My company writes software for the communications systems used by many broadcasters, including NBC, who use a large system for covering the Olympics. This is my 5th trip to the Olympics providing support to NBC inside the IBC, and these are my ramblings on what's going on in Torino and at the Games.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Torino - Galleria Sabauda

It was raining again yesterday, so I had to find another indoor site to visit. When I visted the Museo Egizio (the Egyptian Museum) last week, I didn't have time to visit the art gallery on the floors above it. Jeff from COMMs suggested that it was probably worth a visit, so that's where I ended up.

When I arrived, camera in hand, they told me that no photography was allowed (unlike the museum, which allowed photos without flash, a policy I understand). I showed them my accreditation, said "Giornalista?" as a question, after which we had several minutes of mis-communication.

At first they were prepared to show me the door, then suddenly, somebody else came out (who still didn't speak English), talked with the others, looked at my credential, and then asked for my passport. I think they photocopied my passport, but when they came back, they said, "OK, photos, but NO flash, and NO tripod".

I think I got quite the scoop here, because apparently nobody else here was allowed to take photos either, and I was (sometimes not so) subtlely followed by a docent for my entire visit. I could even hear them talking on their radios about the "giornalista".

The Galleria Sabauda is a group of art collections from various benefactors that orginally came from the collections of the House of Savoy (Italy's earliest monarchy). The dates of the works range from the early 1300's right through to the 1800's, with most of the works in the 1400-1600 range.

Here's a mid 1300's, Byzantine-like, egg tempera and gold leaf on wood, icon of the "Madonna con Bambino" (Madonna with Baby) which was quite the popular subject in many of the works of art at the gallery...

Madonna

Most of the earlier works of art were religious in nature, and while many of the early paintings were on wood rather than on canvas, some of the works of art were actually wood carvings...

Cabinet

As the we got into the 1400-1500's, we started seeing the more traditional paintings on canvas (did I mention that there were a lot of Madonna con Bambino paintings?) ...

Madonna 2

There were some very strange images as I progressed through the gallery; a semi-clad women standing on a turtle? hunting dogs tearing apart a fox? One of my favourites was this painting of a what looks like a Cherub Royal Rumble...

Cherubs

The were also many paintings of what appeared to be a woman named Lucretia stabbing herself. I found that there are references to this in history, mythology, and opera, where Lucrezia is assaulted, and commits suicide rather than live with the dishonour...

Lucrezia

In fact, there was a propensity towards paintings showing acts of violence as I continued to progress through the gallery. Here's one showing the martyrdom of John the Baptist...

Baptist

Another image I found interesting was one called "Il padre eternale" (The Eternal Father?), which apparently shows God himself looking down on creation. This was the only image I saw in which God was portrayed...

Padre

Later in the gallery, there were many, many portraits of Italian nobility (mostly unexciting, if you didn't know who they were), and then, lastly, some ecclectic collections of art from a more recent donor that included statues, jewellry, paintings, copper plates, and this frieze...

Frieze

Some of the paintings were enourmous, taking up entire walls to themselves (I'm talking 8 feet by 20 feet on some of them), and I have plenty of other photographs that I took of paintings that caught my interest, but I'll save those for when I get home.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Sean

In your third picture, I can see that you took this picture from an angle (you were to the right of centre), perhaps to avoid some glare.

You might be interested: I had a similar problem with some photos I took, and I was able to "square up" the picture using The GIMP.

4:06 PM

 
Blogger Sean McKinnon said...

Exactly as you said - to avoid glare. Unfortunately I also cut off part of the frame. I was pretty thrilled with how most of these photos turned out, especially since the exposures were long without flash, and I had no tripod.

I'll take a look at GIMP when I get home.

Thanks - Sean

2:33 AM

 

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