10 October 2017

Stefano Magaddino - mafioso

Longest-ruling Mafia boss in US history


Stefano Magaddino ran the Buffalo crime  family for more than half a century
Stefano Magaddino ran the Buffalo crime
family for more than half a century
Stefano Magaddino, the Sicilian mafioso who went on to enjoy the longest period of power enjoyed by any crime boss in the history of the American Mafia, was born on this day in 1891 in Castellammare del Golfo.

Known as ‘The Undertaker’ or ‘Don Stefano’, Magaddino controlled a crime empire radiating outwards from Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie in New York State.  Geographically, it was a vast area, stretching from the eastern fringe of  New York State to its western outposts in Ohio and extending north-east almost as far as Montreal in Canada, its tentacles reaching across the Canadian border from Buffalo even into Toronto.

One of the original members of The Commission, the committee of seven crime bosses set up in 1931 to control Mafia activity across the whole of the United States, Magaddino was head of the Buffalo Family for more than half a century.

He died in 1974 at the age of 82, having survived all the other Commission members, including the founder Charles ‘Lucky’ Luciano and Chicago boss Al Capone, with the exception of his cousin from Castellammare, Joseph Bonanno, who along with Luciano, headed one of the Five Families of the New York underworld.

Magaddino never knew any life other than crime.  The third of eight children born to Giovanni and Giuseppa Ciaravino Magaddino, he was born in the midst of a feud between his family and their rivals in Castellammare, the Buccellato family.

He had strong links with the Bonanno family in Sicily, joining forces with Joe’s father, Salvatore, in 1899 after the latter’s brothers, Stefano and Giuseppe, were killed on an order given by Felice Buccellato.

New York boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano included Magaddino in The Commission
New York boss Charles 'Lucky' Luciano
included Magaddino in The Commission
Bonanno and Magaddino took their revenge by ordering the killing of two members from the Buccellato family. A peace was brokered in 1905, before Salvatore Bonanno emigrated to the United States, to be followed, in 1909, by Magaddino. They settled in a Castellammarese colony in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

The feud followed Magaddino to New York, however, leading to the killing of his brother by Camillo Caiozzo, a member of the Buccellato clan, in an ambush outside a Brooklyn department store. Caiozzo was himself soon killed and in 1921 Magaddino was arrested in Avon, New Jersey on suspicion of his murder.

At the time Magaddino was an influential member of the increasingly powerful Castellammarese clan but when charges against him failed to stick he took the opportunity to relocate to the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area.

There he laid down the beginnings of his empire.  Behind the front of running a funeral home – the Magaddino Memorial Chapel – in Niagara Falls, he set up a profitable Prohibition era business bootlegging wines and spirits across the Niagara River to supply the proliferation of so-called speakeasies in Buffalo.

After Prohibition was ended, Magaddino and his associates moved into loan sharking, illegal gambling, narcotics, extortion, carjacking and labour racketeering, gaining control too of lucrative legitimate businesses such as taxi companies and the laundry and linen services essential to the area’s many hotels.

In the traditional manner of Sicilian Mafiosi, he gave the impression of living a relatively modest lifestyle, doing his utmost to stay in the background and draw as little attention as possible to his criminal activities.

Joseph Bonanno, with whom  Magaddino shared his roots
Joseph Bonanno, with whom
Magaddino shared his roots
He was admired by other gang bosses for the success he had in controlling such a large area, while the remoteness of his territory enabled him to remain untouched by the periodic squabbles between the New York families. He was at times called on to an arbitrate in disputes.

He survived a number of attempts on his life.  In 1936, his sister was killed by a bomb intended for him but placed in the wrong house and in 1957 a grenade was thrown through his kitchen window but failed to explode.  The second of those episodes was linked to the so-called Apalachin Conference, a meeting of Mafia bosses at a small town in New York State.

The meeting had been arranged by Magaddino and when it was raided by FBI agents, resulting in the arrest of several mobsters, there were suspicions that he had tipped them off himself as a way of eliminating a few of his rivals.

Later, the respect he enjoyed among his peers diminished when he and his son, Peter, were hauled in by police on charges of illegal bookmaking after a 1968 raid on his son’s home in Niagara Falls, which found around $500,000 in a suitcase.

This aroused more disquiet among senior figures in the Buffalo Family, suspecting him of skimming off profits, and rival groups began to emerge.  Within a year, Magaddino had been ousted as boss, replaced first by Salvatore Pieri and ultimately by Samuel Frangiamore, who had been joint leaders of a breakaway faction.

Magaddino managed to avoid significant spells in jail throughout his rule.  The illegal bookmaking charges, based on a six-year long wire-tapping operation at the funeral home in Niagara, were dropped after a judge ruled the evidence had been obtained illegally.

He was named in Rome in 1967 as the head of a narcotics smuggling ring that had trafficked about $150 million worth of heroin between Europe and the United States between 1950 and 1960 but was never extradited.  He died in 1974 following a heart attack. 

Castellammare del Golfo enjoys a fine location on the coast of northwest Sicily
Castellammare del Golfo enjoys a fine location on the
coast of northwest Sicily
Travel tip:

Castellammare del Golfo is a resort and fishing town situated on a large bay in the northwest corner of Sicily, midway between Trapani and Palermo.  It has an attractive setting, guarding over a broad sweep of water and with steep lanes of houses climbing the hillside from the harbour towards the elevated Piazza Petrolo.  A popular backdrop for TV dramas, including some episodes of the Inspector Montalbano series, it has the remains of a castle probably built at the time of the ninth-century Arab occupation of the town, and a good selection of bars and restaurants.

The Basilica of Maria SS Annunziata
The Basilica of Maria SS Annunziata
Travel tip:

Trapani is a city of some 70,000 inhabitants on a coastal plain around 100km (62 miles) west of Palermo, at the very western tip of the island. Renowned for its seafood, it has a nearby airport but is not well known among overseas tourists, yet offers an attractive base for visitors, with the impressive Basilica-Sanctuary of Maria Santissima Annunziata and a 14th-century cathedral among its attractions. The city is also famous for the Easter Processione dei Misteri di Trapani, a day-long celebration of the Passion.




9 October 2017

Gabriele Falloppio – anatomist and physician

Professor made key discoveries about human reproduction   


Gabriele Falloppio advanced knowledge of medicine significantly
Gabriele Falloppio advanced knowledge
of medicine significantly
Gabriele Falloppio, one of the most important physicians and anatomists of the 16th century, died on this day in 1562 in Padua.

Often known by his Latin name Fallopius, he lived only 39 years yet made his mark with a series of discoveries that expanded medical knowledge significantly.

He worked mainly on the anatomy of the head and the reproductive organs in both sexes and is best known for identifying the tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus, which are known even today as Fallopian tubes.

He also discovered several major nerves of the head and face, and identified many of the components of the hearing and balance systems.

Falloppio described all of the findings of his research in a book published a year before he died, entitled Observationes anatomicae.

Educated initially in the classics, the death of his father plunged his family – noble but not wealthy – into financial difficulties, prompting him to pursue the security of a career in the church, becoming a priest in 1542. He served as a canon at the cathedral in his native Modena.

Falloppio retained an ambition to study medicine, however, and when the family’s finances had improved sufficiently he enrolled at the University of Ferrara, which at the time had one of the best medical schools in Europe.

A painting shows Falloppio (left) explaining one of his  discoveries to the Cardinal Duke of Ferrara and other clergy
A painting shows Falloppio (left) explaining one of his
discoveries to the Cardinal Duke of Ferrara and other clergy
He studied under Antonio Musa Brassavolo, who at the time was one of the most eminent physicians in Europe, with a list of illustrious clients that included King Henry VIII of England, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the French king Francis I and a succession of popes.

After receiving his doctorate in medicine, he worked at various medical schools before becoming professor of anatomy at Ferrara in 1548.  A year later, he was invited to occupy the chair of anatomy at the University of Pisa.

Falloppio gained much of his knowledge from dissecting cadavars, not only those of adult humans but children and animals.  During his time at Pisa he was falsely accused of human vivisection, but despite the cloud this cast over him he was appointed to the prestigious chair of anatomy at the University of Padua, where he would remain until his death from tuberculosis.

The Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius was among his predecessors in the Padua chair.  It was the work of Vesalius that prompted a surge of interest in dissections and probably inspired Falloppio, who studied the observations of his predecessor in great detail and sought to build on them.

The title page of Falloppio's book of Anatomical Observations
 The title page of Falloppio's book
of Anatomical Observations
Despite his short working life, he left an enormous legacy of research.

He carried out investigations on the larynx and on respiration, and made important discoveries about bone growth. He described the ethmoid bone, the lacrimal duct, and his description of the middle and inner ear includes the first clear account of the round and oval windows, the cochlea, the semi-circular canals, and the scala vestibuli and tympani.

In the area of reproduction, as well as being the first to identify the Fallopian tubes, he proved the existence of the hymen in virgins, gave names to many features of the reproductive anatomy and disproved many popular notions about the mechanics of the reproductive process.

He can also be credited with inventing one of the earliest condoms, a sheath made from linen soaked in a medicinal chemical to be worn to protect the wearer from contracting syphilis.

Falloppio published two treatises on ulcers and tumors, a treatise on surgery, and a commentary on Hippocrates's book on wounds of the head.  He also researched the science of baths and thermal waters and of purgatives, and put forward important theories about the formation of fossils.

The anatomical theatre at the University of Padua
The anatomical theatre at the University of Padua
Travel tip:

The University of Padua includes nine museums, a botanical garden – best visited in the spring and summer – and the oldest surviving permanent anatomical theatre in Europe, built in around 1595 and which used to hold public dissections, which attracted scientists and artists in large numbers, keen to enhance their knowledge of the human body.

Statues line the canal in the elliptical Prato della Valle
Statues line the canal in the elliptical Prato della Valle
Travel tip:

The city of Padua, situated in the Veneto a 30-45 minute train ride from Venice and an hour and a half from the international airport at Treviso, is most famous for the Giotto frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel and for the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua. Both attract thousands of visitors and the Scrovegni Chapel requires advance booking.  The city itself is an attractive place to explore, with a wealth of fine, historic buildings to discover along its pleasant arcaded streets, as well as the beautiful Prato della Valle, the 90,000-square metre elliptical square with an island in its centre surrounded by a canal bordered by 78 statues.








8 October 2017

Vincenzo Peruggia – art thief

Gallery worker who stole the Mona Lisa


A police mugshot of Vincenzo Peruggia
A police mugshot of Vincenzo Peruggia
Vincenzo Peruggia, a handyman who earned notoriety when he pulled off the most famous art theft in history, was born on this day in 1881 in Dumenza in Lombardy, a village on the Swiss border.

Peruggia stole Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa from the Louvre in Paris and evaded detection for more than two years, even though he was questioned by police over the painting’s disappearance.

It was only when he attempted to sell the iconic painting - thought to be of Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a cloth and silk merchant - to an art dealer in Florence that he was arrested.

Experts accept that, although the Mona Lisa - sometimes known in Italy as La Gioconda - was a notable work, it is open to debate whether it was the best of all the magnificent pieces created by the Tuscan Renaissance genius, whose other masterpieces included The Last Supper and The Virgin of the Rocks and other outstanding portraits, such as The Lady with an Ermine.

Yet it is without question the most famous painting in the world and enjoys that status largely because of Peruggia’s audacious crime.

The theft took place on August 21, 1911, a Monday morning, when Peruggia removed the painting from the wall of the Salon Carré in the Musée du Louvre on the Right Bank of the Seine. He took the canvas from its frame inside a protective glass case and left the building with it hidden under a smock.

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
Detail varies in the stories of the theft. Some say he entered the Louvre the day before, knowing the museum would be closed on the Monday, hid in a closet overnight and left the following morning, wearing a coat of the kind worn by workers at the gallery and concealing the canvas underneath.

His own version of events under interrogation was that he entered the museum at 7am on the Monday morning, mingling with a group of employees arriving for work.  He claimed he had gone to the Salon Carré and waited until it was unattended before making off with the painting.

Thefts were not uncommon at the Louvre at the time and there were 200 security staff.  However, with 400 rooms to watch over the guards could not be in two places at once.  It was not unusual, in any case, for paintings to be removed sometimes, so that the frame and case could be cleaned.

Peruggia may have stolen the coat but it is possible he was in possession of one anyway, having previously worked at the gallery, where one of his jobs, ironically, was making glass cases of the kind in which the Mona Lisa was kept.

What is not disputed is that he took the painting back to his apartment in Paris and hid it inside a trunk with a false bottom. Police visited him in the apartment twice but accepted his story that he had been working elsewhere on the day of the theft.

Peruggia, who had done some painting himself and moved to Paris in 1908 in the hope of being discovered, remained in the French capital for two years, in which time the press indulged in endless speculation as to who might be responsible.

Another Da Vinci portrait, Lady with an Ermine, which some experts believe is superior.
Another Da Vinci portrait, Lady with an Ermine,
which some experts believe is superior.
A theory that modernist enemies of traditional art must be involved led to Pablo Picasso coming under suspicion for a while. Indeed, police arrested the avantgarde poet and playwright Guillaume Apollinaire and questioned him for a week before being letting him go.

In the meantime, the story of the mystery of its whereabouts turned the Mona Lisa into the best known work of art in the world.

Eventually, in November 1913, calling himself Leonardo Vincenzo, Peruggia made his move, writing to Alfredo Geri, an art dealer who kept a gallery in Florence with an offer to bring the painting to Italy.

He claimed he would be performing an act of patriotism, believing the Mona Lisa was in France only because Napoleon had stolen it.  In fact, while Napoleon at one time had it in his home, it was rightfully in the possession of the French nation, having been bought from Leonardo da Vinci by King Francis I in 1516.

Peruggia travelled to Florence by train, having packed his clothes and other possessions in the trunk containing the canvas. He took the painting to Geri, whereupon he somewhat undermined the magnanimity of his ‘patriotic’ gesture by asking for a reward of 500,000 lire.

Geri persuaded him to leave the painting overnight so that he could show it to Giovanni Poggi, director of the Uffizi Gallery, for authentication. In fact, Geri contacted the police and when Peruggia returned to his hotel he was arrested.

In the event, despite the criminal circumstances of its arrival, the return of the painting to Italy was celebrated. Visitors flocked to the Uffizi to see it before it was returned to the Louvre.  The 31-year-old Peruggia was given only a short jail sentence and, on release, joined the Italian army to fight in the First World War.

At the end of the conflict he returned to Paris with his wife, Celestina, and a child, opening a paint shop.  He died young, on his 44th birthday.

Luino sits on the shore of Lake Maggiore
Luino sits on the shore of Lake Maggiore
Travel tip:

Peruggia’s home village of Dumenza, in the province of Varese, is situated in the pre-Alpine slopes that rise from the northern shores of Lake Maggiore, almost on the border with Switzerland. The nearest town is Luino, a popular tourist destination on the lake, which has a noteworthy weekly market and a number of fine churches, including the parish church of San Pietro in Campagna.

The courtyard between the two wings of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
The courtyard between the two wings of
the Uffizi Gallery in Florence
Travel tip:

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which takes its name from its origins as a building housing the administrative offices (uffizi – nowadays uffici) of the Florentine magistrates at the time of the Medici, contains a huge collection of art works divided between 101 rooms with 13,000 square metres of exhibition space, including paintings by Cimabue, Michelangelo, Giotto, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Raphael and Rembrandt.  Da Vinci’s The Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi are among his works on display.

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7 October 2017

Rosalba Carriera - portrait painter

Venetian artist specialised in miniatures


Rosalba Carriera: shown painting her sister in a self-portrait housed at the Uffizi in Florence
Rosalba Carriera: shown painting her sister in
a self-portrait housed at the Uffizi in Florence
One of the most successful women painters in the history of art, Rosalba Carriera is thought to have been born on this day in 1675 in Venice.

A pioneer of the Rococo style, she worked in pastel colours and was best known for her portraits. Her work was so admired that at her peak she had an almost constant stream of commissions from notable visitors to Venice, and from diplomats and nobility in the courts of other countries, principally France and Austria.

Born into a middle-class background, she was able to live a relatively comfortable life, although she would outlive her family, including her two sisters, and had gone blind by the time she died, at the age of 84.

Nowadays, Carriera’s portraits are as highly sought after as they were in the 18th century, with prices in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds realised when examples come up for auction.

One of the finest such examples, a portrait of the Irish politician Gustavus Hamilton, who was a colonel in the regiment of William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne, fetched £421,250 at Christie’s in 2008.

The daughter of a clerk and a lacemaker, Carriera is said to have learned lacemaking from her mother but as the lace industry declined she began decorating snuff boxes with miniature portraits, to be sold to tourists.

Carriera's portrait of Gustavus Hamilton, the Irish politician, sold for £421,250 at Christie's
Carriera's portrait of Gustavus Hamilton, the
Irish politician, sold for £421,250 at Christie's
She was one of the first miniaturists to paint on thin pieces of ivory rather than vellum.

Her talent was soon recognised, bringing her admission to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1704. She moved from snuff boxes to more conventional portrait painting.

Carriera’s portraits were highly sophisticated, appealing to the refined tastes of nobility in particular, who were impressed with the way in which her attention to detail conveyed the image of wealth and luxury.

She placed her subjects almost always in a bust-length pose, with the body turned slightly away and the face looking towards the viewer, with the features accurately captured. Her ability to use her paints to create realistic representations of different textures and materials - gold braid, lace, furs – as well as jewels, hair and skin, set her apart.

Although she veered away from idealising her subjects, inevitably she presented them in a flattering light. By contrast, her self-portraits were sometimes starkly unflattering, emphasising what she considered to her poorer features, exaggerating the size of her nose, for example.  Her best-known self-portrait is one she contributed to the Medici collection of self-portraits at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, in which she portrays herself holding a portrait of her sister, Giovanna, to whom she was devoted.

Her early ‘celebrity’ subjects, whom she painted while they were visiting Venice, included Maximilian II of Bavaria and Frederick IV of Denmark.

Carriera's portrait of the young Louis XV
Carriera's portrait of the young Louis XV
August the Strong of Saxony, who was also King of Poland and sat for her in 1713, became one of her biggest patrons, inviting her to his court and acquiring more than 150 of her works.

Carriera spent between a year and 18 months in Paris, after the collector and financier Pierre Crozat had encouraged her to go.

She arrived with her family in March 1720 and became the idol of the French capital.  She painted every member of the French royal family, including the young Louis XV, and was granted honorary membership of the French Royal Academy.

After returning to Venice, where she had a home on the Grand Canal, she was invited to Vienna, where Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI became her patron.

Carriera was very close to her sisters, Angela and Giovanna, to whom she passed on her skill.  Giovanna helped her fulfil her numerous commissions in Paris, for example.

When Giovanna died in 1738, she was said to have become lonely and deeply depressed, her state of mind not helped by failing eyesight.  She underwent surgery twice in the hope of saving her sight from cataracts, but the operations were not successful.

Carriera spent the last few years of her life living in relative seclusion in a house in the Dorsoduro area of Venice.

The Ca' Biondetti on the Grand Canal was Carriera's home for many years
The Ca' Biondetti on the Grand Canal was Carriera's
home for many years
Travel tip:

Rosalba Carriera lived for many years in the Ca’ Biondetti, a private house on the Grand Canal in Venice, situated between the beautifully ornate Palazzo Mula Morosini and Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, the 18th century palace best known for being the home of the Peggy Guggenheim collection.

The magnificent Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
The magnificent Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute
Travel tip:

Dorsoduro is the quarter of Venice just across the Grand Canal near where it emerges into the lagoon, accessed from San Marco via the Accademia Bridge. Much less crowded than San Marco, it nonetheless has much to recommend it, including the Peggy Guggenheim collection, the Gallerie dell’ Accademia and the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute, which itself houses no fewer than 12 works by Titian.  There are also a host of small bars serving a wonderful variety of the Venetian bar snacks known as cicchetti.


6 October 2017

Maria Bertilla Boscardin – wartime nurse

Brave nun was prepared to die caring for others


A depiction of Maria Bertilla Boscardin from Catholic Church literature
A depiction of Maria Bertilla Boscardin
from Catholic Church literature
Maria Bertilla Boscardin, a nun who was canonised for her devoted nursing of sick children and air raid victims in the First World War, was born on this day in 1888 in Brendola, a small town in the Veneto.

She was beatified by Pope Pius XII in 1952, just 30 years after she died, and made a saint by Pope John XXIII nine years later.

It was one of the quicker canonisations of modern history. Sometimes many decades or even hundreds of years pass before a person’s life is recognised with sainthood. 

Boscardin’s came so swiftly that relatives and some of the patients she cared for were present at her canonisation ceremony. Indeed, her father, Angelo, was asked to provide testimony during the beatification process.

Born into a peasant family, who knew her as Annette, her life in Brendola, which is about 15km (9 miles) southwest of Vicenza, was tough.  She was seen as rather a slow-witted child, mocked by her peers and unkindly nicknamed ‘the goose’ even by the local priest. Her father, a drunkard, was often abusive and violent.

She wanted to become educated but her attendance at school was at times only sporadic because her family required her to work.

Her ambition to become a nun was in part to escape from this unhappy childhood.  She was turned down by the first order to which she applied but the Sisters of St Dorothy in Vicenza admitted her to their convent, assigning her the religious name Maria Bertilla.

After a tough upbringing, Maria found her calling as a carer for sick children
After a tough upbringing, Maria found her
calling as a carer for sick children
Her first job was at the order’s large charity hospital in Treviso, where she worked in the kitchen, peeling potatoes.  What she is said to have told the novice-mistress of the convent indicated that she had very low self-esteem but she asked for their help to become a better person.

She found her calling after being assigned to work with the children being treated at the hospital, many of whom were suffering from diptheria, and needed constant attention.

One of the doctors at Treviso later testified that many of the children, separated from their families for the first time, arrived at the hospital so agitated that they would cry constantly for several days.

But Sister Bertilla, he recalled, “succeeded in rapidly becoming a mother to them all. After two or three hours the child, who was desperate, clung to her, calmly, as to his mother and followed her wherever she went.”

When the First World War spread to Italy in 1915, Bertilla vowed she would make the ultimate sacrifice, if necessary, to care for the wounded.  An entry in her diary read: ‘Here I am, Lord, to do according to your will, under whatever aspect it presents itself, let it be life, death or terror.'

As Treviso came under attack following the defeat of the Italian army at the Battle of Caporetto, she is said to have stayed with patients who could not be moved, praying and providing marsala wine for those who needed it.

After the war, she was sent to a sanatorium to care for soldiers with tuberculosis. Next she was sent to a seminary to care for survivors of an epidemic.

The statue of Maria Bertilla Boscardin at the
church of Saints Peter and Paul in Cagnano
She was unlucky with her own health, however.  Discovered to have a tumour in her early 20s, after which she underwent surgery, she fell ill again in her early 30s.

The cancer had recurred. The only hope of a cure was to have another operation. But she was much weaker this time and died in October, 1922, two weeks after her 34th birthday.

Having suffered so much cruelty as a young girl and left home with little sense of self-worth, Maria Bertilla ultimately left a deep impression on those who knew her.

She was initially buried in Treviso but after crowds regularly gathered at her grave, it was decided to erect a tomb for her in Vicenza. A memorial plaque placed on her tomb described her as "a chosen soul of heroic goodness ... an angelic alleviator of human suffering in this place."

The tomb became a pilgrimage site where several miracles of healing were said to have taken place.

A number of churches in the area around Vicenza have been dedicated to Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin, including one at Via Antonio Federico Ozanam in the west of the city and another in the village of Cagnano, about 40km (25 miles) south of Vicenza, which has a statute of her.

Travel tip:

The house of the Sister Teachers of Santa Dorothea, where Maria Bertilla Boscardin took vows, is located in Contrà San Domenico in Vicenza. It contains a chapel dedicated to her which was built in 1952, in view of her beatification. In the same year the urn containing the remains of the saint, originally buried in Treviso, were placed under the altar table.  In 2002 thanks to architect Paolo Portoghesi the altar - previously in burnished copper - was replaced with one in white marble and the urn containing the remains of the saint was placed in front of it.

Waterways lined with weeping willows are a common sight in Treviso
Waterways lined with weeping willows are a
common sight in Treviso
Travel tip:

For many visitors to Italy, Treviso is no more than the name of the airport at which they might land en route to Venice, yet it is an attractive city worth visiting in its own right, rebuilt and faithfully restored after the damage suffered in two world wars. Canals are a feature of the urban landscape – not on the scale of Venice but significant nonetheless – and the Sile river blesses the city with another stretch of attractive waterway, lined with weeping willows. The arcaded streets have an air of refinement and prosperity and there are plenty of restaurants, as well as bars serving prosecco from a number of vineyards. The prime growing area for prosecco grapes in Valdobbiadene is only 40km (25 miles) away to the northeast.




5 October 2017

Mary of Modena – Queen of England

Catholic wife of James II greeted with suspicion


A 1680 portrait of Maria Beatrice by the  Dutch master Simon Pietersz Verelst
A 1680 portrait of Maria Beatrice by the
Dutch master Simon Pietersz Verelst
Maria Beatrice Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este, who would become known in England as Mary of Modena when she served as queen consort for almost four years in the 17th century, was born on this day in 1658.

The daughter of Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena, the princess, descended from the Bourbon royal family of France and the Medici family of Italy, was born in the Ducal Palace in Modena. Her mother, Laura Martinozzi, from Fano in the Marche, hailed from a noble Roman family.

Tall, elegant and highly educated – she was fluent in French as well as Italian and had a good knowledge of Latin – Maria Beatrice was sought after as a bride for James, Duke of York, heir to Charles II.

She was picked as a suitable prospective bride for his Catholic master by Lord Peterborough, one of the Duke’s closest aides, who communicated with the d’Este family through French diplomatic channels.

James was a widower following the death of his first wife, Anne Hyde. He was no great catch, 25 years older than Maria Beatrice, scarred by smallpox and venereal disease and afflicted with a stutter.

Her mother was more interested in holding out for a possible match with Charles II of Spain, then only 11 years old, and it is said that her daughter was reluctant to marry a man so much older than her. 

Maria Beatrice with her only surviving son, James Francis Edward Stuart, who later be known as the Old Pretender
Maria Beatrice with her only surviving son, James Francis
Edward Stuart, who later be known as the Old Pretender
She was persuaded to accept after Pope Clement X had written directly to her mother, who had been Maria Beatrice’s regent since the death of Alfonso IV.  They were married by proxy in September 1973, a few days before her 15th birthday, and she arrived in England in the November.

The English public and the Protestant parliament were deeply suspicious, fearful of a Papist plot, and she was soon branded “the Pope’s daughter”. Parliament had to be suspended after some members tried to have the marriage annulled.

For her own part, the young princess, noted for her fair complexion and dazzling eyes, was said to have been so shocked at the appearance of her new husband when they first met that she burst into tears.  James already had two children, to whom he introduced his bride as “a new play-fellow”.

Between 1675 and 1682, Maria Beatrice gave birth to five children, none of whom survived.  In the meantime, the unpopularity of the marriage was such that for a number of years they lived in self-imposed exile in Brussels.

James II of England, whose appearance was said to have shocked the young Maria Beatrice
James II of England, whose appearance was said
to have shocked the young Maria Beatrice
When Charles II became gravely ill, however, James returned to England, fearful that if he was out of the country when his father died his illegitimate half-brother, James Scott, Duke of Montague, might attempt to seize power.

In the event, Charles recovered and the Duke of Montague’s public popularity waned following the discovery of a plot to have both the Duke of York and his father assassinated.

Charles eventually passed away in February 1685 and James II was crowned King in April of the same year. Public unrest grew again, however, and when it was announced in 1688 that Maria Beatrice had given birth to a second son, named James Francis Edward Stuart, a rumour quickly spread that he was a “changeling” - another new-born baby sneaked into the birth chamber inside a warming pan to replace her real child, which was stillborn.

A Privy Council investigation later dismissed the allegation as false but, coinciding with a stand-off between James II and leaders of the Protestant church over his attempts to introduce religious liberty for English Catholics, it was enough to prompt his Protestant son-in-law, William of Orange, whose wife, Mary, would have inherited the English throne had James II and Maria Beatrice not had a son, to launch an invasion.

James was deposed in December 1688 in what became known as the Glorious Revolution. Maria Beatrice fled to France, soon to be followed by her husband, whose attempt to regain power after assembling an army in Ireland famously failed at the Battle of the Boyne.

He was allowed to return to France where he and Maria Beatrice spent the remainder of their lives in the Château de Saint-Germaine-en-Laye, a royal palace just outside Paris, where Maria Beatrice died in 1718.

An 18th century print of the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace)
An 18th century print of the Palazzo Ducale (Ducal Palace)
Travel tip:

Modena’s Ducal Palace was the seat of the Este court from the 17th to 19th centuries, occupying land which was the site of the former Este Castle, which was located on the northern periphery of the city at a key position in a network of canals that once linked the city to the Panaro river and the Po. Nowadays, the palace is a military academy, training Army officers and Carabinieri.  The building also houses a military museum and a library. There is limited visiting but bookings must be made in advance.

The Fontana dei Due Fiumi
The Fontana dei Due Fiumi
Travel tip:

More recently, the city of Modena has become famous for being the home of several iconic Italian sports car manufacturers, including De Tomaso, Lamborghini, Pagani, Maserati and, most famously, Ferrari.  The company founder, Enzo Ferrari, had his first workshop in the centre of the city, just a short distance from the ornate Fontana dei Due Fiumi. Modena was also the home of the operatic tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, and of Mirella Freni, the soprano. The Teatro Comunale, built in 1841, was dedicated to Pavarotti after his death in 2007.



4 October 2017

Giovanni Battista Piranesi – artist

Genius who put 18th century Rome on the map


Pietro Labruzzi's portrait of Piranesi, thought to have been painted a year after his death
Pietro Labruzzi's portrait of Piranesi, thought
to have been painted a year after his death
Draftsman, printmaker and architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi was born on this day in 1720 in Mogliano Veneto near Treviso in the Veneto.

He became famous for his large prints depicting the buildings of Rome, which stimulated interest in Rome and inspired the neoclassical movement in art in the 18th century.

Piranesi went to Rome to work as a draftsman for the Venetian ambassador when he was 20. There he studied with some of the leading printmakers of the day.

It was during this period that he developed his own, original etching technique, producing rich textures and bold contrasts of light and shadow by means of intricate, repeated bitings of the copperplate.

Among his finest early prints are the Prisons - Carceri - imaginary scenes depicting ancient Roman ruins, which are converted into fantastic dungeons filled with scaffolding and instruments of torture.

Piranesi later opened a workshop in Via del Corso and created the series of vedute - views - of Rome that established his fame.

Piranesi's etching of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome
Piranesi's etching of the Castel
 Sant'Angelo in Rome
Among his best mature prints are the series Roman Antiquities (Le antichita romane), Views of Rome (Vedute di Roma) and views of the Greek temples at Paestum.

His accuracy, his technical mastery and his depiction of the dramatic and romantic nature of the structures has made these prints the most original and impressive representations to be found in western art.

He was able to  replicate faithfully the actual remains, provide the missing parts and introduce groups of vases, altars and tombs that were absent in reality.

Many of his prints of Rome were collected by gentleman visiting the city as part of the Grand Tour. His precise observational skills allow people today to experience the atmosphere of Rome as it was in the 18th century, as many of the monuments and decorative details of the buildings he depicted have since disappeared, sometimes having been stolen.

Piranesi was also commissioned to restore the church of Santa Maria del Priorato in the Villa of the Knights of Malta on Rome’s Aventine Hill. He used ancient architectural elements in marble and stone for the façade of the church.

After his death in 1778, he was buried in a tomb inside Santa Priorato, the church he had helped to restore.

The Piazza Caduti in Mogliano Veneto
The Piazza Caduti in Mogliano Veneto
Travel tip:

Mogliano Veneto, where Piranesi was born, is a town in the province of Treviso, about halfway between Mestre and Treviso. It is particularly known for its medieval festival that takes place in the town every year in September. It is a stop on the Venice to Udine railway line and has regular services to Venice, Treviso, Udine and Trieste.

The church of Santa Maria del Priorato on Rome's Aventine Hill
The church of Santa Maria del Priorato on
Rome's Aventine Hill
Travel tip:

The church of Santa Maria del Priorato, where Piranesi is buried, is on the Aventine Hill, the most southern of Rome’s seven hills, which is now an elegant residential part of Rome. The original church was built in 939 but between 1764 and 1766 it was renovated by Piranesi and the Piazza dei Cavaliere di Malta was built in front of the church according to his design. The decorative façade of the church was designed by Piranesi to include emblems and references to the military and naval associations of the Knights of Malta. The way in which they are represented indicates Piranesi’s fascination with Rome’s ancient past.