Articles by: Gabrielle Pati

 Last week the Costesi family from Caravaggio, Italy (Bergamo) gave a puppet show entitled "Arlecchino Lovesick" at the Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo'. Children and adults packed the small theatre and let themselves be drawn into the world of some of commedia dell'arte's funniest characters, including Arlecchino, Giuseppino, and Pantalone, with Venice as the backdrop to the story. Although the stage was built in New York, the scenery was also constructed by the Cortesi family and seemlessly alternated between scenes, showing various vistas of Venice.


This hilarious show gave voice to the talented Cortesi clan who writes the stories, builds the puppets and props, and performs as puppeteers. To say these performers are talented would be an understatement. In describing the artistic and theatrical abilities of the Cortesi and their collaborars, one could say that they inject life into the puppets with the energy and voices of real characters from the tradition of commedia dell'arte, which is an Italian theatrical style in which characters clearly represent a certain city through their dialects/accents. In "Arlecchino Lovesick" many of the characters were from Bergamo, the biggest city near Caravaggio where the Cortesi live.


Daniele Cortesi and his wife Maria Teresa Zenoni, along with Virginio Baccanelli, portray such a wide range of voices/characters. The voices and actions of the puppets gave so much life to the puppets on stage that when Arlecchino or Giuseppino fell down or danced, one could sense the motion and almost feel the pain or joy of the puppets.


The plot of the performance centered around Arleccino's love for Smeraldina; when he hears her name, he grows sick with love. Attempting to marry Smeraldina, but being rejected by her father Pantalone because he is poor, Arlecchino and his friend Giuseppino devise a plan to marry her, only to find that the evil Marquis with the advice of his cunning servant Brigella, has planned to marry Smeraldina to pay off his debts with her dowry. Through about ten or more scenes of comedic drama, Arlecchino pervails and his lovesickness is relieved.


For the younger audience the plot was a bit complicated, but this did not stop the kids from engaging in dialogue and song with the players. The energetic interaction between the audience and the lifelike puppets, and the beautifully constructed Venetian scenery, both created a lively and fun atmosphere. Kids and adults alike enjoyed the performance and the sheer joy produced by "Arlecchino Lovesick" lingered until after the show was over, when the Cortesi and Virginio showed the children the puppets up close and gave them a little tour of the stage.


During this visit to the U.S., the Cortesi family also performed at The Hoboken Shelter, and gave a puppetry workshop hosted by the Hoboken Historical Museum. This show is part of "Burattini a Palazzo", a festival that will occur in June in Bergamo.

     America’s oldest federal cultural institution - The Library of Congress - received a work of art in book form, Caterina de’ Medici, regina e mecenate. This rare and precious piece celebrates the feminine genius of Catherine de’ Medici, once Queen of France, who lived and reigned during the 16th century.

On February 23, Fabio Lazzari, Vice-President of the Fondazione Marilena Ferrari-FMR, donated the book to the L.O.C. represented by its reference librarian James H. Billington during a ceremony  held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Washington D.C  at the precence of the Italian Ambassador to the US Giulio Terzi di S.Agata. The book represents the codification of female art and Italian craftsmanship, as women in fact created the work, thus honoring a sophisticated Medici woman who greatly supported and influenced the artistic sphere of her time.

The piece was entirely produced by master female wood-workers in Mantignana with the intention of representing Renaissance illumination and design techniques. Parchment, wood and good were utilized with the utmost care to compose this work, which includes six full-page plates that illustrate events in the life of Caterina de’ Medici. The book is hand finished in every detail and covered in naturally barrel-dyed calfskin with gold leaf embossing, showing Caterina’s emblems and monograms, produced by Marta Minelli, using the hot-pressing technique at the Antica legatoria Steri in Corciano.

Stefania Scotti of Milan designed the lead and color graphite drawings, while Marta Minelli controlled the hand sewn binding of the text. In her workshop, “La pergamena antica” in Sona, Emanuela Viviani used a special process to transform lambskin into the beautiful parchment of the text. These are just a few examples of the skills of the Italian women who produced this fine text.  Caterina would have surely been proud to see the work of her fellow Italian women.
 

As most know, the Medici family left indelible imprints on Italy politically, socially, and artistically. There are endless names of dukes and their heirs who exerted influence on Florence and ensured that the family’s prestige live on. One of the most-powerful female Medici is Catherina (1519-1589), daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino. Through political turmoil, young Caterina was taken hostage as a child and placed in various convents, where she in turn received an excellent education. Caterina’s life circumstances—receiving an education, and then living in France as a royal figure—facilitated her legacy and patronage of the arts.

Upon marrying Henry of Orleans, the son of King Francis I, Caterina caused quite a stir in France when she appeared at the Royal Court in high heels. She was scoffed at by the French, who contemptuously regarded her as “the Italian woman”. However, Caterina was a devout mother and woman of the Renaissance; she acted in favor of Catholicism to further advantage her crown, though was very superstitious and kept astrologers around her constantly. She served France as a powerful queen when her husband died suddenly in 1559, though her presence in France remained unwelcomed, despite her political endeavors and negotiations.

Caterina de’ Medici’s passion for art, theatre, books and cuisine flourished within her palace. She truly was a Macchiavellian queen, and manipulated her political realm to ensure that her sons would become powerful rulers, though she often met opposition from the French. She was an adamant patron of the arts who supported artists of her time at her court.

Interestingly, Caterina’s love for food impacted French cuisine for centuries afterwards. Indeed she imported her Florentine chefs and table manners to France, brandishing her tables with elegance and sumptuous fare. She helped do away with the medieval heaviness of food fare and encouraged natural tastes, colors and textures which later become established as the norm in classical cooking.
 

Caterina’s passion for the arts and cuisine lives on in the 21st century. In fact, The Caterina de’ Medici Gastronomic Society in Pennsylvania is dedicated to dispersing the knowledge of classical and regional Italian cooking, wines and cultural heritage, celebrating the Queen’s palette and contribution to the culinary arts.

On the other hand, the Fondazione Marilena Ferrari-FMR transported the priceless work of art in book form Caterina de’Medici, The Patron Queen to the Library of Congress, giving the American public the opportunity to learn more about this Medici through a precious artistic medium. Testaments to Caterina’s legacy and to the perseverance of female artistry in Italy today are infused in modern culture through food and art, and meant for the world to savor.

Ambrosino has been painting since the 1950s. An ambitious artist from his humble beginnings, his work has been shown in countless galleries in Naples and other parts of Italy, where his varying motifs and styles displayed hints of genres while simultaneously creating a unique style that merited him recognition as a noteworthy artist demonstrative of his native Campania. His studies in the classics and geology had some influence on his work and development as an artist, and the essence of the rich cultural history of his home environment pervades his metaphoric language on canvas and in 3-D mediums.

 Some of Ambrosino’s earlier work exhibits clear “cubist” tendencies; this includes pieces that  were exhibited in the First Edition of the National Exhibition for Young Italian Artists, held in Naples in the late 1950s. Following this period, Ambrosino experimented with a Neo-realistic style in large-scale pieces, which portrayed the struggle of the proletariat work so commonly found in southern Italy.

Influences of cubism and impressionism are evident in Ambrosino’s early work. His surrounding environment, the Province of Naples, provided the artist with a plethora of artistic inspiration for the bucolic nature of his painting as well. In the late 1960s Ambrosino made his debut at the UCAI in the Maschio Angioino in Naples, the "Cerreto Guidi" National Biennial Exhibition of Art, and the National Art Exhibition of the Tourist Office of Desenzano on Garda Lake. At barely 30 years old, Ambrosino was recognized at the best participating artist at the Desenzano exhibition.

 In 1965 Ambrosino faced a crossroad and he made the most pivotal decision of his life: to fully
dedicate himself to art, abandoning his university studies. This decision allotted the time and focus required to pursue a career as an artist, which panned out beautifully over the next few decades.

The following years were packed with prolific achievements in painting, as Ambrosino traveled to Venezuela to display his work at the Marcos Castillo Gallery of Caracas; and to Milan where his talent for portraying his native land shone forth in his paintings. The essence of quotidian southern Italian life is infused in his canvases; he responds to the flow of life surrounding him, making his work personal yet capable of speaking to the masses about being in touch with the realities of everyday life and how one feels connected to the world which engulfs us. Ambrosino’s ability to portray this connectivity between himself and his world through his painting distinguishes him as a painter completely immersed in his art: the mode of expression and life-giving force propelled him forth.

During the 1970s Ambrosino toured the world—Greece, Turkey, the Soviet Union, Romania—to bring his uniquely Italian artistic perspective to a global audience. This was period of distinction for Ambrosino; he participated in numerous exhibitions and began to pick up a new mediums, namely ceramics, which facilitated a wider scope of creative possibilities for the evolving artist. Ambrosino’s work with ceramics and tiles produced vases, wall-plates and various pieces of sculpture that represented humanity’s connection with quotidian life from a more abstracted viewpoint.

Interestingly, Ambrosino was elected mayor of Bacoli in 1983. His pride in his hometown and the prestige he brought to the locality prompted a unanimous agreement to elect him. This served as a major turning point in Ambrosino’s claim to fame and in addition, the region of Campania would see a sort of artistic Renaissance from then on. Ambrosino teamed up with Professor Carmine Benincasa, who orchestrated "Sapere-Sapore", an exhibition of fine art in Italy ranging from 1958 to 1985 at the Aragonese Castle in Baia.

Not only did this exhibition showcase the emerging artists from the Campania region, it gave voice to an often under-appreciated region whose tendency toward corruption and natural disasters blight its image as a noteworthy center of art and culture. Yet the rich human history of Campania gave Ambrosino, throughout his life, much of the ammunition to create his own style of art in which he correlates the human landscape with the mythos and sacred realm inherent in his culture.

As mayor of Bacoli, Ambrosino’s role in the revitalization of art in Campania is unmistakable. The mythical nature of Bacoli continually inspired Ambrosino to represent his interpretation of how the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures left marks on the Mediterranean culture that he shares with so many millions. His style is termed the “Mediterranean Icon” for these reasons; the memory of things once touched, heard, seen and felt composes the essence of Ambrosino’s constantly evolving work.

During the 1990s Ferdinando Ambrosino transformed his art to represent the expression of what is felt in the heart and mind of the artist, dealing more abstractly with depictions of the passage and connection between nature and humanity. Here Ambrosino arrived at an introspective memory of the impressions of the outside world and the passage of life that painting gives life to. He organized exhibitions in San Francisco and New York in this period and established his presence in these centers of art in the United States.

Ambrosino’s Exhibition at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York in late 2009, entitled “The Memory of Time”, portrayed not only his recollection and impressions of his life in Bacoli, but a sort of collective memory found in Campania. The translation of this world to an American audience speaks to the universal notions of the “mundane” and the “sacred” experienced in all cultures. Religious iconography is apparent in this collection, but the presence of human nature in the spiritual world seems to corrupt, or exert influence on, the figures of these paintings and sculptures.

The complex metaphorical language in Ambrosino’s most recent work shows his evolution as an artist; yet his roots as Bacoli no doubt provided the template for a meditative world of art, one that defies genres and evokes the passage of all of humanity.

 “Cooking with Nonna” host Rossella Rago welcomed in the cooking frenzy of the holiday season when she hosted the special “Cenone di Natale” (big Christmas dinner) on November 30th at the Astor Center in Manhattan. The holiday season is often connected with seafood in Italian American homes. We have the nebulous traditional of the seven fishes on Christmas Eve which both the religious and the secular equally enjoy. In the south of Italy, the different regions like Campania, Puglia, and Basilicata for example, all have varying typical dishes depending on the availability of fish. Puglia’s nuances were literally brought to the table on this occasion.

One thing that made the event extra special was that each course of the meal was paired with beautiful wines from the Borghese di Castello vineyard on the Northeastern fork of Long Island. The owners explained the individual nature of each wine, giving us a glimpse into the world of viniculture while pleasing the palette with a versatile “Fleurette” Rosè, a Riesling, and a stunning Barrel Fermented Chardonnay.

Enthusiasts of seafood and Italian cooking were present at the “Cenone di Natale”, and were delighted at the simple yet delicate dishes prepared. Rosella’s own nonna, Romana, along with another Pugliese, nonna Anna, captivated the audience from the countertop chopping and measuring, to the finished products of each course.

For an antipasto, they served Merluzzi Fritti con Fritelle di verdure, which is fried and marinated whiting and mixed, fried and battered vegetables. These treats were accompanied by Foccaccia Barese. The first course consisted of a dish of small pasta with white beans and mussels. Although simple ingredients are called for here, the combination of ingredients in this recipe created a soothing and warm aroma perfect for a cold December night. The main dish boasted oven-baked striped sea bass in a light tomato sauce and herbs, filling but not as heavy as meat dishes. As a side dish, the dandelions and potatoes in broth tasted fresh and earthly.
 

The Puglia region of Italy is known for its seafood. Hence it was enlightening to learn of Puglia’s typical dishes while realizing that it is also very feasible to prepare this food in New York, where the availability of quality food products is endless. Rossella and the nonne also gave some pointers about brands they prefer to use in their cooking.
 

Perhaps the most particular and memorable recipe prepared at the Cenone was the dessert. Cartellate, fried dough pastries made by hand, were filled with either “vin cotto”, a thick, cooked fig juice; or honey. After all the food it was still impossible to resist the two cartellate on my plate, due to their crispy and mildly sweet allure. These dolci di Natale really took center stage.
 

This holiday special of Cooking with Nonna signifies so many things. Traditional cooking from Puglia, an often-overlooked region of Italy, was passionately celebrated and brought forth to the public. Rossella and the two nonne, three women from Mola di Bari whose joy of their land showed when they broke into a song, recounting the tradition of the youngest child in the home carrying baby Jesus around the house at midnight on Christmas Eve.
 

Members of Slow Food USA New York Chapter were present at the Cenone as supporters of the event.  The Slow Food presence highlighted the importance of slowing down to enjoy our food during the holiday season. After all that cooking, we need to savor the food we work so hard to prepare, so remember to slow down and thank your nonna or household cook this holiday.

The star of the night, Rossella Rago, has great enthusiasm and an attractive sense of humor, making her an entertaining host and chef-in-training. All of the recipes prepared on the show are available for the public on the website, so if curiosity calls, don’t resist: there are tons of unique recipes to be found on the site. There is some rumor about Rossella launching her own cooking show next year, so stay tuned to www.cookingwithnonna.com for more details. All the nonne, including Rosella’s nonna, Romana, have a lot to teach Rossella. The work will be fun for all to watch!