It's still too cold to go barefoot, but when this photo was taken in milder weather, there were shoe-d and shoeless kids on the sidelines, splashing to hearts' content. We're back at Il Giardino Italiano, this time at the Upper Fountain which is "peopled" with many dynamic sculptural characters.
I couldn't resist the long-haired bearded guy. My first thought was to find a comparable beard among classical paintings, place a seated figure on the bench to the right, and place two females in the foreground, splashing in the shallow water. I did a small quick study of the darks and lights of such a composition.
Luckily, common sense kicked in at that early stage. It was really too much, and I went back to the idea of one seated figure. Then very coincidentally, looking for something else in one of my sketchbooks, I found a little sketch I'd made in March 2021. Wow. Could this be the man I was waiting for?!
I remembered finding him as I skimmed through the Greek Art section in the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and marveling at the "wonderful pose!" Luckily I'd kept track of volume and page number.
If you're a bibliophile, do view the link and see why our family's 32+ volumes have always commanded five feet of prime bookshelf space – ever since (before my time) an ecstatic graduate student managed to snag a very battered set at a reasonable price.
Yeah, this guy would do nicely.
"The Boxer at Rest", alternately called "The Boxer of Terme", deserves a volume of his own. He was literally unearthed in an 1885 excavation of the Quirinal, one of Rome's Seven Hills. Read the first paragraphs here for the impact of this discovery on the famous archaeologist on the site – who was also the one to take this almost surreal photograph.
Classicists, please note: The "Il Giardino" series aims to repurpose Italian masterpieces, and an exception has been made for The Boxer, who is Greek. His permanent home is the National Museum of Rome at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. Cleaned up nicely and recently re-bronzed, he sometimes travels internationally now – as he did to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013.
Well! I'm getting carried away – as I did by the possibilities in paint. That wonderful pose and turned-up head wasn't quite right for the front side of the Upper Fountain, so I walked to the other side that opens on the expanse of the garden.
By taking some liberties with the overall structure, I could make this work. And no, I never even dreamed of including the round-cheeked guy with ??grapes in his hair. (Is he Bacchus? And My Guy is Aeolus? Hmmm….that would mean more Greeks on the premises.)
So here are the early plans:
And early colour lay-in:
And the finale, "Ringside at Il Giardino Italiano" (copyright 2022).
There are lots of problems with this, as there usually are by the time I've called it a wrap. However, you can see how imprinted I've been with de Chirico and his fascination with elements of architecture and antique sculptures. I flipped through images of his works, wondering if mine would meet his indulgent approval. How about this? – same hairstyle!
No comments:
Post a Comment