Fantasy and Caput Mundi

via Capo d'Africa, 
Watercolor by Andy Devane

In case it were not already obvious, I find no end to my love for the Mediterranean, a reality formed by the rise and fall of civilizations, the movements, migrations and conquests of a thousand cultures and populations. 

The Persians ruled its eastern end 550-330 B.C.E. Outside of modern-day Lebanon, the Phoenicians managed to call parts of Tunisia, Morocco, Spain and Sardinia their own, from the 8^th to 6^th Centuries B.C.E., while at the same time, the Greeks formed colonies in modern-day Egypt, Sicily, southern Italy and southern France.

Of course the Romans conquered all, and Rome and much of Italy itself – traversed as they have been by Arabs, Greeks, Swabians, Normans, Byzantines, Ottomans and Spaniards – are synonymous with the rest of the multi-cultural hotbed that is the great and passionate sea that hosts it. 

Gold Sunset, 
Andy Devane

The fact that the Mediterranean was such a prolific crossroads leaves one in disbelief every time when confronted with the beauty and rich historical detail residing deep inside its languages and dialects, music and architecture, food and spirit, and like it or not, its complex – and sometimes maddening – mentalities.

So far I have created one or two short posts holding a candle up to artists whose work is in the spirit of the blog: those who open to us a window onto the historic passages and conquests of this magnificent and beautiful personage that touches three continents.

I have posted much less than I would have liked to on similarly-inspiring singers/writers/creators. Thus, I actually think it’s high time I did it again!

Statues Underwater, 
Andy Devane

(Click below to read more...)

I have the pleasure of knowing the following artist personally: while I was aware he was a painter the first time I met this fellow expat in Rome, I had no idea I would end up loving his unique themes and perspective so much.

Andy Devane’s sometimes humorous, sometimes lighthearted – but always captivating – artworks capture the intricate and multi-faceted soul of Italy, spanning geography and time.

The Eternal City, ruler of Mare Nostrum, is his primary focus, with glimpses onto a Mediterranean civilization lost but never forgotten.

African animals – birds, lions, giraffes, and zebras – feature prominently in his dreamlike watercolors. He paints them into a sunset view of the Colosseum in via Capo d’Africa (named for one of the streets fanning out from the monument), hinting at the ancient Empire’s forays into the north of that Continent, and the animals imported for various games and displays in the iconic amphitheatre and in the Circus Maximus.

Zebras in Tivoli (Location of the Hadrian 
and d'Este Pleasure Palaces)

The Roman Forum is then plunged into the wild, with exotic palms swaying in dance in Gold Sunset, while elegant zebras drink and graze in the lush palaces of Tivoli. (As I view these, green parrots flit and fly through the canopy of umbrella pines curving and leaning on hills outside my window. Also known as the Italian stone pine, they mirror their neighbors in the Maghreb and recall, at least for me, the sparser, hungrier Acacias of the Serengeti – the beauty in front of me whispers of what’s beyond the Basin’s southern shores, of lands as yet by myself unconquered.)

I personally love Orvieto Zebras, mimicking the basalt and travertine of the Etruscan city’s Cathedral, as I do The Empress Theodora – I have long been partial to Ravenna’s Byzantine mosaics.

Andy's rendering of The Empress Theodora, 
Component of the Mosaics of Ravenna

Visually, these last two are in a class of their own, and while ideas of fruits of conquest, decay of Empires and Caput Mundi stare us dead in the face, in all of Andy’s paintings hides a mystery, something unknown. 

It is not only what is foreign and far off, but what is brutal perhaps, what is greedy and indulgent, vicious and hedonistic. No less intriguing, in this way, are Statues underwater (swimming with the fishes after being shipwrecked and lost at sea, on a journey between here and there), Pamphilj Pope, and Nero Fiddled.

Circo Massimo, panem et circensis, bread and games – Devane’s Noah Comes to Town, Limoncello, and Clowns and Statues hark back to Fellini's fantasies and to the real-life circus of modern Rome itself.

Perhaps no Empire fell so greatly as did Rome, as Rome does… Nero still fiddles and Rome still burns, all is as it was... and this... 

Butterflies in Piazza di Spagna

and this… 

Et tu, Brute?

and this… 

Caput Mundi

it shall remain, until…

Rome Freezes Over! 

(All Photos Courtesy of Andy Devane)

Thank you, Andy Devane, for letting us take a brief trip through your vivid imagination! 
You can find more of Andy and his watercolors imbued with fantasy and Caput Mundi at www.andydevane.com.