Art in Situ

One thing you should know about myself is my love of art, I have taken massive pleasure touring the varied museums and churches of the world hunting down many famous works of art because as with everything in my life I need to see it with my own eyes to really enjoy.

Now my original top 10 hit list including Botticelli’s masterpiece “The Birth of Venus” and Da Vinci’s “Last supper” changed my outlook completely as these amazing works of art I felt were coldly displayed with an immense lack of intimacy that never really satisfied my need to have “Quality Time” with them.

After many museums and hit list ticks I came to appreciate more and more the works that were displayed where I felt one on one with them, where they had an impact on me, made me smile, cry or in some cases shudder.

I wanted to share with you 5 items below that had this power over me, that I’ll never forget and would recommend to you all.

5. Bust of Nefertiti – Neues Museum – Berlin

I have been aware for a long time this famous bust was in Berlin and was a key highlight for my visit. The bust an item of great controversy as Egypt have repeatedly plied for the items return. Discovered in 1912 in a 14th century BC workshop along with other unfinished busts, the rumors go that the bust was disguised and made to look like it was not much of a find to enable it to leave Egypt for Germany.

The busts next adventure was to survive WWII, kept in a banks vault then moved at Hitlers orders to his infamous “Flak Bunker” while the Neues museum it was originally displayed in was heavily bombed. The museum finally restored in 2009 gave me the idea that it was time to see Berlin and Nefertiti.

The Neues museum is restored sympathetically with all the battle scars of the war it had barely survived, with bullet marks and damage all over the museum you enter a darkened circular room with the bust beautifully illuminated in the middle. We visited at the end of the day and the museum was quieter and being able to walk all around it felt like you could dance and enjoy the long dead queen in a way that could be missed if there was anything else in the room.

The darkness of the room and hauntingly beautiful queen made me smile thinking of an echo of absolute beauty reaching across over 34 centuries.

4. Caravaggio – Sleeping Cupid – Pallazo Pitti – Florence

In my view the best way to see the great painters work is in the churches of Rome still in the positions where they painted them, but in all honestly the sleeping cupid had a deeper impact on me in its personal situ.

The Painting completed in 1608 shows Cupid with his bowstring broken and arrows cast aside signifying the abandonment of worldly pleasures by the infamous painter Caravaggio. An artist who is only represented by around 50 paintings today and whose turbulent life of violence, murder and love bought his life to a premature end just 2 years after completing this incredible work of art. A work that is both beautiful and haunting as it is almost certainly modelled on a deceased infant giving its yellow culture.

So why is this so good in situ? It is kept in the Pitti Palace in Florence which has varied from being the pleasure house of the Medici to the seat of the Royal family. The palaces continuous use by the powerful and wealthy encouraged each owner to add to the treasure that adorns it, from furnishings and silver to incredible works of art. The palace filled up over the centuries with more and more until it was full from floor to ceiling with treasure, and in there lies its charm for the sleeping cupid can be enjoyed as it was intended surrounded by luxury in its magnificent frame the paintings power is not lost but enhanced as you enjoy how people have enjoyed it since it’s creation. For it is not in the plain wall of an art gallery but on a real families wall where they hung in their home.

When I first saw this my eyes filled up, as the mixed emotion of the innocent cupid and the deceased infant made me question whether this is a beautiful painting or not, a thought that had never entered my head before it had stood in front of me, either way the it is a thing of wonder.

3. Jaques Louis David – Death of Marat – Royal Museum of Fine Art’s Belgium.

This painting I trouble even to write about it, should it deserve any attention at all when what it represents is truly short of evil. The 1793 neo-classic masterpiece is David’s idealized propaganda statement of the recently murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat who’s paranoia fueled personality led to the deaths of thousands of innocent people. His reign of terror came to abrupt end when he was murdered in his bath, David a friend and admirer completed this painting of his corpse at the scene of the crime and converted the image from the evil man with the violent skin disease to a soft an illuminus saint. Indeed the note visible in the painting suggests that Marat was about to send a poor widow some money, when of course one of the last statements know of Marat was involving the guillotine.

The painting was designed to shock, and had its impact on anyone who saw it like the “Psycho” of its day people fainted and screamed when it was first completed. When the monarchy was restored the painting and it’s creator were exiled to Belgium and both found themselves large fishes in a very small pond.

So what makes the display of this painting significant, for after all it lives in a cold art gallery that often puts me off, and this particular museum even more so with its’ works in subterranean levels which are plain and white. But in there is where it works, the painting is underground at the end of the room by itself, somehow it seems fitting to me this painting should never again see daylight, I was able to sit down below it crossed legged and breathe in this villanous masterpiece and after a few breaths I shuddered and neither love it or hate it but I couldn’t look away from it.

2. Monet – Waterlilies – Musée de l’Orangerie – Paris

Well, the thought of a Monet entering my top 5 at the start of my travels would seem unbelievable to my mind. Not that I don’t appreciate impressionism or Monet but I always just feel a slight enjoyment from seeing them never that intense excitement I have felt for other works. That was until 2011 when I first saw the waterlily series in this Paris museum. The paintings were completed at the end of Monet’s life and represent his beloved waterlilies, waterlilies that he had devoted a lifetime to gathering from all over the world so his passion to paint them could be fed.

Commissioned especially for this museum the works dominated the last 10 years of Monet’s life and what makes them monumental are the works of art equal 91 metres in length split between two themes Sunrise and Dusk. The paintings clearly demonstrate the period of time they took to complete with parts of them reaching abstract levels as Monet worked with his ever-growing changes of mood, lighting and artistic touch as the seasons changed and he inevitably aged.

So what makes them so special, firstly the paintings enjoy what is very rare, a custom-made building with specific custom-made lighting that Monet himself felt would make you see his beloved waterlilies as he saw them, and you know what? You walk in those rooms and suddenly your drowning in waterlilies, colour and the intensity of the ever-changing moods and seasons that Monet himself saw. I found myself smiling and physically nodding my head thinking I get it Mr Monet I know why you did this, what made you feel you had to do this, your legacy and what a legacy.

1. Bernini – Ecstasy of St Teresa – Santa Maria della Vittoria – Rome.

So Bernini tops my list, the only contender from my original top 10! I have always loved Bernini the Papal wonderboy who was drawing for the pope from a young age and quickly rose in power and prestige by a series of important commissions. If talent wasn’t enough to push Bernini he was an absolute bastard, trampling on others to get what he wanted, having a former lovers face slashed and nearly murdering his own brother in St Peter’s Square.

A man with no limits ultimately was due a fall which happened during a commission for St Peter’s itself where his over-ambition caused the construction to weaken and crack the Basilica he was meant to be enhancing.

Disgraced Bernini took a while to bite back but eventually he did with this sensational work of art. The story of St. Teresa a nun who had visions and levitation in spiritual ecstasy of an angel was not an obvious religious choise. The dubious account of what the saint really experienced is gently suggested by where Bernini shows his angel’s spear is about to plunge. The sculpture with its rapture of clothing, opened mouthed saint and smiling angel indicates that Bernini wanted to show this as a sexual experience and if you stand with her long enough you can feel it as well.

So why is this is the best for me? Well clever Bernini knew it was not enough just to show this sculpture as a sculpture it is in fact part of a piece of theatre levitating magically above us, shown by what appears to be heavenly light. If that was not enough Bernini sculpted its own audience watching in front of us, talking, whispering and gossiping about what really is a shocking scene of a young woman in the throes of orgasm. I stared on as a spectator feeling slightly energized and moved by the sensuality of the Bernini masterpiece making the hairs stand up on my neck and realizing this is what religious art should all be about, making you feel divine, or maybe all art.

Well that is everything if you visit any of the above cities try to spare some time to feel these masterpieces, understand their stories and creators and give them a little more time than usual, I hope you love them as much as I do.