Once again, DUers, the Friday Afternoon Challenge Question!

[CTyankee]

"OMG, I'm a mess! What was my terrible fate?"

[monmouth]

1. I love your Friday posts..I don't know the answers but still. Could you

give us the answer to the previous weeks question? It's a learning process for me and you post some great questions. Thank you.

[CTyankee]

7. Last week's answer was the nun who posed for the painter/monk Fra Filippo Lippi

and was seduced by him. She was his Salome(in the painting I posted) but, more importantly, she was his Madonna in several beautiful paintings. She became pregnant and it was a big scandal but hey, he was a great artist and the church wanted to keep him painting so it was, um, not such a big deal...

[monmouth]

24. Many thanks. Funny, neither the nuns or priests ever told us this story..LOL...n/t

[CTyankee]

27. Evidently, the pope said he'd forget both of their vows of celibacy and let them marry!

Like the Italians say "Va bene!" (it's "okay").

Lippi never "got around to" marrying her but did sire another kid with her. The son, Filippino Lippi, was also a great artist. His mother, Lucretia Buti, tho, is my favorite Renaissance Madonna...

[grantcart]

2. Once again you make me feel like an uneducated dufus!! lol

[CTyankee]

9. No, don't feel that way!

This can be fun...obviously I like art history...

[foxfeet]

3. The Widow Capet meets Mme. Guillotine

or maybe Catherine the Great and something about a bull.

[Hawkeye-X]

4. Is that Anne whatever

Let them eat cake lady?

[wtmusic]

5. Her dress is too plain...I'd guess Joan of Arc. nt

[Crystal Clarity]

26. You mean Marie Antoinette?

My first guess. But I don't think that's right somehow. The mental picture of her is (right or wrong) more gaudy, less classical in style then that.

Definately not Anne Boleyn either. Hmmmm. :think:

[skeptical cynic]

6. Cropped hair. Peasant shirt. I'm GUESSING

Joan of Arc

[CTyankee]

11. Interesting that there are 2 guesses of Joan of Arc.

Very much the opposite of St. Joan...

[skeptical cynic]

13. Mine came in late

I'm not a very good Catholic.
I just saw the movie.

[kimmerspixelated]

8. This woman is obviously stoned!

[KittyWampus]

10. Edit out name (sorry)

It was ahead of its time. I've never seen it in RL but apparently he sculpted her so finely that you can see her teeth and tounge within her open mouth.

It does look like he caught her after a romp in bed.

[CTyankee]

12. But what was her terrible fate?

[KittyWampus]

16. I don't know TELL TELL TELL. It must be something juicy?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. and arranged for a bravo to slash the face of XXXXXXXXXXX

Bernini's unfaithful mistress, to ribbons,



A bust that looks just-kissed,

from the blind intensity

of her gaze to the somewhat swollen

parted lips, to the parting,

above her rumpled chemise,

of two soft breasts his hands

lifted from stone, Bernini’s



lover was designed

to please—to have and hold

in his own eyes as forever

undone and to-be-done-to,

a melting readiness.

Oh the inconstant Costanza,

true-to-life but untrue!—



whose drawing power, coiled

as the heavy braid he pulled

behind her head, yet loose

as the involving tendrils

that tumbled to one side,

originated from

within a designing woman.



If either alone suffices

(love or art, that is)

to lead a man to believe

whole days can be best spent

lost in a woman’s hair,

how could he not have wept

at the upswept and downfallen



tresses of one who was

both singular ideal—

a thing he’d hewn from rock

into his own landmark

in portraiture, quintessence

of the sinuous baroque—

and all too two-faced mistress?





That she was capable

of deception—this was fine,

one guesses: a frisson

at first, that she (the wife

of his apprentice) gave

in private no resistance

to a greater man’s assistance.



But now the great man’s brother?

His brother? When the rumor

reached him, Bernini sent

a razor-bearing servant

to do what must be done.

He wasn’t going to kill her.

No, but he’d leave a scar,



a sort of Kilroy was here;

he’d affix his stamp, he’d fix her

once and for all, for good—

indeed, he’d have his thug

underling slash her face,

her living flesh, with a tool

not so unlike the one



that he alone, the master,

had been skilled enough to wield,

watching the marble yield

to each sweet, painstaking stroke

of chisel against cheek

until, so real, she fairly

cried out for more.

[CTyankee]

20. Yes, once you have the name it is easily available so that's why I deliberately didn't ask

for the name, just what happened to her...I'm trying to fashion these quizzes to be google-proof but finding it difficult...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

21. sorry -- did some editing on the post

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Wiki suggests that it was apparently a good thing to be a friend of the Pope. n/t

[CTyankee]

29. Is that your poetry?

If so, I find it interesting...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

37. No author is attributed, however, I found it here:

http://www.maryjosalter.com/COSTANZA.htm

I should have provided the link earlier, too. Tough Friday afternoon...

[CTyankee]

46. A very interesting poem...complex.

I am interested in it, because my interest is not only in visual art but in music and poetry. Thanks.

[elleng]

60. Kilroy was here!

Who wrote this 'designing woman?'

:-)

Found Sui's reference. LOVE this!

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Doh! There should be a 2 hour moratorium on responses from art majors. n/t

[CTyankee]

19. I know. It's a problem but I wasn't an art major, tho I love art...

It's just kinda hard hearted to discourage art majors...

[KittyWampus]

23. Oh, I'm sorry. Promise not to jump in too soon next time. But if it's any consolation

I have no idea about what happened to her.

[CTyankee]

31. View Simon Schama's "The Power of Art" videos on youtube.

It was a PBS program and youtube has all of them. It starts with Caravaggio and Bernini isn't far behind...it's dramatized, rather well I think. Schama is great!

[CTyankee]

25. I saw it at the Getty in Los Angeles 2 years ago and it's magnificent, altho small.

Her hair isn't really cropped, as some guessed. It's bound up in the back but you have to walk around it to see that. I was amazed that it was exhibited in such a free space...if some kid came in and careened into it, goodbye Costanza!

One of my hints was going to be: "Angelenos, it was not that long ago that you saw me EVERYWHERE (at least for a few weeks)!" Because the photo of her was on big Getty Museum posters on every busy street that I was on during the exhibit! I literally changed the dates of my visit to my daughter there based on the Costanza bust exhibit...color ME crazy!

I will see her again in September. She is in the Bargello in Florence. My trip there (an art intensive with Trinity College) will be in mid September...I hope she isn't out on loan somewhere else, cuz I'd love to see her again!

[KittyWampus]

39. I wonder- are there websites devoted to showing flash animations of sculptures in the round?

I don't think it would even be that hard.

[CTyankee]

42. dear god, wouldn't that be great? I would LOVE it...

my most fabulous museum visit was to the Borghese in Rome which is where so many Bernini sculptures are. Just walking around them is a treat in itself. I hope you have gone/will go to the Borghese. It is one of the most fabulous smaller museums in the world...and I loved it...

[blogslut]

15. Italian sculpture/ Renaissance period?

?

[CTyankee]

17. Italian, yes, but later...baroque period...nt

[WCGreen]

36. Someone Baroqued the bust?

[CTyankee]

43. I know, sounds hard to do but there you are.

It's just, you know, the way...or maybe the wayward...just a stray hair style or a look on her face...how does this happen in art?

Isn't this the essence of art? Don't we always wonder?

[WCGreen]

52. It's wonderful

[Crystal Clarity]

28. Not Mary Queen of Scotts?

But if so that'd be a flattering look for her when you see how she appeared shortly before the axe. But then again, Catholics of the time idolized her "martyrdom" and would've given her as flattering an appearance as possible.

The peasant-like top wouldn't throw me off either because a simple shift is what they often wore to their executions. Mary wore a wig but perhaps that explains the cropped hair.

Still, I'm probably wrong.

[CTyankee]

30. Her hair really isn't cropped, it just looks that way from the front. If you look at her from

behind, you see her hair is bound up which I am guessing was the style in the mid 1600s in Rome...

[Crystal Clarity]

32. Drawing a blank

completely....

[Rex]

33. The artist almost killed her husband.

I have no idea what happened to her, he OTOH went on to marry and have a lot of kids with a different woman.

[canetoad]

34. "The sensuality of the pious"

As apparently spontaneous as a portrait by Monet or Hogarth, this bust invites anachronistic descriptions: impressionist, romantic, rococo. It is as light as air. Or desire. Bernini has made more than a "speaking likeness". He has made an intimate monument to secret moments, a sculpted memento of his lover, whose marble reality dissolves, when you chance on her among the stony dead, into breath, life. Bernini's genius for motion is dedicated to making his lover live for ever. Her wild hair and loose clothes speak of energy and passion. He has caught her mid-glance, mid-conversation, perhaps before or after sex.

[CTyankee]

44. And yet, he tried to squelch her...

It is amazing to us today that he got away with his crime of haveing her face slashed...what a horrible crime against a woman, especially since he was equally as guilty...

[WCGreen]

35. Does she play softball....

[Phentex]

41. LOL!

:rofl:

[CTyankee]

48. Oh, those baaaad women! They can be real trouble!

Isn't it great?

[Mojeoux]

38. She was a beautiful model. When the name is revealed

and the bust was not her, but a model posing, please tell us that story too.!:loveya:

[CTyankee]

45. I'm afraid it was her. I'm sure she was posing but it was her...

[CTyankee]

49. and the story of her face slashing arranged by Bernini, the artist, is true.

He got away with it, too. A sad thing and an outrage since he was as guilty as she was of infidelity...pretty horrible if you ask me...

[Sal Minella]

40. This is such fun. Thank you, CT! n/t

[CTyankee]

47. You are so welcome, Sal. Next week will be a b*tch....

expect it...

[canetoad]

50. Looking forward to it! nt

[CTyankee]

51. I just KNEW this week's was too easy....durn it all...oh well...

[tango-tee]

53. Costanza Bonarelli?

Arne Karsten, an art historian in Berlin, researched Bernini's life and work in the Eternal City.

[CTyankee]

54. I keep thinking what a great movie this story would make...if a bit grim.

I saw the Bernini busts exhibit at the Getty in 08. I had seen his bust of Cardinal Scipione at the Borghese in Rome in 06 and was inspired to learn more. Simon Schama also relates Costanza's story in "The Power of Art" which you can see on youtube...

[tango-tee]

55. Indeed! Sending a servant with a razor to disfigure your lover...

There truly is a treasure chest of artists' life stories out there. How about Michelangelo in old age who worked throughout the night with candles stuck to his hat in order to be able to see? His love for another man?

Or Caravaggio. To me, no one has ever been able to capture *light* the way he could. And what a scoundrel he was!

My sister gave me a wonderful book titled "Symbols in Paintings" many years ago, which opens up and explains a whole new world when looking at art.

The period I love more than any other is in a book titled "The Golden Age - Manuscript Painting at the Time of Jean, Duke of Berry". It is pure enchantment.

And let's not forget Hieronymus Bosch!

Looking forward to next Friday, dear friend!

[CTyankee]

56. I did a paper on Caravaggio in grad school!

It was an independent study and I was slated to go to Rome and see his works there, some in situ from the day they were painted, but didn't make it and had to go a few years later. I read in the NY Times that Caravaggio is now more famous than Michelangelo!

I think I read "Symbols in Paintings" or something like it, but the book I read was just on the Italian Renaissance art...it was fascinating, especially on how the different saints were portrayed (Saint Lucy with her gouged out eyes on a little plate, ugh!).

Next Friday will be fun, I promise...

[tango-tee]

57. Looking forward to it!

I can just imagine you digging through the most obscure, dusty, cob-webbed corners...

[elleng]

58. Sorry I missed this, Yank!

Distracted with some things; will be in touch!

[elleng]

59. dupe