Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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This being Easter also reminded me, as it always does, of a trip- a pilgrimage really, many years ago to Northern Italy. I was a student at the Royal College of Art at the time – it must have been 1978 – when my tutor Peter De Francia suggested I climb out of the dark corner of the studio I inhabited and go and see what real art looked like. “Go and see the mosaics in Ravenna my boy! It will open your eyes!”

 

In the space of a few weeks I visited Ravenna,

 

 

 

 

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Venice

 

 

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and Florence,

 

 

 

 

learning for the first time what it feels like to be in a place where the past is still living in the present. I saw many things that have stayed with me as defining experiences down the years. None more so than the great masterpiece of early Renaissance art, The Maesta, of Duccio, which to this day still sits in Siena Cathedral.

 

 

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When he completed his magnificent altar piece of the Virgin in Majesty, the Maesta, the powers that be declared a public holiday

The painting was installed in the cathedral of Siena on 9 June 1311. One person who witnessed this event wrote:

And on that day when it was brought into the cathedral, all workshops remained closed, and the bishop commanded a great host of devoted priests and monks to file past in solemn procession. This was accompanied by all the high officers of the Commune and by all the people; all honorable citizens of Siena surrounded said panel with candles held in their hands, and women and children followed humbly behind. They accompanied the panel amidst the glorious pealing of bells after a solemn procession on the Piazza del Campo into the very cathedral; and all this out of reverence for the costly panel… The poor received many alms, and we prayed to the Holy Mother of God, our patron saint, that she might in her infinite mercy preserve this our city of Siena from every misfortune, traitor or enemy.

 

 

Here are some of the panels

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2013 by alanna

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The work that especially fascinated me was the reverse, or verso, of the Maesta, depicting the passion of Christ, from Palm Sunday through to the Resurrection.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2013 by alanna

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This is the prayer it was said the populace spoke as they laid palm leaves before Christ on Palm Sunday:

O Christ our God

When Thou didst raise Lazarus from the dead before Thy Passion,

Thou didst confirm the resurrection of the universe.

Wherefore, we like children,

carry the banner of triumph and victory,

and we cry to Thee, O Conqueror of love,

Hosanna in the highest!

Blessed is He that cometh

in the Name of the Lord.

 

 

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Mohammed Yunus, Tuku, Duccio, Palm Sunday. In my mind’s eye it makes sense for them to share an aisle…

 

 

Years later I painted this picture in homage.

 

 

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I picture Duccio, in his studio above the baker’s shop on the corner of the square, suddenly finding himself and his work at the centre of the universe. He looks back towards the anonymity of the Romanesque, and prefigures the celebrity of Michelangelo, the moment when art became the plaything of wealth, and no longer the purview of common humanity.

 

Hugh Jackman could easily be a model for Adam in Michelangelo’s depiction of the creation of Man. But Mohammed Yunus is the avatar of Duccio, because he imbibes the suffering of the world.

 

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When Tuku was a child I knew her as mischief.

 

 

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One day, Nirmal took her to see a dance troupe performing, and she, a Muslim girl from a poor village declared that one day she would be a professional dancer. And today she is.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2013 by alanna

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Like Hugh Jackman, she is a friend of Mohammed Yunus, who opened a branch of the Gameen bank in Hogulkuria, whereTuku now teaches a form of Hindi dance to Muslim girls.

 

On learning that he was going to make a visit, she gave me two tasks: to bring theatrical makeup from London for her young dancers; and to make a photojournal of Mohammed Yunus’s visit.

 

Without further words, this is what follows

 

Edited March 30, 2013 by alanna

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