Wednesday 16 March 2016

From Bellini to Bernini


























From Bellini to Bernini





Flying in from Paris to Venice, the water taxi ride, from the airport, is always worth experiencing. Venice is more famous for the Venetian school of painting than the tourist book gondola rides would allow you to observe. Titian the giant heavy weight of the Venice school of painting came out of a tradition of Bellini, another Venetian painter famous for his Madonnas and one favorite resides in the Accademia, in Venice. Churches are also a must, with the church ticket for viewing the well learned collection of masterpieces that adorn the churches, being well worth the tour. Most people do love getting lost down the never ending arcades enroute to the next art venue. There are also much deserved and recommended, gourmet delight, fish restaurants, to observe.

Following through with the research of European people living abroad there are always at least a couple of old master exhibitions on during any trip throughout Italy. Jeffrey Harris and Nicole Page-Smith started their love affair with Italy during Melbourne days together as artists where, several books were available on the Italian Renaissance, due to the large population of Italians living in Melbourne, Australia. Although, the Melbourne, National gallery, does host a few examples of Italian master paintings, the main thrust of the collection is predominately fashionable, precolonial, paintings from London or masters from the late 1800's such as John William Waterhouse, an English painter known for his Pre-Raphaelite style. They do boast a Constable, cloud painting, in their collection but from memory, the work is not on view. A Rembrandt is prominently displayed but one longs for the Italian cafes and restaurants, down the street, for a lunch retreat. 

The Harris Smiths have enjoyed publicity in their careers and the business decision together in New Zealand has proved fruitful with several trips to Italy being the result of much hard work. The Harris Smiths library of Italian Renaissance books is a treasure they both preserve. Literary establishment is something New Zealand is famous for so most of your great literary classics are available in the local bookstores and Dunedin is a university town so, the rest of the books available are curriculum texts. Unfortunately, the post English settlement are poor cousins next to displays of Italian Renaissance art in major towns like London but given the small size of New Zealand, we have had a rewarding group of contemporary individuals both in literary circles and the contemporary art arena. 

Every trip to Italy is a blessing for the Harris Smiths Italian love affair. Florence is a magical place for a refinement of taste. Other trips have included Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Ravenna, Rome, Naples and more. The church sculptures of Bernini, in Rome, for example, nominated in most art history books on the subject, are a highlight, with Papal collections also worth the visit. Italian masters of sculpture and painting are also well documented in other main European centers such as Paris, London and Vienna. Jeffrey Harris has a current solo exhibition of recent, small, paintings, influenced by Renaissance painting, now on display in Dunedin. Jeffrey Harris and Nicole Page-Smith are both heavily influenced by their trips to Europe. After seeing the Florentine Italian Renaissance sculpture for the first time, Nicole Page-Smith, decided, the smaller scale of the Florentine masters, almost half life-size, was the perfect size for sculpture. Nicole Page-Smith's writing is also influenced by the humanist tradition and Renaissance theory. Florence, the much loved city of gold has so many painting masterpieces you feel in need of a week stay, a joy usually only reserved for much larger cities. The favorite church bound destination, for gold of a different reflection, would have to be Ravenna, for Early Christian, Byzantine mosaics. 












Photographs by Nicole Page-Smith