Friday, November 14, 2008

Preview of Art and Love in Renaissance Italy

Today's was a short visit — I just popped in to see a members-only preview of Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. Forgot the camera today, but it didn't really matter since I don't think photography is allowed in special exhibitions.

Because I didn't have much time, I focused mostly on appreciating the exhibit design. I will surely revisit this gallery to examine the work its meaning, but for now I will write about my sensory experience.

I was immediately drawn in by the rich red color of the walls as I entered the exhibition. No doubt that love was the subject matter, and if I lacked reassurance, I needed only to look up at the quotation centered above the works in the first room:

"Amor Vole Fe" — Love Needs Faith.


The next room was the color of blue slate, and the next a buttery beige, and the next an olive green, ending with the same rich red as the first room. The following are the rest of the Italian quotations painted on the walls of each room:

"Quista te dono per amore bella" — I give you this, beautiful one, as a token of my love

"Non te posso lassare" — I cannot leave you

"Io te do la mane/Dame la fede" — I give you my hand/give me the ring


One of the last rooms held beautiful, richly colored textiles, which immediately drew me in. With my focus already on the written word as today's entry, I was prompted to copy a poem from A Belt or Girdle with a Woven Love Poem in this room:

"I will burn ever as a phoenix
With the fire of your kisses,
And I will die
Life will return with
The breath of your sighs.
Even as the net woven
With the cords of love,
Do you tie me to your heart
As long as you will be faithful to me."


Sigh... why hasn't this kind of Romance continued into today's society?


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