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| Francesco del Cossa, Aprile (c. 1470) Fresco, Palazzo Schifanoia, Ferrara, Italia. [1] |
Summer is over and, after a
seasonal break, it is time to return to my activities as a blogger, which I
have missed tremendously. I noticed
people have been checking to see if there was something new; I thank you for
your interest and patience and I hope you continue to visit *mcc about art, art
history, etcetera*.
Today I would like to re-direct
you to a fascinating Podcast: CBC’s Eleanor Wachtel, host of “Writers &
Company, interviews Scottish writer Ali Smith to talk about Smith’s book How to Be Both. The latter has been shortlisted
for the Man Booker Prize.
Laura Miller reviews the book and
here part of her description:
…
Depending on which version you pick up,
this conversation comes either late in the book, or somewhere in the middle.
The novel consists of two parts, both numbered One; half the copies will be
printed with George's portion of the narrative first. I read a copy from
the other half; mine begins with a disembodied spirit being wrenched up
through the earth to find itself, invisible and inaudible, in a museum gallery,
staring at the back of a boy looking at a painting. The painting is the work of
the spirit itself, made back when it was Francesco del Cossa, an artist in 15th-century Ferrara. The
"boy", as this reader found out about 150 pages later, is a girl named
George living in present-day Cambridge.
... (in The Guardian, Saturday 13
September 2014: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/13/how-to-be-both-ali-smith-review-novel [Consulted: October 5, 2014])
Naturally, what I found most captivating
is Smith’s interest in frescoes, but I don’t want to spoil the podcast for you,
so I will leave there.
Francesco del Cossa (c. 1435 – c. 1477) was born in Bologna but is considered an important
representative of the 15th century Ferrarese School.
His frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia (1458 – 1478) are part
of his most notable œuvre. The Duke of Ferrara commissioned del Cossa, Cosimo
Tura and Ercole de’ Roberti the
decoration of this place meant to “to chase away boredom”. Francesco
del Cossa was leading master in the trio and, with his work, he proved he
deserved the distinction.
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| Francesco del Cossa, Aprile (detail) [1] |
Returning to the Podcast, during
her talk with Eleonor Wachtel, Ali Smith comes across as a bright, spontaneous
and entertaining speaker. Wachtel is in top form as an interviewer, as usual.
You can download the Podcast at: http://www.cbc.ca/writersandcompany/podcasts/.
[1] This is a faithful photographic
reproduction of a two-dimensional, public
domainwork of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the
following reason: This image (or other media file) is in the public
domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to
Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life
of the author plus 70 years. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_del_Cossa (Consulted: October 5, 2014.)
