State societies party with cherry blossom princesses

Maya Halbert, the 2012 Tennessee Cherry Blossom Princess, with Brett Logan, board member of the Tennessee State Society, at the reception at Bobby Van's Grill/Patricia Leslie

Sports rivalries among some Southern states were largely forgotten Tuesday night at Bobby Van's Grill where members of the state societies of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama met to mix, mingle and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the planting of the cherry blossoms in Washington with distinguished guests, the states' cherry blossom princesses.

From left: Keiko Asakura Halbert, the proud mother of Sammy Halbert (center) and Maya Halbert, the 2012 Tennessee Cherry Blossom Princess, all from Nashville, at the Tennessee State Society reception at Bobby Van's Grill/Patricia Leslie


Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, Grace Swoope, comes from a family of five princesses that includes her mother, Mary McDaniel Swoope (1981) and her aunt, Peggy McDaniel Welch (1978), now an Indiana state legislator.

As they say in Mississippi, beauty runs deep.

From left, Peggy McDaniel Welch, Indiana state representative and 1978 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, with her niece, Grace Swoope, 2012 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess, at the Southern state societies event at Bobby Van's Grill. Grace is a costume designer whose resume includes The Help and Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film. /Patricia Leslie

In elegant attire, the princesses performed their duties well, warmly welcoming guests to the reception, made even more pleasing by perfectly cooked steaks found upstairs.

Mary Lou Collector, the oldest Tennessee State Society member, with Grace Swoope, 2012 Mississippi Cherry Blossom Princess/Patricia Leslie

For once, the state societies' crowd seemed more than just 20 and 30-somethings from Capitol Hill, since walking around and staking claim to the title of Ms. Tennessee State Society Oldest Member was Mary Lou Collector, who was joined at the party by other "seasoned Southerners."   

Said one Alabama alum when "sports" inevitably came up for chat: "Basketball?  Basketball?  Who cares about basketball?  This is the SEC where football is king!"  Amen, brother.

It pays to get out.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Titanicabilia swells this month

The book/History Press

The centennial of the tragedy occurs April 14-15, 2012, 100 years from the date when the ship hit an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912 and sank less than three hours later on April 15 taking 1,496 lives* with it.

Related books, films, special presentations, street theatre, lectures, a memorial cruise, an original stage play, a concert, and an original stage play are scheduled.

National Geographic has an exhibit, and Amazon has listed at least 17 Titanic books and three children's books which have been published in the last year alone. At Tysons Corner on Saturday at Barnes and Noble, four Titanic films were prominently displayed with only one or two copies of each remaining on the racks.

One of the new books at Amazon is Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal, a compilation by 11 Titanic scholars who examined all the evidence gathered by the 1912 American and British inquiries, and later, and who applied modern-day knowledge, science, and engineering to produce an academic treatise complete with a chronology, illustrations, photographs, diagrams, references, and investigation for every shred of information known.

One of the authors, Samuel Halpern, a Titanic expert, systems engineer and technologist, presented a talk on the book recently at National Archives where about 150 turned out at lunchtime to hear more about the wreck since no one can ever get enough information. (Tourist children were only able to sit still for a few minutes before rushing out to examine merchandise at Archives's gift shop, but the adult Titanicologists remained transfixed.)

Mr. Halpern presented facts and figures: 2,208 were on the boat, and 1,496 died.* Of first and second class passengers, just 6.4 percent of the women and children died, but 53 percent of the women and children in third class went down with the ship.

Titanic expert Samuel Halpern at National Archives/Patricia Lesllie

A few of the refutations uncovered by the researchers: Visibility on April 14, a moonless night, was "assumed" to be two miles, but it was only a half mile. About 60 percent of the capacity of the lifeboats, designed to carry 1,176 passengers or just over half the passengers, was utilized. Lifeboat drills were never conducted, leading to that requirement since.

Once the iceberg was sighted, a warning of 37 seconds was reported, however, later studies reveal the warning was actually between 50 and 55 seconds before the collision.

During the first 45 minutes after the wreck, about 13.5 tons of water poured in the 12-foot-square hole carved by the iceberg, eventually leading to the ship's division in two parts and its sinking due to instability. The initial report of the ship's location was 13 miles from the actual site. The book supplies the evidence to back up claims cited, Mr. Halpern said.

For Titanic devotees, there are a few societies to consider joining: the Titanic Historical Society, Titanic International Society, British Titanic Society, Canadian Titanic Society, Irish Titanic Historical Society, Shannon Ulster Titanic Society, Belfast Titanic Society, Scandinavian Titanic Society, and a new word:  Titanicology.

*The number of passengers, fatalities, and survivors which are listed in Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic differ slightly from Wikipedia's count. patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Not to miss: the NYC Ballet at the Kennedy Center this weekend

Charles Askegard and Maria Kowroski in Fearful Symmetries/Paul Kolnik

If you are lucky, you may still be able to buy tickets for the ballet Saturday or Sunday. Maybe both. They are worth it.

The music is utterly captivating, and I did not even stay for the finale, West Side Story* which means the value far outweighs the cost to get in.

As a matter of fact, the music by George Gershwin (Who Cares?) and John Adams (Fearful Symmetries) put out by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra under the spirited direction of the New York City Ballet's Clotilde Otranto was so splendid the music could have stood alone without grace on the stage to illustrate the notes. (Elaine Chelton was the pianist for Gershwin, and she may have been the woman who joined the dancers on stage at the end of Who Cares? to receive audience appreciation.)

The dancing for the first two acts (Gershwin and George Balanchine, choreographer, and Adams and Peter Martins) was not traditional ballet but a welcomed change of pace, moderate jazz ballet and some ballet waltzing, always attractive.

The evening's performance began with a medley of Gershwin tunes performed against a silhouetted outline of New York which changed color and lights, depending upon which of 16 numbers was played. The ballerinas seemed a mite off in the first two pieces (Strike Up the Band and Sweet and Low Down), outperformed by their male counterparts, flashing by in silvered sequined (or so they seemed from the chandeliers) costumes with bow ties, who were tighter and fewer in number, thereby reducing stress and increasing ease of symmetry.

By the third selection (Somebody Loves Me), the loved ballerinas had settled down and were in stride and more confident, like horses out of the gate. (Sorry!)

Without question the audience's Number One Gershwin favorite was the lonely and haunting, The Man I Love, danced passionately under "moonlight" by Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar, who possessed the honors in all three final Gershwin duet selections and one solo requiring a male dancer. The chemistry between these two was undeniable (even from "on high") to be envied by all who seek the link.

Teresa Reichlen from Clifton, Virginia, is one of the company's principal dancers, and she performed beautifully with Ramasar to Embraceable You and in a solo, My One and Only. Another ballerina deserving especial mention was Ashley Bouder who danced solo to I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise and with (who but?) Ramasar in Who Cares?

But my favorite of the night was Adams's Fearful Symmetries, a crashing buildup filled with tension and horns and percussion which grew louder and louder like a coming train wreck just ahead, and no end in sight. (And no seat sleeping for the weary.) It was absolutely magnetic, a modern Alfred Hitchcock, creating and softening friction but one of my two seatmates did not care for it. (Oh well, who can please all? It pleased me, and I am rushing out to buy the CD right this night. )


The male and female dancers in oranges, pinks, and rosy reds on the bare stage (save shadows) added final touches on a delightful evening of solid entertainment. Just close your eyes and soar into that good night.

*You've attended a production one too many times, haven't you? For me, my last time with West Side Story was a traveling stage production in Nashville about 10 years ago. I still cannot bear to hear one note of the music. Who needed it anyway to have a good time Thursday? Not me.
patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Antico's bronzes close Sunday at the National Gallery of Art

Antico
Young Man, c. 1520 bronze with silvering

overall with base: 54.6 x 45 x 22.3 cm (21 1/2 x 17 11/16 x 8 3/4 in.)
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles



As the National Gallery's director, Earl A. Powell III described the show:  "It is one of the most beautiful exhibitions we will ever see."

The glorious reign on the ground level of the East Building is the first monographic exhibition in the U.S. devoted to the Italian sculptor and goldsmith,  Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi, known as Antico (c. 1455–1528*), the elegant re-creator of classical models and a pioneer in replicating bronzes.

About 75 percent of Antico's extant works or 37 medals, reliefs, busts, and statuettes of bronze and gild are displayed in the exhibition.   Some works by Andrea Mantegna,  Giovanni Bellini, and others are included. 

Mantuan 15th Century
The Entombment, c. 1470 - 1480 bronze with gilding and silvering

24.4 x 44.9 x 0.2 cm (9 5/8 x 17 11/16 x 1/16 in.)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Kunstkammer

Andrea Mantegna
Battle of the Sea Gods [left half], c. 1485/1488 engraving on laid paper

sheet (trimmed within plate mark): 28.6 x 42.6 cm (11 1/4 x 16 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Strangely, Oliver Cromwell plays a role in the show.

If he had not executed King Charles I (1649), who owned many of Antico's works, and sold the king's possessions, some of which found their way to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna,  there may not have been an Antico exhibition in Washington.  (Also starring in this production:  the renovation of a portion of the Kunsthistorisches.)

Said Director Powell:  "We owe Oliver Cromwell a debt of gratitude."

One of Antico's finest works, Seated Nymph (1503) with gilded, silvered and patinated surfaces, was made for the private study of the Marchesa of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, where four other bronze statuettes in the exhibition (Hercules and Antaeus (1519), Pan (post-c. 1519),  Atropos (post-c. 1519), and Hercules (post-c.1519) also likely stood.  For the first time the four reunite with Nymph. 

Pier Jacopo Alari-Bonacolsi called Antico

Seated Nymph, model created and cast probably 1503
bronze with gilding and silvering
Robert H. and Clarice Smith


A viewer is left with a sense of awe and incredulity at the sculptor's artistry and by imagining the placements of the bronzes in a room.  What room would be adequate to house them all?  (The Marchesa's apartments in the Ducal Palace in Mantua have been restored where one may imagine more vividly.) 

Antico
Hercules, model created by 1496, cast possibly by 1496 bronze with gilding and silvering

overall without base: 34.57 cm (13 5/8 in.) with base: 38.42 cm (15 1/8 in.)
The Frick Collection, New York, Gift of Miss Helen Clay Frick Copyright The Frick Collection


For models Antico (whose nickname derives from the Italian word for "ancient") based two of his works on ancient sculptures which are part of the show.  One is a marble Roman bust of a young man (c. AD 140-150)  which Antico refashioned into his Young Man (c. 1520). 

Antico's strange use of silver-inlaid eyes of many subjects is haunting and disconcerting, but check them out for yourself, please.

Antico
Cleopatra, c. 1525 bronze with traces of gilding

overall without base: 64.4 cm (25 3/8 in.)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, William Francis Warden Fund Photograph (c) 2011 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

(Can you find the serpent and do you know why it is associated with Cleopatra?)

He was the son of a butcher and was probably born in or near Mantua where he spent most of his entire life.  He devoted his career to three generations of the Gonzaga family which the Marchesa joined by marriage in 1490.

The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Robert H. Smith, the Gallery's former president,  whose vision and guidance have made the National Gallery of Art "a leader in the study of Renaissance bronzes," Mr. Powell said.

Available for purchase is a catalogue of more than 200 pages and 150 color illustrations which is the only available English-language monograph on Antico, and includes a series of essays and chronology of his works, techniques and relationships.

From Washington  the exhibition moves to the Frick Collection in New York where it opens May 1 and closes July 29, 2012.

* The J. Paul Getty Museum, a lender for the exhibition, and Wikipedia both say Antico was born c. 1460.

What:  Antico:  The Golden Age of Renaissance Bronzes
When:  10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday through April 8
Where:  Ground level, East Building, National Gallery of Art, between Third and Ninth streets in between Constitution Avenue NW and the National Mall
Admission:  No charge
Metro stations: Smithsonian, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza and/or ride the Circulator
For more information: 202-737-4215 patricialesliexam@gmail.com

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.

patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Japanese bird-and-flower paintings up for one month at the National Gallery of Art

At the opening of the exhibition/Patricia Leslie

Śākyamuni Triptych, c. first half of the 1760s ink and colors on silk, Jōtenkaku Museum, Shōkokuji Monastery, Kyoto/Patricia Leslie

Nandina and Rooster, from Colorful Realm of Living Beings, set of 30 vertical hanging scrolls, c. 1757–1766
c. 1761-1765 ink and colors on silk

142.6 x 79.9 cm
Sannomaru Shōzōkan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections), The Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo


For the first time, large scrolls of 18th century bird-and-flower paintings owned by the Japanese Imperial Household have left that nation. The purpose?  To travel to Washington, D.C. on a special trip in honor of the month-long 100th anniversary of the planting of 3,000 cherry trees which the Japanese gave to the U.S. in 1912.

On the first day of the new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, 7,000 came to see Colorful Realm of Living Beings, "widely considered the greatest work of bird-and-flower painting in Japanese art."

Two years ago the ambassador of Japan approached the National Gallery of Art to discuss an elaborate commemoration in honor of the centennial, said Earl A. Powell, III, director of the National Gallery, at the press unveiling of the exhibition. From that discussion came the presentation of the 30 silk scrolls now on distinguished display until April 29 on the ground level of the West Building.

Not only is it the first time the scrolls have been outside Japan, but it is the first time they have been on display since their six-year restoration and only the second time in more than 100 years that the scrolls and the Buddhist triptych* have been shown together.

Itō Jakuchū
The Buddha kyamuni, from Śākyamuni Triptych, c. first half of the 1760s ink and colors on silk
142.4 x 79 cm Jōtenkaku Museum, Shōkokuji Monastery, Kyoto

The painter was Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800), one of the most inventive artists of the Edo period (1615-1868), whose creativity may be partially explained by his lack of affiliation with traditional art institutions. He was from a wealthy merchant family whose business Jakuchu abandoned in 1755 to pursue Zen Buddhism and painting. Only two years later he began work on these masterpieces which took him a decade to complete.

Jakuchu donated his scrolls and the Buddhist triptych to a major Zen monastery in Kyoto, Shokokuji, whose superintendent priest, Reverend Raitei Arima, spoke at the official Washington unveiling.

In 1889 the monastery transferred the scrolls to the Japanese imperial family but kept the Sakyamuni Triptych which it displays every June 17 as part of a repentance ritual.

At the National Gallery, the scrolls, which are protected by glass or plastic cases, are presented the way the painter intended them, according to the Nikkei Weekly, a Japanese English language newspaper. The three Buddhist paintings stand in the center, surrounded by the 30 scrolls, which is the likely original order of the display at the monastery.

To accompany the display, the National Gallery has scheduled talks, concerts, lectures, films, a public conference, and activities for children. A stunning catalogue with color photographs and detailed close-ups of the scrolls and the triptych on most of its 200-plus pages is available for purchase. 

The people of the United States have the following sponsors to also thank for the once-in-a-lifetime show: Toyota, Nikkei Inc., Airbus, the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Daikin Industries, Ltd., Ito En, Ltd., Mitsubishi, and Panasonic.

Itō Jakuchū
Old Pine Tree and Peacock, from Colorful Realm of Living Beings, set of 30 vertical hanging scrolls
c. 1757–1766, c. 1759-1761 ink and colors on silk, with gold

142.9 x 79.6 cm
Sannomaru Shōzōkan (The Museum of the Imperial Collections), The Imperial Household Agency, Tokyo

A huge number of Japanese press covered the exhibition's introduction when eight representatives, from the ambassador of Japan to major sponsors, a monk, the Harvard curator,and the National Gallery director briefly spoke words of welcome and description to communicators.

The only unidentified speaker was a single woman who translated two of the speakers' remarks.

Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art, welcomes distinguished guests to the exhibition/Patricia Leslie

His Excellency Ichiro Fujisaki, ambassador of Japan, welcomes visitors/Patricia Leslie

Kazuhisa Sato, treasurer, the Imperial Household Agency/Patricia Leslie

Reverend Raitei Arima, superintendent priest, Shokokuji Monastery, said in translated remarks that he hopes as many people of the U.S. see the exhibition as possible/Patricia Leslie

Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO, Toyota Motor North America, Inc. Colorful Realm marks Toyota's first sponsorship of an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. The institutions celebrate 75th birthdays this year.  Inaba said Toyoto employs 200,000 in the U.S./Patricia Leslie

Fuminari Tanaka, Nikkei, Inc./Patricia Leslie

T. Allan McArtor, chairman, Airbus Americas, Inc. welcomes another sponsorship at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

Yukio Lippit, guest curator, Harvard University/Patricia Leslie

At the press opening/Patricia Leslie

(* A triptych is a picture or relief carving on three panels which usually hang together vertically and is often used as an altarpiece.)

What: Colorful Realm of Living Beings: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu

When: Now through April 29, 2012, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Sunday

Where: The Ground Level, West Building, National Gallery of Art, closest to the Seventh Avenue entrance

Admission: No charge

Metro stations: Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Navy Memorial-Archives, L'Enfant Plaza, and/or ride the Circulator

For more information:  202-737-4215

patricialesliexam@gmail.com

Ambassador Gnehm talks Persian Gulf monarchies at GWU