The exhibition titled “Leonardo: Il Genio, il Mito” (Leonardo: The Genius, The Myth) is at the Reggio di Venaria, a royal palace that is the epitome of European baroque splendour built for the Savoy family in the 17th and 18th centuries, to the designs of the architects Amedeo di Castellamonte and Filippo Juvarra.

The self-portrait of the Renaissance master has been kept in the Royal Library in Turin since it was sold to Carlo Alberto di Savoia (1748-1849) by Giovanni Volpato in 1839 as part of a collection of Leonardo’s drawings.  Volpato bought these drawings from all over Europe and finally sold the corpus of 1585 items to Carlo Alberto, Prince of Carignano and King of Sardinia – the kingdom of Italy did not yet exist – for 50 thousand lire.

Dating from the later years of Leonardo’s life, possibly 1515 when he would have been 63 years old, the Autoritratto is a small drawing, in red charcoal (sanguigna) on paper, measuring 33.5 x 21.6 cm.  After Leonardo’s death in 1519 his works were moved to Francesco Melzi’s villa in Vaprio d’Adda, but later his pupil’s heirs started to sell off the collection.

Curated by Carlo Pedretti, Paola Salvi and Clara Vitulo, the exhibition will continue until  29 January 2012 and it represents “a sort of introduction to the major exhibition that will be held in Amboise (France) from 2 May 2019 to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death.”

I was delighted to end with a first-class rate selection of author profiles:  Christopher Gortner, Annabel Lyon and Sara Sheridan.  All three are highly professional writers and excellent representatives of this exciting new generation of historical novelists: committed to research and historical accuracy, yet knowing the importance of narrative, compelling characterisation and voice.

I’ve included my profile of Annabel Lyon’s extraordinary book The Golden Mean here.  If you’re interested in becoming a member of the HNS, please go to the website.  Moreover, plans for the 2012 Conference in London are now well underway: the dates are 29-30 September, 2012, at the University of Westminster on Regent Street in central London.

The ceiling was painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti between May 1508 and October 1512, a staggering accomplishment by any measure.  However, the anecdotes told by Vasari and Condivi about the artist making everything except grounding the colours himself are most certainly not true. (Forcellino, Michelangelo: A Tormented Life, translated by Allan Cameron, Polity 2009) Michelangelo was helped by Florentine artists, Francesco Granacci (1469-1543) whom he had known since childhood, and others who had trained with him in Ghirlandaio’s workshop.

The myth that he completed the work, in heroic solitude, was largely created by Vasari – when all Michelangelo’s assistants were dead.  Vasari described how,

 “…closing himself inside the chapel, he [Michelangelo] would not open it to them [the assistants] or even see them at his home. And when they thought this joke had been carried far enough, they made up their minds and returned to Florence in disgrace. Then Michelangelo made arrangements to do the whole work by himself, and he readily brought it to a very fine conclusion with diligent effort and study; nor would he ever see anyone, to avoid having to reveal his work, and, as a result, everyone’s desire to see it grew greater every day.” (Vasari, Life of Michelangelo, trans. Bondanella, p. 440)

The mysteries of the ceiling and its interpretation continue to stir up debate among historians: however, as always, the monumental brilliance of the paintings and their portrayal of a narrative sequence from man’s most abject actions (Noah’s drunken stupor and Cain’s murderous actions) to divine grace and the hope of redemption are at the heart of Michelangelo’s work.

This anniversary is also marked by a display of Michelangelo’s drawings for both the Sistine and the Pauline chapels as part at the exhibition “Leonardo e Michelangelo. Capolavori della grafica e studi romani” at Musei Capitolini in Rome (29 October – 12 February 2012).

Corresponding with Antonio Forcellino, who has been present during Lorenza D’Alessandro’s restoration of the Pietà  – now sometimes unappealingly called the Buffalo Pietà: I much prefer the Ragusa Pietà, which I hope will win the day! – I realise that the case for its attribution to the great master is gaining strength by the day.  It is rare indeed in the art world that the archival documentation, the historical reconstruction of events, and the technical analysis of the painting coincide so completely.  What seems even more bizarre is that until the late 19th century (when the painting was taken to America), this painting was recognised by all those who knew of it to be by Michelangelo, but this all changed when the great art historians of the 20th century – scholars of the calibre of Johannes Wilde and others – chose to disregard the archival documentation on the grounds that Vasari had decreed that the master had produced only four panel paintings, or easel paintings.  All this has been extensively written up in scholarly articles by Antonio Forcellino and his sister Maria Forcellino – and the latter has also written extensively on the Cavalieri Crucifixion in Oxford and on Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna e gli spirituali (2009).  However, to no avail: many art historians still rule out the evidence.  Time will tell, but with this exhibition the countdown is now well underway.

I’ll never forget the thrill of walking in through the Porta Sant’Anna and up past the Post Office and through the arch leading into the large Cortile della Biblioteca in front of the library.  Security was not nearly so intrusive then, but you still needed one or more academic letters of introduction to get a reader’s ticket.  Then the library was only open in the mornings and it was good to get there promptly – although there were always the really early-birds whose names appeared the top of the signing-in register every day.

On my first visits to Rome I used to stay at St Brigida’s convent in Piazza Farnese where the nuns were very kind and put up with the occasional lapse when I broke the curfew on a few occasions.   Later the British School of Rome generously helped with funding while I was in the “writing-up” stages of my doctorate.

The little kiosk in the library courtyard provided a very welcome source of mid-morning refreshment.  The excitement of being there never really paled – quite a change from my elevenses arrangements now!

I worked at the Vatican Library and in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano over a period of about eight years roughly (1980-1988), essentially until we moved to Turin early in 1989.   Now that I am teaching again, I think a study visit is long overdue.

“23 June 2011 saw the inauguration in Rome of the Casa delle Traduzioni (‘House of Translations’). Run by the institution ‘Biblioteche di Roma’, the House will have a specialist library and a permanent space devoted to cultural activities related to the world of translation. In a few months the House will also open a small residence (2-3 places) designed to receive professional translators preferably translating from Italian into other languages. With the creation of a specialist documentation and consultation centre, the new House seeks both to provide training for the work of the literary translator and to promote the spread of Italian language and literature throughout the world. Its aim is to become a place of work and research, and to provide a place of meeting and exchange between translators from different countries. The library at the centre also contains a special holding of translations of the works of Elsa Morante and a gallery of portraits of Italian authors by the photographer Rino Bianchi.

Librarian: Simona Cives. Address: Via degli Avignonesi 32,00187 Roma.
Tel: (0039) 06 45430235 – 06 45460721
email: casadelletraduzioni@bibliotechediroma.it

It sounds like a very welcome addition to the panorama of Italian literary translation.

The BBC has just announced it is reducing the number of Short Story slots on Radio 4 from the already reduced figure of 3 – (it used to be 5) – to ONE per week, from next year.

Having written extensively about these findings in academic articles, Antonio Forcellino decided to write an account aimed at a more general readership.  The book (which I translated for publication by Polity Press earlier this year) is titled The Lost Michelangelos and it tells an extraordinarily gripping tale.  The first of the “lost” paintings hit the headlines last winter: it is a Pietà by Michelangelo that had spent the last century or so in an American family home, and latterly behind the sofa!  However, until now, the other “lost” painting, the one in Oxford, had received less attention.

In the past this small painting of the Crucifixion with the Madonna, St John and two mourning angels (measuring c. 20 x 13 inches) has been attributed to Marcello Venusti, as are two other very similar paintings, one known as the Doria Crucifixion in Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome, and another in Casa Buonarroti, Florence.  One of the few studies of the painting was published by Phyllis Borland in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 103 (1961), pp. 432-435.  Borland refers to an X-ray photograph of the underdrawing (also published in her article) but she uses it to substantiate rather than to question Venusti’s authorship, in spite of quoting the inscription on the back of the panel (I do not know if this is still extant?):

‘This unique picture was painted by Mich. Angelo Buonarotti and was presented by him to his intimate friend the Cavl. Cavallieri of Rome in whose family it remained until the year 1797 [when] it was purchased by Mr Fagan the British Consul at Palermo.  The Seals . . . back are those. . . the Cavallieri Family.
Vide Duppa [and This picture other authors?]  came into my possession in 18o[8?]  from the Agent of Mr Fagan.  W. Buchanan  August 1818′  (Borland,p. 434)

Forcellino’s reasons for examining the painting in Oxford in greater detail and using the latest infra-red techniques are clear: there is a documented connection between it and the Cavalieri family, and specifically with Tommaso Cavalieri, “a young nobleman of great physical beauty whom Michelangelo met in 1532 and to whom he had a passionate emotional attachment” (The Oxford Dictionary of Art). There were originally no fewer than 18 wax seals marked with the Cavalieri family arms around the edges of the panel.

When he first saw the painting in Oxford Forcellino writes that it was immediately clear that “the figure of Christ was in a wholly different league … the modelling was stronger, and the painting and facial expression had a clarity that created the impression of an artist of much greater standing. The quality of the painting was so evident that it was embarrassing to think that a whole generation of art historians could have believed this was the work of the same artist as the Doria Crucifixion and the painting in Casa Buonarroti.” (The Lost Michelangelos, p. 139)

In short, while Forcellino is “convinced that no one but Michelangelo could have painted such a masterpiece”, he qualifies this attribution later, stating that there is “a very strong likelihood,  stronger than for any other attribution hypothesis put forward for Michelangelesque works in the past century.” (p.145)

Rob Sharp’s article in The Independent is here and further details of Antonio Forcellino’s book can be found here.

The Judges have chosen, from works of historical fiction published in 2010, a shortlist of six novels. Their diversity, historical range and character could scarcely be more extended – from imperial Japan, Tudor England, Tsarist Russia, and 19^th century Jamaica to turn-of-the-century Ireland and interwar London.   The winner will be announced in June and will receive £25,000, making the Walter Scott Prize the biggest annual UK literary prize to be judged outside London.

The shortlist is:

The Long Song by Andrea Levy

C by Tom McCarthy

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor

Heartstone by C J Sansom

To Kill A Tsar by Andrew Williams

Judges’ criteria in choosing the books include originality and innovation, quality of writing, and potential durability.  Chairman of Judges, Alistair Moffat, said:

“The Walter Scott Prize has become, in its second year, one of the most sought-after English language book prizes.  However it is uniquely awarded for historical fiction, a genre which allows as wide and fascinating a range of writing as fiction itself.  In judging the year’s output, our principle is that the books must inhabit the past and enrich our historical understanding, at the same time as changing our perspective on the present.”

The Prize, which was won in its inaugural year by Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, honours Sir Walter Scott’s achievements and his place as one of the world’s most influential novelists, and is made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.

The Judges are Elizabeth Buccleuch, Elizabeth Laird, Allan Massie, David Robinson, and Gavin Wallace.  These are their short comments on the shortlisted books:

The Long Song by Andrea Levy:

“Andrea Levy brings to this story such personal understanding and imaginative depth that her characters leap from the page, with all the resilience, humour and complexity of real people. There are no clichés or stereotypes here. The Long Song is quite simply a celebration of the triumphant human spirit in times of great adversity.”

C by Tom McCarthy

“C  is a novel of great narrative intensity and daring centred on the birth of telecommunications and modernism, with a challenging philosophical take on the relationship between language and identity.  As well as a novel of ideas it is a powerful and eerie historical fantasy written with luminous and disturbing brilliance, whether in the intense depictions of the silk farm in which the enigmatic anti-hero, Carrefax, is brought up, or the later overpowering evocations of the carnage of the First World War trenches.  This is a work of unashamedly challenging literary ambition.”

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell

“David Mitchell creates a wonderfully pungent and atmospheric world in this remarkable novel. Set on Dejima, a tiny man-made island in the Bay of Nagasaki and the commercial gateway to late 18^th century Japan, it tells the story of a young Dutch clerk and how he tries to make his fortune but loses his heart. It is spellbinding, a superb piece of storytelling.”

Ghost Light by Joseph O’Connor

 “The story of J M Synge’s leading lady Molly Allgood and their doomed love affair, as seen through Molly’s eyes, is deeply moving and also very funny in parts.  Phrases that stay with you for long afterwards dot its pages, while ambiguity about its historical precision adds a further intrigue.  Joseph O’Connor has certainly inhabited his leading character and the times she describes – both in her youth and as an elderly, poverty-stricken figure.”

Heartstone by C J Sansom

 For some reason, historians have shied away from Henry VIII’s third war against the French, even though their 1545 invasion force was bigger than the Spanish Armada and the English had raised the biggest military army the country had ever seen. The fifth novel in C J Samson’s Matthew Shardlake series begins with what seems to be a relatively minor case but soon opens up into a compelling drama with an epic sweep.”

To Kill A Tsar by Andrew Williams

To Kill a Tsar is a very accomplished novel which can be enjoyed as a gripping and moving historical thriller. It is more than that, however, for it invites us to reflect on questions of morality and to ask whether violent means may justifiably be employed to achieve worthy ends, whether indeed such ends must be corrupted if the means themselves are inescapably criminal.”

The prize will be presented as part of the Borders Book Festival, in the wonderful setting of Abbotsford House, on Saturday 18 June. This year those present will also be treated to actor Robert Powell reading excerpts from each of the shortlisted novels!