I pruned our bougainvillea. Now I can spy on our neighbor’s red and white umbrella that often dances with the wind.
Greece, today, celebrates the Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. It’s a major holiday so there will be music and food. There will also be a procession and the Virgin Mary icon from the Church of 100 Doors will be transported to the Church of Zoodochou Pigis that faces the beach of Kato Yialo. So Mary will now have a view of the sea.
The wind not only changes my mood, it also changes my look. Breezes are fine because they’re like sweet caresses. But the wind is something else. It creates a sensory overload and makes me feel I’ve no control over what’s around me.
Some theorize that the wind mixes up the ions in the air. And this provokes a drop in serotonin. So it’s best if I just stay inside.
my neighbor’s entrance
The Feltrinelli’s at Piazza della Repubblica has an international section promoting Rome-related literature. That’s where I found Elizabeth Buchan’s “Two Women in Rome”. At the time, I was reading about fascism and Italian writers and felt the need to escape the heaviness this genre was making me feel. The book that really broke me was Alberto Moravia’s “La Ciociara”. In English, its title is “Two Women”. Was Buchan making a reference to Moravia’s book?
Buchan’s two women are Lottie and Nina. Newlywed Lottie moves to Rome, where her husband is already living, to work as an archivist. Her job is to find out who murdered Nina Lawrence. Although Nina presented herself as a professional gardener, she was actually a spy for the Brits who wanted to know more about Aldo Moro’s kidnapping. Moro (1916-1978), ex-premier of Italy, was in the hands of home-grown terrorists, the Red Brigade (Brigate Rosse). The Italian right and certain foreign powers (like USA) feared that the post WWII situation had given the Communists a political advantage in Italy and it needed to be stopped. There was a major tug of war between left and right creating an abundance of political turbulence. In Italy, this period is known as the “Years of Lead” (Anni di Piombo).
“Two Women in Rome” is a pleasant but not a revolutionary read. However, there are many references to Rome, its people and places that are of interest. In particular, there are various references to paintings because Rome is full of them. Influenced by the Catholic Church, these paintings were meant to tell a story. One favorite theme was that of David and Bathsheba.
The story of Bathsheba and King David can be found in the Bible, (2 Samuel 11). One night in Jerusalem, King David was on his roof looking at the other roofs. That’s when he first saw Bathsheba. She was taking a bath and she was beautiful. She was so beautiful that David wanted to possess her. The problem was that Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s most loyal soldiers. Unfortunately, although David was a king, he was not a noble one.
King David had Bathsheba summoned to his palace so she could spend the night with him. Later, when Bathsheba learned that she was pregnant, David freaked out. As Bathsheba had not been sleeping with her husband, her unfaithfulness would be discovered as would that of the king’s. To hide his sin, the king had Uriah sent to the front lines where he was intentionally exposed to enemy attack. With Uriah dead, David thought his crime had been permanently hidden. But God had seen everything and decided to punish David and Bathsheba by killing their baby. Adultery and murder—a tantalizing subject that artists picked up on.
“Bathsheba at her Bath” by Hans Memling c. 1485 via
“Bathsheba at her Bath” by Rembrandt, 1654
Another well used subject in painting was that of the Annunciation. Buchan gives special attention to Jean Pucelle’s “Annunciation”, and the exquisite tiny manuscript illumination from the “Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux”. It was made in the mid-1320s and is best known for its use of grisaille, a painting technique done in shades of grey.
“The Hours of Jeanne d’Evreux is an illuminated book of hours in the Gothic style. According to the usual account, it was created between 1324 and 1328 by Jean Pucelle for Jeanne d’Evreux, the third wife of Charles IV of France. It was sold in 1954 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where it is now part of the collection held at The Cloisters (accession number 54.1.2), and usually on display.” VIA
Buchan also mentions Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany. She was the illegitimate daughter of Charles Edward Stuart who, in 1745, tried to take back the English crown. Charles, also known as “Bonnie Prince Charles”, was born in Rome at Palazzo Muti, home of the exiled Stuarts. In 1744, Charles decided to invade England and to restore the Stuart Monarchy. But that didn’t go well and Charles was subsequently forced to spend the rest of his life in exile. He had a number of mistresses and one wife. With his Scottish mistress, Clementina Walkinshaw, he had a daughter, Charlotte. But Charles had become a belligerent alcoholic so mother and daughter had to find a home elsewhere.
After his father’s death, Charles moved into his dad’s house, Palazzo Muti in Rome, where he led an animated social life and often visited the Pope. But his irregular lifestyle had gutted his health. His excessive drinking forced his wife to leave him. No one cared about Charles except for his daughter, Charlotte, who moved to Rome to take care of her ungrateful father. In 1788 at the age of 67, Charles died of a stroke. He’s buried in the Vatican crypt. Charlotte died a couple of years later.
Painting of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” aka Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), oil on canvas by Louis Gabriel Blanchet, 1738
In Buchan’s book, Nina as a gardener, is writing an article on the narcissus (aka daffodil). The flower gets its name from the Greek “narkosi” meaning “numbness” or “stupor”.
Before Homer, these flowers were used by the Egyptians for their tombs. Whereas the Greek Furies wore narcissi in their matted hair, a look intended to stupefy their victims.
Even Caravaggio was mesmerized by Narcissus, the beautiful Greek youth who, according to Ovid in “Metamorphoses” fell in love with his own reflection and was subsequently turned into a flower bearing his name. His painting “Narcissus” (1590s) is on display at Rome’s Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica.
“Narcissus” by Caravaggio (1590s) at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica
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Every morning, I open the balcony doors to change the air. The first thing I do is look at the sky. And that’s how I saw the Strawberry Moon. It’s known as the Strawberry Moon because it comes in June and June is traditionally the month for picking strawberries. Every year in Texas, for example, they have the Poteet, Texas Strawberry Festival.
In Italy, the Strawberry Moon will reach its exact peak of fullness on June 30th at 1:56 AM but the moon has already started to puff up. It’s the first full moon after the summer soltice and will hang low while travelling the sky.
I keep reading that, although the moon is called strawberry, it doesn’t turn pink. But who wrote this hasn’t seen the moon I saw this morning from my balcony. The moon I saw looked like a faded strawberry full of light. And, as it wasn’t fully round, it rather looked like a strawberry, too!
The Narrative Within 