Do I post like collages? Well, writing blogs is new to me, guess I tend to cut things up. I don't prepare these posts beforehand, I work directly on them. I rather enjoy this now, but I should get back to painting and my digital stuff. So spare with me, I might not pop up for a while. But I promised to continue with Žilda & Napoli.
So here we go! Back to Napoli...
I left the flat in Santa Maria la Nova and had moved to Piazza San Gaetano. Straight into the heart of the old historic center.
It had been one of my favorite places in Napoli, and I was thrilled when we got the call, that we could move there. It was a fabulous apartment on the top floor overlooking the city.
Harold, one of my cats would go on adventures over the rooftops of Napoli. Fortunately, he always returned. And I was happy to have found a job teaching english. Finally, I was making some money.
Now, I was discovering more parts of Napoli that I had never seen before. I had heard about an ossuary, somewhere in a cave in the Sanita district. So I headed there. On the way, walking through a small alley I stopped in amazement, and took this photo...
I knew this angel, it was once Abbott Handerson Thayers, again a favorite of mine, But this time I knew Žilda had been at work again, and as always; he chose the perfect spot.
Photo by Žilda
Abbott Handerson Thayer once said... "Doubtless my lifelong passion for birds has helped to incline me to work wings into my pictures; but primarily I have put on wings probably more to symbolize an exalted atmosphere (above the realm of genre painting) where one need not explain the action of the figures"
The one above is the original- A Winged Figure, 1904-1913,Smithsonian Institution. The model is the artist's daughter, Gladys.
I would pass by the one that Žilda did, often after work on my way home, and stop to have a cigarette and enjoy this beauty. I love them both, only what made the one Žilda did so special, is the place he chose to put it and that I could visit it whenever I wanted. It was not easy to find in that small alley, and I only found it by mistake. But I returned to it very often, and it stayed there for as long as I lived in Napoli, it was a secure place, hidden away from rain and idiots, and I guess the neighbors liked it as much as I did.
I was on my way to find the Fontanelle Cemetery. I took a bus there, because I had been told to do so; it was a too dangerous area. After my first visit, a never took a bus there again! Yes, it was a poor district, but I had grown up in poor suburbs and had lived in Red Light districts all my life, so I felt rather comfortable there. In fact it reminded me of one of my favorite movies - Irma la Douce from 1963. That was a Hollywood movie about a Red Light district in Paris with a mix of a 1930's to 1950's look. And somehow it had that feeling about it, or my imagination about the Quartiere Pigalle in the 1920's. Anyhow, I liked it a lot.
And now I was about to enter the Cemetery Fontanelle!
At the gates I met a man there, who like most Italians was very friendly and helpful. And when I returned to ask if he had any information about the Fontanelle, he was happy to tell me a lot of stories, since they had no printed information there whatsoever. This when on for about an hour! And I returned to take my second stroll through the caves of Fontanelle, and then I rushed home quickly to make notes of what that friendly man had told me.
Here is a picture of were I lived in Napoli, of Piazza San Gaetano, I found somewhere on my mac. I didn't take it and I don't recall who did. But it shows you what it was like and you can also see the windows of my room, on the left side building at the top.
I began to study the history of the Fontanelle Cemetery, and about a year later I was working as a tour guide in Napoli.
I leave you tonight with the following video, and some art. Thanx! and I hope you enjoy my posts as much as I enjoy jotting them down.