The Narrative Within

Self-defining Women

Posted on November 14, 2025 by Art for Housewives

For a long time, Italy existed as a cluster of independent states getting in one another’s way. The ideal of a national identity led to the Risorgimento, a social and political movement to unite Italy. After years of conflict, Italy was finally united and, in 1870, Rome was made capital of the new Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946).

This unification created the need for a common culture. So, in 1883, the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna (GNAM) was created with the intent of providing a home for the modern/contemporary art of the newly created kingdom.

In 1941, Palma Bucarelli (1910-1998) became the director of the Galleria and would be its soul for the next 30 years.

Palma’s parents were born in Calabria, but she was born in Rome. Her mom, Ester Loleta Clori, was a beautiful and refined woman who passed on to her daughter a reverence for aesthetics.

(Palma Bucarelli ad una serata di gala con Sibilla Aleramo, anni Sessanta – © Farabolafoto, Milano)

Palma was very beautiful, too. Ungaretti said that she was as beautiful as a Siamese cat. But more than beauty, Palma had class. Plus, she had brains as well as the intent to use them. Shortly after assuming her position at GNAM, WWII broke out. Because she feared that the Nazis would loot the Galleria or that allied bombs could drop down and destroy important artworks, Palma organized a “raid” and secretly moved artworks from GNAM to Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola. She even managed to hide paintings in the basement of Castel Sant’ Angelo with the Pope’s permission. But the minute the war was over, Palma got the paintings out and organized an exhibition at the GNAM, the first since the outbreak of WWII.

Palma wanted to give a new narrative to Italian art. She took down the décor and went minimal so the focus would be on the art. She wanted GNAM to connect with Europe and beyond. But she also wanted to be a forceful advocate for contemporary Italian artists.

Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960) published Una Donna (A Woman), her first (and maybe most important) book in 1906, Because of the subject matter, the book initially made a lot of people uncomfortable. However, it is now considered a classic of Italian literature.

Although no real names are given, Una Donna is largely autobiographical. It describes how the protagonist’s mother attempted suicide and was subsequently placed in a mental institution where she remained until her death. Later the protagonist is raped by a co-worker while working in a factory. The rape results in a pregnancy and the protagonist is forced to marry her rapist and to have his child. The marriage is an abusive one. The protagonist is unhappy and yearns for a life of her own.

Up until this point, Una Donna basically describes Sibilla’s life. In real life, Sibilla abandoned her husband and their six-year-old son. She became active in political and artistic activities. She also began having many affairs including with the Futurist painter, Umberto Boccioni, and the poet, Dino Campana, who suffered nervous disturbances.

In 1908, Sibilla attended a suffragette Congress in Rome. Here she met Lina Poletti, feminist writer and declared lesbian. The two began an intense relationship.

Although Palma and Sibilla came from two totally backgrounds, they both had something in common. They were feminists, anti-fascists, and understood the importance of culture.

Women don’t have to be from the same place to value the same things.

-30-

Appropriations for AI will be jinxed.

GNAM digital archives +

Palma Bucarelli, daring icon of Italian art + Palma Bucarelli: The Joan d’Arc of Parisian Modernisms + Bucarelli, Palma +

(Italian) Lo squardo di Palma + Arte al femminile, Palma Bucarelli… Palma Bucarelli è stata la prima direttrice donna di un museo pubblico in Italia + Palma Bucarelli: una vita asservita all’arte, una vita come opera d’arte +

Sibilla Aleramo (1876-1960), Nuovo Reparto, riquadro 61, Verano Monumental Cemetery

Sibilla was once involved with Giulio Parise, also buried at Verano ….Giulio Parise (1902-1969), pitagorico e massone.

More Sibilla:

Sibilla Aleramo and the Peasants of the Agro Romano: A Writer’s Dilemma + Le donne tra analfabetismo ed emancipazione + Fascismo: 906 intellettuali pagati da Mussolini, da Aleramo a Ungaretti + Sibilla Aleramo, Mussolini e Togliatti + Sibilla, Evola e Parise. Un triangolo amoroso nella Roma anni ’20 + Quasimodo-Aleramo, Una passione lariana

Posted in Art Narratives, Beauty, Rome/Italy | Tagged Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna, GNAM, Palazzo Farnese at Caprarola, Palma Bucarelli, Rome, Sibilla Aleramo, suffragettes, WWII | 2 Comments

Mileva Maric’

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Art for Housewives

During the 1970s, feminists were animated and the ladies were asking a lot of questions. Linda Nochlin, in her essay “Why have there been no great women artists?” asked a question she already knew how to answer. There have been no “great” women artists simply because we live in a patriarchal society. And the boys don’t want competition from the ladies. And although women have excelled in many fields, their glory gets easily grounded. Often, it’s because men have the power to steal their ideas. And these thefts need to be exposed.

That Albert Einstein took advantage of his wife’s mathematical skills to promote his own ideas was fairly common knowledge. To better understand their arrangement, I ordered the book “The Forbidden History of Mileva Einstein-Maric’” by Christopher Jon Bjerknes. The first page has a quote from Einstein: “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” And that is exactly what he did.

Despite the title, Mileva is not, unfortunately, the protagonist of this book. Einstein is.

Mileva Maric’ (1875-1948) was born in Serbia. She had a dream that took her to the Zurich Polytechnic where she was the only female student. Einstein was also attending the Polytechnic. He noticed Mileva’s talent especially as a mathematician and began pursuing her. In 1903, they were married and Einstein got a job at the patent office in Bern. He and Mileva began working together on the theory of relativity, appropriating many of their ideas from Poincare and Lorentz. In fact, I always believed that Einstein got the Nobel prize for the theory of relativity, but he was ineligible for the prize because of his well-known plagiarism regarding it. Instead, Einstein got his Nobel for “his services to theoretical physics and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”

Albert Einstein was not an easy man to live with. He physically and mentally abused his wife. He was also a hardcore womanizer and had numerous affairs including one with his married cousin, Elsa Lowenthal. Elsa wanted to get married so Einstein asked Mileva for a divorce. Part of the divorce agreement was that Mileva would get the money from the Nobel if Einstein were ever to win it. When Einstein won, he gave the money to Mileva who used it to buy a home for herself and their two sons.

I knew that Einstein was Jewish and that he was considered a pacifist. However, I didn’t know he was a racist. He hated gentiles especially the Europeans and the Chinese. He was a convinced Zionist and believed that anti-Semitism was necessary to force segregation so Jews and Gentiles would keep away from one another and thus preserve the Jewish race.

From Einstein I learned that just as there is anti-Semitism, there’s also anti-Gentilism.

Mileva raised their two sons on her own. The youngest son, Eduard, suffered from schizophrenia. Mileva died of a stroke in 1948 at the age of 72. Einstein had his son institutionalized then never saw him again. Eduard died 17 years later.

-30-

Appropriations for AI will be jinxed.

Posted in Books | Tagged Albert Einstein, Christopher Jon Bjerknes, Condition of possibility, Linda Nochlin, Maria Maric, Nobel prize, plagiarism, zionism | 1 Comment

Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899)

Posted on November 2, 2025 by Art for Housewives

Rosa loved animals and she also loved to paint. Thus she became an animalière, that is, an artist specializing in painting animals.

colored drawing of a little girl holding a toy

Rosa’s mom died when she was only 11. Her dad now a single parent, was forced into a role he wasn’t prepared for. The situation was even more dramatic because he was deeply in debt.

Rosa didn’t have an easy personality and was not good at studying. Oftent hyper-animated and naughty, she was kicked out of school. So her dad, an artist and teacher, decided to train and teach Rosa to draw. And it became her addiction.

Rosa was the eldest of four siblings and all four were involved in the arts.

Her dad, Raymond, was once an active Saint-Simonian. Saint-Simonism, a political ideology that, among other things, believed in gender equality meant Rosa was raised believing that she was just as good as a man. She was a ringleader in the games played and had no problem defending herself with her fists. However, this animation, that got her kicked out of school, created learning difficulties. She had problems reading and writing so her dad decided to teach her to draw. Rosa, immediately felt comfortable with a piece of charcoal in her hand, now understood what her purpose in life was–to make art.

Living in Paris, she was able to study the paintings at the Louvre. The Louvre told her that she was destined to paint.

At the Louvre she copied the paintings of various artists including those of the flamboyant Salvatore Rosa (1615-1673), an Italian Baroque painter who created landscapes that were moody and untamed.

colored drawing of a landscape with waterfall

Mesmerized by photographs of the Parthenon marbles depicting horses, Rosa decided to paint horses and other animals as well. Her father encouraged her to pursue painting animals and even brought animals to the studio for her to draw from.

colored drawing of a woman hugging a cow with a paintbrush in hand

Rosa’s passion for animals led her to earn a reputation for her skill as an animalier, an artist who specialized in realistic portrayals of animals. In 1853, she participated at the Salon with her painting “The Horse Fair”. It depicts horses being sold at the horse market held on the Blvd de l’Hôpital (Paris).

To actualize this painting, Rosa got permission from the police department to wear trousers as, at the time, it was illegal for a woman to do so. Wearing pants made it easier for her to go sketch at the slaughterhouse. “The Horse Fair” turned her into a celebrity. So much so that Queen Victoria requested a private viewing of it at Buckingham Palace.

colored drawing of a woman wearing paints sitting on a bench next to three horses

When she was 14, Rosa met Nathalie Micas age 12. Nathalie’s dad had commissioned Rosa’s dad to paint his daughter’s portrait. The two girls became inseparable and remained so un until Nathalie’s death at the age of 65. But Rosa’s love for Nathalie didn’t keep her from having crushes on other women.

Because of her passion for collecting animals, Rosa’s home was a menagerie. All the animals roaming around were a bit too much.

But in 1859, Rosa bought a property at Fontainebleau and had her animals transferred there. Despite her love for animals Roda had no problems with hunting them. In fact, she became known as the “Diana of Fontainebleau”.

man on a hourse in front of a country home

Many years later, Rosa would invite Bill Cody aka Buffalo Bill to Fontainebleau. Rosa had been going to Buffalo Bill’s camp every morning to make studies of the Indians in his troupe. The two celebrities acknowledged their mutual interest in animals and became friends.

As a child, Anna Klumke had been given a Rosa Bonheur doll. Anna wanted to be an artist and the doll was a symbol of that desire.

Anna finally got to meet the real Rosa in 1895 when Rosa was 73 and Anna was only 39. Within three years, the women were living together. Anna kept a diary and carefully documented her life with Rosa. She would use this diary to help her write Rosa’s biography.

Rosa named Anna as the sole heir to her estate, much to her family’s dismay.

a lion family, dad, mom and three little cubs

Rosa, Nathalie, and Anna are all buried together at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

-30-

foto of a cat with the book Art is a Tyrant

“Art is a Tyrant” by Catherine Hewitt (2020)

Appropriations for AI will be jinxed.

Posted in Art Narratives, Books, Daily Aesthetics | Tagged animalier, Anna Klumke, Buffalo Bill, Catherine Hewitt, Nathalie Micas, Pere Lachaise Cemetery, Rosa Bonheur, Saint-Simonianism, Salvatore Rosa | 4 Comments

the Bush that Burns

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Art for Housewives

colored drawing of a man with his hand held up in front of him because there's a burning bush

Moses was out tending the sheep when he saw a bush that was on fire but wasn’t burning. Curious, Moses walked towards the bush. Then he heard someone call out his name. Who are you?, asked Moses. And the reply was “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14).

Baruch Spinoza (1632-2677) was born in Amsterdam. He was of Portuguese and Jewish origin and received a traditional Jewish education. So well versed in Hebrew, he couldn’t help but see the contractions between translations of sacred texts and the original versions. One translation in particular that annoyed him was that of “I am that I am”. Spinoza decided to further investigate and, in doing so, came up with interpretations that so scandalized the Jewish community that Spinoza was permanently excommunicated from it.

Spinoza’s problem with “I am that I am” was a matter of tense. According to Spinoza, so I’ve read, the sentence was in the imperfect and not the present tense. As the imperfect tense implies an action that is ongoing or continual, the meaning of “I am that I am” could be more like “I am becoming what I am becoming.” However, I don’t have a copy of “Ethica” yet and researching on internet now is a problem as it’s overdosed with AI and ambiguous sources .

Spinoza concludes that God is nature and the substance creating the universe. God does not exist outside the universe but is the universe itself. And as we are part of this universe, we are also a part of God.

There’s much to absorb. Too much for me at this time. However, of interest is Einstein on Spinoza: “I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists. Not a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”

Appropriations for AI will be jinxed.

Posted in Art Narratives, Books, Introspection | Tagged Bible, burning bush, I am that I am, Spinoza | Leave a comment

Orion’s Belt

Posted on October 4, 2025 by Art for Housewives

I wake up very very early. The world is silent and dark. Part of my morning ritual includes opening the balcony doors to allow fresh air inside. I automatically look up at the sky. Because there hovering over the building across the street is Orion wearing his twinkling belt.

Orion was a giant hunter who was really full of himself. On the island of Chios, he got the hots for Merope, the king’s daughter, and raped her. The king retaliated by poking out Orion’s eyes. Hephaestus, himself disabled, sent Orion a guide who led him east. Here the rising sun restored Orion’s sight.

But Orion had no concept of gratitude. He went to Crete where he met up with Artemis, the hunting goddess. Forgetting that she was a goddess, Orion bragged that he was the best hunter in the world. Artemis took it as an offense and, as punishment, had him bitten by a scorpion. So a group of gods got together and sent Orion up to the sky where he became a constellation to remind man the dangers of hubris.