What should be my focus on this island?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Befores and afters
When the grated chocolate from Gay Odin in Naples was magically removed from our fruit sallad of last night - oh just a simple thing made from one peach, one banana, one plum and a handful of grapes - I had the same feeling American artist Charles Caryl Coleman must have had when his favourite motif was, literally, blown away.
Coleman built the Villa Narcissus and was one of many eccentrics on this island at the beginning of last century. (Apparently the eccentrics have been replaced by people rich with money, not talent, nor folly.)
On his 81st birthday he was dancing the tarantella in a ”blue velvet dinner jacket with his snowy curls and beard shining in the candle-light ... his long thin legs flying.” That must have been 1921. I'll try to do the same thing 2046.
Now almost completely forgotten in the US and Europe, Coleman's work was once sought after. His paintings appealed to various tastes: classical, romantic, commercial, and popular. He seems to have done it all.
When his classical work fell out of popular demand he discovered his grand motif, looking out on the Bay of Naples from his narcissistic villa. There it was: Vesuvius.
Coleman was again prosperous and sold paintings of the furious volcano en masse.
Until April 7, 1906.
That day Vesuvius erupted, and, apart from destroying substantial parts of Naples, ruined Coleman's motif.
The volcano had lost its famous cap, and the attration of the image was gone for Charles Caryl and most of his costumers. Coleman stopped painting.
So now you know how I feel about chocolate being removed from my fruit sallad.
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