The Rome connection here exists, but first we want to celebrate our long-time Italian friend, Dana Prescott’s new
book, Feathers from the Angel’s Wing:
Poems Inspired by the Paintings of Piero della Francesca.
This gorgeous book was a labor of love for Dana, who lives
at what must be the epicenter of the largest number of paintings in the
world by this ever more-prized 15th-century, early Renaissance artist. That location gave her
the obsession (and yes, it is that) that led to the book. As the New York Times complained a few years
ago Piero ”took more commissions in Sansepolcro
than anywhere else, and his greatest works remain in its vicinity — a source of
great frustration for Piero obsessives outside of Europe, who must visit a series of small villages to
see his frescoes and altarpieces.”
Though the Frick Museum in New York City now has acquired 4 Pieros and
mounted a show in 2013 that the Times called “ravishing.” The word applies equally to the emotion
emanating from the poets Prescott has culled in this meaty book.
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| Madonna del Parto - is she opening her dress? pointing to her rounded belly? Are the angels opening or closing the draperies? Note the pomegranate design on the curtain - a symbol of fertility. |
The writers Prescott includes range from the established and
revered (long after his death) Pier Paolo Pasolini to the American rock star/writer/poet
Patti Smith. But those two aren’t the
alpha and the omega here. Among the
poems that touched me most are two that were read at a book launch in Rome in
June. Both of these poems were inspired
by my favorite Piero, the Madonna del Parto (The Pregnant Madonna), which
remains in Sansepolcro, where it is treasured as a good omen for pregnant
women. Moira Egan’s “Gravid,” composed
of 2 9 line stanzas, each line of 9 syllables, includes the sentence: “I said no to nature, then nature turned and
said no to me.” Contrasted with Egan’s “grief
and guilt come in colors, dull red, queasy green,” is Mongolian poet G.
Mend-Ooyo’s, “The Pregnant Madonna.” That poem takes us lyrically “Between the
trees, grains thread their way across the fields….Each of the seeds is its own
world.” Mend-Ooyo, who grew up in a
nomadic family, still has the nomad’s sense of the power of the earth.
In her work as executive director of Civitella Ranieri, the international
cultural center near Sansepolcro, Dana nurtures many translators. Perhaps because of this background, she gives
tribute to the many translators at work in her book as well, their bios given
equal status with the poets.
I would be remiss in not pointing out the quality of this
hardbound book – the paper, the colors, the reproductions. It’s a beautiful gift to someone in your
life. [At amazon.com, Powell’s and amazon.it.]
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| St. Luke, in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome |
And, finally, the Rome connection to Piero is fragmentary
and lost, both literally. There are a
few heavily damaged fragments of an unfinished ceiling work in Rome’s Santa
Maria Maggiore. Piero also painted
frescoes on the walls of Pope Pius II’s rooms in the Vatican. By order of Pope Julius II, they were painted
over – by Raphael.
Dianne
