One day during our trip to Venice, Italy, we visited the Frari, a grand church indeed. Among its treasures are paintings by Titian, “The Assumption of the Virgin," and the “Pesaro Altar Piece”. In his guide book, Rick Steves points out that the “Pesaro Altar Piece” features portraits of the family members of Titian’s patrons. The family members are portrayed as being present at the assumption of Mary. Rick Steves says that including families of patrons in religious works was common practice of painters at the time. One of Rick's tongue in cheek observations is that the men in the family all seem to have 5 o’clock shadows, easily seen in the portraits.
Speaking of 5 o’clock shadows, when I played oboe in the Philadelphia all city high school band, my Italian band director always had a 5 o’clock shadow, even at 10 am Saturday morning when the rehearsal began. During one rehearsal he became so incensed at our playing that he jumped off his stool and crashed onto the floor with a thud that shook the entire school building. This was the result of the floor being struck by the foot-to-hip cast that kept his broken leg and foot immobilized at the time. That cast hit the floor like the hammer of Thor! Not only did our band director survive this maneuver with his broken leg, but he then proceeded to throw his baton into the clarinet section, an act of amazing balance and precision, given his severely broken leg and foot. All this at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning.
Titian draws Mary in the “Assumption of the Virgin” in a state of ecstasy. The bearded God in the upper portion of the painting ( in a much better mood than our band director) bestows his blessings upon Mary from the stratospheric reaches of heaven. Her receptivity shows that bestowed blessings from above and a mighty director in a good mood are highly desirable things. Meanwhile, the assembled witnesses to the Assumption adore Mary from below. But, according to the religious dictates of the time, the witnesses must get their bestowed blessings second hand, through Mary. The beautiful light in the Altar Piece indicates it's morning, probably 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning.
Speaking of blessings from above, I was playing in a production of “Oklahoma” in an ancient Junior College auditorium. The small orchestra pit was extremely crowded with musicians. The apron of the stage was an overhang above the orchestra pit, and from its condition, it was obvious that the entire complex had not been cleaned in some time, probably not since it was built!
During the show, the ecstatic student cast poured their high spirits into the performance. Their hearts full of joy, they danced on the apron of the stage with the Divine energy of youth. Down upon the heads of us supporting musicians rained the detritus of accumulated years, a disgusting brew of dirt, grime, and dust. Though performing in the shadow of the players on stage, because they get all the attention, and with these questionable blessings raining down upon us, we played on, doing our earthly duties so that our youthful actors and singers could receive praise and love from above, the audience.
Rick Steves also points out that objects portrayed in the Titian paintings have symbolic meaning. No object is only included for its functional role in these highly symbolic paintings. I was playing in a college production of “La Boheme” when some unexpected upset occurred on the stage. Some of the singer-actors were to sit together at a cafe in the scene. They were less than graceful in their entrance and especially their interaction with the props. First a chair was knocked over. Then a table was bumped hard. We could hear the ominous, unmistakable sound of a heavy crockery plate come rolling toward the edge of the stage. The plate proceeded to plummet into the orchestra pit. Yet another “blessing” had rained down on the hapless orchestra, and this one narrowly missed some of the players!
I’m going to stop writing now because it’s almost noon and I need to go shave.
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