After publishing the Weekly Bystander for over a year, I decided to post an interview that I did for a local newspaper a couple of years ago. Last week I posted the first half and here is the remainder.
Q. You are one of several highly respected teachers
whose brief teaching stints, several times a year, for the Fairfield Senior
Center‘s Lifelong Learners Program make you a valuable commodity. What is it
about teaching Seniors that you enjoy?
A. I have always been interested in learning, and
the best way to learn is to try to teach something. It is especially rewarding
to teach in the Lifelong Learners program at the Fairfield Senior center. It is
obvious just looking at the people in class that they are intelligent,
educated, well traveled, and motivated. In my very first class on Renaissance
art I asked if anyone had been to Florence, and practically everyone raised
their hand.
So I get a chance to explore subjects that interest
me with 40 or 50 people who really want to learn, and who also have a wealth of
life experience that they can bring to class.
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| Cong. James Himes with Fairfield Seniors |
Q. Do you enjoy traveling? What are your favorite
places? Are they stuff for the New York
Times travel section?
A. Linda and I have traveled frequently to Italy
since 1997 when we visited our youngest daughter, an NYU student taking a
summer program in Florence. Since then we have gone back practically every
year. It was because of these trips that I began at series of talks at BACIO,
an Italian-American organization founded by Leonard Paoletta, the former mayor
of Bridgeport.
In the talks I tried to discuss the history and the
culture and the art of some of the places we had visited. Most of the world’s
great art comes from Italy. These talks led me deeper and deeper into Art
History until the subject became a passion even before I retired.
Incredibly, this interest led me to a great
discovery. One of the most beautiful and mysterious paintings of the Italian
Renaissance is the “Tempest” by Giorgione, the greatest of all Venetian artists
who died at about the age of 33 in 1510, 500 years ago. Not as well known as
Michelangelo and Raphael, Art historians place Giorgione along side them in the
Renaissance pantheon. To this day scholars, while universally admiring the
Tempest, his most famous painting, cannot agree on what it's all about.
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| Giorgione: The Tempest, Venice 1509 |
I believe that I have identified the subject of the
painting. A short version of my interpretation was published in the Masterpiece
section of the Wall St. Journal in 2006, and I have been developing the thesis
ever since. I have developed a website on Giorgione and also blog about the Venetian Renaissance at Giorgione et al...
Q. I see that you are a member of the Renaissance
Society of America. What is that all about?
A. The Renaissance Society of America is an
organization of scholars from all over the world who share an interest in the
renaissance in learning and art that took place roughly from 1400-1650. They
publish a quarterly journal of articles and reviews, and hold an annual
meeting. In 2010 the meeting was held in Venice. At that meeting I presented my
paper on the “Tempest.”
Q. What do you particularly enjoy teaching at the
Senior Center?
A. My course on the art of the Italian Renaissance,
“A Tale of Four Cities,” is my favorite because of my interest in Renaissance
Italy and its Art. This Spring I will repeat my “Italian Dreams” course which
used four great Italian films to understand the reasons for the great migration
of Italians to America. Next Fall, I will present a new course on four 18th
century revolutions. The course is entitled “England and America in the Age of
Revolution.”
Q. Do you feel that you have a following? That you
have developed a rapport with your students?
A. All the classes have been very well attended. I
believe that we have developed a following for the Foreign Film Festival, which
I launched in 2009. The films are shown at 12:15 on the second Friday of the
month. In our second season we showed
“Bakhtiari Alphabet,” a film about an Iranian tribal people and their
adaptation to the modern world. The film’s producer and co-director, Dr. Cima
Sedigh of Sacred Heart University, was on hand to discuss it with the
attendees. We are also fortunate to have our China expert, Dr. Richard
DeAngelis from Fairfield University, on hand to lead discussion of a number of
films from China including the award winning “To Live.” In April we will feature
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in “Too Bad She’s Bad,” a wonderful early
Italian comedy.
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| Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni |
Q. When we watched Pagliacci, Tuesday morning, you asked your students to watch the
faces of the adults and children in the operatic foreground? Why was it
important that they look at the faces do you think? Did you get any feedback on
that specific request?
It is very difficult for us to imagine our own
parents and grandparents as young vibrant people with real emotions. Looking at
those young faces watching the clowns makes me think of my own grandparents
back in Italy before they came to America. Also, a good film is a work of Art.
From my Art history study I have come to realize that you must try to see
everything in a painting, not just the main figures. Franco Zeffirelli, the
director of “Pagliacci,” put those images on the screen for a reason.
Q. What question would you care to ask that hasn’t
been asked? [Why don’t you answer
it.]
A. It seems that I have said enough for now, but you
might have asked, “Why do you do it?” When I used to counsel my clients on
retirement planning, I liked to stress that retirement was not the end but the
beginning of a new career. It was sad when people told me that they had no
interests beyond work. Linda and I both believe that it’s important to keep
active and continue to grow and learn.
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