hephaistos from Olympus when he was born. Behind her stands a siren with arms (unusual in Attic art) fanning her. A satyr with a torch and tongs marches from the lounge towards Hera, denoting the customary procession.

Cybele – Great Mother

Cybele

The picture shows Cybele in a lion-drawn chariot, a votive sacrifice, and the sun God. It is from Bactria, in the 2nd century B.C.

Also known as Kybele and Magna Mater and the Mother of the Gods, the worship of this goddess spread throughout the Roman Empire. Originally Phrygian, she was a goddess of caverns, of the Earth in its primitive state; worshipped on mountain tops. She ruled over wild beasts, and was also a bee goddess. Her festival came first on the Roman calender. Along with her consort, the vegetation god Attis, Cybele was worshipped in wild, emotional, bloody, orgiastic, cathartic ceremonies.

Cybele was the goddess of nature and fertility. Because Cybele presided over mountains and fortresses, her crown was in the form of a city wall. The cult of Cybele was directed by eunuch priests, who led the faithful in orgiastic rites accompanied by wild cries and the frenzied music of flutes, drums, and cymbals. Her annual spring festival celebrated the death and resurrection of her beloved Attis.

Veturia with Coriolanus

Veturia and Coriolanus

Veturia was an early Roman mother known for her patriotic act in pleading with her son Coriolanus not to attack the Romans.

When Gnaeus Marcius (Coriolanus) was about to lead the Volsci against Rome, his mother — risking her own freedom and safety as well as those of his wife (Volumnia) and children — led a successful delegation to beg him to spare Rome.

Cornelia

Cornelia

After her husband died, the historical Cornelia (2nd century B.C.), known as the “mother of the Gracchi,” devoted her life to the upbringing of her children (Tiberius and Gaius) to serve Rome. Cornelia was counted an exemplary mother. Her sons, the Gracchi, were great reformers who started a period of turmoil in Republican Rome.

Agrippina the Younger – Mother of Nero

Agrippina and Nero

Agrippina the Younger, great-granddaughter of Emperor Augustus, married her uncle, Emperor Claudius in A.D. 49. She persuaded him to adopt her son Nero in 50. Agrippina was accused by early writers of murdering her husband. After Claudius’ death, Emperor Nero found his mother overbearing and plotted to kill her. Eventually, he succeeded.

St. Helena – Mother of Constantine

St. Helena

In the picture, the Virgin Mary wears a blue robe; St. Helena and Constantine are on the left.

St. Helena was the mother of the Emperor Constantine and may have influenced his conversion to Christianity.

Historians do not know if St. Helena was always a Christian, but if not, she did convert, and is credited with finding the cross on which Jesus was crucified, during her lengthy pilgrimage to Palestine in A.D. 327-8. During this trip Helena established Christian churches. Whether Helena encouraged Constantine to convert to Christianity or it was the other way round is not known for sure.

Galla Placidia – Mother of Emperor Valentinian III

Galla Placidia

Galla Placidia was an important figure in the Roman Empire in the first half of the 5th century. She was first taken hostage by the Goths, and then she married a Gothic king. Galla Placidia was made “augusta” or empress, and she served actively as regent for her young son when he was named emperor. Emperor Valentinian III (Placidus Valentinianus) was her son. Galla Placidia was the sister of Emperor Honorius and the aunt of Pulcheria and Emperor Theodosius II.

Pulcheria

Pulcheria

Empress Pulcheria was definitely not a mother, although she was a step-mother to her husband Emperor Marcian’s offspring by an earlier marriage. Pulcheria had sworn a vow of chastity probably to protect the interests of her brother, Emperor Theodosius II. Pulcheria married Marcian so he could be Theodosius II’s successor, but the marriage was in name only.

Historian Edward Gibbon says Pulcheria was the first woman accepted as ruler by the Eastern Roman Empire.

Julia Domna

Julia Domna

Julia Domna was the wife of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and the mother of Roman emperors Geta and Caracalla.

Syrian-born Julia Domna was a daughter of Julius Bassianus, who was a high priest of the sun god Heliogabalus. Julia Domna was the younger sister of Julia Maesa. She was the wife of Roman emperor Septimius Severus and the mother of Roman emperors Elagabalus (Lucius Septimius Bassianus) and Geta (Publius Septimius Geta). She received the titles Augusta and Mater castrorum et senatus et patriae ‘mother of the camp, senate, and country’. After her son Caracalla was assassinated, Julia Domna committed suicide. She was later deified.

Julia Soaemias

Julia Soaemias and Juno

Julia Soaemias was the daughter of Julia Maesa and Julius Avitus, wife of Sextus Varius Marcellus, and mother of Roman Emperor Elagabalus.

Julia Soaemias (180 – March 11, 222) was the cousin of the Roman emperor Caracalla. After Caracalla was assassinated, Macrinus claimed the imperial purple, but Julia Soaemias and her mother contrived to make her son Elagabalus (born Varius Avitus Bassianus) emperor by claiming that Caracalla had actually been the father. Julia Soaemias was given the title Augusta, and coins were minted showing her portrait. Elagabalus had her take a place in the Senate, at least according to the Historia Augusta. The Praetorian Guard killed both Julia Soaemias and Elagabalus in 222. Later, Julia Soaemias’ public record was erased (damnatio memoriae).

Leonardo da Vinci

“Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!”
–Leonardo da Vinci

“If money was beauty, I’d be The Chase Manhattan Bank!”
–Laverne Lashinski

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian painter, inventor, draftsman, sculptor, architect, anatomist, botanist, musician, writer, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal; a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, “at the third hour of the night” in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the territory of Florence. He was the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary named Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, who may have been a slave from the Middle East. Leonardo had no surname in the modern sense, “da Vinci” simply meaning “of Vinci”: his full birth name was “Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci”, meaning “Leonardo, (son) of (Mes)ser Piero from Vinci.”

Laverne Lashinski was born out of a 1970s CBS variety hour called The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971-1974). Portrayed by American Grammy Award-winning pop singer-songwriter, Academy Award-winning / Golden Globe Award-winning / Emmy Award-winning / actress, director and record producer Cher (born Cherilyn Sarkisian on May 20, 1946), Laverne gave the world its first glimpse of what today’s “cougar” looked like. Brash, confident, colorful in personality as well as decor, and man-hungry, Laverne was a mix of Bette Midler and Molly Shannon’s Sally “I’m 50″ O’Malley, with an ounce of Ernestine Tomlin thrown in for good measure. After the cancellation of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour in 1974, Laverne lived on with the Cher show, which debuted on February 16, 1975, and the couple’s professional reuniting in 1976 with The Sonny & Cher Show (1976-1977).

Leo’s Early Years
Little is known about Leonardo’s early life. He spent his first five years in the hamlet of Anchiano, then lived in the household of his father, grandparents and uncle, Francesco, in the small town of Vinci. His father had married a sixteen-year-old girl named Albiera, who loved Leonardo but died young. In later life, Leonardo only recorded two childhood incidents. One, which he regarded as an omen, was when a kite dropped from the sky and hovered over his cradle, its tail feathers brushing his face. The second occurred while exploring in the mountains. He discovered a cave and was both terrified that some great monster might lurk there, and driven by curiosity to find out what was inside.

In 1466, at the age of 14, Leonardo was apprenticed to one of the most successful artists of his day, Andrea di Cione, known as Verrocchio. Verrocchio’s workshop was at the centre of the intellectual currents of Florence, assuring the young Leonardo of an education in the humanities. Other famous painters apprenticed or associated with the workshop include Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Botticelli, and Lorenzo di Credi. Leonardo would have been exposed to a vast range of technical skills and had the opportunity to learn drafting, chemistry, metallurgy, metal working, plaster casting, leather working, mechanics and carpentry as well as the artistic skills of drawing, painting, sculpting and modelling.

By 1472, at the age of 20, Leonardo qualified as a master in the Guild of St. Luke, the guild of artists and doctors of medicine, but even after his father set him up in his own workshop, his attachment to Verrocchio was such that he continued to collaborate with him. Leonardo’s earliest known dated work is a drawing in pen and ink of the Arno valley, drawn on August 5, 1473.

Da Vinci’s Fame
Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, are the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, respectively, their fame approached only by Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

The Last Supper (1495-1498)

Mona Lisa

Leonardo’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on everything from the Euro to text books to t-shirts. Perhaps 15 of his paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.

Vitruvian Man

Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.

Leonardo is revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, the double hull and outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics.

fetus views (left) ♦ principal organs (middle) ♦ brain study (right)

Lashinski’s Fame
Well…besides catching her on tv reruns and some obscure videos on YouTube (see end of this post), she has sadly been forgotten by most.

Her Bubble Burst

Gay Speculation
Speculation over Leonardo da Vinci’s sexuality began when he was 24 years old after his arrest on charges of sodomy, a serious crime in 15th century Florence. No witnesses appeared to support allegations da Vinci had sexual relations with a 16-year-old male model, thus the charges were dropped.

Although allegations of Leonardo da Vinci’s homosexuality were never substantiated, rumors continued to circulate among those who analyzed his depiction of young boys in his paintings, his portrayal of an effeminate John in The Last Supper, and the fact that he had several young male proteges and no wife and kids.

St. John in the Wilderness

After the hearings, Leonardo kept his personal life extremely private. At the time, unfavorable rumors or negative public attention was detrimental to the career of an artist, such as da Vinci, who was dependant upon the support of patrons and the Church.

More Speculation
It is believed that Laverne, like the megastar that portrayed her, was adored by gay fans everywhere.

Showgirls

Da Vinci’s life between 1476 and 1508
Leonardo had his own workshop in Florence between 1476 and 1481. He was commissioned to paint an altarpiece in 1478 for the Chapel of St Bernard and The Adoration of the Magi in 1481 for the Monks of San Donato a Scopeto. This important commission was interrupted when Leonardo went to Milan.

Adoration of the Magi

In 1482 Leonardo, who according to Vasari was a most talented musician, created a silver lyre in the shape of a horse’s head. Lorenzo de’ Medici sent Leonardo, bearing the lyre as a gift, to Milan, to secure peace with Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan. At this time Leonardo wrote an often-quoted letter to Ludovico, describing the many marvellous and diverse things that he could achieve in the field of engineering and informing the Lord that he could also paint.

"Ginevra," my fresco interpretation from da Vinci's painting "Ginevra de' Benci"

Leonardo continued work in Milan between 1482 and 1499. He was commissioned to paint the Virgin of the Rocks for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, and The Last Supper for the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. He worked on many different projects for Ludovico, including the preparation of floats and pageants for special occasions, designs for a dome for Milan Cathedral and a model for a huge equestrian monument to Francesco Sforza, Ludovico’s predecessor. Seventy tons of bronze were set aside for casting it. The monument remained unfinished for several years, which was not unusual for Leonardo. In 1492 the clay model of the horse was completed. It surpassed in size the only two large equestrian statues of the Renaissance, Donatello’s statue of Gattemelata in Padua and Verrocchio’s Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, and became known as the “Gran Cavallo”.

Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo began making detailed plans for its casting, however, Michelangelo rudely implied that Leonardo was unable to cast it. In November 1494 Ludovico gave the bronze to be used for cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII.

At the start of the Second Italian War in 1499, the invading French troops used the life-size clay model for the “Gran Cavallo” for target practice. With Ludovico Sforza overthrown, Leonardo, with his assistant Salai and friend, the mathematician Luca Pacioli, fled Milan for Venice, where he was employed as a military architect and engineer, devising methods to defend the city from naval attack.

Crossbow Machine

On his return to Florence in 1500, he and his household were guests of the Servite monks at the monastery of Santissima Annunziata and were provided with a workshop where, according to Vasari, Leonardo created the cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist, a work that won such admiration that “men and women, young and old” flocked to see it “as if they were attending a great festival”. In 1502 Leonardo entered the service of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer and travelling throughout Italy with his patron. He returned to Florence where he rejoined the Guild of St. Luke on October 18, 1503, and spent two years designing and painting a great mural of The Battle of Anghiari for the Signoria, with Michelangelo designing its companion piece, The Battle of Cascina. In Florence in 1504, he was part of a committee formed to relocate, against the artist’s will, Michelangelo’s statue of David.

The Battle of Anghiari

In 1506 he returned to Milan. Many of Leonardo’s most prominent pupils or followers in painting either knew or worked with him in Milan, including Bernardino Luini, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Marco D’Oggione. However, he did not stay in Milan for long because his father had died in 1504, and in 1507 he was back in Florence trying to sort out problems with his brothers over his father’s estate. By 1508 he was back in Milan, living in his own house in Porta Orientale in the parish of Santa Babila.

Last Years
From September 1513 to 1516, Leonardo spent much of his time living in the Belvedere in the Vatican in Rome, where Raphael and Michelangelo were both active at the time. In October 1515, Francis I of France recaptured Milan. On December 19, Leonardo was present at the meeting of Francis I and Pope Leo X, which took place in Bologna. It was for Francis that Leonardo was commissioned to make a mechanical lion which could walk forward, then open its chest to reveal a cluster of lilies. In 1516, he entered François’ service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé near the king’s residence at the royal Chateau Amboise. It was here that he spent the last three years of his life, accompanied by his friend and apprentice, Count Francesco Melzi, supported by a pension totalling 10,000 scudi.

Leonardo died at Clos Lucé, on May 2, 1519, at the age of 67. In accordance to his will, 60 beggars followed his casket. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Melzi was the principal heir and executor, receiving as well as money, Leonardo’s paintings, tools, library and personal effects. Leonardo also remembered his other long-time pupil and companion, Salai and his servant Battista di Vilussis, who each received half of Leonardo’s vineyards, his brothers who received land, and his serving woman who received a black cloak of good stuff with a fur edge.

Cher as Laverne live in Monte Carlo

Vivien Leigh in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Glamorous Actress Stone

Not to be confused with The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, the film starring Vivien Leigh (and later played by that Damn Helen Mirren in a PBS TV production) as Karen Stone, an isolated woman considered beyond her prime − as she approaches 50(!), here I dare to compare March holidays on the ancient Roman calendar with select films featuring that zany Hollywood actress, Sharon Stone.

Martius
Martius (March), the Roman month devoted to and named after the god of war, Mars, was filled with numerous celebrations

The Ides of March
The most known festival was the Ides of March (Latin: Idus Martiae), which is the name of March 15 in the Roman calendar. The term ides was used for the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October, and the 13th day of the other months. This festival was a joyous day dedicated to the god Mars and a military parade was usually held. In modern times, the term Ides of March is best known as the date that Julius Caesar was killed in 44 B.C. Caesar was stabbed to death in the Roman Senate led by Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius Longinus and 60 other co-conspirators.

Julius Caesar

According to the Greek historian Plutarch, Caesar was warned by a seer to be on his guard against a great peril on the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey (where he would be assassinated), Caesar saw the seer and joked “Well, the Ides of March have come,” to which the seer replied “Ay, they have come, but they are not gone.” This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned to “beware the Ides of March”.

Sophistication and Elegance

Basic Plumbing
Fast-forward 2,036 years and five days to March 20, 1992. It was on this date that Basic Instinct had its theatrical release in the United States. Like the dreaded day for Caesar,  Basic Instinct has lots of blood and gore, thanks to an ice pick and Catherine Tramell, the character played by Stone. Tramell is a successfull and very wealthy crime writer, and the main suspect in the brutal murder of Johnny Boz, a former rock star. Down-and-out detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is on the case, and on Tramell’s tail. Like the citizens of ancient Rome, Tramell didn’t wear panties, as evidenced in the infamous interrogation scene where Stone’s character appears to be suffering from restless leg syndrome and can’t stop crossing and uncrossing her legs, resulting in the kootchipop seen around the world.

The similarities are uncanny! Catherine Tramell is the equivalent of the assassin of Caesar, who’s modern equivalent could be Johnny Boz. Freaky!

Feriae Martis
Mars’ birthday fell on the Kalends. The salii, his priests, were divided into two groups (sodales) of 12 men each who, following the etymology of their name from the Latin salire, would leap or dance in procession at festivals to Mars. The salii were of ancient, pre-Republican origin, patrician, and chosen for life from families with living parents (like the Vestal Virgins). Headquartered in the Curia Saliorum on the Palatine Hill, they were charged with caring for the shields (ancilia) of Mars, and singing and dancing through Rome beating swords on the shields, at the beginning and end of the war season, in March and October. The salii’s celebration in honor of Mars (Feriae Martis) lasted 24 days.

Pretty Perm

A Slice of Life
Like the 24 days it took to honor Mars, so is the amount of days it takes to wrap your mind around the plot of Sliver. Stone plays Carly Norris, a New York City book editor who manages to move into the spacious Sliver Heights building in Manhattan — on a book editor’s salary. How does she do this?

Ann Marie

Well, if That Girl’s Ann Marie, a struggling actress who lives in a spacious Manhattan apartment can do it, then why not? Maybe Ann’s boyfriend, magazine reporter Donald Hollinger (Ted Bessell) was really her pimp. In the original unaired pilot episode, Bessell’s character was named Donald Blue Sky, and he played Ann’s ‘agent’ instead of a reporter. Hmm. Anyway, so after Carly moves into this expensive high-rise, a bunch of people start to die, and there is a serial killer on the loose. What follows are a couple of the usual suspects, along with voyeurism and bad dialog.

Anna Perenna
The Festival of Anna Perenna occurs on the Ides of March. Much like the identity of who was killing off tenants in a highrise Manhattan apartment building, the identity of Anna Perenna (or Porenna) is a mystery, but she may be a personification of the year. The prolific Roman poet Ovid tells two stories about her, but they may be his inventions. In one, Anna was an old woman who gave cakes to the plebeians when they seceded (494 B.C.). In the other, she is Dido’s (Queen of Carthage) sister who was driven from Carthage to Latium after Dido’s suicide. In Latium, she incurred the wrath of Aeneas’ wife, fled, and was carried off by Numicus, god of a stream. When Aeneas’ servants went out searching for her, they followed her tracks to the river bank where they discovered she had been turned into a water nymph.

Swallows With Lilies No. 5 Fresco (by yours truly) inspired by a wall mural in an ancient harvest room, signifying spring.

In her article on Ovid’s treatment of the Ides of March in his Fasti, Professor Carole Newlands says Anna Perenna’s festival included the drunkenness and sexual and verbal freedoms typical of carnivalesque holidays like Lupercalia and Saturnalia. At Anna Perenna’s festival, reversal of typical Roman dignitas includes inversion of gender roles as when a drunken old woman drags along a drunken old man.

If she were a card, she'd be the Joker

Only in Vegas
Drunkenness? Sexual and verbal freedoms? Sounds like modern day Las Vegas. Which leads me to Ms. Stone’s role as Ginger McKenna in Casino. Like the ancient prostitutes of Rome, Ginger is a hooker who roams. She goes from casino to casino looking for unsuspecting rich dudes to roll. She hooks up with Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) and ends up marrying him. She’s still hooked on her old sleazy pimp boyfriend Lester Diamond (James Woods). Ginger is a truly tormented dame. She ends up having a baby with Sam, can’t give up Lester, has an affair with sleaze ball small-time mobster Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and falls into a downward spiral of booze and drugs. Ginger flees Las Vegas with money and jewels and hooks up with some lowlifes in a fleabag motel in Hollywood. She quickly becomes destitute and dies of a cocaine overdose. It’s your typical girl gets boy, girl still wants old pimp boy, girl finds new mob boy, girl leaves first boy, and girl ends up dead from a drug overdose in a fleabag Hollywood motel. It’s been done hundreds of times in cinematic history. What seems to be most confusing about Stone’s role is that her character’s name is Ginger, but she’s a blonde. Go figure.

Fast and the Day of Blood
March 16th marked the end of the carnival celebration which had started with the Terminalia celebration on the 23d of February. Like Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), it was the end of a feast period and beginning of a fast, only with the Romans, the celebration was in honor of Dionysus, Jupiter, and Mars.

A nine-day fast preceded the Dies sanguinis ‘Day of the Blood’. On the 22 of March, a procession of palms or a pine tree was brought to the shrine of Cybele so that the pine could be worshiped as a god. Two days later, at the Day of the Blood, the priests of Cybele slashed themselves and spun around to sprinkle her statue with blood. Afterwards, the priests washed the statue in the Almo River, a Tiber tributary.

Stone as Edith Ann

Basic Nonsence
What could be more natural to follow up this holiday, which features lots of blood and slashing, than Basic Instinct 2? Here, 14 years after the release of the film with the same name minus the 2, Stone reprises her role as Catherine Tramell. This time Tramell is living across the pond. The opening scene has Tramell driving a car at high speeds with her soccer playing boyfriend as her passenger, looking totally out of it. Tramell is using his hand to see if she still foregoes panties, while she is wild behind the wheel. Her scene is reminiscent of the car scene in Mahogany, where a rail-thin fashion model named Tracy (played by character Diana Ross) is a passenger in a car driven by out-of-control Sean, a high-fashion photographer (played by character Anthony Perkins), who is obsessed with Tracy and determined to have her all to himself — or else. Getting back to Cate Tramell, Stone plays her like Ross in that Mahogany scene, with some Courtney Love thrown in for good measure.

Tramell’s car ends up plunging into the Thames and her boyfriend drowns…or was he already dead? Tramell becomes the subject of yet another police investigation, and what follows is what could only be an advertisement for Stone’s plastic surgeon and nothing else. Stone is wacky in this part, and like ancient Rome, her career appeared to be in ruins after the film’s release.

Epilogue
Where Stone may have had mishaps at the box office, her life as an advocate shines.

AIDS Research Support
In April 2004, she was awarded the National Center for Lesbian Rights Spirit Award in San Francisco for her support and involvement with organizations that serve the lesbian, gay and HIV/AIDS community and performed Can’t Get You Out of My Head with Kylie Minogue in Cannes for AIDS research. She was presented the award by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Chinese Earthquake Controversy
Stone sparked criticism for her comments made in an exchange on the red carpet with Hong Kong’s Cable Entertainment News during the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2008. When asked about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake she remarked:

“Well you know it was very interesting because at first, you know, I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And so I have been very concerned about how to think and what to do about that because I don’t like that. And I had been this, you know, concerned about, oh how should we deal with the Olympics because they are not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a good friend of mine. And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that Karma? When you’re not nice then the bad things happen to you?”

Saint Drew Brees

Geaux Saints!

Last Sunday was a stunning moment in Super Bowl history. The New Orleans Saints won their first Super Bowl! Not only did they win, but coverage for Super Bowl XLIV broke a ratings record. Sunday’s big game set a new all-time ratings high, overthrowing the 27-year-old record held by the final episode of “M*A*S*H.”

The New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts showdown drew 106.5 million viewers, smashing Super Bowl records and edging out 1983’s “M*A*S*H” finale, which garnered 105.97 million viewers. Of those 106.5 million viewers, I trust that the majority of them (you) recognized the emblem on the Saint’s helmets as that of the fleur-de-lis.

The New Orleans Saints have had the fleur-de-lis emblem on their uniform since 1967. The black fleur-de-lis outlined in white was a symbol placed on the helmet at the inception of the franchise.

The Fleur-de-lis and Louisiana

The Fleur-de-Lis is the royal emblem of France–a country that influenced Louisiana profoundly, beginning in 1682 when French explorer Sieur de La Salle first descended the Mississippi to its mouth, took possession “of the country known as Louisiana,” and named it for the reigning monarch of France, Louis XIV.

Today the Fleur-de-Lis, which translates to Flower of the Lily, remains a symbol for Louisiana and the celebration of its first permanent settlement in 1714 by Louis Jachereau de St. Denis.

“Vive La Nouvelle Orleans” by Bogdanoff – Me
A portion of all proceeds is donated to the Louisiana SPCA

xxxxxxx

Beyond its tie with France, the fleur-de-lis has appeared on countless European coats of arms and flags over the centuries, and continues to appear in the arms of the King of Spain and the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In North America, the fleur-de-lis is often associated with areas formerly settled by France, such as Quebec, St. Louis, Louisville and Louisiana (as noted), and with French-speaking people in other Canadian provinces.

Earliest Usage

The use for ornamental or symbolic purposes of the fleur-de-lis is common to all eras and all civilizations. It is an essentially a graphic theme found on Mesopotamian cylinders, Egyptian bas-reliefs, Mycenaean pottery, Sassanid textiles, Mameluk coins, Indonesian clothes, Japanese emblems, and Dogon totems. It has consistently been used as a royal emblem, though different cultures have interpreted its meaning in varying ways.

Scythian Gold Forehead Ornament with Cheek Pieces, 4th c. B.C.

Medieval Book Mount Outlined in Beaded Wire

Coats of Arms from Around the World

Gaulish coins show the first Western designs which look similar to modern fleurs-de-lis. In the East it was found on the gold helmet of a Scythia king uncovered at the Ak-Burun kurgan and conserved in Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum.

Seal of Philip II Augustus, king of France, 1180

Symbolism in Religion and Art

In the Middle Ages the symbols of lily and fleur-de-lis (lis is French for “lily”) overlapped considerably in religious art. Michel Pastoureau, the historian, says that until about 1300 they were found in depictions of Jesus, but gradually they took on Marian symbolism and were associated with the Song of Solomon’s “lily among thorns” (lilium inter spinas), understood as a reference to Mary. Other scripture and religious literature in which the lily symbolizes purity and chastity also helped establish the flower as an iconographic attribute of the Virgin.

In medieval England, from the mid-12th century, a noblewoman’s seal often showed the lady with a fleur-de-lis, drawing on the Marian connotations of “female virtue and spirituality”.

Virgin and Child, Notre Dame

Images of Mary holding the flower first appeared in the 11th century on coins issued by cathedrals dedicated to her, and next on the seals of cathedral chapters, starting with Notre Dame de Paris in 1146. A standard portrayal was of Mary carrying the flower in her right hand, just as she is shown in that church’s Virgin of Paris statue (with lily), and in the centre of the stained glass rose window (with fleur-de-lis sceptre) above its main entrance. The flowers may be “simple fleurons, sometimes garden lilies, sometimes genuine heraldic fleurs-de-lis”. As attributes of the Madonna, they are often seen in pictures of the Annunciation, notably in those of Sandro Botticelli and Filippo Lippi. Lippi also uses both flowers in other related contexts: for instance, in his Madonna in the Forest.

The three petals of the heraldic design reflect a widespread association with the Holy Trinity, with the band on the bottom symbolizing Mary. The tradition says that without Mary one can not understand the Trinity because it was she who bore The Son. a tradition going back to 14th century France, added onto the earlier belief that they also represented faith, wisdom and chivalry.

Floor at Saint Denis Basilica

Architecture

In building and architecture, the fleur-de-lis is often placed on top of iron fence posts, as a pointed defense against intruders. It may ornament any tip, point or post with a decorative flourish, for instance, on finials, the arms of a cross, or the point of a gable. The fleur-de-lis can be incorporated in friezes or cornices, although the distinctions between fleur-de-lis, fleuron, and other stylized flowers are not always clear, or be used as a motif in an all-over tiled pattern, perhaps on a floor.

Buckingham Palace

It may appear in a building for heraldic reasons, as in some English churches where the design paid a compliment to a local lord who used the flower on his coat of arms. Elsewhere the effect seems purely visual, like the crenellations on the 14th century Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan.

Modern Usage

Some modern usage of the fleur-de-lis reflects “the continuing presence of heraldry in everyday life”, often intentionally, but also when users are not aware that they are “prolonging the life of centuries-old insignia and emblems”.

Israeli Intelligence Corp Badge

Fleurs-de-lis feature on military badges like those of the Israeli Intelligence Corps, the First World War Canadian Expeditionary Force, the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team and the Corps of Cadets at Louisiana State University. They may be chosen for sports teams, especially when it echoes a local flag, as with the former Quebec Nordiques National Hockey League team and the former Montreal Expos Major League Baseball team, the Fiorentina association football team, the New Orleans Saints American football team and the New Orleans Hornets basketball team, and in coats of arms and logos for universities (like the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana; and Saint Louis University and Washington University in Missouri), schools (in St. Peter, Minnesota) and companies (like the Royal Elastics shoe company).

Canadian Navy HMCS Victoria (SSK 876), submarine badge

The Canadian Navy has incorporated the fleur-de-lis symbol into two of their submarine badges (HMCS Chicoutimi and HMCS Victoria). The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps have a fleur-de-lis as their official logo, with members and past members sporting signature fleur-de-lis tattoos. The Lady Knights of the University of Arkansas at Monticello have also adopted the fleur-de-lis as one of the symbols associated with their coat of arms. The flag of Lincolnshire, adopted in 2005, has a fleur-de-lis for the city of Lincoln.

Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity

The fleur-de-lis is one of the symbols of the American women’s fraternity Kappa Kappa Gamma, the American men’s fraternities Alpha Epsilon Pi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon as well as the international co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.

It is also used by the high school and college fraternity Scouts Royale Brotherhood of the Philippines. Marc-André Fleury, a Canadian ice hockey goaltender, has a fleur-de-lis logo on his mask.

Fleur-de-Lis Tattoo

The symbol may be used in less traditional ways. After Hurricane Katrina many New Orleanians of varying ages and backgrounds were tattooed with “one of its cultural emblems” as a “memorial” of the storm, according to a researcher at Tulane University. The US Navy Blue Angels have named a looping flight demonstration maneuver after the flower as well, and there are even two surgical procedures called “after the fleur.”

The emblem of the Chevrolet Corvette also includes the fleur-de-lis.
The emblem of the Chevrolet Corvette also includes the fleur-de-lis.

2007 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

The current UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre, has a tattoo of the fleur-de-lis on his right calf.

In the “Warhammer 40,000″ universe, the fleur-de-lis is the symbol of the “Sisters of Battle”, often tattood on their cheeks or present on their helmets and the shoulders of their armor. In the video games “Saints Row” and “Saints Row 2″ the fleur-de-lis is the symbol of the Third Street Saints street gang.

And, of course the fleur-de-lis symbol is showcased in artwork…

"Fleur-de-Lis No. 23" Fresco by Bogdanoff

For those of you reveling down in New Orleans between now and Fat Tuesday, have a happy, fun and safe Mardi Gras!

“Happy he who has passed his whole life mid his own fields, he of whose birth and old age the same house is witness…For him the recurring seasons, not the consuls, mark the year; he knows autumn by his fruits and spring by her flowers.”
–Claudian, Carmina Minora (XX)

“It was not a nuthouse!”
–Neely O’Hara

Claudian, the Greek-speaking Roman poet who made Rome his home before 395 AD, speaks of fruits in the above poem. Neely O’Hara, the Valley of the Dolls alcoholic and drug addict who was drummed right out of Hollywood and came crawlin’ back to Broadway, and who failed at her attempt at a comeback, is referring to her stint at a sanitarium when she mentions the ‘nuthouse.’

Both Claudian and Neely reference fruits and nuts in their statements. Attributed to Romulus, the first ruler of Rome, the Roman calendar (c. 700 BC) originally was determined by the seasons of the cycles of the moon and the seasons of the agricultural year. Fruits, nuts, vegetables and herbs played a tremendous role in the lives of the Romans, thus their calendar was modeled around planting and harvesting.

Beginning in March, in the spring, and ending in December with the autumn planting, the year then was 10 months long (304 days) and had six months with 30 days and four with 31. (Ten successive lunar months actually would have been about 295 days and, because each began and ended with the new moon, that day would have belonged both to the new month and the old— and must have been counted twice.)

Just like Neely needed her grain alcohol to sustain her addiction, the Romans depended on grains to sustain their existence. Grains, like the other agricultural products, needed to be planned out through the Roman calendar year in order to survive the seasons. This explains why the winter months, when there was no work in the field, were not counted.

Broadway, however, offered plenty of work in the field of the theatre. Visitors to the Big Apple (note reference to fruit) enjoy seeing shows during this pretty time of year, with 42nd Street and the surrounding avenues blanketed with snow.

Helen Lawson, a famous Broadway star who has a vicious temperament, is seen here singing “I’ll Plant My Own Tree.” Planting for the Romans began in March (Martus). During the month, calendar festivals included the day honoring New Year’s Day according to the pre-Julian calendar, the Women’s festival of Matronalia, and the gods of one’s household (the 1st); Day sacred to Hercules (the 11th); and, the Festival of Bacchus (the 16th).

Bacchus was the Roman god of wine and debauchery. The Festival of Bacchus ended on the 17th, so there were two days of drinking.

As with all wine festivals, it’s important to pace yourself so you don’t get alcohol bloat.

Detail from my fresco entitled "Bacchus and Flora"

Festivals in April (Aprilis) included the Festival of Fortuna Virilis (the 1st), Birthday of Cybele (the 10th) and the Festival of Jupiter and Juno. May (Maius) brought the Women’s Festival of Bona Dia (the 1st), Festival of Mars Invictus (the 14th), Festival for Dea Dia (the 17th), and the Feast of Mars (the 29th). In June (Junonius) the Roman celebrations included the Day sacred to Tempestas (the 1st), Women’s festival of Vestalia (the 15th), Festival for Anna (the 18th), and Festival for Minerva. From January 1st through the end of June, the total number of festivals and celebrations on the Roman calendar were 152.

By July (Julius), you would think that the Romans would be all partied out. But, like Neely, there’s never enough to fuel the flames of a continuous buzz. From the beginning of July through the end of December, the Romans were able to fit in another 125 festivals and celebrations, which brought the annual total to 277.

With all that partying going on, fights were bound to break out.

The Early Roman army, which was formed c. 300 BC, kept order through c. 641 AD The Roman army is a generic term for the armed forces deployed by the kingdom of Rome (to c. 500 BC), the Roman Republic (500-31 BC), the Roman Empire (31 BC – 476 AD) and its successor, the Byzantine empire (476-1453 AD). It is thus a term that spans approximately 2,000 years, during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in composition, organization, equipment and tactics, while conserving a core of lasting traditions.

You may have noticed that I’ve referenced a 12-month calendar of events, though I mentioned in the beginning of this post that the winter months were left out of the calendar. The two months that were originally omitted are January and February. It was Numa Pompilius, the second king or Rome (715-673 BC), who divided the year into 12 lunar months. However, the lunar months were not reliable because the moon’s lunation, a period of approximagely 29.5 days, is not the same length of time as the earth’s annual orbit around the sun, a period of approximately 365.25 days. Twelve lunar months are shorter by about 11 days than the solar year (365-354).It wasn’t until 46 BC that a reformed calendar, based on the solar year, was introduced by Caesar, who first heard about it while consorting with Cleopatra.

Here we see Jennifer North, the beautiful and talentless actress who later marries Tony Polar, a talentless singer, modeling a headdress, which was probably inspired by Cleopatra’s wardrobe.

When Caesar finally returned to Rome from Cleopatra and the Egyptian campaign in 46 BC, and was declared dictator, a three-month discrepancy existed between the seasons and their calendar date. The harvest was being celebrated long before the crops even had been taken in. Hence, Caesar’s motivation to reform the Roman calendar.

Of the 277 days of festivals and celebrations on the Roman calendar, approximately 135 days are devoted to women. Ancient Roman woman had little political freedom in society, but substantial freedom outside of politics, and some were outspoken and took an interest in the politics of their day. The status of a woman would vary from a fish monger with very little money to a woman of great wealth who was a daughter of and married to prominent politicians. Anne Wells would have been the latter.

With her good cheekbones and classy good looks, Anne would have fit right in with high society in ancient Roman times. She was beautiful and evoked goddess-like qualities. Goddesses were worshipped as evident by the number of festivals dedicated to them. Many female deities represented different aspects of the natural world. An example is Pomona, the Goddess of fruit trees, orchards and gardens.

Neely would have fallen in the former category of a fish monger.

The last event of the year falls on the 29th of December (same spelling). Compitalia, a rustic celebration at the end of the farming season, actually has no fixed date but falls between the end of Saturnalia (the 24th) and the Nones of January.

Anne had no fixed dates, either. When she first moved to New York City from her picturesque New England hometown of Lawrenceville, she lived at the Martha Washington Hotel for Women, where men were not allowed. Shortly thereafter, Anne has the misfortune to meet and fall in love with cad Lyon Burke.  So, in her book dating was out of the question. Lyon refused to commit to marriage, which was something Anne desperately craved. Lyon ended up having an affair with Neely. As a result, Anne followed suit and fell under the allure of booze and “dolls” to escape her doomed relationship.

Actually, no festival dates could actually be called fixed. This is because the early Roman calendar was based on a lunar cycle, not the solar cycle that we use today. The Romans marked time as being before the cycles of the moon (i.e., five days before the Kalends of October). As such, festival dates changed dates from year to year. The dates given in this post are general dates, and, depending on the calendar one is using, could be off by a few days.

But nothing could be as off as Helen Lawson’s wig. Neely made sure of that. When Neely crashes a press party for Helen’s new show, a scuffle ensues and Neely snatches Helen’s wig.

After trying to flush it down the toilet, Neely tosses the hairpiece over the stall door, where it lands on the floor with a splat. Neely hightails it out of there. Like the women of Roman high society, Helen stands regal. She removes a scarf from her neck and covers her matronly shock of white hair. “I’ll go out the way I came in,” she nobly declares, exiting through the front door.

Respectable Roman women were not supposed to be wandering around alone outside, so it’s a good thing that Helen wasn’t living in ancient Rome upon her exit.

Roman Fasti
Some 200 fragments of Roman calendars have been found so far, and they are collectively known as Fasti. Here are various examples of the calendar:

Some calendars were carved in marble or stone, but many were painted on walls for decoration.

During her stint as The Gillian Girl model, Anne Wells was thrown into a montage of funky ads. The image below depicts Anne spraying “product” at stone and marble archaeological artifacts.

To sum up what we’ve learned, the Roman calendar (c. 700 BC) and Valley of the Dolls (1967 AD) had many similarities:

1. The Roman calendar had many festivals which, one could say, were on the edge of cultish. Valley of the Dolls has a huge cult following.
2. The early Roman calendar was based on the lunar cycle. Neely had cycles of lunacy.
3. Neely defended the sanitarium where she dried out, bellowing that it was not a nuthouse. Romans depended on fruits and nuts. Fruits can be dried out.
4. The large egos of Roman Emperors would cause them to puff out their chests, fueled by their addiction to power. Neely’s addiction was fueled by alcohol and drugs, which made her puffy.

I love Christmas

December is the month when holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah are celebrated however, people can easily forget the true meaning of their holiday and get pretty twisted in the process.

got a light?

text_here

The True Meaning of Giving

Any way you spin it, the “holidays” are about celebrating and generously contributing to those in need:

Department store chains and online merchants.

I remember when Christmas ads would start right around Thanksgiving, but in the modern age of consumerism, ads for holiday shopping now start soon after Labor Day. There may be eight days of Hanukkah, but limiting your gifts to eight?…I don’t think so! And Christmas, the granddaddy of em’ all, has no suggested limit as to the amount of gifts to give. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is deemed the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Department stores open before the sun rises, and shoppers are waiting outside in the dark cold mornings just to get a jump on their shopping. Last year, Black Friday turned chaotic and deadly, as desperate consumers broke through the door of a Wal-Mart on Long Island, New York, and trampled an employee to death. At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals. Meanwhile, two men at a crowded Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, Calif., pulled guns and shot each other to death after women with them brawled.

So what does this all have to do with an ancient city of 20,000 inhabitants that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption on August 24, AD 79?

Shopping, of course!

The Goods on Pompeii

In its beginning, Pompeii was no more than a typical town. Nomadic tribes seeking a place to settle at started Pompeii. From the small tribal village grew a large city. The city was an oval about two miles around. It contained 90-degree angle streets, theaters, and forums just like any other Roman city. What attracted ancient Romans to Pompeii was its beautiful scenery. Blue skies were seen throughout the day in Pompeii. Because of this many wealthy Romans built holiday villas here. Because it was a port city, Pompeii had a diverse mix of social classes including slaves, artisans, merchants, and wealthy landowners. Pompeii eventually became a wealthy town through trading. Merchants traded wines, fish, breads, and oils. In addition, there were an abundance of shops that sold glassware, pottery, wine, produce, fish, and cloth.

counting her sheckles

Businesswomen of Pompeii – Beauty and Brains

Pompeian women were extremely involved with money and power, from the smallest business to the largest industry.

The wives of artisans and traders were often responsible for running the shops. The fresco to the left depicts a woman holding a jointed writing tablet, probably used for recording sales and keeping track of accounts.

In addition to shops, it was often women who ran the inns and bars, which were frequented by a somewhat coarse clientele. The Pompeian women weren’t shrinking violets, and could throw a troublemaker out on the street without a moment’s hesitation.

For What the Wool’s Worth

Wool merchandise made desirable gifts, and everyone knew that Eumachia had the ‘market’ on wool.

Bahhh Humbug

Eumachia occupied a position of unusual importance in Pompeian society. She was born into an old Pompeian family, the Eumachii, who owned vineyards and brickworks, as well as played an important part in municipal affairs. Using her wealth and status, she funded the construction of a large building next to the public forum in Pompeii. This is an example of the idea of euergetism, the socio-political phenomenon of voluntary gift-giving, which exerted an influence on the wealthy people of her time period. Eumachia’s importance in Roman history stems from her being seen as a good example of how a Roman woman of non-imperial descent can become involved in public affairs. She is also viewed as a model for the increasing involvement of women in politics, using the power of a public priestess for social mobility.

Eumachia was also known as the patron of the fullers, an economically significant guild in Pompeii which consisted of dyers and clothing-makers. The building she erected was used as a wool market. Here wool was prepared and made into fine fabrics. Wool was one of Pompeii’s most principal industries, and Eumachia’s business was thriving. Being the patroness of this trade would have been quite notable for Eumachia and her family.

There’s Stock in that Market

In addition to little shops, a market was held each week under the portico of the forum. The fresco below depicts the market, which was decorated with garlands of flowers for the occasion. The stalls were set out at pavement level. A shoemaker on the right shows off his wares to two seated female customers, while others wait their turn. On the left, an elderly man appears to have fallen asleep over the take-out meals he is offering for sale; large jars contain the stews and sauces.

"Can I get two for $10?"

Cherubs of Bacchus by Bogdanoff

Nice Vintage

Wine played a large role in the sales industry. Even the ancient citizens of Pompeii understood the value of marketing. Some of the wine jars found on the site bear what might be the first marketing pun – “Vesuvinum” – the combination of Vesuvius and vinum, the Latin word for wine. There is a largely intact shop with clay pots buried in the counters among the ruins, and some believe that it may have been a wine bar. Grapes from the fertile hillsides of Mt. Vesuvius were the source for producing wine. The Pompeians would sweeten the fermented wine with honey and lace it with salt water. Today, this would most likely turn any wine snob into a hard liquor consumer. Certainly not what you’d find in your neighborhood Trader Joe’s.

Real Collectables

What would shopping be without jewelry? The Pompeian jewelry makers were masters of their trade. Gold and gemstones were used to create true works of art.

The gold bracelet on the left was found on a victim in Pompeii and weighs over 1.3 pounds.

The pair of cluster earrings below consists of beads strung on gold threads. Cluster earrings were a popular style.

ear bobs

opal ring

Above is a hollowed gold ring,
ornamented by an oval comelian
setting with an engraved image.

Ongoing entertainment events, such as plays and music performances in Pompeii’s vibrant theatre district, were great excuses for the wealthy socialites to don their magnificent jewelry for all to see.

Wrapping it Up

So, as you can see, the need to shop has been handed down from the ages. I guess I can’t blame commercialism on all those out there who spent way too much for gifts that will be either discarded in the trash or re-gifted. I did it (again) this season myself. Amazon.com was my best friend.

Happy Holidays to All and to All a Good Night…

And may we all wake up on Dec. 26th to amazing ‘after-Christmas’ sales!

Pilgrim Glam

Okay, so you’re probably asking yourselves “What does Thanksgiving have to do with Greek frescoes and pottery from 1500BC?” Well, not much on the surface. I mean, the Mayflower did not have a swank ballroom with ornate painted walls or ceilings, and meals were not served in decorative painted bowls. My intent is not to make light of the brave men, women and children who made that monumental crossing. I owe much gratitude to them. My partner’s ancestors were on that ship. So, what am I talking about? First, let’s look at the fundamental meaning of Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. It is a holiday celebrated primarily in Canada and the United States. While perhaps religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God and the Native Americans for helping the pilgrims survive the brutal winter. Although half of the pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower had already died, many more would have had it not been for the native Americans teaching the pilgrims to harvest foods. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three whole days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Indians.

So, harvesting and celebrating was a large part of what Thanksgiving represented in the beginning. Now I can segue into my topic by introducing you to a group of frescoes located on the north and east walls in room 3, Xeste 3 at the settlement of Akrotiri. On the upper story the subject of the composition is crocus (saffron) gathering.

Sketch of the adyton fresco, north and east walls, upper floor, room 3, Xeste 3

Dominating the scene on the north wall is a female figure seated on the tripartite platform and flanked by two exotic animals, a monkey and a griffin. Historians are certain that this figure is a goddess, and some further believe that she is the ‘Mistress of Animals.’

Fresco on the north wall

Close-up of seated goddess

She is physically separated from the human community by the platform, the tripartite form of which has definite religious connotations; also it is resting on incurved altars. The goddess is symbolically separated because her animal attendants are surreal, which creates a realm of the fantastic.

On the east wall, set in a rocky landscape scattered with clusters of crocus, women dressed in festive clothes and wearing expensive jewelry are collecting the valuable commodity of saffron and place them in baskets.

Fresco of saffron gatherers on the east wall, room 3, Xeste 3

Detail of saffron gatherer on the left

The figure on the left has rich black short and curly hair, which is held by a blue band on the forehead, except for two long ringlets down her back and a smaller forelock.

Detail of saffron gatherer on the right

The second figure, much younger in appearance and whose head is almost completely shorn, is trying to pluck crocus blossoms, with her two hands (both of which, incidentally, the artist has depicted as right hands), while gazing at the woman opposite with a lively and impatient expression, as if anxious for reassurance that she is performing the task correctly. Minoan artists depicted younger women with shaved heads, and painted the shaved sections blue.

Based on the jewelry that the women wear, we can deduce that this is a festival. And, because the women are harvesting the saffron, this fresco may be depicting a harvest celebration.

For the birds
When we think about Thanksgiving the first image that comes to mind is a turkey.

Thera did not have turkeys running around the island, but swallows were plentiful, as evidenced by the Fresco of the Lilies.

Fresco of the Lilies

Situated on the ground floor of room 2, the Fresco of the Lilies adorned 3 walls from floor to ceiling.

Detail from Fresco of the Lilies

Swallows fly amid stalks of red lilies. The slight bend of the stalks implies a gentle breeze. It is believed that the artist was attempting to express the beginning of spring. Because a millstone and sickle were discovered in room 2, the room is thought to have been a shrine where rites were practiced in relation to a harvest festival and/or the processing of grain.

Clay for Play
A fresco tells a story about what life was like back when it was originally created. Frescoes are invaluable tools for archeologists and historians because they are windows into the past. Another outstanding source for information is pottery. One notable example is the Harvester Vase from Agia Triada (”Holy Trinity”), a Minoan site in southern Crete.

Harvester Vase from the Minoan site of Agia Triada

The images on the vase depicts a procession which has been variously interpreted as a band of soldiers or marines returning in triumph from a victory, or as a body of harvesters marching in some sort of harvest thanksgiving festival. This interpretation seems, on the whole, the more probable of the two. In the middle of the procession is a figure, which appears to be quite different from his companions. He has not the usual pinched-in waist of the Cretans, but is quite normally developed, and he bears in his hand the sistrum, or metal rattle, which was one of the regular sacred musical instruments of the Egyptians. In all probability he is meant to represent an Egyptian priest, though what he is doing in a Cretan festival it is hard to tell. The three figures, possibly of women, who are following him, have their mouths wide open, and are evidently singing lustily.

Detail view of the harvester vase

One of the figures, that of an elderly man, who appears to be the chief of the party, is clad in a curious, capelike garment, which may be either a ceremonial robe or a wadded cuirass (a breastplate and backplate that were joined with either metal plates, leather or a combination of the two in order to form a more complete means of protection for the upper body). Apart from all questions of what kind of incident the artist meant to represent, the artistic value of his work is unquestionable. It has been said of this little vase that ‘not until the fifth century BC. should we find a sculptor capable of representing, with such absolute truth, a party of men in motion.’

Because the Fresco of the Lilies features swallows, and the room that the fresco was found is believed to be a harvest room or a shrine where rites were practiced in relation to a harvest festival, we can only deduct that the following example of pottery also represents a harvest.

Vase from Xeste 3

Found in Xeste 3, this artistic vase depicts flying swallows, lilies and crocuses. As in this work, crocuses are prominent in much of the landscape and nature Minoan art. Not only do they appear on the adyton frescoes but also on the costumes of women depicted in the frescoes earlier mentioned. This leads me to conclude that this vase was a part of the harvest celebration.

Conclusion
So, there you have it. I’ve tied Thanksgiving in with Minoan frescoes and pottery. The common thread is a harvest celebration. Of course, North Americans today have turned Thanksgiving into a celebration of gluttony.

It’s a celebration of overeating…

Fetch me a bromo

followed the next day (known as Black Friday) with overspending …

Paris fashion trendsetters

But, it’s also about getting together with family and friends, being grateful for what we have and enjoying life!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was introduced to the Minoan civilization back in 1990. I was at a party in Hollywood, CA, and hanging on one wall were two painted panels depicting blue monkeys and antelope. The backgrounds had intriguing designs comprised of geometric shapes resembling puzzle pieces, in blues and reds. The artist was at the party and, knowing that he was relocating to Ireland in a few weeks to ‘retire’ (i.e. drink himself to death), I pumped him with questions about his technique. I wrote down everything he told me on a cocktail napkin, thus the birth of my interest in frescoes. I didn’t think to ask him about the subject matter.

Beverly Hills Public Library

Days later I went to the Beverly Hills Library, which had (and still has) an extensive art department. I went through countless art history books and found a book entitled The Arts of Assyria, which had a cover of a wall mural which had colors similar to those of the panels I admired days earlier. I couldn’t find any monkeys or antelopes, but I did find a bronze relief that I liked. I made a copy of it at the library and created my first fresco.

It wasn’t until many visits later, that I found what I was in search of. There, in the ancient Greek section on the shelves, I came upon Art and Religion in Thera; Reconstructing a Bronze Age Society, by Dr. Nanno Marinatos. I had never heard of Thera, but I thought that it couldn’t hurt to skim through this small book rich with pictures. I could have easily missed it, but there on page 115 were the blue monkeys!

I felt like I had struck gold! I sat for hours devouring the book. Page after page of beautiful frescoes: swallows, saffron gatherers, boxing boys, a fisherman, antelope (yes, the same ones I saw in the panels at the party), landscape and seascape scenes, flotillas, and those blue monkeys that would later have a huge impact on my life as a professional artist. I wanted to possess this book, but it was out of print and I had no way of owning it. Remember, this was before the internet and Amazon was popular, so all I had was this book and a copy machine at the public library at my disposal. I made a copy of the entire book, which was my bible on Thera and the Minoan civilization. Of course, thanks to the internet and outlets like Amazon and many other online resources, I now own all of the books that I used to pour through at the library.

The Minoan civilization is considered to be the one of the greatest civilizations in the Greek Bronze Age (the other being the Mycenaean civilization). The Minoan civilization, named after the legendary King Minos, was based on the island of Crete. This civilization possessed a feature unshared by other civilizations, which was an architectural complex of great proportions called a “palace.” The palace housed the rulers that presided over the city or settlement. It was on the walls of these palaces where numerous frescoes were created.

The Minoan civilization was at the height of existence between 2200 and 1450 BC (end of the Early Bronze Age). Its richest and finest period was around 1725 BC, after the old palace period ended with the destruction of most of the existing palaces by a powerful earthquake. The more notable Minoan palace was at Knossos. The palace offers a rich source of frescoes throughout its walls.

Many of the wall paintings discovered in the Aegean region were produced between 1550 and 1450 BC. The Minoan artists style of painting was spontaneous and exuded grand expression.

The subjects of the frescoes generally fell under two categories: nature scenes and palace life. Nature scenes consisted of landscapes, animals, birds and marine life, and were painted with an impressionistic style. Palace subjects included religious festivals and processions, and court ceremonies.

More recently, archeologists have discovered a lost existence on Thera. The excavations at Akrotiri on Thera, now modern Santorini, provides much knowledge about this rich settlement. Thera was made up of wealthy houses c.1500 BC. Soon after these homes were built, they were destroyed by lava in a huge volcanic eruption. Much of the settlement has been recovered by the Greek Archaeological Service. Here, among the debris, excavators uncovered extraordinary frescoes.

Artists from the area created wall paintings with a style that set them apart from the Cretan artists. Though they possessed an execution similar to the artists of Crete, the Theran artists expressed their stylings through coarse application and depiction of life on the island. Theran artists used brilliant colors in their work, as evidenced in an elaborate scene from the room of the blue monkeys. Other subjects of frescoes found included fishermen, boxing children, crowd scenes, antelopes, and landscapes as they appeared prior to the island’s devastating volcanic eruption.

Frescoes at Akrotiri That Have Most Inspired Me

Blue Monkeys fresco at Akrotiri

The blue monkeys, without question, have made the greatest impact in my fresco career. The wall mural of the blue monkeys was found in a palace room at Akrotiri. Here, a family of monkeys are climbing up on the rocks of the volcano that ultimately destroyed the settlement. The monkeys were considered servants to the gods, and it is believed that the room they were depicted was a room of worship.

Saffron Gatherers

The saffron gatherers are found on the east wall in room 3a of Xeste 3. One woman is shown with her arms outstretched, while gazing at a woman opposite her, with a lively and impatient expression, as if anxious for reassurance that she is performing the task correctly.

Fresco of the Lilies

The Fresco of the Lilies, on the ground floor in room 2 at Akrotiri, as been a large influence for my Swallows With Lilies series. The original fresco adorned three walls from floor to ceiling. Swallows fly amid stalks of red lilies. The slight bend of the stalks implies a gentle breeze. It is believed that the artist was attempting to express the beginning of spring. Because a millstone and sickle were discovered in room 2, the room is thought to have been a shrine where rites were practiced in relation to a harvest festival and/or the processing of grain.

Antelope of Akrotiri

The middle zone on the west, north and east walls of Room Beta 1 were devoted to a study of the antelope.  Though the antelope are rendered in outline only, the artist revealed the strength of his talent, giving them expression and depicting them in an amorous converse, as is shown by the movements of the heads, of the lips and the tails.

Flotilla Festival

The frieze on the south wall in room 5 of he West House depicts a procession of ships, splendidly adorned, which moves between two towns. It has been recognized that the town on the right is Akrotiri itself. It’s unclear what town the ships are coming from. The subject of the frieze is a festival, where a naval fleet plays a large role. The ships vary in size. The passengers are wearing either tunics or long robes. it is reasonable to suggest that they represent people of higher status. This is all the more likely because the ships are in parade and a display of status is surely involved. The special ornamentation of the ships with nature symbols, such as flowers, butterflies and swallows, betokens a religious occasion. dolphins playfully jump around the ships, as if to guide them home.