Renaissance Tease

I'm partial to Raphael and therefore much intrigued by the strange story that broke this week about his self-portrait. The painting on the left hangs at the Uffizi Museum in Florence and has long been acknowledged as Raphael by his own hand. But now its authenticity is challenged by the re-emergence from a bank vault of the painting on the right, which art historians deem a better likeness--he apparently did have a chin dimple, lucky guy--and, well, a better painting.

Art authentication is a fascinating subject. The forensics are fairly straightforward: methods and materials, biographical data, historical records, the toll of the years, etc. The aesthetics, however, are beguiling. Raphael was the equal of both Leonardo and Michelangelo, but who's to say that one of Raphael's students, his name lost to history, didn't improve upon the master's work with the second panel?

I can't arbitrate this controversy, but I can tell you a joke. After World War II, a lot of artwork changed hands on the black market. Laws to prevent the illegal exportation of significant or purloined works were inconsistently enforced. Nevertheless, one wealthy visitor to Italy, having purchased a Renaissance masterpiece sub rosa, took the precaution of hiring an artist to paint an innocuous landscape over it, using easily removed tempera colors. He got his painting through customs without incident and took it to an art restorer in New York to be "cleaned."

A few days later, the restorer called him and said: "I cleaned off the first layer of paint, like you said, but guess what--I found another layer of paint underneath it. So I cleaned that off, too. And guess what--under that I found a portrait of Mussolini."


Self portraits of Raphael, ca. 1505, when he was about 22. Click on the pictures for a closer look.

Ways and Means

My Virgil in plumbing the Inferno of Chicago politics was the columnist Mike Royko. He better than anyone understood the Chicago machine's intricate trade-offs between efficacy and corruption in "the city that works".

I thought of Royko this week with the passing of another Chicagoan, Dan Rostenkowski. Royko didn't like him, even though they hailed from the same neighborhood and ethnicity. But when Rostenkowski went to prison for abuses of his Congressional expense accounts, Royko came to his defense.

Writing in 1996, Royko said that Rostenkowski's sin was in not recognizing that times had changed. Acts that were once considered shameful were now performed in public, while misdeeds that were once deemed petty now made headlines. Ambitious prosecutors and rival representatives were eager to fell the mighty. Rostenkowski was taken down with the help of the waxing Newt Gingrich after revelations that his office had redeemed Congressionally supplied postage stamps for cash.

In a last line that echoes Jesus' defense of the woman taken in adultery, Royko prayed that, for the man who would condemn Rostenkowski without reading the evidence, "Lord, please let a hard-nosed cop grab that mope the next time he runs a red."

Some may feel the same about the tireless Charles Rangel, who has resigned his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee under a cloud of tax fraud. Come to think of it, Rostenkowski's predecessor once removed, Wilbur Mills, fell from grace when his mistress, an Argentine stripper, jumped from his car into the Washington Tidal Basin.

Something about that gavel leads those who wield it into the abyss.

Homer, Virgil, and Dante; detail from a Vatican fresco by Raphael. Interesting that Homer is the most compelling figure, while Virgil appears dour, and Dante, callow. Click on the picture for a closer look.

A Christmas Visitor

It's not my holiday, but I've always enjoyed it. I actually like the bustle of Christmas shopping, especially when there are Salvation Army Santas ringing their bells. At school in the fifties, carols were part of our curriculum and I remember the words to them all. Once my class went caroling near my house where homes were lavishly adorned with lights, statuettes, and even a creche scene in a garage with live animals. The holiday movies are a treat, especially It's a Wonderful Life and George C. Scott's Ebenezer Scrooge. And Handel's Messiah never ceases to surprise me with its charm and grandeur.

As long as I can remember, the faithful have deplored the demise of spirituality at Christmastime. The truth is that this holiday, which before Dickens was just an occasion for drunkeness and violence, is more spiritual than ever. For those of us who find inspiration in aesthetics, Christmas is the world's best blend of art and faith. And if we do not believe in a saviour, we can find holiness in childhood, which is what Christmas honors for us all.

Granduca Madonna by Raphael, 1504. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Madonna of the Chair

When I was in Florence, touring the Palazzo Pitti, this painting stopped me in my tracks. The composition is utterly perfect and yet relaxed and natural. The colors and textures of the fabrics feel durable and comforting. The upright post of the chair, perhaps a symbol of the cross and perhaps not, tells me this is a domestic setting, maybe even a kitchen. I want a chair like that. Raphael painted these three figures--Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist--many times over, but never with such understated elegance.