Renaissance Exhibition

 At age 86 I know that I will be dead before the museums, galleries, and collections that house the mysterious Renaissance paintings that I have interpreted since 2005 will ever change their labels despite anything I have written. Attempts to correspond over the years with these institutions, and with scholars in the field have elicited few replies. In 2010 This lack of response led me to create Giorgione et al...  where I have posted brief versions of these interpretive discoveries.

Full papers on the major discoveries can be found at academia.edu under Francis DeStefano, or just click on the links below each painting. For the other paintings see the posts on Giorgione et al...  for 2023. Today, I bring them together for readers of The Weekly Bystander with new labels. Enjoy the exhibition.

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                    Giorgione: The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. 

This painting is usually called The Tempest because of the storm in the background. Now we can see that it is Mary who nurses her Child while a young looking St. Joseph stands guard with his traditional staff. The ruins behind him are common in depictions of the Flight into Egypt and the storm in the background can indicate the Massacre of the Infants. Oil on canvas, dated 1509-1510.  Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice. measures 83 by 72 cm,

                    Titian: The Conversion of Mary Magdalen.

This famous painting is usually called Sacred and Profane Love, a title attached to it only in 1694. Scholars have disputed the title and now we can see that the two women are Mary Magdalen as a courtesan, and as a penitent discarding her finery after her conversion. The fictive relief in the center represents, from right to left, St. Paul falling from his horse, Cain and Abel, and Adam and Eve. Oil on canvas. 1514. Borghese Gallery, Rome. 118 cm x 273 cm (46” x 110 “).

       Giorgione: The Encounter of Jesus with the Rich Young Man. 

This painting is usually called The Three Ages of Man from the obvious disparity in age of the three men, but the disparity, as well as the clothing, helps to identify Jesus on the right, wearing a green liturgical vestment, instructing the finely dressed rich young man in the center. St. Peter, typically depicted as a balding older man, is dressed in martyr’s red. He looks out and invites the viewer to participate. C. 1500-1501. Pitti Palace, Florence. 62 cm x 77.5 cm (24” x 30.5”). 

                            Titian: Homage to Giorgione.

This small painting, usually known as The Pastoral Concert and variously attributed to either Giorgione or Titian, can now be seen as Titian’s Homage to Giorgione, his recently deceased mentor and friend. Giorgione is depicted in red finery in the center, but important details indicate that he has died: his face is in shadow; the absence of strings on his lute indicates he will play no more; and the dark sky in the background is ominous. Titian’s portrayal of himself as a young rustic recalls the biblical story of David and Jonathan. The two nude females are the muse Euterpe in different roles. On the left she pours Giorgione’s soul out like a libation, and in the center she hands her musical instrument to Titian. Oil on canvas. c. 1510. Louvre, Paris. 110 cm x 138 cm.

Michelangelo: Behold the Lamb of God.

This painting is always called the Doni Tondo after Michelangelo’s patron, but scholars disagree about who is handing the infant Jesus to whom, and also about the nudes in the background. Now we can see that Mary elevates her Son as a priest elevates the Host at the consecration of the Mass. Joseph kneels as a communicant would do when receiving the Host. In the midground the young John the Baptist looks at the elevated Jesus and proclaims: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” The nudes in the background are the Nephilim or the Giants in the Earth those sinners who could only be destroyed by the Flood in the time of Noah. Uffizi gallery, Florence. c. 1507. Oil and tempera on panel. 120 cm diameter (47.5 ").

                    Titian: Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Usually called The Madonna of the Rabbit because of the conspicuous white rabbit in the center, the subject of this painting is the mystical marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria. Mary hands her Son to the saint as if she were giving the Eucharistic Host to a communicant. In her other hand she holds the white rabbit, which can now be seen as a symbol of the Eucharistic Host. St. Joseph, in rustic garb, sits off to the side stroking a black sheep that is symbolic of sacrifice. Oil on canvas. c. 1530. Louvre, Paris. 71 cm x 85 cm (28” x 33”).

                                             Giorgione: Judith

This painting obviously depicts the Hebrew heroine Judith calmly standing over the decapitated Holofernes. However, her often discussed bared leg can now be recognized as a device used by Giorgione to indicate a woman in danger of sexual assault. Oil on canvas transferred from the original panel.  c. 1504. Hermitage, St. Petersburg. 144 cm x 66.5 cm (57” x 26.2").

                                Giorgione: St. Sebastian

 This painting is usually called The Boy with an Arrow, but the comparison with depictions of St. Sebastian by Raphael and others is obvious. Giorgione characteristically omits the halo but the young man’s angelic face as well as his red garment indicate the famous martyr. Oil on panel. c. 1505. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 48 cm x 41.8 cm.

 

                          Giorgione: Conversion of Mary Magdalen. 

The traditional labels, Laura, or Portrait of a Woman, do not fit. Scholars find no evidence for Petrarch’s lover, and no respectable woman would have sat for such a portrait. Details in this painting suggesting both a married woman, and a courtesan can only point to Mary Magdalen. Here, she sees the light and sheds her courtesan’s robe to become a bride of Christ. Oil on canvas mounted on panel. 1506. Kunsthstorisches   Museum, Vienna. 41cm x 34 cm. 

                            Titian: Conversion of Mary Magdalen.

Labelled Head of a Venetian Girl, this early painting by Titian resembles Giorgione’s Laura. Both can now be seen as Mary Magdalen in the process of removing her courtesan’s finery after seeing the light. Later Titian would paint many versions of Mary Magdalen, most of which featured the bared breast, disheveled clothing, and red hair. One even showed the saint with the same multi-colored shawl. Oil on panel transferred to canvas. c. 1509. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. 31.8 cm x 23.8 cm (12.5” x 9 .375 “).

                         Titian: Conversion of Mary Magdalen. 

Scholars have questioned the traditional label of this painting as the Roman nymph Flora. Titian painted many images of Mary Magdalen in the process of discarding her courtesan’s garments after her conversion. Her partially bared breast, flowing red hair, and even the flowers in her hand that have sacred symbolism, all point to the great saint. Oil on canvas. c. 1517. Uffizi gallery, Florence. 79.7 cm x 63.5 cm (31.4” x 25”). 

          Giorgione: The Encounter with Robbers on the Flight into Egypt.

This mid-seventeenth centuty copy by David Teniers of a lost Giorgione painting was originally called the Finding of Paris after the legendary account of the discovery of the infant Trojan prince. Scholars attach great importance to this small painting because they think it shows Giorgione's early interest in the Trojan War cycle. However, every detail in the painting fits one of the legends about the biblical Flight into Egypt. The two men on the right are robbers and their cohorts can be seen sleeping in the mid-ground. Mary’s bared leg indicates her danger. The infant Jesus lies on a white cloth on the stony ground and the elderly Joseph sits off to the left. Oil on panel. 1656. Museum of Fine Art, Belgium. 21 cm x 30.5 cm. (8.2” x 12”).

                   Giorgione: The Three Magi behold the Star.

 This painting was initially called Three Philosophers when seen in 1525 in the home of a Venetian patrician fifteen years after the death of Giorgione. Since that time scholars have not been able to agree on which philosophers are depicted. However, there is evidence that Giorgione has depicted the three Magi when they first behold the star of Bethlehem. The sun is setting in the background but the men are lit by another source of light. The colors of their garments are seen in other depictions of the Magi, and represent the gifts they will bring. Oil on canvas. c. 1506-1509. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 123 cm x 144 cm (48” x 57”).

Palma Vecchio: The Meeting with John the Baptist on the Return from Egypt. 

This large painting, currently in storage at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is labeled “Allegory” for no good reason. In the center the infant Jesus embraces his older cousin, who according to legend also escaped Herod’s wrath. This very common scene depicts the acceptance by Jesus of his mission. Mary sits and watches on the left and Joseph stands guard on the right. The Lamb in the background helps to recall John’s words: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Oil on panel transferred to canvas. c. 1510-15. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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Tariffs and Inflation

  

It seems clear, as opponents of President Trump’s tariff policy keep reminding us, that tariffs contribute to inflation. However, there are other factors that also have an impact on inflation. In particular, energy costs, which effect practically every aspect of the economy, have a major impact. Low energy costs help to keep inflation down, and high energy costs, lead to higher inflation.

Despite the tariffs imposed during President Trump’s first administration, there was practically no inflation from 2016 to 2020. Low energy costs must have contributed but the pandemic also was a factor in keeping inflation down. However, I have suspected that the tariffs imposed by President Trump during his first term might have contributed to the runaway inflation experienced during the Biden administration. Biden kept some of the Trump tariffs in place but drove up energy costs on behalf of the Green New Deal. Recall that almost the first thing President Biden did on taking office was to cancel the Keystone pipeline project.

Now in his second administration, President Trump has doubled down on tariffs, and at the same time he has acted to encouraged energy production. As a result, prices at the pump are well below those of the Biden years. So far, it seems that lower energy costs are offsetting the inflationary impact of the tariffs. 

So, why use tariffs in the first place? In a recent op-ed that appeared in the New York Times on August 7, Jamieson Greer, the current US trade administrator gave an extended explanation. He wrote:

The previous system rejected tariffs as a legitimate tool of public policy, meaning that the United States sacrificed tariff protection for critical manufacturing and other sectors. Over the past three decades, the United States slashed barriers to our markets to allow vast inflows of foreign goods, services, labor and capital.

At the same time, other countries kept their markets closed to our goods and deployed a suite of policies—such as subsidies, wage suppression, lax labor and environmental standards, regulatory distortions and currency manipulation to artificially boost exports to the United States. This approach made the United States and a handful of other economies the consumer of last resort for countries pursuing beggar-thy-neighbor economic policies. 

I think Jamieson makes a good point. I have often wondered why commentators who believe that tariffs are so bad for us never bother to explain why other countries think they are so good for them. It was amazing to see President Trump point to a chart showing how high the tariffs of our trading partners were compared to ours. 

Mr. Jamieson’s article helps to explain why my hometown in Connecticut is full of Korean, Japanese, and German cars, and why, when my wife and I travelled abroad, we never saw any American cars. Foreign countries use tariffs to protect their home industries from foreign competition. Even without tariffs, it would be hard for American auto manufacturers to compete against foreign rivals which have much lower production costs. Our salaries and benefits, from CEOs to janitors are the highest in the world. Our workplace and environmental regulations are also beyond compare. Our companies emit a fraction of the pollutants produced in China. Speaking of China, I doubt if there are any unions in the Peoples’ Republic.

Some may argue that in the past three decades the United States has achieved an incredibly high level of prosperity. The stock market is at an all-time high and business is booming. Consumers have gained by importing goods from abroad whose prices, even when you factor in transportation costs, are much less than those produced by American manufacturers. 

On the other hand, our national debt is $37 Trillion and rising. Interest on the debt alone comes close to our entire defense budget. Is this the cause or effect of our prosperity?

President Trump has repeatedly said that he is for “fair trade”, and so far, his trade deals have attempted to reduce the tariffs imposed by other countries in order to create trade balance. They are designed to stimulate American manufacturing.  Whether these tariffs work in the long run remains to be seen. 

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The Killers in Washington D.C.

President Trump's decision to take over the policing of our Nations's Capitol, and deploy a National Guard contingent to patrol its streets in response to rampant criminal activity by young black men, often teenagers, has attracted national attention. Opponents call it racist although others argue that  Washington D.C.'s black residents will benefit the most if the streets are secure. Some cite declining crime statistics, but I believe that most residents of the Capitol know that parts of the city are not safe, especially at night.

The President's action reminded me of a post I had written two years ago on the "root causes" of urban crime. See below.

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An article in the Wall Street Journal this week about young black men caught my eye. Barry Latzer, an emeritus Professor of criminal justice at New York’s John Jay college, traced the alarming increase in murder rates in the United States to a combination of “big cities, guns, and young black men.” 

Latzer noted new statistics that showed that while violent crimes like rape, robbery, and assault declined somewhat during the pandemic, the murder rate skyrocketed especially among young black men. Black males were victims of homicide at a rate five times that of white or Hispanic men, and the great majority of these murders were committed by other young black men. Often, the killings seemed to be over trivial matters, or affronts to “honor.”

 

Latzer attributed this type of killing to a holdover from Southern culture of 150 years ago, that blacks have carried into Northern cities. I trained as a historian many years ago, and one of the things I learned was to look for proximate causes of events, that is, causes closest in time to the event. I don’t think there is a need to go back a hundred years or more to find an explanation of why young black men are killing each other at alarming rates today. I think we have only to look at the education these young men received in their own brief lifetimes.

 

I am not referring to the formal education they have received in school. In my opinion, the low scores and poor results black young men achieve in school are not due to a lack of brain power but to a lack of motivation. Outside of school they have been educated to distrust and despise school. Their real education takes place on the street or on their phones. What do they learn there?

 

In a recent news story in my local newspaper, a Bridgeport gang member pleaded guilty to racketeering charges. He was a member of a notorious gang that “robbed drug dealers, customers and others, sold narcotics, and stole cars from inside and outside Connecticut, often using the cars to commit crimes.” In addition, they “frequently used social media to promote and coordinate their criminal activities.” Social media posts and text messages revealed that he “possessed firearms, including firearms with extended magazines, and that he sold a variety of drugs. … he also participated in the theft and possession of stolen vehicles, some of which were used to commit shootings.”

 

Over his 20 years this young man had obviously acquired the considerable education and skills necessary to compete in his chosen profession. He was part of a skilled band with their own code of ethics. His formal education in school must have seemed like mere child’s play, totally irrelevant to life in the real world. In other words, he and others like him are uncivilized. They are ruthless barbarians. 

 

 I do not say this is so because they are black. I think the color of their skin, or their race has little to do with it. After all, there is only one race, the human race, and we all have the same human nature. We can find examples of uncivilized young men all over the world today. Just look at images of members of Mexican drug cartels wielding AK-47s while ferrying migrants over our southern border. Remember the young men of ISIS cutting off the heads of captive victims. Are the Taliban in Afghanistan any different? Looking back on our own history, every wave of immigrants brought with it young, uncivilized young men who formed gangs and thought nothing of killing to avenge the slightest insult.

 

For thousands of years it has been parents, family, religion, customs and traditions that have civilized young men. The breakdown of these institutions in the past 50 years has been catastrophic in America. Coincidentally, this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop music. In the same week that Professor Latzer bemoaned the high murder rate among young black men, Jason Riley, a black man who is a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal, bemoaned the effects of the musical genre that has been the most powerful educational tool among young black men.

 

“A-list hip-hop artists… became fabulously wealthy trafficking in racist gutter lyrics and ugly stereotypes about black people. For decades, black parents have devoted an inordinate amount of time—with mixed success—to shielding their children from the materialism, drugs, promiscuous sex and thuggery behavior that pervades the songs of some of hip-hops most popular artists. ... decades of glorifying the gangsta-rap lifestyle and, worse, presenting it as the only authentic black experience, have come at a cost.”

 

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Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Yesterday, August 6, marked the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the Atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. In Japan it was commemorated by the ringing of the Peace Bell. A few days later a second bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki with equally devastating results. Thankfully, so far the world has been spared from another nuclear catastrophe. Nevertheless, on the news the other day I heard that even one of our nuclear submarines carries enough Atomic bombs to wipe out 176 cities.  Ten years ago I wrote the following on the bombing.

 This August marks the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Commentators are still debating the legitimacy of the decision to drop the bombs but no one questions the horrible devastation that was visited on the population of the two cities.

Thankfully over the last seventy years , despite the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam and the apparently unending conflicts in the Middle East, the world has avoided another nuclear catastrophe. Nevertheless, despite a shrinkage of the large nuclear arsenals of the USA and Russia, other nations have joined the list of those possessing nuclear weapons.

I do not want to comment on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki decision. Others, more informed than I, have long debated the pros and cons. Nor do I want to discuss the pending deal with Iran since no one as yet has anywhere near the information that the President and his advisors have.

PBS recently ran a documentary on the bombing of Hiroshima. In the re-creation a lone B-29 bomber is seen flying over Hiroshima, and in the next minute almost 100000 people are killed, maimed, or disfigured for life. They were people like us. Oddly enough, it made me think of Beethoven’s great symphony #9 with its magnificent choral ending, the Ode to Joy, based on the poem by Schiller.

The notes on my album claimed that Beethoven had considered putting the ode to Joy and Brotherhood to music for over twenty years.

We are all familiar with the opening strains in German.

Freude, schoner Gotterfunken.Tochter aus Elysium.Wir betreten, feuertrunken,Himmlische, dein Heiligthum.

Here is a full English translation of the text from this greatest of symphonies. It culminates in an affirmation of the brotherhood of man under one Creator.

Joy, thou gleaming spark divine,

Daughter of Elysium.

Drunk with ardor, we draw near,

Goddess, to your shrine.

Thy magic unites again

What custom sternly drew apart.

All mankind become brothers

Beneath thy gentle hovering wing.

He whose happy fortune grants him

Friend to have and friend to be.

Who has won a noble woman,

Let him join in our rejoicing!

Yes—even if it were one heart only

Beating for him in the world!

But if he has never known this,

Let him weeping steal from out our ranks.

Joy is drawn by every creature

From the breast of Nature.

All men good and all men evil

Walk upon her rose strewn path.

Kisses gave she and the ripe grape,

A good friend, trusty to the last.

Even the worm can feel pleasure,

And the Seraph stands before God.

Glad as suns that He hurtles

Through the vast spaces of heaven.

Pursue your pathway, brothers.

Be joyful as a hero in victory.

Millions, be you embraced!

For the universe, this kiss!

Brothers—above the canopy of stars

A loving Father surely dwells.

Millions, do you fall upon your knees?

Do you sense the Creator, world?

Seek him above the canopy of stars!

Surely He dwells above the stars.

Click here for a five minute flashmob doing the end of the chorale or just go to the video below.