A Plaster cast of a portrait sculpture of Enrico Scrovegni, by Marco Romano, 1317-1320, in the sacristy of the Scrovegnii Chapel / Arena Chapel, Padua
In 1305, Enrico Scrovegni commissioned Giotto, the preeminent early Renaissance artist, to design and decorate a chapel in Padua, Italy. Scrovegni was a rich man..His family fortune had come through usury. At this time charging excess interest when loaning money was
considered to be usury, a sin so grave that it resulted in exclusion
from the Christian sacraments, and many early bankers were concerned
lest their trade jeopardized their souls. It was considered an unjust way to make a living and it certainly was looked down upon by the church. Remember the story of Jesus casting the moneylenders from the temple? Enrico Scrovegni was just such a moneylender.
Exterior of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy
Enrico's father, Reginaldo Scrovegni had started the family business. He apparently had quite a reputation. In Dante's Divine Comedy poem Inferno, Dante says that he saw Reginaldo in the inner ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where the violent are eternally punished.Usurers are considered violent because, usurers sin against Art, and Art is the Grandchild of God.
Interior of Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy
The Scovegni Chapel at Padua is considered one of the most important masterpieces of Western art.The two most notable cycles of frescoes in the chapel, are highlights from the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin Mary. At the end of the chapel, depicted on the entire wall, is the Last Judgement.
Of the Life of Christ fresco cycle, probably the most famous panels are the Lamentation (left) and Christ's Entry into Jerusalem (right) Either of these were probably in your Art History textbook.
Scrovegni's Padua Chapel was sited next to Enrico's palace, where he intended it to serve as his burial chapel.It is thought that the building of this chapel was part of a campaign to seek absolution for his own and his father's sins. It was conceived at least in part as penance. A rich man trying to buy his way into heaven.
In the Last Judgement fresco at the end of the Chapel, Giotto has painted his patron Enrico Scrovegni positioned precariously between heaven on the left and hell on the right...
carrying the entire chapel ( world? ) on his shoulder. Forgive me, Enrico, but I can't help but think of this....
Enrico's bid to buy himself into heaven, eventually came to naught. In 1320 he fled the wars and civil strife that plagued Padua at the time and settled in Venice. In 1328 he was formally banned from Padua.He died in Venice eight years later, in 1336.
In 1912 the great Austrian expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka started a passionate, tempestuous affair with Alma Mahler. Alma was coming off a bad stretch. Her first husband, Gustov Mahler, 19 years her senior and Director of the Vienna Opera, had died in 1911.Three years earlier, their daughter, Maria had died of scarlett fever. In the wake of Maria's death, Alma had begun an affair with the Bauhaus architect, Walter Gropius. But with Gustov's death, Alma quit Gropius, whom she would eventually marry. Here's Tom Lehrer's take on Alma Mahler:
Enter Oskar. It has been said that when Kokoschka wasn't making love to her, he was painting her. Kokoschka painted and drew Alma compulsively and is the subject of his best known painting, Bride of the Wind. It is considered his crowning achievement and a tribute to his love for her.
Oskar Kokoschka - Bride of the Wind - 1914-15
Kokoschka's intense possessiveness wore on Alma, and the emotional vicissitudes of the relationship tired them both. Alma eventually rejected Kokoschka after a 3 year relationship, explaining that she was afraid of being too overcome with passion.
Kokoschka was devastated and in 1915 volunteered for service as an Austrian cavalryman in WWI. In the same year he was seriously wounded, shell shocked on two occasions. While recovering in a hospital in Dresden, doctors decided he was mentally unstable.
Here's where it gets weird.
In 1918, upon his release and recovery, Kokoschka hires a Munich dollmaker, Hermine Moos, to fashion a life-sized doll of Alma Mahler. Kokoschka provided Moos with many detailed drawings and a life sized oil sketch.On August 20, I9I8 he wrote to Moos: "Yesterday I sent a life-size drawing of my beloved
and I ask you to copy this most carefully and to transform
it into reality. Pay special attention to the dimensions of
the head and neck, to the ribcage, the rump and the limbs.
And take to heart the contours of body, e.g., the line of
the neck to the back, the curve of the belly. Please permit
my sense of touch to take pleasure in those places where layers
of fat or muscle suddenly give way to a sinewy covering of
skin. For the first layer (inside) please use fine, curly
horsehair; you must buy an old sofa or something similar;
have the horsehair disinfected. Then, over that, a layer of
pouches stuffed with down, cottonwool for the seat and breasts.
The point of all this for me is an experience which I must
be able to embrace!" In December Kokoschka eagerly
demanded of Hermine Moos: "Can the mouth be opened?
Are there teeth and a tongue inside? I hope."
The packing-case arrived. Kokoschka writes: "In a state of
feverish anticipation, like Orpheus calling Eurydice back from the Underworld,
I freed the effigy of Alma Mahler from its packing. As I lifted it into the
light of day, the image of her I had preserved in my memory stirred into life.
"He got his servant to spread rumors about the doll, to give the public
impression that she was a real woman: "for example, that he' had hired a
horse and carriage to take her out on sunny days, and rented a box for her at
the Opera in order to show her off"
Alma Mahler Doll with Hermine Moos (?)
Kokoschka was ultimately disappointed with the result, a clumsy
construction of fabric and wood wool. He complained that the shag carpet-like
skin was not life-like enough. Despite the doll's shortcomings, she turned out
to be a compliant substitute companion and muse. The live Alma Mahler long
gone, Kokoschka started a series of paintings of the doll.
Oskar Kokoschka - Woman in blue - 1919
Oskar Kokoschka - Self Portrait with Doll - 1920-21
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Kokoschka drew and painted the doll in many poses, many of them
sexually suggestive. (See painting above.) More than 80 pen and ink drawings
survive
After several moths, despite Kokoschka's effort, expense and energy, he decided to dispense with the fetish. "I engaged a chamber orchestra from the Opera. The
musicians, in formal dress, played in the garden, seated in
a Baroque fountain whose waters cooled the warm evening air.
A Venetian courtesan, famed for her beauty and wearing a very
low-necked dress, insisted on seeing the Silent Woman face
to face, supposing her to be a rival. She must have felt like
a cat trying to catch a butterfly through a window-pane; she
simply could not understand. Reserl paraded the doll as if
at a fashion show; the courtesan asked whether I slept with
the doll, and whether it looked like anyone I had been in
love with... In the course of the Party the doll lost its
head and was doused in red wine. We were all drunk."
The next day, a Police patrol happened to glance through
the gates, and seeing what was apparently the body of a naked
woman covered with blood, they burst into the house suspecting
some crime of passion. And for that matter, that's what it
was... because in that night I had killed Alma... In the grey
morning light the refuse collectors removed Kokoschka’s
dream of Eurydice's return.
I continue to work in my inferior paper word sketchbooks as the mood strikes me. Here's the latest batch in the order in which they were done. I hope you enjoy them.
Here are several new humorous paintings that I did this summer, but have finally got around to putting up on my site. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did doing them.
Prints are available here: www.humorousprints.com
Answer the Call of the Open Window - Prints available here
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Quit Your Lollygagging Around - Prints available here.
Your Aura is Clouding My Judgement - Prints available here.
It's been a tough season for finding the time to paint. My big project of late has been getting our house ready to put on the market. The kids have flown the coop for the most part and it's time downsize. A tremendous amount of work. Having said that, I have found the time to get a few paintings in. Here are four from this tumultuous period of time.
Excelsior - Acrylic on Canvas - 30"H ×39"W - More info
I continue to work on word drawings as the mood strikes me. I have done quite a few of these and lately I have had to be careful not to repeat myself both in the word content and how these drawings are constructed. I have been finding my mind going down familiar avenues and have to work to break free of that. Here's the latest batch.
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