LOTIS
oil on canvas (50 x 70 cm.)
PRIVATE COLLECTION
LOTIS was a Naiad Nymph of the springs of the River Sperkheios on Mount Othrys in Malis, northern Greece. She metamorphosed into a lotus flower in order to escape the pursuit of the god Priapos.
"You were holding, Greece, the feast of grape-crowned Bacchus [Dionysos], celebrated by custom each third winter. The gods who serve Lyaeus [Dionysos] also attended and whoever is not hostile to play, namely Panes and young Satyri and goddesses who haunt streams and lonely wilds [Naiades and Dryades]. Old Silenus came, too, on a sway-backed donkey, and the red-groined terror of timid birds [Priapos whose garden statue functioned as a scarecrow].
They discovered a grove suitable for party pleasures and sprawled on grass-lined couches. Liber [Dionysos] supplied wine, they had brought their own garlands, a brook gave water for frugal mixing. Naiades were there, some with hair flowing uncombed, others with locks artfully coiffured . . . Some generate tender fires inside the Satyri, others in you, whose brow is bound with pine [Pan]. They inflame you, too, Silenus; your lust can't be quenched, lechery will not allow you to be old. But red Priapus, the garden's glory and protection, fell victim above all to Lotis.
He desires her, he wants her, he sighs for her alone; he nods at her and pesters her with signs. Disdain defines the pretty, beauty is trailed by pride: she teases and scorns him with her looks. It was night. Wine induced slumber and prone bodies lay everywhere, conquered by sleep. Lotis rested furthest away, tired from partying, in the grass beneath some maple branches. Her lover rises and, holding his breath, tracks secretly and silently on tiptoe. When he had reached the snow-white Nympha's secluded bed, he took care his breathing was soundless. And now he was poised on the grass right next to her, and still she was filled with a mighty sleep. His joy soars; he draws the cover from her feet and starts the happy road to his desires.
Then look, the donkey, Silenus' mount, brays loudly, and emits untimely blasts from its throat. The terrified Nympha leaps up, fends Priapus off, and awakens the whole grove with her flight. And the god, whose obscene part was far too ready, was ridiculed by all in the moon's light. The author of the clamour was punished with death. He’s a victim dear to Hellespont’s god." Ovid, Fasti 1. 391 ff (trans.Boyle) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"There is a lake [in Oikhalia] whose shelving sides had shaped a sloping shore, and myrtles crowned the ridge. There Dryope had come, not dreaming of fate's design, and, what must make you more indignant, bringing garlands for the Nymphae . . . Near the lakeside was a water-lotus flowered, its crimson blooms like Tyrian dye, fair hope of fruit to come. Dryope picked a posy of these flowers to please her boy. I [Iole] meant to do the same (for I was there), when I saw drops of blood drip from the blossoms of the boughs shiver in horror. For this shrub, you see (too late the peasants told us), was the Nymphe Lotis who fled Priapus's lechery and found changed features there but kept her name. Nothing of this my sister knew. She'd said prayers to the Nymphae and now in terror tried to turn away and leave, but found her feet rooted. She fought to free herself, but failed to move below her bosom. Gradually up from the soil right round her legs and loins bark climbed and clung; and, seeing it, she tried to tear her hair, but found leaves filled her hand, leaves covered her whole head [she was transformed into a tree]." Ovid, Metamorphoses 9. 334 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
source: http://www.theoi.com
MINTHE
oil on canvas (40 x 80 cm.)
€ 650,00
MINTHE (or Mintha) was a Naiad Nymph of Mount Minthe in Elis (southern Greece) who was loved by the god Haides. When she claimed to be superior to Persephone, the goddess transformed into a mint plant.
"Near Pylos, towards the east, is a mountain named after Minthe, who, according to myth, became the concubine of Haides, was trampled under foot by Kore (Core) [Persephone], and was transformed into garden-mint, the plant which some call hedyosmos. Furthermore, near the mountain is a precinct sacred to Haides." Strabo, Geography 8. 3. 14 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)
"Mint (Mintha), men say, was once a maid beneath the earth, a Nymphe of Kokytos (Cocytus), and she lay in the bed of Aidoneus [Hades]; but when he raped the maid Persephone from the Aitnaian hill [Mount Etna in Sicily], then she complained loudly with overweening words and raved foolishly for jealousy, and Demeter in anger trampled upon her with her feet and destroyed her. For she had said that she was nobler of form and more excellent in beauty than dark-eyed Persephone and she boasted that Aidoneus would return to her and banish the other from his halls: such infatuation leapt upon her tongue. And from the earth spray the weak herb that bears her name." Oppian, Halieutica 3. 485 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd A.D.)
"Persephone of old was given grace to change a woman's [Mintha's] form to fragrant mint." Ovid, Metamorphoses 10. 728 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.)
source: http://www.theoi.com
ECHO
oil on canvas (60 x 80 cm.)
€ 800,00
EKHO (or Echo) was an Oreiad nymph of Mount Kithairon (Cithaeron) in Boiotia. The goddess Hera cursed her with the voice of the echo, to only repeat the last words of what was said before, as punishment for distracting her with chatter. She was loved by the god Pan, and herself became enamoured of the boy Narkissos (Narcissus). When the youth spurned her advances the faded away, leaving only her echoing voice behind. In ancient Greek vase painting Ekho was depicted as a winged nymph with her face shrouded in a veil.
"Cephisius [i.e. the boy Narkissos, Narcissus] now had reached his sixteenth year and seemed both man and boy; and many a youth and many a girl desired him, but hard pride ruled in that delicate frame, and never a youth and never a girl could touch his haughty heart. Once as he drove to nets the frightened deer a strange-voiced Nymphe observed him, who must speak if any other speak an cannot speak unless another speak, resounding Echo. Echo was still a body, not a voice, but talkative as now, and with the same power of speaking, only to repeat, as best she could, the last of many words, Saturnia [Hera] had made her so; for many a time when the great goddess might have caught the Nymphae lying with Jove [Zeus] upon the mountainside, Echo discreetly kept her talking till the Nymphae had fled away; and when at last the goddess saw the truth, ‘Your tongue’, she said, ‘with which you tricked me, now its power shall lose, your voice avail but fro the briefest use.’ The event confirmed the threat: when speaking ends, all she can do is double each last word, and echo back again the voice she's heard.
Now when she saw Narcissus wandering in the green byways, Echo's heart was fired; and stealthily she followed, and the more she followed him, the nearer flamed her love. As when a torch is lit and from the tip the leaping sulphur grasps the offered flame. She longed to come to him with winning words, to urge soft please, but nature now opposed; she might not speak the first but--wheat she might--waited for words her voice could say again. It chanced Narcissus, searching for his friends, called ‘Anyone here?’ and Echo answered ‘Here!’ Amazed he looked all round and, raising his voice called ‘Come this way!’ and Echo called ‘This way!’ He looked behind and, no one coming, shouted ‘Why run away?’ and heard his words again. He stopped, and cheated by the answering voice, called ‘Join me here!’ and she, never more glad to give her answer, answered ‘Join me here!’ And graced her words and ran out from the wood to throw her longing arms around his neck. He bolted, shouting ‘Keep your arms from me! Be off! I’ll die before I yield to you.’ And all she answered was ‘I yield to you’.
Shamed and rejected in the woods she hides and has her dwelling in the lonely caves; yet still her love endures and grows on grief, and weeping vigils waste her frame away; her body shrivels, all its moisture dries; only her voice and bones are left; at last only her voice, her bones are turned to stone, so in the woods she hides and hills around, for all to hear, alive, but just a sound.
Thus had Narcissus mocked her; others too, Nymphae of Hill and Water and many a man he mocked; till one scorned youth, with raised hands, prayed, ‘So may he love-- and never win his love!’ And Rhamnusia [Nemesis] approved the righteous prayer . . . [and caused Narkissos to fall in love with his own reflection and waste away in grief.]
No longer lasts the body Echo loved. But she, though angry still and unforgetting, grieved for the hapless boy, and when he moaned ‘Alas’, with answering sob she moaned ‘alas’, and when he beat his hands upon his breast, she gave again the same sad sound of woe. His latest words, gazing and gazing still, he sighed ‘alas! The boy I loved in vain!’ And these the place repeats, and then ‘farewell’, and Echo said ‘farewell’. On the green grass he drooped his weary head, and those bright eyes that loved their master’s beauty closed in death . . . His sister Naides wailed and sheared their locks in mourning for their brother; the Dryades too wailed and sad Echo wailed in answering woe. And then the brandished torches, bier and pyre were ready--but no body anywhere; and in its stead they found a flower--behold, white petals clustered round a cup of gold!" Ovid, Metamorphoses 3. 350 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
source: http://www.theoi.com
AEGLE
oil on canvas (40 x 80 cm.)
€ 650,00
AIGLE (or Aegle) was the goddess of radiant good health. She was an attendant of her father, the medicine-god Asklepios. Her sisters included Panakeia (All-Cure), Iaso (Remedy) and Hygeia (Good-Health).
According to Virgil and Pausanias she is the most beautiful of the Naiads, daughter of Zeus and Neaera (Virg. Eclog. vi. 20), by whom Helios begot the Charites. (Paus. ix. 35. § 1.)
source: www.mythindex.com
NEREID / NEREIDE
oil on canvas (60 x 80 cm.)
€ 800,00
Nereis, or Nerine (Virg. Eclog. vii. 37), is a patronymic from Nereus, and applied to his daughters (Nereides, Nêreïdes, and in Homer Nêrêïdes) by Doris, who were regarded by the ancients as marine nymphs of the Mediterranean, in contra-distinction from the Naiades, or the nymphs of fresh water, and the Oceanides, or the nymphs of the great ocean (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 622). The number of the Nereides was fifty, but their names are not the same in all writers (Hom. Il. xviii. 39, &c.; Hes. Theog. 240, &c.; Pind. Isthm. vi. 8; Apollod. i. 2. § 7; Ov. Met. ii. 10, &c.; Virg. Aen. v. 825; Hygin. Fab. praef.) They are described as lovely divinities, and dwelling with their father at the bottom of the sea, and they were believed to be propitious to all sailors, and especially to the Argonauts (Hom. Il. xviii. 36, &c. 140; Apollod. i. 9. § 25; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 859, 930). They were worshipped in several parts of Greece, but more especially in sea-port towns. such as Cardamyle (Paus. iii. 2. § 5), and on the Isthmus of Corinth (ii. 1. § 7). The epithets given them by the poets refer partly to their beauty and partly to their place of abode. They were frequently represented in antiquity, in paintings, on gems, in relievoes and statues, and commonly as youthful, beautiful, and naked maidens, and often grouped together with Tritons and other marine monsters, in which they resemble the Bacchic routs. Sometimes, also, they appear on gems as half maidens and half fish, like mermaids, the belief in whom is quite analogous to the belief of the ancients in the existence of the Nereides.
source: www.mythindex.com
UNICORNS / UNICORNI
oil on canvas (120 x 80 cm.)
PRIVATE COLLECTION
“The account of the unicorn is often combined with that of the monocerus, with some sources saying that they are the same animal. Other sources treat the two as separate beasts, and describe them quite differently. Some manuscripts have accounts and illustrations of both.
The unicorn is described variously as resembling a small goat, an ass, or a horse. It has a single horn in the middle of its head; the horn is usually depicted as straight and long, and often with a spiral groove running up it. The unicorn is fierce, strong and swift, and no hunter can catch it. To tame the beast so it can be captured, a virgin girl is placed in its path. The unicorn, seeing the maiden, comes to her and puts its head in her lap and falls asleep. The hunters can then easily capture or kill it. Some accounts say the girl must bare her breast and allow the unicorn to suckle. If the unicorn is captured, it is taken to the king's palace.
The unicorn is the enemy of the elephant, which it attacks with its horn, piercing the elephant's belly. Some sources say that it is the sharp nail on the unicorn's foot that pierces the elephant.
A unicorn's horn is highly valued. It can be used to detect poison, and if dipped in a poisoned drink, the horn causes the poison to be rendered harmless. Powdered unicorn horn is used as an aphrodisiac."
"The unicorn signifies Christ, who was made incarnate in Mary's womb, was captured by the Jews, and was put to death. The unicorn's fierce wildness shows the inability of hell to hold Christ. The single horn represents the unity of God and Christ. The small size of the unicorn is a symbol of Christ's humility in becoming human.”
source: http://bestiary.ca
PELICAN / PELLICANO
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
CHIESA MATRICE TUTTI I SANTI
BIANCO (RC) ITALY
BIANCO (RC) ITALY
“PELICAN. This bears a great love to its young; and if it finds them slain in the nest by a serpent it pierces itself to the heart in their presence, and by bathing them with a shower of blood it restores them to life.”
“PELLICANO. Questo porta grande amore a' sua nati, e trovando quelli nel nido morti dal serpente, si punge a riscontro al core, e col suo piovente sangue bagnandoli li torna in vita.”
Leonardo da Vinci
LUMERPA
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
€ 500,00
"LUMERPA. FAME. This is born in Asia Magna and shines so brightly that it absorbs its shadows. And in dying it does not lose this light, and the feathers never fall out. And the feather which is detached ceases to shine."
"LUMERPA: FAMA. Questa nasce nell'Asia maggiore, e splende sì forte che toglie le sue ombre, e morendo non perde esso lume, e mai li cade più le penne, e la penna che si spicca più non luce."
Leonardo da Vinci
CRANES / GRU
oil on canvas (60 x 80 cm.)
€ 800,00
“FIDELITY OR LOYALTY. The cranes are so faithful and loyal to their king that at night when he is asleep some pace up and down the meadow to keep guard over him from a distance; others stand near at hand, and each holds a stone in his foot, so that if sleep should overcome them the stone would fall and make such a noise that they would be wakened up. There are others who sleep together around the king, and they do this every night taking it in turn so that their king may not come to find them wanting.”
FEDELTÀ OVVER LIALTÀ. Le gru son tanto fedeli e leali al loro re che la notte, quando lui dorme,
alcune vanno dintorno al prato per guardare da lunga, altre ne stanno da presso, e tengano un sasso
ciascuna in piè, acciò che se 'l sonno le vincessi, essa pietra caderebbe e farebbe tal romore che si
ridesterebbono; e altre vi sono che 'nsieme intorno al re dormano, e ciò fanno ogni notte, scambiandosi acciò che il loro re non vegni a mancare."
Leonardo da Vinci, Bestiario
PHOENIX / FENICE
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
€ 500,00
“CONSTANCY. For constancy the phoenix serves as a type; for understanding by nature its renewal it is steadfast to endure the burning flames which consume it, and then it is reborn anew.”
“CONSTANTIA. Alla costanzia s'assimiglia la finice; la quale, intendendo per natura la sua renovazione, è costante a sostene' le cocenti fiamme, le quali la consumano, e poi di novo rinasce.”
Leonardo da Vinci
ERMINE / ERMELLINO
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
€ 500,00
“MODERATION. The ermine because of its moderation eats only once a day, and it allows itself to be captured by the hunters rather than take refuge in a muddy lair, in order not to stain its purity.”
“MODERANZA. L'ermellino, per la sua moderanzia, non mangia se n[on] una sola volta il dì, e prima si lascia pigliare a' cacciatori che volere fuggire nella infangata tana. Per non maculare la sua gentilezza."
"MODERANZA RAFFRENA TUTTI I VIZI. L'ermellino prima vol morire che 'mbrattarsi.”
Leonardo da Vinci
ANMPHESIBENA / ANFISBENA
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
€ 500,00
"AMPHISBOENA. This has two heads, one in its usual place the other at its tail, as though it was not sufficient for it to throw its poison from one place only."
"ANPHESIBENE. Questa ha due teste, l'una nel suo loco, l'altra nella coda, come se non bastassi che da uno solo loco gittassi il veneno."
Leonardo da Vinci
STILO
oil on canvas (40 x 50 cm.)
€ 500,00
Stilo (Greek: Stylos, column) is a town and comune in the province of Reggio Calabria, in the Calabria region of southern Italy. It is located 151 km from Reggio Calabria. The economy of the commune is mainly based on agriculture, with production of cereals, oil, wine and cheese. There are mines of iron and lead. At 10 km from the city is the promontory of Cape Stilo, where in 1940 the Battle of Punta Stilo was fought by the Italian and British Navies.
source: wikipedia
SCILLA
oil on canvas (50 x 40 cm.)
€ 500,00
Scilla (Greek: Skylla) is a town and comune in Calabria, Italy, administratively part of the Province of Reggio Calabria. It is the traditional site of the sea monster Scylla of Greek mythology. Twenty-two kilometers from the city of Reggio Calabria, Scilla lies in front of the strait of Messina, and it is composed of two parts: the downtown, where the town offices and the residence of the patronal saint are situated, and Marina di Scilla, the beach-front, populated by tourists and thus heavily characterized by hotels and restaurants. Since its beach is the first place north of Reggio Calabria where the waters are not cooled down by the strait draughts.
source: wikipedia
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