Torino, Italia
Damilia came by this morning. We played cards and tried to make some plans for the olive harvest and our trip to Legnano next week. We still are waiting for information on when, but we talked about possible plans. Mary managed to finally sign up for CartaFRECCIA. It is the loyalty program for Trenitalia. Like airline programs it allows you to accumulate points by traveling with Frecce, Eurocity and Euronight or by purchasing products and services from certain partners. There are also discounts for being over 60!
After walking by The Accorsi – Ometto Museum of Decorative Arts on Via Po about a million times, it seemed appropriate to actually visit it. Damilia was at Lulu’s. Mary was resting, so the timing appeared good. The museo is the story of the collection created by Pietro Accorsi and his companion Giulio Ometto. Pietro was one of the most important Italian antique dealers of the 20th century. Inside the museo houses twenty-five furnished rooms that evoke the spirite of the 18th century in all of its splendor. There are over three-thousand works of art including furniture, ceramics, paintings, crystals and tapestries.
One of the pieces is a “doppio-corpo”, a double body, folding cabinet built by Petrus Piffetti in 1738. Apparently, Petrus was one of the most inventive Italian cabinet-makers of the 18th century. According to the guidebook international critics have said this is “the most beautiful piece of furniture in the world”. Personally, I don’t see it. It is a beautiful piece of furniture and maybe in its day had a function, but to me it is a gaudy piece of art.
It is described in the brochure as “It is a sumptuous explosion of mixtilinear forms, veneered and enriched with ivory and tortoiseshell inlays, depicting scenes largely translated from famous engravings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
An imposing work, characterized by multiple and complex iconographic sources, commissioned for a wedding, an event alluded to not only by the phrase “PERPETVVM NODIS”, but also by numerous symbols, such as for example the towering Cupid armed with bow and arrows or significant scenes, among which a wedding stands out, probably that of Alexander and Roxane, which takes place in front of the statue of Apollo the citharist. (My add: A kitharode or citharist, was a classical Greek professional performer of the cithara, as one who used the cithara to accompany their singing. Famous citharodes included Terpander, Sappho, and Arion.)
The male-female/sun-moon principle also emerges throughout the cabinet: inside the central doors, a poetic decoration with the moon on a blue background is hidden, to recall for us a still secret nuptial; the constant presence of Apollo and Diana is both depicted in hunting attire or environment. The central scene with Diana sleeping next to a nymph and her dogs is magnificent, a sort of collage of images taken from the prestigious series of engravings that Cornelis Bloemaert and Giovanni Jacopo de Rubeis forged, drawing them from the frescoes created by Piero da Cortona for the halls of Venus and Jupiter in Palazzo Pitti. Material and technique: Violet wood veneer, pink wood, boxwood and other woods, tortoiseshell, engraved ivory inlays. Gilded and carved wood, and gilded bronze.”
If two gentlemen from San Francisco were every to design a house and live in it, this would be their dream house. It was interesting, beautiful but not either functional or practical in today’s world. Maybe too much time had been spent on cleaning in my life time, but having to keep rooms like this clean would be a nightmare.
Afterwards I went for a walk through the old central part of Torino. It has a number of pedestrian only streets and little alleys. It is Sunday so everyone is out walking and enjoying the city. It is a beautiful fall day. Today I also saw, what I hope it the first of many, roasted chestnut vendors in the street. I even bought 4 euros worth from a vendor outside of the Palazzo Madama in the Piazza Castello.
Afterwards I went to Lulu’s. Everyone was there. We had a nice dinner. It was nice to Maria and Carmen again. They had come by to meet Amadea and spend sometime with Lulu. After dinner we walked home, played some cards and went to bed. A good day.
Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria
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