Gery-On-Mani-Padme-Hum

The face was as the face of a just man,
Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
And of a serpent all the trunk beside.

And here's Mandredo Manfredini's masterpiece among his illustrations for the Divine Comedy published in 1909: the episode of the monster called Geryon in Inferno, Canto 17. A wonderful sci-fi critter, with a very cool detail: his deceptive face of a "just" and "benign" man recalls Buddha's, as the long-lobed ears suggest. A true pearl in the history of Dante Art.

Manfredini died suddenly in 1907 while working on the first Cantos of Purgatorio. Tancredi Scarpelli would complete the series, as we will see.

Silmarillion: Pandora

Even among the radiant flowers of the Tree-lit gardens of Valinor they longed still at times to see the stars . . .

Soup Heroes: VacuuMan

by Luca

N.B. There is no reference to the Pistorius affair, the drawing was made months before.

Silmarillion: The Origin of Species

. . .  of her there came among both Elves and Men a strain of the Ainur who were with Ilúvatar before Eä.

A policeman in Rome

Silmarillion: Love at first sight

Then an enchantment fell on him, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lómelindi he heard the voice of Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He forgot then utterly all his people and all the purposes of his mind . . .

Unexpected visitor

Again on Manfredini's visual interpretation of Dante's Inferno. In Canto 9, Dante and Virgil are stopped by the devils who try to boycott their mission, but the protagonists are helped by an unknown rescuer. Dante says that "elli era da ciel messo," that can be translated either into "he had been sent from heaven" (messo as a verb, from Latin mittere, to send) or "he was an envoy from heaven" (messo as a noun). Scholarship usually identifies him as an angel; according to other hypotheses, he might be Christ, or Aeneas - that's my favorite one.
Manfredini chooses a very personal solution by showing an angel who, in his aspect and attitude, quite closely recalls Milton's Satan as depicted by Gustave Doré (pics below). The proud, noble Fiend against the hellish mob (see above, on the right).

Silmarillion: Elwë Singollo

The Sea-Elves therefore they became in the land of Aman . . .  Two lords they had, for their numbers were great: Elwë Singollo (which signifies Greymantle) and Olwë his bother.

Soup Heroes: Teapower

Silmarillion: Mandos

. . .  and he was cast into prison in the fastness of Mandos, whence none can escape, neither Vala, nor Elf, nor mortal Man.  . . .   There was Melkor doomed to abide for three ages long . . .

An alien in Rome

Silmarillion: Civil Angel War

. . .  and thereafter the Quendi knew nothing of the great Battle of the Powers, save that the Earth shook and groaned beneath them, and the waters were moved, and in the north there were lights as of mighty fires.

FreuDantesque

Here we go again with Manfredo Manfredini's illustrations for that 1909 edition of the Divine Comedy. Nominally, a book "for the youth," but actually full of naked bodies --- like in Dore's pictures, alright, but Manfredini shows genitals much more explicitly. Paolo and Francesca (Inferno 5) hug each other in the attitude of partners who are going to have sex. And many landscapes, both in hell and purgatory, present holes with a definite Freudian accentuation.

Silmarillion: Genetic engineering

. . .  all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor . . .   were put there in prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of the Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes.

Preview York

A meeting of the WCIAL - Williamsburg Circle of International Arts and Letters - is scheduled in New York City on September 22. On that occasion, the Circle will kindly exhibit a couple of Miltonian pictures by The Magic Trio, the virtual group formed by yours truly plus Eva (nomen omen) aka Nivalis, and Tiziana aka Selkis.
The subject matters have been suggested by the great, or rather the greatest Milton Art collector worldwide, Prof. Robert J. Wickenheiser. They show The Fall of Satan and The Temptation of Eve.

Now, it would be unfair to 'give away' the contents before the exhibition takes place, but it may be worth letting people get a glimpse of the works, now both ready. So, here above a couple of teasers can be seen, but enough to praise the great job done by Selkis (Satan) and Nivalis (Eve).
As to the preliminary sketches, they can be seen here and here.

Soup Heroes: Kandler

Silmarillion: Pre-Adams

Long they dwelt in their first home by the water under stars, and they walked the Earth in wonder; and they began to make speech and to give names to all things that they perceived. Themselves they named the Quendi . . .

Please Don T

- click to enlarge -

Don Matteo (Fr. Matthew) is a very popular TV series in Italy, belonging to that long list of TV series where the heroes are priests and nuns doing anything but their business, e.g. detectives. That gives a meaningful insight into what "law and order" means in this country: a paternalistic comedy.
In this case, the saddest thing is that Don Matteo is interpreted by Terence Hill (Mario Girotti), the former icon of Spaghetti Western together with Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli).
Never dared watch one episode, but here's a juicy sample of the spoof created by cyberfriend Stepharon [see his art websites in the blogroll here on the right].

The Beauty of Death #5

Perugia, Cimitero

La Ragazza della Via Gluck

The dear friend and colleague Elena has recently started to blog. Her posts deal either with life in Milan or travels, as well as interviews and news about the world of books, in a witty way that informs and amuses at the same time. We'll also have the opportunity to visit some less-known places in Italy's Capital City of Business and Fashion, like the newly-born Museum of Movie Posters in the 'legendary' Via Gluck (pic above).
The virtual place name is Metropolis Folder after an old email exchange between the two of us, when I started to keep her most interesting messages in a folder called "Metropolis."
She's actually not a columnist, and that's a pity since her articles were what one would have liked to read. Now does.

-----> click here

Silmarillion: Elf Genesis

. . .  in that hour the Children of the Earth awoke, the Firstborn of Ilúvatar. By the starlit mere of Cuiviénen, Water of Awakening, they rose from the sleep of Ilúvatar . . .

20th century miniatures

Manfredini's Minos

In his early-20th-century illustrations for the Divine Comedy, Manfredo Manfredini [see references below] quite often drew from Gustave Doré, but he had 'other arrows to his bow.' On many occasions, in fact, his style and his way of depicting episodes are completely different from Dore's Romantic settings. Manfredini's devils, e.g., recall the Medieval and Renaissance miniatures, and/or anticipate the 'fake sacred art' by Dino Buzzati.

Urbino Code

Buzzati

Here below, the devils called malebranche (evil-claws) are impressively rendered by mixing craziness and horror. Including a vampire in the forefront.

Silmarillion: Dark Angel

But in the north Melkor built his strength, and he slept not, but watched, and laboured . . .

Soup Heroes: Socker

Starring Ship

by Selkis (The Magic Trio) from the Japanese-based USA cartoon series Captain Harlock and the Queen of a Thousand Years

Silmarillion: They Live

Eru hath spoken, saying: " . . .  Behold! When the Children awake, then the thought of Yavanna will awake also, and it will summon spirits from afar, and they will go among the kelvar and the olvar, and some will dwell therein, and be held in reverence, and their just anger shall be feared. For a time . . ."

The Renaissance Conan

Gerusalemme Conquistata (Jerusalem Conquered), first published by Torquato Tasso in 1593, just two years before his death, is the most neglected and underrated long poem in Italian literature. It's usually dismissed as a bad remake of his own Gerusalemme Liberata (Jerusalem Delivered) of 1581.
Well, not at all.
For a starter, it would be more exact to describe it as a 'reboot' of the Liberata. A great part of the story is completely new, and even the sections coming from the previous poem have often been brilliantly reworked, both as to their content and style.

Secondly, Tasso re-thinks Jerusalem Delivered according to his more mature worldview, that basically means that he modifies the text in the light of his later works Il Re Torrismondo (King Thorismond, or so; a Shakespearean tragedy set in 7th century Scandinavia like Beowulf) and Il Mondo Creato (The Creation of the World).
The main features of these works are respectively (a) the deep interest in Northern myths and heroes, that were known in Renaissance Italy thanks to the 'reports' by Olaus Magnus, Olaf the Great; and (b) the invention of anti-structures and de-constructivism.

To the extent that, in Jerusalem Conquered, Tasso (a) finds any possible way to fill a Middle East story with sanguinary Viking warriors and the like; (b) changes the compact, consistent plot of the Liberata into a very long and fragmentary historical documentary - some 20,000 verses, against the 14,000 verses of Dante's Comedy - in which the characters appear as 'specimens' of a wider process. See the now classic experimental film Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov, 1929.

The new material also provides some very enjoyable sci-fi and fantasy scenes, e.g. Armida being born of a mermaid and a man, or a sort of Highlander (in the sense of the 1986 movie) who can periodically regenerate himself and is now 300 years old; and especially, wow, Riccardo's (Richard's) armor like Iron Man's.

Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme conquistata, ed. by Claudio Gigante, Alessandria (Italy): Edizioni dell'Orso, 2010, pp. 616, euros 80

The Beauty of Death #4

Perugia, Cimitero

Silmarillion: Yavanna

" . . .  Would that the trees might speak on behalf of all things that have roots, and punish those that wrong them!"
"This is a strange thought," said Manwë.
"Yet it was in the Song," said Yavanna.

The Fine Art of copying

Doré version

Manfredini version

The two artists who made the pictures for the 1909 Divine Comedy (see) quite often, and unashamedly, 'copied' from the already classic illustrations by Gustave Doré. But their variations have often the mark of genius. Here Manfredo Manfredini reworks Dore's Dante's dream of the eagle in Purgatorio 9. Dore's landscape and rendering of light here give one of his absolute masterpieces (thanks to the engraver, too). Manfredini's version is undoubtedly rougher, but sets the event in a fitting cosmic scenery: the eagle, i.e. God's grace, take Man "beyond the world." Besides, Dante's sharp-cornered silhouette is modern and effective, with a touch of comic art.