Artnotes: A Checkered Dress

 

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Another rainy day.  Despite the weather, we decided to go to Cortona, in Tuscany, to see Fra Anglico’s “Annunciation”.   It is one of the happiest, prettiest paintings I’ve ever seen.  It exudes good news.   What could be better?  It was a smooth road both ways – the Autostrada, which we pay a small fortune to use, is almost always great.  We parked in a very busy parking lot and were surprised to see so many people in Cortona.  I can’t imagine what the in-season crowd must be like.   With Berlino, we hiked up the enormous hill to the museum.  We’d hoped for a coffee shop to park him in, but the clerk at the museum generously let him sit in the lobby.  On a non-rainy day, one of us would walk around the town with Berlino, while the other went in the museum.  On Saturday, it was too rainy, even for Bernie.

Door on J23   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/crayon/carton   20 x 28" 70 xv50cm   290.00

Vasari referred to Fra Angelico as a “rare and perfect painter”.  One would really feel that way standing before the Annunciation.  The Angel’s melon colored robe is remarkable; Mary is soft and lifelike; the Angel’s wings are fantastic.   One would like to be on the porch, walk into the room behind.  In the background, an unmistakable Adam and Eve are being banished from the garden.  The iconography is rich.  And I love gold paint.

Door by the Footbath  Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/crayon/carton  28 x 20"  70 x 50 cm   290.00

Many paintings from the 14 and 15th centuries use gold.  Not gold paint, like I use, but actual gold leaf.   It is found not only in haloes, but in entire backgrounds of paintings.  Of course, most paintings we see from that period are religious paintings – because the church was the biggest patron of artists.  It was a rich organization dependent on imagery to get their ideas across.  Spread the good news (and the bad).

My next favorite image was a painting of St. Margaret in a checkered dress (1298, the year, not the price).  The dress made me think of Bonnard, 600 years later.  There was lots of gold here, too, more primitively applied.  Fra Angelico was the master – Margaret was not a “signed” work.  It had the tell-tale little vignettes all around the edge of the painting of the pre-Renaissance.   It was as if the artist were making postcards of Margaret’s life, all around the borders of the work.  The same goes for the Fra Anglico’s Annunciation:  lots of little postcard-y scenes at the bottom.

Adam and Eve   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/crayon/paper 25 x 17"  63 x 41cm  290.00

An hour later, we packed up our dog and car and drove to Castiglion Fiorentino to check on a friend’s house.  We ate at Berlino’s favorite restaurant in Castiglion F’ino, la Piccina – we had the meat platter.   We dropped off some paintings, not rare nor perfect, but more like Margaret in a checkered dress.   Good news.

Berlino   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/crayon/carton  28 x 20"  70 x 50 cm   390.00

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