In my suitcase, I’d also packed many good intentions. Somehow, my luggage was lost once I saw the sea. It will be a struggle to free myself from this distraction.
Should I resist?
.
.
Bluesky
BEBINA BUNNY free download here
-
The Phrygian Cap
Giuditta Tavani Arquati’s father had spent much time in papal jails because he sustained the fight for the Roman Republic. His beliefs were based on secular and republican values and it was in this kind of environment that Giuditta grew up in.
At the age of 14, Giuditta married Francesco Arquati whom she’d met at her father’s fabric warehouse. Giuditta and Franceco shared much political complicity and both joined Garibaldi in his efforts to liberate Rome from papal rule. In 1865, they helped organize an insurrection using the wool factory (Via della Lungaretta 97, Rome), owned by fellow patriot Giulio Ajani, as a base. Unfortunately, a spy betrayed them and 300 zuavos (papal soldiers) arrived in Trastevere where the factory was located and began shooting indiscriminately. The c. 40 trapped patriots retaliated with the limited arms they had. Giuditta loaded rifles and threw hand bombs while encouraging her comrades with cries of “Viva Roma!” They resisted for several hours but were overwhelmed by the zuavos. The zuavos killed Giuditta’s husband and 12 year old son in front of her then jabbed the pregnant Giuditta as well. Her little girl, Adelaide, hid in the laundry basket and her life was saved.
In 1941, all of the remains of the Risorgimento’s Roman were transferred to the Ossuary Mausoleum of Garibaldi so Giuditta’s remains are not actually at Verano. At Verano is a memorial chapel in her honor.
Aside from its ties to Giuditta, the memorial “temple” is of extreme interest because of its
pediment. There’s the traditional wreath seen in cemetery art all over the world. However, there are also two fasces crossing one another as well as a Phrygian cap.
Fasces are bundles of rods tightly wrapped around a double headed axe. And it is from fasces that the term “fascists” comes from. Although Mussolini certainly saw it as an emblem for the authority of Rome, fasces are actually of Etruscan origin. There are many fasces decorative elements not only at Verano but all over Rome as well.
In the top center of the pediment is a Phrygian cap known in Italian as a berretto frigio and was the typical headgear of young fascists.
The Phrygian cap has been around for a long time. In Ancient Greece, slaves who’d been freed wore little pointed caps that in later years became confused with the Phrygian cap. The Phrygian cap was of special symbolism in the initiation rites of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The god Mithras wore a Phrygian cap with solar rays. Numerous artworks are shown with Phrygian caps:
In upper Egypt, Osiris is shown wearing a white crown that’s a kind of Phrygian cap.
The Three Wise Men wore Phrygian caps in Byzantine mosaics.
The Three Men in the Fiery Furnace, c. 280-290. Wall-painting from the Priscilla Catacomb, Rome, Fresco on wet plaster.
Probably the most well-known use of the Phrygian cap is that of Marianne, the woman who, since the French Revolution, embodies the ideals of Reason and Liberty. But the Smurfs, Santa Claus and his elves also wear Phrygian caps.
In Leonard Bistolfi’s sculptural group, Sacrifice, at the Altare della Patria in Rome, a dying combatant receives a kiss from a female figure representing Freedom.
At Verano, another example of the Phrygian cap can be found on a fresco inside the Cappella Negroni-Floquet (Rampa Caracciolo).
Giuditta Tavani Arquati’s Memoral at Verano
Related: film In nome del Papa Re (1977) directed by Luigi Magni + Associazione Giuditta Tavani Arquati + VIA DELLA LUNGARETTA + Giuditta and her family lived in Piazza S. Rufina + “SACRIFICE” BY LEONARDO BISTOLFI: THE ETERNAL IDEALS OF ITALY’S RISORGIMENTO with Phrygian Cap + Il Museo del Risorgimento, Istituto per la Storia del Risorgimento italiano, Complesso del Vittoriano
Bibliography: Doni, E. ecc. Donne del Risorgimento. Il Mulino. Bologna. 2011. Pp. 221-230
.
.
Posted in Drawings & Paintings, Rome/Italy, Verano Monumental Cemetery
Tagged Giuditta Tavani Arquati, Phrygian cap
1 Comment
High Notes and Low Notes
Her mother sung in a choir and her father was an operatic stage manager. So there is no surprise that Claudia Muzio became an opera singer. Her father’s job kept them on the move. Although from Italy, Claudia’s family lived in London when she was a child giving her the chance to learn English before moving to Turin where she studied music at the age of 16.
Claudia’s career began early and moved forward with intensity. Known as La Divina Claudia, she even sang with Caruso. It was the popular opinion of the times that Claudia was unsurpassed in her portrayal of Violetta in La Traviata (The Fallen Woman).
Internationally famous, in 1919 she went to Buenos Aires. And it was here that she met Aristotle Onassis. Onassis was born in Smyrna in 1900. During the Smyrna massacre of the Greeks in 1922, much of his family was killed. It’s said that he had a homosexual relationship with a Turkish lieutenant in order to have his father freed from prison. Afterwards, Onassis and his family moved to Athens.
The Onassis family had had a successful tobacco business in Turkey but those days were gone and, as many other Greeks who’d been forced to leave Smyrna, Onassis had a difficult time surviving economically. So he left for South America. Initially he worked for the phone company where he had no qualms listening in on the conversations of others. This is the way he heard about a film that was to be made with the protagonist constantly smoking cigarettes giving him the idea of going back into the tobacco business and creating his own brand of cigarettes aimed at the female market. And to promote this cigarette, he needed someone famous to sponsor it. Although he didn’t know her personally at the time, he decided on Claudia. One evening he showed up in her dressing room with a huge bouquet of flowers and seduced her. Claudia was 11 years older than Onassis and probably very flattered that he was so interested in her without realizing what his main objective was.
Onassis convinced Claudia to promote his cigarettes and the publicity he received helped him earn quite a bit of money. By the time he was 25, he was, thanks to the cigarettes, a millionaire. Now Onassis no longer needed Claudia and dumped her. Eventually he realized that the shipping magnates made more money shipping the cigarettes than he did in making them. This happened right at the time of the Great Depression so, with the money he’d made from the cigarettes, he easily bought six ships for half their value.
Not only a millionaire, Onassis was a playboy. He said “I see every woman as a potential mistress. Beautiful women cannot bear moderation—they need an inexhaustible supply of excess.” So excess is what he gave them.
In the meantime, Claudia’s interpretation of Violetta had inspired another opera singer—Maria Callas. In 1959, Maria and her husband, Battista Meneghini, were invited to a jet set party on Onassis’ yacht “Cristina”. Other guests included Churchill, the Agnelli couple and Grace Kelly and her husband the prince. Onassis owned stock in the principality of Monaco and, when the value of his stock started going down, he convinced Prince Rainier that he needed to marry someone famous to promote Monaco and its casinos—the same strategy used with Claudia to promote his cigarettes. The two decided upon Grace Kelly.
On board the Cristina, something chemical happened between Onassis and Maria. Maria decided she couldn’t live without the rich tycoon and left her husband to pursue a romance that would only provoke sorrow for her. She was 36 and Onassis 53. The two had a relationship for years until Onassis dumped Maria for Jackie Kennedy.
So had it not been for Claudia Muzio helping Onassis make so much money, maybe Onassis would not have become rich and famous thus in the position to become Maria Callas’ lover and Jackie Kennedy’s husband. Who knows.
Poor Claudia was not lucky in love. After Onassis, she married a man who invested her money in the stock market and, with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, she lost everything. This provoked a series of health problems leading to heart failure. Claudia died in a hotel room in Rome at the age of 47.
And one could think that Onassis adored opera music having had two soprano lovers. But he once made the remark that opera was like listening to two Italian cooks fighting over a recipe. It’s more than likely he preferred rebetika, a kind of Greek blues that evolved in the 1920s when the Greeks who fled Turkey settled in Piraeus.
Claudia Muzio (1889 – 1936) is buried at the Verano Monumental Cemetery in a tomb designed by Pietro Canonica. For fotos go HERE.
Related: Onassis, Jackie and me
Bebina Bunny and Alexander von Humboldt
“One curiosity leads to another.” Bebina Bunny
Recently I read Matteo Farinella’s article “Alexander von Humboldt” where he makes reference to Andrea Wulf’s “The Invention of Nature”. It was a happy read as I discovered Farinella (illustrator of “Neurocomic”), Wulf and von Humboldt all in one article.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was addicted to curiosity. Interested in geography, nature, science, and philosophy, he left his native Prussia to explore the world to feed his addiction. And the more he explored, the more he realized how all his curiosities were interrelated. This led to his many volume treatise “Kosmos”, where he pursued the unification of all knowledge instead of trying to isolate one idea from another. Von Humboldt perceived the universe as holistic—just one big entangled family and not just groups of unrelated entities.
Curiosity leads to knowledge. That’s why the gods considered it an evil (ex. The Tree of Knowledge that got Adam & Eve in trouble and the vindictive Zeus and Pandora’s Box). The more the gods could control knowledge, the more they could control mankind.
But curiosity leads to important discoveries. There’s the example of Heinrich Schliemann’s discovery of Troy as well as that of the 15 year old Canadian, William Gadoury, who recently discovered a Mayan city by studying the stars.
“Bebina Bunny’s Cabinet of Curiosities” is a tribute to curiosity. It is the story of a cabinet of curiosity created not with objects but with mindful pursuits of curiosity. These pursuits are materialized by being written down, rolled up and placed into empty bottles. Bebina, realizing that curiosity not only makes the world bigger but provides us with options, strives at collecting enough of these curiosity filled bottles to fill a room so she can create her own unique wunderkammer.
Bebina Bunny’s Cabinet of Curiosities
Related: Paris as a Cabinet of Curiosities
.
.
Posted in Books, Drawings & Paintings
Tagged Alexander von Humboldt, Bebina Bunny, cabinet of curiosities
Leave a comment
“Adelita or Die Lorelei?”
The Mexican Revolution was not just about Mexico. It was also about other countries that got involved for political aka economical reasons.
Paul von Hintze studied at the Naval Academy which eventually led to his becoming an admiral in the German navy. But he also had much social swag and a manipulative empathy. This made him perfect for a diplomatic career. That’s why Emperor Wilhelm II appointed him as German Ambassador in Mexico in 1911. A year before, the Mexican Revolution had begun as a protest against Porfirio Diaz’ dictatorship. Once in Mexico, von Hintze immediately created a network of secret agents and pushed the sale of German-made arms.
During a revolution, people die. Soon after von Hintze’s arrival, a group of insurgents passed by the town of Covadonga. Shots were fired at them and they responded with more gunfire resulting in the death of four German citizens. Von Hintze demanded that these insurgents be caught. He was unrelentless and the killers were finally captured and executed in front of him. Furthermore, von Hintze insisted that the Mexican government (now under Francisco Madero) pay a colossal sum to the Germans as a form of restitution.
One of the most popular songs in Mexico at this time was La Adelita. Adelita represents those women who considered themselves soldiers in the revolution and were prepared to shoot at the enemy, too. She represents those women who chose to be protagonists and fight for their rights instead of passively letting others nullify their existence. It is Adelita’s bravery that makes her beautiful.
Von Hintze continued to participate in Mexican politics often interfering with revolts. When General Huerta effected a coup, Madero was arrested. Von Hintze tried to secure Madero’s safe conduct out of Mexico but was unsuccessful and Madero was executed.
Politics is about subterfuge.
It’s said that the spirit of Montezuma, Emperor of Mexico until the Spaniards arrived, still curses the presence of foreigners and has his revenge by inflicting them with bacterial diarrhea. Although capable of executing revolutionaries, von Hintze was impotent in front of Montezuma’s Revenge. The problem was so severe that he went back to Germany to be cured. When he returned to Mexico, von Hintze found Huerta a self-proclaimed president whose main ability was that of creating chaos. Von Hintze said that Huerta was so unprepared that he promoted waiters to generals. Huerta created a regime of terror and was so despised by the people that he was given the nickname El Chacal (the jackal). Pancho Villa and Alvaro Obregon defeated Huerta’s troops forcing him to resign.
In 1914, Huerta went into exile and von Hinzte left for a new diplomatic gig in China. Changes were going on in Germany, too. And, after the conservative chancellor Georg von Hertling was forced to resign, von Hintze’s career mellowed out. For a while he was president of the Society for Germanic Culture in Foreign Countries. Then he went to live in Austria and travelled before dying in Merano, Italy. He’s buried in the Verano Monumental Cemetery.
Note: the title of this post is based on two songs. One, La Adelita, as mentioned above and the other, Die Lorelei, a German folk song written in 1801 by Clemens Brentano. But, in 1824, the words were re-written by Heinrich Heine to describe a siren who lived on the Lorelei and distracted sailors with her song and her beauty causing them to crash on the rocks.
Paul von Hintze (1894-1941) is buried at Verano Monumental Cemetery
Links: Modern version of Adelita by Calaveras de Azùcar + Viva Zapata! film + Pancho Villa film + Die Lorelei sung by Erich Kunz
.
.
The Narrative Within 