Dr. Johnson's Rambler

My Travel Map

2008-03-16T16:27:00.000Z

Trip to Brighton

2007-05-29T10:26:00.001+01:00

Cracow: Florence of the North

2007-03-27T21:08:00.000+01:00

I've been in Cracow for about a day, and it's taken me a while to find my bearings (not that I've actually found them yet). The thing that's most striking to me are the similarities with Florence. It was only after realizing this that I vaguely remembered having heard Cracow referred to as the 'Florence of the North.' Thanks to Google, I was able to confirm my suspicion. As one Web site says:

Though sometimes called the Florence of the North, or Polish Rome, Cracow shall always be Cracow, no matter what comparisons are made about its similarities to other places.

I've been honing my observational skills by trying to identify buildings by their architectural styles. Are they Gothic, Classical, Mannerist, Baroque, Neo-Classical, or transitional with elements of more than one style?

Whole blocks of streets in and around the Old Quarter have a Florentine character. And like Florence's central square, Cracow's central Market Square is a remnant from medieval times, with numerous churches of many styles and periods. However, I do sense a distinct Polish style which is most apparent in the older Gothic buildings which look like they might carry a Dutch influence. Churches are crowned with multiple mini-spires (a good example is the Church of St. Mary's), and other buildings are topped with multiple crenellations or other decorative elements. There are lots of little niches with statues and sculptural busts, or portrait medallions carved in relief.

It's a more-is-better mentality that recalls the Buddhist belief that the ultimate act of devotion is in the creation of his image. The more Buddhas created, the more devout the creator and the more of that devotion will be transferred to the observer in the contemplation of multiple images. So this is the Roman Catholic version of that idea. Anyway, I'm just going by instinct here, so I could be completely off base. The pictures below are from the Old Quarter.

(Click the images to enlarge)

The Church of St. Mary's.

Trams are everywhere!

A view of the central Market Square.

Great music! Notice the picture on the left-hand side of the photo
in which these two are meeting Pope John Paul II.

A view of the central Market Square with the Church of St. Mary's.

Another view of the Church of St. Mary's.

A remnant of the medieval city wall with its towers.
Notice the platform for archers. The picture below is another view.

Entrance to the pedestrian tunnel leading to the train station.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

2007-03-25T13:32:00.000+01:00

Windsor Castle and Westminster

2007-03-11T09:56:00.000Z

The time had come for a short excursion, and Windsor Castle seemed to be an ideal choice for winter. One has to be careful about visiting sites during the winter months because opening hours — and daylight hours — tend to be shorter, services and events are either intermittent or non-existent, and the weather can be unpredictable. For example, Windsor Castle's changing-of-the-guard ceremony is held every day, Monday through Friday, from April through September. The rest of the year, it's held only on even-numbered days. I planned my visit for Saturday the tenth so that I wouldn't miss it.

But the museum at the historic Eton College, a short walk away and across the Thames from Windsor, doesn't open until the end of March, while boat rides to Runnymede (about three miles from Windsor where King John signed the Magna Carta) don't begin until April. No matter, though: touring the castle and the town of Windsor is quite enough for one day, and I'm satisfied with having seen just those. I really enjoyed the castle and the town — taken together they reminded me of something out of Shrek.

The queen was in residence while I was there, and I know this because my audio guide (inclusive with the price of admission to the castle!) clued me in on how to tell: if the Union Jack is raised above the tower, she's not in residence, but if the Royal Standard is flying, then there she is (see illustrations below). Well, on Saturday the Royal Standard was raised above the tower. I wonder if the military band disturbs her during the changing of the guards. Even though the ceremony takes place quite a distance from the royal residential chambers, the music is very loud.

I've also included some pictures from last weekend taken in Westminster.

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Union Jack - the queen is not in residence.

Royal Standard - the queen is in residence.

Windsor Castle - what was once a moat filled with water is now a garden.

Windsor Castle - the keep.

Another view of Windsor Castle.

The next few images show the changing of the guards
on the grounds of Windsor Castle.

A view from the grounds of Windsor Castle.
At left, St. George's Chapel.

A view from the grounds of Windsor Castle showing St. George's Chapel.

The Carpenters Arms, a pub in the town of Windsor.

The Houses of Parliament with Big Ben in the distance.

Westminster Abbey in the distance.

Looking across the Thames from Westminster toward the London Eye.

St. Paul's Dome and Millennium Bridge

2007-02-18T19:19:00.000Z

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Yes, only one paltry image of Millennium Bridge! But I haven't posted anything in such a long time, and I needed an excuse. Still, I'd like to save picture-taking in this area for another, even-nicer-weather spring or summer day, but I couldn't resist just one picture.

The Millennium Bridge is a footbridge across the Thames that I have yet to cross. This is the view near the main entrance to Tate Modern in Southwark, looking toward St. Paul's Cathedral.

Evening at Jack Horner

2007-02-02T19:40:00.000Z

Jack Horner is a pub on Tottenham Court Road, right around the corner from the Institute. Some classmates – and a couple of instructors – got together on a Thursday evening to celebrate the completion of the semester's first seminar paper. But for me, finishing the paper turned into a harrowing experience, as just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong. So rather than scare anyone with my zombie-like under-eye circles brought on by lack of sleep, or the Wolfman-like matted hair resulting from missing my morning shower, I've only included a few pictures here, and none of me.

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A nice, candid shot of Bernice (left) and Jonill (right).

From left to right: Inga, Zöe, and Julia pose for this symmetrical composition
in the shape of a Raphaelesque pyramid. There are two Canadians in this picture.

From left to right: Kate, Prof. Bernard, Allie, and Inga.

From left to right: Sabrina, Jonill, and Kasey.

Samuel Johnson's House — and His Cat Hodge

2006-12-24T13:18:00.000Z

Thursday afternoon, I had time to visit the famous London residence of Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth-century 'celebrity' after whose work this blog is named. Photos are below, but first, I've provided some information about Dr. Johnson for those of you unfamiliar with his life and works. From Wikipedia.org:

Samuel Johnson LL.D. [1709 – 1784], often referred to simply as Dr. Johnson, was one of England's greatest literary figures: a poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer and often considered the finest critic of English literature. He was also a great wit and prose stylist whose bons mots are still frequently quoted in print today.

Dr. Johnson's long-time friend, Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted his portrait several times. One of them is shown above. For more about Johnson's life and work, click here. For more information about his house at Gough Square in London, click on the title of this post, or click here.

Some great quotations from Johnson are below. For more Johnson quotations, click here:

'As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.'

'Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.'

'Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.'

'Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.'

'Painting consumes labour not disproportionate to its effect; but a fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.'

'Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.'

'The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.'

'Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.'

'Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.' (attributed to Johnson)

'It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.'

'Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labour; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.'

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Samuel Johnson's House at Gough Square, London.
The museum entrance is at the door on the left-hand side of the house.

The entrance to the museum, opening into the former dining room.

The 'powder cabinet' for storing powdered wigs.

The original(?) mechanism dating from the time the house was built around 1700. All the doors are fitted with these.

Stairwell entrance to the second storey (In Europe, the second storey = the first floor).

A chair from a local tavern used by Johnson.

The uppermost story of the house, where Johnson compiled his famous
English language dictionary.

Looking down the stairwell.

The cabinet at the ground-floor landing of the stairwell
used for storing the candles carried to light the way.

The main entrance to the house (not the entrance to the museum).
The window above the door is barred with iron to keep thieves from lowering small children through the opening. The chain across the door is secured to a screw-shaped hook, which prevented it from being lifted off by a thief using a long stick.

A bronze monument to Hodge, Johnson's cat,
guarding a copy of his owner's Dictionary of the English Language. Someone has dressed him for Christmas.

To more easily read the inscription, click on the image to enlarge.

James Boswell, in his Life of Samuel Johnson, wrote that Johnson loved cats, and that he bought oysters for Hodge. People leave one- and two-pence coins in the bronze Hodge's empty oyster shell. For luck? Offerings to the spirit of Johnson? Could be contributions to keep the bronze Hodge from going hungry.

Hodge, watching over his master's house.

A view (somewhat out of focus!) from Fleet Street, near Johnson's house, looking toward St. Paul's Cathedral. In Johnson's day, Fleet Street was the center of the publishing industry.

Some Entertaining, Food-Related Observations

2006-12-17T01:25:00.000Z

I kind of like the dandelion and burdock, but to me it tastes like a combination of root beer and cough syrup. My sister told me that burdock is supposed to have medicinal qualities, so this makes sense.

Kit-Kats here are heavenly. Everyone seems to think so and I've tried one and they seem to be much better than American Kit-Kats. We wonder if they use a different kind of chocolate.

Dr. Pepper has a reputation for tasting strange compared to U.S. Dr. Pepper, but I can't tell the difference.

I've also tried 'ginger beer' which actually tastes like sucking on a ginger root, and it's not sweet at all. American ginger ale, by comparison, only vaguely tastes like ginger and it's very sweet.

One of the main differences between food here and in America seems to be that here, things are generally a lot less sweet or a lot less salty. Peanut butter is a good example of something less salty. I've tried two different kinds of peanut butter here and they both taste simply like pureed unsalted peanuts.

Crumpets look like what in America we'd call 'English muffins' but here they remind me of a very thick, spongy pancake. The bottom of one looks exactly like a small pancake! I haven't looked for it myself, but I have heard you cannot find maple syrup here.

Grated Parmesan cheese comes in very tiny canisters and is very expensive. It's precious like gold. There are many other varieties of cheeses here that I'm not too familiar with and have never tried, so I steer away from everything except cheddar.

Other than gerkins, 'pickle' means what I would call 'pickle relish' except that it's brown.

I haven't seen any Mexican restaurants anywhere. I have been craving a giant burrito!

No grape-flavoured anything, which I find surprising. Grapes are sold here, so people must like grapes. I wonder why there are no grape-flavoured products? Blackcurrant has a very similar taste to grape, so I imagine that there may be an organisation of blackcurrant growers who are suppressing the production of anything grape.

All eggs are brown, the shells are very crumbly and, try as I might, whenever I crack one, pieces of shell get in my egg and I have to fish them out. All eggs are English-laid, and they're very expensive relative to eggs in the U.S. -- about double the price. My theory behind this is that there are far fewer egg-producing hens in England than in the U.S., so eggs in England are a more precious commodity.

I just never knew pies or other kinds of meat-with-dough were such rage items. There is an entire aisle at the supermarket devoted to varieties of meat inside of dough. Generally, people in the U.S., when they think of pies, are thinking of dessert -- something with fruit in it, or maybe a cream pie. The exception are pot pies, which only occupy a tiny spot in the American supermarket.

My theory is that American pot pies must be a distant relative of all the different meat pies here. But I noticed that here, each different type of pie or pasty will be filled with no more than two featured ingredients (steak, steak and kidney, chicken and mushroom, pork, cheese and onion pasty, etc.) and if you want variety, it's taken for granted you'll have the steak and kidney today, and tomorrow maybe the chicken and mushroom.

In America, a pot pie is a rare treat, so "chicken pot pie" has chicken, but it also has mushrooms, carrots, peas, onions, maybe in a baked mashed-potato crust. The American pot pie is more of a self-contained full meal (at least if it's on a restaurant menu. The frozen supermarket variety are hardly enough to fill anyone up, but I think they're supposed to). But meat pies here are more like snacks or finger foods, or a very light meal, that you're supposed to eat all the time. This is my theory, anyway!

New Flickr Account

2006-12-16T18:15:00.000Z

I have a new Flickr account with photos posted of my trip to Italy. Click on the 'flash badge,' or animated icon, on the right side of the page under Dr. Johnson's Links to go to my Flickr page.

Fitzroy Tavern

2006-11-18T19:41:00.000Z

A couple of weeks ago some classmates and I relaxed a little after completing paper number three. We are at the Fitzroy Tavern in Bloomsbury near the Institute. According to Wikipedia.com:

"A traditional pub that served as meeting place between the wars for a group of writers and artists who dubbed the area around Fitzroy Square and Charlotte St. 'Fitzrovia.' The 'Writers and Artists Bar' in the pub basement includes portraits of former patrons who included the poet Dylan Thomas, writer George Orwell and artist Augustus John."

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Kate, Carlotta, and me.

Kate, Carlotta, and Inga.

Theewes Claviorgan

2006-11-18T18:57:00.000Z

I wrote my fourth essay about the claviorgan of 1579 in the Victoria and Albert Museum, made in the English workshop of Ludowijk Theewes, a Flemish immigrant to London. For those who don't know (and I didn't until a few weeks ago) a claviorgan is a combination of a harpsichord and an organ. In the pictures below, the harpsichord is the 'wing-shaped' object with its lid open. Not much survives except the outer case. My job was to describe the materials, construction, and decoration, sources for the designs, and Continental influences.

The main reason I've posted this is to give a context for something I got to do that was really exciting. In the course of researching the sources for the iconography on the harpsichord's lid, I got to look through a calligraphy book called Exercitatio Alphabetica by Clémens Perret, printed in Antwerp in 1569. So I got to page through this actual printed, intricately illustrated book from 1569 in the V&A Library. Of course, it had to be done within sight of the 'invigilation desk.' My description of the lid is below the pictures.

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The decoration of the harpsichord case is dominated by the painted details on the underside of the lid which, when opened, displays an integrated programme of classical and mannerist elements. The lid is divided visually into two sections: to the left is a plain, vertical rectangle painted bluish-green and framed in red, perhaps in preparation for a decorative scheme that remains forever uncompleted. Tracing the painted frame’s inner and outer perimetres are two slender yellow mouldings, and centred within it on all sides are four narrow, rectangular bars painted in black. Whilst all of these bars may have been intended to receive further ornamentation and inscriptions of some kind, only one, running vertically along the right-hand side, is complete; surrounded by painted strapwork made to imitate brass, it has become a plaque bearing the inscription ‘LODOWICUS • THEEWES • ME • FESIT • 1579.’

The second portion of the lid, the triangular area to the right, is much more complex, and can be broken down into three primary elements. First is a red background, bespeckled with painted, irregular holes to create the appearance of porosity. Next, and illusionistically positioned atop this, has been painted an asymmetrical strapwork frame, a substructure of curled and pierced brass supporting two pictorial cartouches and populated with various flora, fauna, and grotesques. Thirdly are the idyllic contents of the cartouches themselves: the large, round image to the left depicts Orpheus charming the animals in a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and to the right, a much smaller oval contains a bucolic, though quite faded, landscape.

Visually less prominent but symbolically significant are the individual figural elements supported within the painted framework, including three monkeys, pairs each of sphinxes, birds, flaming grenades, and human and animal masks; gems, a vase of flowers, a winged snake, and beribboned festoons of fruits and leaves. On the sides of the case, concentric rectangles have been tooled into the leather in a possible attempt to imitate wooden mouldings, whilst the soundboard shows traces of floral decoration.

Burghley House

2006-11-18T11:47:00.000Z

Click on the title above to go to the Web site for Burghley House.
This is a new feature in Blogger.
I also have a link to the site in Dr. Johnson's Links.

On Thursday a group from my class visited Burghley (pronounced Ber • lee, with the accent on the first syllable) House in Lincolnshire, which is about two hours north of London. Burghley House was built by Sir William Cecil on land granted to him by Queen Elizabeth I. He was her chief advisor. If you've ever seen the movie Elizabeth (1998), Sir William Cecil is played by Richard Attenborough. If you've never seen the movie, I recommend it highly!

Anyway, it's the most spectacular house we've seen so far. It's also the oldest. It was built in the sixteenth century (although it has been extensively modified since). Scenes from The DaVinci Code and Pride and Prejudice were filmed there. I haven't seen either movie yet, but now I've got to see them. Besides, I've heard Pride and Prejudice is an excellent film. As for The DaVinci Code, according to a brochure I picked up at the house:

"Burghley played numerous different locations in the film, including all the scenes representing the interior of Castile Gandolfo and many additional scenes. The film crew were on site for five weeks and scaffolding was erected along the whole south elevation of the House as well as the recreation of a bedroom twenty feet in the air in the Ash Yard. The park was also used for their main unit base in the area with over thirty trailer units and three hundred crew!"

The interior is indescribably ornate. It is filled with sculpture, furniture, ceramics, paintings, and tapestries, not to mention the architecture of the rooms themselves. Upon entering some rooms, so many things competed to draw my attention that attention could be paid to nothing. I might leave a room feeling as if I hadn't really seen anything! We were there to look at furniture and ceramics. We are scheduled to go back next semester to look at paintings.

One of the nice things about it was that it is closed to the public for the season except for a restaurant that is open year round (part of the house is still occupied by the owners). But the house was opened up especially for our group, so we had the whole place to ourselves without a lot of other tourists buzzing around. The question arose as to why they would close it in the winter, and the answer was that it costs too much to heat. There are one hundred rooms on the ground level alone. Of course, no pictures are allowed inside and I didn't have an opportunity to take many on the outside. I got a few, but they're not great. I'm posting them anyway.

The entrance to the house was through the original sixteenth-century kitchen. It was as big as most people's houses, with a Late Gothic-style vaulted stone ceiling. Apparently the kitchen was used into the nineteenth century, so most of the kitchen 'appliances' were newer than the kitchen itself. We were shown and inventory, written by hand in the seventeenth century, of all the objects in the house. Things have been added since, though, so it wasn't complete.

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Some Random Photos

2006-11-07T17:33:00.000Z

The first image is a view of Canary Wharf from North Greenwich Station in the morning. The next few pictures are from Charing Cross Road in Soho. Following these, there are more pictures of Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column. I like the golden light. The last couple of dusky pictures were again from North Greenwich station. None of the buses in the photo are for me. I take the 472.

As of this week, leaves are still on the trees and, for the most part, still green. I meant to upload these last week, but was having trouble.

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Welcome to the Neigborhood!

2006-10-15T13:16:00.000+01:00

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Sparkling Dandelion and Burdock?

2006-10-11T22:23:00.000+01:00

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I went to Morrison's last night after class. I got home around 8:15 pm and the store closes at 9:00 pm — this is pretty typical — so if I want anything I'm always in a rush. I wanted to buy some 2-litres of pop, so I checked out the store brand, three for £1.00. I have to say, they have some interesting flavors here. Nothing comes in grape. I'm not sure why. There are grapes for sale in the store, but there is no grape jam, no grape pop. Blackcurrant everything, though, which is reminiscent of grape. It's purple, at least. So I bought some Blackcurrantade, but I haven't tried it yet. And who's ever heard of this flavor: Sparkling Dandelion and Burdock? (check out my fantastic product shot) Well, I've never had dandelion flavor, so I couldn't resist. It tastes a little like licorice, but more like cough medicine. Maybe that's the burdock, which is apparently some kind of medicinal root. Not bad, though, I may buy it again.

I have been crazy busy... like 12-13 hour days with no end in sight. I haven't have a lot of time to check email, especially since my computer wasn't functioning last week. My hard drive died on my laptop and started eating folders that make the system run. I know it wasn't a software issue because the hard drive was making scary noises. And system diagnostics said "hard drive status: FAILING. Back up as much data as you can!" Which is exactly what I did.

I was still able to use my computer, but only if I connected it to my external hard drive — and you can imagine how impractical that was most of the time. So I've been reduced to handwritten note-taking, and you know how horrible my handwriting is. When I write fast I sometimes can't even read my own writing.

Anyway, I ordered a new internal hard drive from an online company here in the UK. I've already received it and I installed it last weekend, which involved opening the case. Kind of a pain, but since I'd done it before I knew what I was in for. And I brought the correct tools along just in case. Glad I fixed it and didn't kill it. I went from a 30 GB to 80 GB, so I suppose it's for the best anyway. Still, wasted a lot of time diagnosing, shopping, and fixing.

So my days are spent either in classroom lectures or in various museums around London. I've already been to the National Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Courtauld Gallery, Tate Britain, and the Wallace Collection (which is a really cool collection of seventeenth-century paintings, ceramics, and furniture). Next week we go the the Museum of London and eventually get to Tate Modern. As far as if it's everything I hoped it would be, well, sure. The lectures are incredibly interesting and the instructors are amazingly knowledgeable and interesting people. But it's tons of work and tons of information thrown at you in almost machine-gun fashion. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed I see smoke coming out of people's heads. My own head is smoking!

The students are very interesting, very diverse. Most of them are younger, traditional-type students, but a fairly large percentage are older career-changer types. But whether the younger ones are "mature" or not is hard to say. I think there's a big difference between being mature from an academic standpoint and having been through some shit. I think most of the young ones are typical for their age, don't really have a concept of money or how much they're spending, and how hard it is to make in the first place, because most likely it's OPM (Other People's Money, either the bank's or the parents'). It's not necessarily something you can fault them for though, I suppose it's just the way it is. You could look at it as: they'll have a lot more carefree fun than I will! But this is all speculation on my part. I can't honestly say I know anyone well enough to judge.

I had steak and kidney pie, which really wasn't all that bad, but the idea of what I was eating was getting to me. I ate the whole thing except for just a little bit at the end. The kidneys inside were tiny, I don't know what they come from, maybe a chicken? But I swear I saw tiny tubes coming out of them, the ones that lead to the urethra. Was grossing me out! I have not had blood pudding yet, and don't plan on it, either. I've already seen it in the store, so I'll be able to identify it if anyone tries to slip it into something.

The National Gallery and Trafalgar Square

2006-10-04T07:14:00.000+01:00

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Rainy Greenwich Excursion

2006-10-01T20:16:00.000+01:00

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Summary: September 2006

2006-10-01T18:12:00.000+01:00

There is a big supermarket within walking distance of where I'm staying called Morrison's, so I'm buying food and bringing lunches to school. And making food at home and eating lots of cereal like I always do. It's not just food that's expensive though... it's everything. Part of it is being in a big city, but part of it is something called a VAT tax... don't know what VAT stands for (just found out: Value Added Tax), but it's like a built in sales tax at 17.5%! So it's pretty ridiculous. Anyway, there's nothing to be done about it.

The place I'm staying: I have my own room and it's a nice size, so that's important. But it's an attached house, kind of like a townhouse, and it's newer construction, so it's not anything historic. The rent is relatively cheap though, and it's quiet at night, not like in the center of the city.

My roommate/landlord's name is Kemi. That's shortened version of her full name, which is Nigerian. Her parents came from Nigeria. She's nice and pretty laid back personality. She works in construction/ architecture business, I don't remember exactly what she does.

When I first moved in I had no idea of what was around me... it was like being dropped in the middle of Mars, kind of disconcerting because I had no sense of place. But in the last week or so I've had a chance to explore the area and become somewhat familiar with things, and I'm happier with it than I thought I might be. So my instincts were pretty good (not great), the commute is long, but I will probably think about moving at some point, 3-6 months. We'll see what happens.

--------------------------------------------

SCHOOL
I didn't know what to expect on the first day. I had visited the school last week, but I wasn't able to really look around and I had no idea what the classes would be like. One thing I have found out is it's going to be a LOT of work. One of the instructors, in describing the semester to come, said we would be reduced to "schizophrenic jelly!" Yikes.

The school is nothing like a campus. It's located in a place called Bedford Square. The square consists of a park-like area in the middle, and a road surrounding the park. Surrounding the road on all four sides are rows of attached Georgian houses (Georgian is an 18th-century architectural style, named after King George III. In other parts of Europe, architecture from this same period is called "Neoclassical.")

The Institute resides in two adjacent Georgian houses on the square. Now I can't think off-hand if there are two or three floors. I think there are only two plus a basement. The ceilings are very high, and decorated in low-relief, some of it gilded. The windows are very tall, and have shutters that fold up and fit into niches in the window frames. These are original from the 18th century.

The classroom lectures so far have all been of an introductory nature, and have all been held in a single room (really two adjoining rooms that are open to one another), although lectures are held in another classroom, too.

The class has only 48 students, only 6 men! A large percentage of the students are American, but I'm the only American man. They handed out a kind of class stat sheet, and I'd have to take another look, but it could be as much as about 50% American. Otherwise, the students are from many different countries. The oldest student is a man, a retired surgeon who's 66. There are a few forty-something women. I'm glad I'm not the oldest!

On the first day the school held a "welcome lunch" where the students could mingle and meet each other and also the instructors. The guys all clustered together in a corner of the room, someone said it was kind of like circling the wagons. I introduced myself to several fellow students, male and female, and all were very nice. Obviously I haven't been able to meet everyone personally.

So far I really like the instructors. They're very engaging, very friendly. Each student was assigned an advisor. Mine happens to be the expert who interviewed me by phone as part of the application process.

This afternoon a couple of the instructors met two separate groups of students at the Victoria & Albert Museum. We were shown examples of Chinese porcelain and 18th-century furniture. The idea is to start learning how to observe objects and describe them using technical language, as would be written in a catalog.

We've already been assigned a short paper, due the first Monday in October. The grading system is very strange, it's different in Britain than in the U.S. I won't go into that now.

BANK ACCOUNT
I opened a bank account, and my mom was able to transfer the money last week. However, it takes 2-3 days to clear, so I don't expect funds to in the account until this week. Hopefully it won't take longer.

PHONE
No phone yet. I need a bank statement showing an address on it as proof of address. It will be a couple of weeks. It's a pain not having a phone, but a temporary situation.

ACCOMODATIONS
I found a place to stay! Only thing is its an hour commute, but something like that isn't uncommon. A lot of people commute 45-60 minutes. I'll just have to work it into my schedule. Classes don't start until 10:30am, so I won't have to get up at an ungodly hour. I'll use the time to read, or when I get an iPod, listen to music or podcasts.

I should be moving in on Monday evening if everything goes well. I still have to work some things out with the owner.

I'll be renting a room from a 5' tall woman of Nigerian descent. In fact she'll be visiting her sister, who's in Kenya, for ten days in October. We've met already and seemed to get along very well, she's very easy-going and nice. She owns a small attached house in an area called Thamesmead, not far from Greenwich (southeastern London). She's in the process of doing improvements since she only bought the house in April.

I'm getting a good rate, £300 (about $600) per month for the first six months, £350 (about $700) thereafter. Meanwhile the place will be torn up a bit, but my room will be fine. She's also having high-speed Internet installed, so for a few weeks I'm going to have to live with dial-up.

Before I decided on this, I looked at another house not far from there in an area called Charlton. It's owned by a family -- father, mother, and two teen sons. It's a very nice Victorian attached house built in the 1860s. It would have been a shorter commute, and the neighborhood is incredibly picturesque, I'd call it Dickensian, their rate and terms were within reason, but closer to £400 per month. I really liked them, but I think I would have a hard time living with a family. I think I would feel like I didn't belong there, or like I was a kid again.

Anyway, it was a tough decision, but I had to make one. I may decide to move again after a few months, but we'll see.

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Haven't found a place yet, but am meeting a potential roommate for coffee this evening at 6pm, and then she might show me her place. Tomorrow I'm seeing another room for rent in a Victorian house near Greenwich (as in Greenwich Mean Time that we all set our clocks by). I've decided to stay at the hostel again this week to buy some time to find a place. The first few places I looked at I decided not to take.

Last night I moved to a room with fewer people, so it's a little better. But living out of a bag won't work for much longer, I can't function efficiently that way.

I haven't done much of what you might call fun stuff... not yet anyway. I've gotten around quite a bit though, by tube, by bus, and on foot, getting familiar with things as much as possible. For me that's a kind of fun.

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Just thought I'd let you know that I got a few bites on the FlatemateClick.co.uk Web site. I sent some emails last night and had two replies today, and one message from a person who thinks I might be a "great flatmate." His rate is a little on the high side though, so we'll see.

So anyway, I have a seven-day membership, I'll keep fishing and see. Meanwhile I booked another week at the hostel, but in a room with fewer people.

(click image to enlarge)

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I don't know where the nectarines come from -- I didn't look on the label -- but they are good. They could probably sit a day or two after I buy them but I've been eating them right away and they are still sweet. I also bought a few oranges, a couple of them were really sweet and seedless, maybe some of the best I've had, and then I bought others that had super-thick skins, very hard to peel, and weren't as sweet. All the oranges I bought came from Africa.

You keep the same bedding until you check out, it's not like a hotel where they give you fresh sheets every day. But now I just moved to a new room so I have clean sheets. That's standard for hostels though, that's how it works. I suppose I could have asked for a new sheet or something, but I don't think it's necessary. It was good if I changed the sheets on my bed at home every two or three weeks (not saying that's really good).

But they have housekeepers here that do all the cleaning. I've seen them clean the bathrooms, the kitchen, the floors, and change the sheets on the beds, and they do a thorough job. They clean every day. It's cleaner than a couple of the hostels I've stayed in.

The location is good, too, it's only about a ten-minute walk to London Bridge (at my pace) and a block from a tube station (Borough, if you want to try to find it on a map). It's in Southwark which is just south of the Thames.

Last night I went for a walk along the river, crossed over Tower Bridge, and wandered around the Tower of London. Saturday I found Dr. Samuel Johnson's house (where he used to live in the 1700s) and that was really exciting. Until I got here and saw it on the map, I didn't realize it was still standing. But I didn't go in, I get a student discount but I don't have an ID card yet. It was more of a scouting mission, so I'll go back another time.

Yesterday I went to the noon mass at Westminster Cathedral, not far from Buckingham Palace. They do things a little differently than what I'm used to, but overall I thought it was a good experience. Believe it or not, the interior is "unfinished" even though the building was completed in 1903. So they're still asking for donations to finish the interior.

Funny, too, when I was here in 2001 I wasn't very aware of who Samuel Johnson was, so I didn't bother looking for his house.

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So I'm almost done with my first full day, and its been hard to accomplish anything. I realized that I have to open a bank account, I need a phone number - which means I need a phone - and only then will I be able to hunt for a place to live with any efficiency. So I was thinking about things in reverse .. permanent place comes after these other two things. Bank account comes first.

I went to a couple of banks, got some leads as to what to do. Need to meet with banking people tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have to tough it out in this hostel. No privacy, no room to put my stuff. All my clothes are crumpled; the kitchen's always choked with people; no outlets in the bathrooms for my electric shaver. Ugghh.. right now my happiness hinges on finding somewhere else to live. If this is some sort of new life it's not easy. Kind of like a Caesarean section for having a baby.

Then I think I have to keep looking ahead. I haven't even been here two days, it will take at least a week, maybe more before my situation is ironed out.

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Made it here ok. Not much trouble finding the hostel, but no fun lugging 50 lbs. of luggage around. Luckily the Underground station is only about a block from the hostel. Checked in at 10:30 but the room won't be ready until about 2:00. They have free WiFi, so I'm testing it out - obviously it's working, which is a good thing. It's about 12:25pm.

2006-08-04T05:16:00.000+01:00

Stylistic Revelations and the Restoration of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling

2006-05-26T00:56:00.000+01:00

Nearly 500 years after Michelangelo Buonarroti last lifted the tip of his brush from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it can be said with certainty that our understanding of the artist’s style has been increased by the Vatican’s most recent restoration. But does the result display with any accuracy Michelangelo’s original intent, or does it more closely represent the insidious intrusion of modern artistic taste upon the past? Though more than two decades have passed since the Vatican declared its hi-tech project a success, this question remains debatable.

The restoration’s greatest stylistic revelation has also been the source of its greatest controversy. Painted for Pope Julius II between 1508 and 1512, the ceiling had been obscured for centuries by accumulations of dirt, smoke, candle wax, water damage, and old repairs. And according to Vatican records, misguided attempts to redefine and brighten the frescoes had led earlier restorers to overpaint parts of Michelangelo’s original work, and to apply layers of animal glue that had darkened with time.1 After analysis revealed that bits of pigment were pulling away from the ceiling’s surface, the Vatican set to work on the largest and most controversial art restoration project in history. In 1980, buoyed by funding from Japan’s Nippon Television, the Vatican began uncovering what nobody had expected: bright, bold colors.2

In 1990, British art critic Waldemar Januszczak enthusiastically observed Michelangelo’s “outrageous color.”3 More pessimistically, writer Eric Scigliano has described the frescoes’ new look as “Michelangelo on Prozac.”4 But the Sistine project’s most vociferous critic has been the American Michelangelo expert James Beck, professor of Italian Renaissance painting and sculpture at Columbia University.5 Beck argues that Michelangelo, in considering himself a sculptor primarily concerned with form, is said to have condemned as “simpletons” those who would nurture a taste for bright colors.6 Despising those “poor artists [who] cloak their poor technique with ... colour [sic],”7Beck maintains that Michelangelo strove to achieve a monochromatic effect in an effort to simulate sculpture.

Hoping to create a dark, brooding, enigmatic array to match his own melancholy temperament, the artist veiled the entire ceiling with a unifying layer of glue and applied extensive chiaroscuro retouches. In the process of cleaning and repairing the ceiling, the Vatican’s restorers have inadvertently removed Michelangelo’s own so-called finishing touch, or l’ultima mano. According to Beck, what has been done to the frescoes is a “violation of [Michelangelo’s] intention.”8 The Vatican, Beck insists, has made the “fatal mistake”9 of misinterpreting the Italian expression l’ultima mano to mean merely “touch-ups.” Evidence to support this argument centers around Beck’s construal of what Michelangelo’s sixteenth-century biographers, Ascanio Condivi and Giorgio Vasari, meant by their use of the phrase. According to Beck, these occurrences should be interpreted as “final coat” or “final layer.”10

Based on this reading, Beck extrapolates further action that he believes must have been taken by Michelangelo sometime after the ceiling had been completed a buon fresco (painted in wet plaster) and the scaffold had been removed. Certainly after some unrecorded interval — but long enough for a layer of soot to collect — the artist reconstructed his scaffold in order to finish the ceiling to his satisfaction. After applying two or three coats of hot glue to prepare the surface for a secco painting (painting in dry plaster), Michelangelo bestowed his previously drawn figures with a heightened sense of gravity by modeling deep shadows in tempera.11

To illustrate his theory, Beck obtained photographs from the Vatican that show various post-restoration figures from Michelangelo’s ceiling. Though all appear somewhat flattened when compared to images of their pre-restoration counterparts, the most dramatic changes can be seen in the figure of the Prophet Jonah (see Fig. 1). Jonah, looking particularly abused, has apparently lost all of the subtleties of Michelangelo’s shading after a thorough scrubbing by overzealous restorers. Recoiling in horror, American muralist Frank Mason called the sight “unbearable,” believing along with Beck that the figure’s tonal range and features of its anatomy have been irrevocably destroyed.12

The implication of Beck’s position is clear: that the restoration team acted incompetently and with unnecessary haste. But Beck goes further, accusing a tourist-hungry Vatican of authorizing the cleaning in an attempt to “re-present a masterpiece from another century according to the standards of our own transitory time.”13 In pandering to the taste of a public accustomed to the instant gratification of McDonald’s, the graphic quality of Disney cartoons, and the bright color palette of Matisse and Mondrian, the Vatican has re-created Michelangelo in the image of the lowest common denominator.

Harsh criticism such as this, leveled against the Vatican by Beck and other opponents, has been so completely rejected by the majority of experts that condemnation has sometimes degenerated into open ridicule. Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, professor of fine arts at New York University, has discarded Beck’s theory as “the wild [cry] of some ferocious mutant of Chicken Little.”14 In addition, Brandt summarized the majority of experts’ conclusions: the “dazzling chromatic display”15 that had recently been uncovered does indeed represent what Michelangelo intended. Explaining away Beck’s photographs as distorted reproductions, Brandt described his indignation as mere “culture shock.” The critics, she argued, were nursing a betrayal of their lifelong experience and mourning their commitment to a Michelangelo who no longer exists.16

But what of “l’ultima mano,” Michelangelo’s a secco overpainting and layers of hot glue? The late Michelangelo expert Frederick Hartt of the University of Virginia accused Beck of projecting his own twentieth-century translation of the phrase “backward over the Renaissance.”17 Citing five Italian dictionaries and the opinion of an eminent Italian language scholar, Hartt demonstrated that both Condivi and Vasari could only have meant “touch-ups.” Moreover, both biographers reported that the impatience of the pontiff forced Michelangelo to work quickly and under pressure. And though His Holiness had wanted the artist to add ornamentation in gold and ultramarine after the scaffold had been removed and the ceiling had been shown to the public, he successfully dodged the request. “Michelangelo,” wrote Vasari, “lacked the patience to rebuild the scaffolding, and so the ceiling stayed as it was.”18

Hartt believed that Michelangelo just didn’t have time to perform “Operation Glue,”19 and even if he did, he never would have been so careless as to neglect to wash off the intervening layer of soot.20 Hartt also reminded Beck that the glue had been applied to the ceiling over later repairs in an uneven and patchy fashion, leaving whole areas of fresco untouched.21 But Michelangelo would have also been aware that animal glue darkens, and he knew that its use would completely corrupt his colors within the span of twenty years.22 Hartt was therefore convinced that the Vatican’s restoration had revealed the subtle, sensitive, and imaginative work of an “influential colorist.” “What used to look like a Yorkshire moor in November,” he wrote of the scenery surrounding Adam, “is now shown to be a splendid landscape.”23

Still, few would disagree with Beck that Michelangelo the sculptor concerned himself more with design than with color. Indeed, the artist expressed his especial contempt for those who worked in oils, the domain of the “lazy” artist.24 Accordingly, Michelangelo completed few paintings and, prior to his efforton the Sistine, could boast of no commissions in fresco. Even so, evidence uncovered during the ceiling’s restoration has provided insight into how the artist ingeniously adapted his sculptural style to the demands of an unfamiliar medium.

Vasari claimed that Michelangelo had sufficient motivation “to aim very high for the sake of his own reputation.”25 The artist’s contemporaries, jealous of his supremacy in sculpture but seeing his “deficiency” in painting and color, were eager to distract him from working in marble. Hoping to drive him despairing from Rome, rival artists apparently convinced Pope Julius to compel him to paint the ceiling. Though Michelangelo only accepted the challenge reluctantly, he wisely sought advice from friends and experienced frescoists from Florence. And there is little doubt that he drew upon early training he received in the workshop of his esteemed teacher, Florentine painter and master frescoist Domenico Ghirlandaio.

According to Sistine restorer Gianluigi Colalluci, the cleaned ceiling vindicates Michelangelo’s reputation as a rigorous craftsman who upheld the “purest Florentine tradition.” Following the technique in which he was trained, Michelangelo painted almost exclusively abuon fresco.26 To be sure, a secco retouching had been called “a weak and cowardly thing” by Vasari,27 especially to the extent postulated by Beck. And Michelangelo was anything but timid: the cleaning of the lunettes has shown that he possessed a sculptor’s boldness, completing each in just three giornate,or days’ work,28 and painting so furiously that hog’s bristles from his brush were found adhering to Roboam, one of Christ’s ancestors.29

Since the cleaning, evidence of the sculptor’s hand can be seen everywhere. Noted examples include the exquisite heads of the Ancestors Zorobabel, Abiud, and Eliachim. Indeed, the late Fabrizio Mancinelli, director of the Vatican’s restoration team, saw in these countenances brushstrokes echoing the marks of Michelangelo’s chisel.30 But Mancinelli conceded that much of the artist’s work on the ceiling amounted to little more than a sketch. Judging by his time constraints and the speed with which he worked — and the 60-foot distance from which the ceiling would be viewed — Mancinelli hypothesized that Michelangelo deliberately left large areas unfinished. Though many of the details had been carefully completed, the ceiling, like so much of Michelangelo’s work, remains non finito.

Mancinelli likened the spontaneity of Michelangelo’s method to Impressionism,31 with the monumental Ancestors resembling “polychrome sculptures.” Instead of painting in chiaroscuro as Beck would have it, he brandished “planes of light” to articulate his figures and endow his frescoes with a “scupturesque” quality.32 Painting in “changeant hues,”33 or cangiantismo, Michelangelo used a technique whereby various colors are laid one atop another in sequence to create a shimmering, dimensional effect.34 Admittedly, this “new” Michelangelo appeals more directly to twentieth- and twenty-first century tastes than it would have to the artist’s contemporaries. But Temple University’s Marcia Hall believes that he also reflects a more authentic Renaissance, the “joyous and celebratory” spirit of humanist optimism that occurred in Rome during the papacy of Julius II.35

Several scholars have used the “new” colorito to revise the map of Michelangelo’s figural firmament. Hall identifies three Neoplatonic tiers of uniquely-colored denizens — Ancestors, Seers, and Genesis — each bearing hues corresponding to its relative remoteness from or affinity with God.36 Januszcak urges a reorientation away from the near-touch between Adam and his Maker and back to the ceiling’s most brilliant object and “true epicenter,” the golden sun created by God on the third day.37 And historian Ross King discerns more pedestrian purposes for Michelangelo’s colors: his reputation at stake, thrown into competition with the “splendid” masterpieces on the walls below, Michelangelo would not be outdone.38 Whatever the artist’s views about colors and the fools who used them, records indicate that he ordered only the best Florentine pigments.39

Would Michelangelo, then, really have covered this triomphe d’art with shadows and glue? If a conclusive answer to this disputation exists, no consensus has arisen among scholars thus far. And some, like British historian Paul Johnson, would give the question only minor consideration. Discrediting the supremacy of Michelangelo’s genius, Johnson regards the entire ceiling as an “overambitious failure.”40 But if, as the eighteenth-century scholar Sir Joshua Reynolds believed, Michelangelo instead spoke the “language of the gods,”41 then a comprehensive understanding of the artist’s intention shall forever remain the special province of the Divinity.

Indeed, the idea that one can categorically fix the signification of Michelangelo’s work upon the ceiling 442 years after his death is to founder in philosophical quicksand. The reality of the past is irretrievable, gone along with its self-contained total truth. All that remains is history: analysis and debate. But Michelangelo’s intent and his style need not completely coincide insofar as the word “style” can be broadly defined, and it is in this broader sense — despite his ultimate intention — that progress in our understanding has surely been made.

NOTES

1.Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, “Twenty-Five Questions About Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling.” Apollo, Vol. 126, Dec. 1987, 394.

2. Waldemar Januszczak, Sayonara, Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Restored and Repackaged. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1990, 43.

3. Ibid.

4. Eric Scigliano, “Inglorious Restorations.” (Harper’s, Vol. 311, No. 1863, 1 Aug. 2005, 61) [database on-line]; Available from ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

5. Beck is the founder of the watchdog organization ArtWatch International, Inc.

6. James Beck and Michael Daley, Art Restoration:The Culture, the Business, and the Scandal. (Norton Paperback edition 1996). New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993, 84.

7. Ibid.

8. Nova: Saving the Sistine Chapel: The Controversial Restoration of Michelangelo’s Masterpiece. Written and produced bySusanne Simpson. 60 min. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1988, videocassette.

9. James Beck, “The Final Layer: ‘L’ultima mano’ on Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling.” Art Bulletin, LXX, 1988, 503.

10. Ibid., 502.

11. Ibid., 503.

12. Beck and Daley, Art Restoration, 85.

13. Ibid., 102.

14. Brandt, “Twenty-Five Questions,” 392.

15. Ibid., 399.

16. Ibid., 400.

17. Frederick Hartt, “‘L’ultima mano’ on the Sistine Ceiling.” Art Bulletin,LXXI, 1989, 508.

18. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists Volume I. A selection translated by George Bull. (Original work published 1568). New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1987, 353.

19. Hartt, “‘L’ultima mano,’” 508

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid., 509.

23. Ibid., 11.

24. Joseph Manca, “Michelangelo as Painter: A Historiographic Perspective.” Artibus et Historiae,Vol. 16, No. 31, 1995, 117.

25. Vasari, Lives of the Artists Volume I, 351.

26. Gianluigi Colalucci, “Michel-Angelo’s Colours Rediscovered.” The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration. Edited by Massimo Giacometti. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1986, 261.

27. Ibid., 261.

28. Ibid.

29. Fabrizio Mancinelli, “Michelangelo at Work.” The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration. Edited by Massimo Giacometti. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1986, 258.

30. Ibid., 238.

31. Ibid., 236.

32. Ibid., 253.

33. Manca, “Michelangelo as Painter,” 118.

34. Marcia B. Hall, Rizzoli Art Series: Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling Restored, ed. Norma Broude. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993. 8.

35. Ibid., 9.

36. Ibid., 8.

37. Januszczak, Sayonara, Michelangelo, 158.

38. Ross King, Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling. New York: Walker and Company, 2003, 122.

39. Ibid., 124.

40.Bruce Cole, “A Conversation with Paul Johnson.” (Life Through Art’s Prism,2005) [database on-line]; Available from ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

41. Januszczak, Sayonara, Michelangelo, 158.

WORKS CITED

Beck, James and Michael Daley. Art Restoration: The Culture, the Business, and the Scandal. (Norton Paperback edition 1996). New York: W. W. Norton &Company, 1993.

Beck, James. “The Final Layer: ‘L’ultima mano’ on Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling.” Art Bulletin, LXX, 1988, 502–503.

Colalucci, Gianluigi. “Michel-Angelo’s Colours Rediscovered.” The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration. Edited by Massimo Giacometti. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1986.

Cole, Bruce. “A Conversation with Paul Johnson.” Life Through Art’s Prism, 2005. Database on-line. Available from ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

Hall, Marcia B. Rizzoli Art Series: Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling Restored, ed. Norma Broude. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1993.

Hartt, Frederick. “‘L’ultima mano’ on the Sistine Ceiling.” Art Bulletin,LXXI, 1989, 508–509.

Januszczak, Waldemar. Sayonara, Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Restored and Repackaged. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1990.

King, Ross. Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling. New York: Walker and Company, 2003.

Manca, Joseph. “Michelangelo as Painter: A Historiographic Perspective.” Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 16, No.31, 1995, 111–123.

Mancinelli, Fabrizio. “Michelangelo at Work.” The Sistine Chapel: The Art, the History, and the Restoration. Edited by Massimo Giacometti. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1986.

Nova: Saving the Sistine Chapel: The Controversial Restoration of Michelangelo’s Masterpiece. Written and produced by Susanne Simpson. 60 min. WGBH Educational Foundation, 1988, videocassette.

Scigliano, Eric. “Inglorious Restorations.” Harper’s, Vol. 311, No. 1863, 1 Aug. 2005, 61. Database on-line. Available from ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Artists: Volume I. A selection translated by George Bull. (Original work published 1568). New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1987.

Weil-Garris Brandt, Kathleen. “Twenty-Five Questions About Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling.” Apollo, Vol. 126, Dec. 1987, 392–400.