The opening of the solo show for Vanni Saltarelli this past Friday at Rome’s 6° Senso Art Gallery was an extraordinary experience, akin to encountering an old friend. The charming, charismatic artist came down from his native region of Lombardy with a small group of friends to celebrate his first show in Italy’s capital. Saltarelli has had solo exhibits all over the world in the galleries of Paris, Vienna, Rotterdam, New York, Hamburg, Monte Carlo, Venice and Milan, displaying works in which he consistently celebrates the magnificence and strength of the female form.

“Perhaps not it is not a very original thing to say”, explains the artist, “but for me the female body is the shape of life. It’s the beginning of life. Something constantly beautiful. Animals fascinate me because they too are constant and unchanging, undergoing only minor mutations throughout the centuries. Nothing crucial in either physical aspect or habit. Putting these two subjects alongside one another is my quest for perfection”.

Despite maintaining his single distinct style throughout his body of work, Saltarelli’s pieces surprisingly accomplish to evoke moods of very different eras. The exhibit’s central work titled ‘Chicco D’Oro’ is modern, sexy, and suggestive. Whether intentionally or not, his crimson-lipped siren absolutely recalls the delicious pin-ups of the great Gil Elvgren. The work’s theatrical glam-grunge factor seems to almost mock the rest of the exhibition’s somber and dark tone; the schematic, dynamic nude exudes power, her steaming espresso suggesting energy and the cerise shoes her fleeting quality. In other words, if this were the world of fashion, these would be front row seats to an Alexander McQueen show: experimental, dark, and infinitely racy.

One the other hand looking at ‘Voglia di Volo’, depicting a crouching female nude from the back, overpowered by celestial force, introduces a different concept. Many of Saltarelli’s paintings, due to their inclusion of animals and nude female forms, unmistakably recall scenes from Greek mythology. ‘Voglia’ may be read as a sinister interpretation of the infamous encounter between Zeus and Danaë, during which the god turns into a shimmering cloud and visits the latter, fathering in this fantastic manner the hero Perseus.

A certain tension prevails between the graphics and the color in Saltarelli’s work: color is used scantily, yet when applied it often overwhelms the canvas, rendering an uneasy effect. The uncontrollable use of black, the artist explains, comes from the very same search for perfection – the painter begins with a rudimentary form and re-works it in the manner of a Penelopewerk, until all that is worthless disappears to reveal the principle and perfect, faceless female figure.

‘Corpi di Vento in Scena’ by Vanni Saltarelli

November 11 – Novembre 30, 2011
6° Senso Art Gallery – Via dei Maroniti 13/15 – Rome, Italy

by Ally Novgorodtseva

For thousands of years the remnants of the final battle of the first Punic War lay undisturbed off the coast of Sicily, until last week when a Stock Island-based research firm raised artifacts from the seafloor that historians say provide clues as to how the largest conflicts in antiquity were waged.

Tired of being driven around in the S-class Mercedes we typically arrange for you? Try our new Fiat cinquecento service with Ellie, the world’s first Jack Russell Terrier chauffeur!

A thank you to our wonderful clients who have given us all 5 star reviews causing us to be awarded a certificate of excellence from Trip Advisor!

Tomorrow is the national holiday designating the birth of the Republic of Italy and commemorating 150 years of Italy as a united nation. This event marks the bringing together of separate territories of Italy which were at war politically and militarily, and eventually in 1870 ended rule by the papacy.

Some Italians could care less, but today I spoke with one who was very excited about it. He is the butcher I often go to in Monti on Via Panisperna, named Piero Sechiotti, who is a  ’prodi Monticiani’ or a proud resident of the neighborhood of Monti. I asked him what he was going to do for the holiday and he said he is holding a party at the piazza of the neighborhood, Madonna dei Monti. He talked about growing up in the neighborhood and how his family has lived there since 1705, when they were servants of the Borgia family which had a nearby palace.

He also spoke of growing up in Monti, and what he and his friends did when they were kids. He was proud to declare that he grew up exactly where Julius Caesar lived and that he spent his childhood exploring the subterranean caverns underneath the streets and buildings of the quarter. He had true fear in his eyes when he told me of the two friends when he was a kid, 14 year olds, who disappeared in the caverns and never returned again. Lost in some sort of underworld even though they were sought by all the neighborhood.

Possibly a sculpture of the young Julius Caesar

The bodies of his friends were never found, but the quarter has yielded many amazing finds. He told me that Veltroni had a whole underground area in our neighborhood cleaned up and opened up to the public during a special event, and said that I cannot possibly imagine the miles of corridors and passageways under neath the city.

He also spoke of the fact that his father hid arms in those caverns from the Nazis, and that before that during the risorgimento his family fought for the unification of Italy and arms were hidden there as well. He said his father was saved from execution because the Nazis could not find the hidden cache of arms they knew he controlled, because it was so well hidden below the city, that only the residents of Monti knew about. He also spoke of the giant rats and wells filled with underground passageways of water, where he suspected his friends disappeared through. The local people of Monti are filled with so many interesting stories and the neighborhood full of many layers of history. The celebrations tomorrow mark just one of those layers and it will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

Piazza Madonna dei Monti and the Gruppo Storico Romano teaching about ancient Roman warfare

Via Leonina where my butcher grew up

Our courtyard with an ancient sarcophagus and other ‘spoglie’ found on site at one time or another

The Monti neighborhood lies behind the great fire wall which was the border between the living quarters and the                                                                                                Imperial Forum

An Imperial era butcher who would perform the sacrificial killings of animals from the Ara Pacis