I'm so glad your Vatican experience was much better than mine last year! I found the madness of being herded through the art like cattle so painful that I simply gave up on enjoying much. The only room to fill my expectations (and surpass, of course) was the Chiaroscuro Room (and, if you recall, that's my favourite concept in all of art) because it was nearly empty. And because of the parrot.
Oh, lord, I was determined to enjoy this. Hell-bent. This was my chance to see the goddamn sistine, and I was not going to let 3,000 tourists stop me from it!
Oh, I remember zipping by the chiaroscuro room-- the sign nearly flew by in a blur-- while getting hearded towards the sistine. It wasn't the room with "School of Athens" by Raphael, was it? That was amazing, but had no time to stop. I think I remember the chiaroscuro room being a poorly-lit room with trompe-l'oeil frescos by Raphael of marble figures lining the walls? No? And I must ask, because I love prodding people about these things, why do you love chiaroscuro so much in particular?
The painting gallery, whatis called, with the caravaggios and the raphaels and the one da vinci unfinished painting, those places were nearly empty, gave plenty of time and room to sit and draw. aaaahhhh.
I cannot recall the details about the Chiaroscuro room except that it was almost entirely in scales of grey, but for a brightly red parrot on a saint's shoulder. It was off to the side of one of the primary galleries. Why do I love chiaroscuro so? (1) I worship Da Vinci. He invented it. Ergo... (2) Consider the philosophical ramifications --> instead of drawing the shadows onto a blank white page of highlights, one draws the highlights OUT FROM the depths of the shadows, extruding the foreground from the abyss of background. Chiaroscuro is not created, it is coaxed.
I'm done waxing poetic for the day. I'm off to Stilwerk, the store that would make any of your design friends die of bliss. 60,000 square feet of haute design - 57 stores devoted to the cream of modernism. Downtown Berlin. Sure you still can't come visit me next weekend?
oh, posh, had i the time/money, i would kill to see berlin. and all that talk of haute design... well, that makes even me jealous. do send photos!
And (here we go tatiana, why do i get so caught up in these sorts of conversations?) being myself pretty rusty with the notion of chiaroscuro, it being a bit too indoctrunal for class, but knowing i could picture examples of it.. well, I was pretty sure chiaroscuro did not mean drawing lights ontop of dark, as this is a standard painting principal since forever. Nearly all of painters worked with a ground-- this is why brown paper is preferable-- with the exception of watercolors.
But to be sure, I looked it up on the grand 'ole internet: An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a very high contrast between light and dark
( ... )
Okay, to beef up my vocab, I googled Stendahl's, so now I am all smart and know what it means:
"I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations ... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.''Okay, so I can definately identify with that quote. Especially that bit about falling. Not that *I* was going to fall, but... it was all so monumental! tall! iconic! RAPTUROUS! that i was worried the floor might give way beneath my feet, like when you jolt awake from falling in a dream
( ... )
Yes, sadly no Paris for me this summer. It will be Virginia and possibly a little bit of Florida. However -- I was thinking about trying to go back next summer. I get ridiculously homesick for that city.
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Oh, I remember zipping by the chiaroscuro room-- the sign nearly flew by in a blur-- while getting hearded towards the sistine. It wasn't the room with "School of Athens" by Raphael, was it? That was amazing, but had no time to stop.
I think I remember the chiaroscuro room being a poorly-lit room with trompe-l'oeil frescos by Raphael of marble figures lining the walls? No?
And I must ask, because I love prodding people about these things, why do you love chiaroscuro so much in particular?
The painting gallery, whatis called, with the caravaggios and the raphaels and the one da vinci unfinished painting, those places were nearly empty, gave plenty of time and room to sit and draw. aaaahhhh.
Reply
Why do I love chiaroscuro so? (1) I worship Da Vinci. He invented it. Ergo... (2) Consider the philosophical ramifications --> instead of drawing the shadows onto a blank white page of highlights, one draws the highlights OUT FROM the depths of the shadows, extruding the foreground from the abyss of background. Chiaroscuro is not created, it is coaxed.
I'm done waxing poetic for the day. I'm off to Stilwerk, the store that would make any of your design friends die of bliss. 60,000 square feet of haute design - 57 stores devoted to the cream of modernism. Downtown Berlin. Sure you still can't come visit me next weekend?
tchüs,
josh
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And (here we go tatiana, why do i get so caught up in these sorts of conversations?) being myself pretty rusty with the notion of chiaroscuro, it being a bit too indoctrunal for class, but knowing i could picture examples of it.. well, I was pretty sure chiaroscuro did not mean drawing lights ontop of dark, as this is a standard painting principal since forever. Nearly all of painters worked with a ground-- this is why brown paper is preferable-- with the exception of watercolors.
But to be sure, I looked it up on the grand 'ole internet:
An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a very high contrast between light and dark ( ... )
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"I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations ... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.''Okay, so I can definately identify with that quote. Especially that bit about falling. Not that *I* was going to fall, but... it was all so monumental! tall! iconic! RAPTUROUS! that i was worried the floor might give way beneath my feet, like when you jolt awake from falling in a dream ( ... )
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aw, mauree, i miss you. you really won't be in paris at all this summer?
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Yes, sadly no Paris for me this summer. It will be Virginia and possibly a little bit of Florida. However -- I was thinking about trying to go back next summer. I get ridiculously homesick for that city.
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