Michelangelo's 'David-Apollo' arrives for President Obama's inauguration

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian, 1475-1564), David-Apollo, c. 1530, marble, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

 

 

Not only to celebrate President Obama's second inauguration but to herald a year of Italian splendor and culture in the U.S. to the tune of more than 180 events in 40+ U.S. cities, a statue with its very own mystery has come to Washington, again.

At the National Gallery of Art, His Excellency Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata, Italian minister of foreign affairs, and Ann Stock from the U.S. State Department, shared the platform with David-Apollo/patricia leslie

To begin:

  

Like many of us, Michelangelo (1475-1564) was not totally pleased with some of his work.  He abandoned many pieces he started and never finished (non-finito).

Sometimes he accepted more work than he was able to complete. He was an Italian Renaissance man.

Fortunately, Michelangelo didn’t pitch his incomplete pieces in the fire, but many were spared, like his David-Apollo, now on view at the National Gallery of Art through the graces of the Italian government and the lending institution, Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence.

But the marble statue has two names split by a hyphen. What is the meaning of this? Is it David or Apollo or both? Only the creator knew for sure.

Michelangelo’s biographer, Giorgio Vasari, called the statue “an Apollo who draws an arrow from his quiver,” however, a 1553 inventory labeled the work, "an incomplete David" with his sling over his back.

The figure's pose is serpentinata which invites viewers to circle David-Apollo and observe different components where surprises may be found on each sequence which makes the ambiguity more alluring.

Take David-Apollo's legs, for example.

Wikipedia mixes them up saying the right leg is extended when it’s the left, and the left leg (actually, the right) is bent over what may be a pile of dirt, or Goliath’s head, which, once the idea is mentally carved, is hard to escape, and adds support to the David argument. (The National Gallery of Art has its own marble David, (c.1461/1479), this one by Bernardo (1409-1464) or Antonio Rossellino (1427-1478-1481; they were brothers) with David’s foot resting on Goliath's head. Maybe Michelangelo copied this statue?)  (Some of these facts and more are found in the handsome four-page color brochure available at the David-Apollo statue.)

Stand at David-Apollo's left side and look under his right foot for the semblance of a male head's silhouette with nose and facial features facing up, and, honestly, yes, due to the power of suggestion, sometimes it's there; sometimes, it's not.  (Honestly, this happens.) However, make your spiral galaxy over to the other side where you'll find no hint of a person's face or head in the mound found under his foot, but what is this new form?  A circular mound of something. A pound of Earth?

The same year Michelangelo brought David-Apollo to life was the same year (1530) that Copernicus (1473-1543), another Renaissance man (and artist who studied in Italy), unveiled his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium which claimed that Earth was not the center of the universe, but it rotated on its axis and traveled around the sun once a year.

With his foot resting (maybe) on the Earth, is David-Apollo squashing flat the 1,400 year-old Ptolemaic theory which claimed that Earth was the center of the universe? Just a few astronomers at the time were aware of Copernicus’s theory and information exchange over long distances was quite limited (I dare say: rare) for the Renaissance preceded Social Media Daze. (Does this not make for the plot of a great mystery novel? You write it.)

Another angle: One glimpse of his leg muscles and the possibility that David-Apollo, in his spare time, may have been a danseur, swells. (That female hearts will not be captured by the looks of David-Apollo when gazing upon his person is almost an impossibility, and the figure may mesmerize a few men, too.)

You are invited to make your own comparisons and determine who is there: David or Apollo? Both? Be prepared to go round and round. (A ballot box for votes is not available, however, the guards are there to prohibit picture taking.)

To inaugurate 2013 as The Year of Italian Culture in the U.S. (but I thought every year was a year of Italian culture in the U.S.), David-Apollo will reside at the National Gallery of Art just off the West Building Courtyard (where the Sunday evening concerts are played) until March 3, 2013, marking the first time the statue has come to town since another inauguration, Harry S Truman’s in 1949 when almost 800,000 came calling.

Whoever, whatever is there, the people of the United States are grateful to the president of Italy, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Italy in Washington, the Minister per I Beni e le Attivita Culturali and the National Gallery of Art for the grand opportunity to observe the masterpiece at no cost to the people, a loan which memorializes the long-lasting friendship between the two nations.

Viva l'amicizia!

Programs:

January 3, 5, 7, and 9, 2013 at 12 p.m., West Building, talks by Eric Denker, a Gallery senior lecturer

January 27, 2 p.m. "Michelangelo's David-Apollo:  An Offer He Couldn't Refuse," East Building Auditorium by Alison Luchs, the Gallery's curator of early European sculpture, who wrote the brochure

February 11 at 3 p.m., an overview at the Embassy of Italy of the collection of Michelangelo's works at the Casa Buonarroti by its director, Pina Ragionieri

  

Who: David-Apollo by Michelangelo

What: To celebrate 2013 - The Year of Italian Culture in the U.S.

When: Now through March 3, 2013 every day from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. (Sundays: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.) excepting New Year's Day when the Gallery is closed

Where: West Building, National Gallery of Art, between 4th and 7^th and Constitution Avenue, N.W.

How much: No charge

For more information: (202) 737-4215

Metro stations: Judiciary Square, Navy Memorial-Archives, or the Smithsonian

The Cherubs Playing With a Swan by Jean-Baptiste Tuby I (French, 1635-1700) on the left, were silent for the press opening of David-Apollo, and they remain silent today/patricia leslie

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U.S. returns stolen artifacts to Italy

From an 15th century illuminated vellum

choir book page of "a generic Olivetan Martyr in the form of a monk" clutching a red book, one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

In a repatriation ceremony last week at the Embassy of Italy, the U.S. government returned seven stolen and looted artifacts and antiquities to Italy, recovered by joint operations conducted by global law enforcement authorities.

The presentation "marks a new step in the fruitful bilateral collaboration between Italy and the United States," Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero said in a statement.

The pieces included two 2,000-year-old ceramic vessels, one Roman marble sculpture, a Renaissance painting, and three 13th century music sheets removed from choir books.

Apulian Red-Figured Situla, c. 365-350 B.C., one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

A warrior leaving home, probably Prince Hector and his father, Priam, the King of Troy, c. 480-460 B.C., one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

At the Embassy of Italy, seven artifacts recovered by global law enforcement agencies were returned to Italy by the U.S. in a repatriation ceremony/Patricia Leslie

Among those participating in the recovery of the works were the Carabinieri, Italy's national police force, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. 

Said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara: "We are giving back to the Italian people a small piece of their history--and that could not be more gratifying."

Two of four investigations led to Italy's Gianfranco Becchina, an alleged smuggler, who supposedly masterminded the theft of the ceramic vessels from Italian archaeological sites into Switzerland.  Later they were shipped to a gallery in Beverly Hills, California and then transferred to Christie's auction house in New York where they were seized by Homeland Security.

The Roman marble sculpture also was supposedly lifted in Italy, again by Becchina's forces who followed the same route into Switzerland. After shipment to the U.S., the piece was sold at Christie's for $26,250 and then seized by Homeland Security.

Roman marble janiform herm, c. 1st century, one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

In 2006 the painting Leda e il Cigno by Lelio Orsi was illegally imported into the U.S. by way of JFK International Airport and auctioned in early 2008 by Sotheby's in New York for $1.6 million. Learning of the investigation, the buyer rescinded the purchase, and the painting was confiscated.

The mystery of the illuminated choir book pages ended in Portland, Oregon in 2010 after a rare book dealer put them up for sale on the Web drawing law enforcement's attention.  Ultimately, the dealer surrendered them along with another of the pages uncovered last June and included in the repatriation ceremony.  Two of the pages are believed to have come from a chorus book stolen from St. Paul Church in Pistoia in 1990, and the other from the Monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore in Siena taken in 1975. 

From an 15th century illuminated vellum

choir book page of "a generic Olivetan Martyr in the form of a monk" clutching a red book, one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

An illuminated vellum choir book page, c. 13th century, one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

An illuminated vellum choir book page, c. 14th century, one of seven artifacts returned to Italy by the U.S./Patricia Leslie

Laws signed by the U.S. and Italy prohibit the importation of certain Italian artifacts without proper documentation.

Persons found guilty of trafficking in stolen cultural heirlooms can face fines, restitution to purchasers, and prison terms of 20 years.  Homeland Security has returned more than 2,500 items to more than 23 countries since 2007. 

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Italian embassy hosts monastery and mosaic lecture

St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt/Wikimedia 2011

At the Italian embassy last week, guests packed the auditorium to hear a lecture about the restoration of a sixth century mosaic at one of the holiest places on earth, "the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery" in the world, one which has never been damaged by war.

Emperor Justinian I ordered the construction of St. Catherine's Monastery which dates from 560 CE. It stands on the slope of Mt. Sinai in Egypt, the place where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and spoke to him from the Burning Bush which, miraculously, still stands.

Copyright, 2003, Monastery of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai

And the speaker brought photos to prove it.

St. Catherine's in 1852 by Leavitt Hunt, the first American photographer to visit and photograph the Middle East/Wikimedia

Roberto Nardi, archaeologist and founder of the Center for Archaeological Conservation, described the monastery's sixth century mosaic, the Transfiguration of Christ, and his team's delicate work over five years to replicate the mosaic's original luster and beauty.

John Watson, Tour Egypt

At the monastery the mosaic can be found in the basilica at the sanctuary apse.

It is named after Catherine of Alexander, a Christian martyr who was sentenced to death "on the wheel," but when that did not work, she was beheaded (Wikipedia).  Angels carried her remains to Mt. Sinai where monks found them. (Later, she was one of the saints who helped guide Joan of Arc.)

Every day about 1,300 people visit St. Catherine's which is filled with thousands of candles, chanting monks, and "the best collection of early icons in the world," some which date to the sixth, and possibly fifth, centuries (Wikipedia).

 Catherine the Great of Russia and Napoleon were two world rulers especially interested in St. Catherine's, said Dr. Nardi, and other leaders associated with it, according to the monastery website, include Empress Helena, Mohammed, and the Sultan Selim I.

The monastery "has been revered not only by Christians, but also by Muslims and Jews and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for cultural and scenic significance," says the website.

Dr. Nardi said he was recruited by the Getty Conservation Institute in 2000 to visit the monastery and the mosaic which was "about to fall down." Funding from the Getty Foundation enabled the project to move forward.

Cataloging of the cathedral's collection is an "ongoing project," underway for more than 50 years, he noted.

 Dr. Nardi's next project is in Syria where a new team is being trained to preserve antiquity. He said Syria presents "some difficulties, but we are going ahead."

Another project lies in an "old convent" 50 miles north of Rome where frescoes and mosaics need rescue.

Dr. Nardi's presentation was made possible by the joint efforts and collaboration of the embassies of Egypt, Greece, and Italy in Washington.

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