St.Clelia Barbieri (1847-1870)

[fpb]

Yes, quite right, she is a member of my family. And I am delighted to discover that she is the patron saint of "people ridiculed for their piety". So not only do a lot of my friends have a patron in Heaven - but she is a Barbieri, too! Now there's something to be proud of

Comments

[sanscouronne]

That is so amazing, Fabio. Personally, I do not think the photo is half bad (actually, though irrelevant, she is very lovely), though I wonder who asked her to make that gesture.

It does not surprise me that you are related to her. :)

What part of Italy did she come from?

[fpb]

Romagna, the region whose head city is Bologna. My people also include the painter Guercino, who was from the town of Cento in the same area.

[shezan]

Guercino???? Cor, now I'm AWED.

[fpb]

His name was, I think, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri. And there are plenty of Barbieris in that area. My grandfather was one of seven brothers from the middle classes of Ferrara before he went to Rome to pursue a career in banking. Both my father's and my mother's family are ancient, and though neither is noble, both are armigerous.

[fpb]

I know, I visited that page, but it's nice of you to look at it.

[sanscouronne]

Wow, holy AND entrepreneurial AND willing to engage in civil disobedience.

It's too bad that this kind of woman is not held up as a female role model for girls.

[fpb]

There is more in what you said than you think - or maybe you know it. I think it can be argued that the different rank of women in western society - which is something which is there from the beginning - as compared with other cultures, begins with the institution of female monasticism. But I have no space to argue it here, or at least it is too late in the evening - I need to sleep. See you.

[rfachir]

She looks dignified, pious, and brave and bossy. One of those people who make you understand why "Fear not" is often the first thing out of an angel's mouth.

[johncwright]

Embarrassing? I love that picture. I thought she looked like a saint before I read what you'd written about her.

Please do not mock me for having no taste in photographs until I find out who the patron saint of those mocked for their lack of taste might be.

[fpb]

To be fair, that gesture of the index finger pointing upwards is met fairly frequently in old pictures and old stories, always with the same meaning. My favourite is that of the old Haydn, who was given a honorary performance of his great masterpiece, The Creation, by the whole musical world and high society of Vienna, Beethoven himself being present. At the end of a stunning performance, the house came down; and in the middle of the universal applause, the ancient composer just smiled and pointed upwards, saying: "Es kam von da oben!" - "It came from up there!" However, I dislike the posed "inspired" upwards gaze, that looks like a million bad religious paintings I have seen. I do not, on the other hand, doubt that it was wholly sincere in her. St.Clelia, in spite of having started out as an assistant schoolmistress, was not very well educated, and her Italian is full of misspellings and dialectal expressions. The more reason to admire what she achieved.

[johncwright]

If you step from a dark room into a bright one, or from a bright one into a dark one, you are dazzled or blinded, but for opposite reasons. I come from a very dark room.

Being a recent convert to Christianity, I have never seen even one of the million bad religious paintings you mention, and having no reason to come across them. Looking as if with a child's eyes, her expression to me seems utterly sincere, and the gesture is one which, even though I have never seen it before, had a clear meaning.

[kishiriadgr]

Surfing through your LJ because it's interesting.

The one photo of St. Gemma Galgani is posed much the same way. Gemma has hands clasped to her bosom and is looking up to heaven. Definitely a fad in Italian photography at the time.

[shezan]

"Embarrassing"? It's a beautiful picture - sincerity trumps kitsch every time.