Two hundred and ten Shades of Green

“Two hundred and ten Shades of Green” (2016), Watercolour on paper (300 g/m²-140 lbs), 35x36cm.

Fighting Against the Father: Archetypes in the George Lucas’ movies

What do Star Wars and Indiana Jones have in common?

Apparently, they are two stories opposed to each other: a sci-fi epic of an unknown future and the adventures of an archaeologist in the Thirties. However, there’s something. First of all, the creator, that’s the director, screenwriter and producer George Lucas. Among his many movies, these undoubtedly occupy a special place in his filmography, as dedicated to both at least thirty years of his career. But that’s not all. If we compare the plots of these two sagas, we note that, although different, they’ve a common narrative element: the theme of the conflict between Father and Son.

Let’s start with Star Wars

which is currently shooting the seventh episode: The Force Awakens.
In 1971, after his debut movie, THX 1138 –​ a dystopian sci-fi film –​ Lucas thought of an adaptation of the adventures of Flash Gordon. We don’t know whether it was the cold reception of the previous movie, pushing it towards a more commercial project. However, he began to work in parallel with American Graffiti. For a contemporary of the New Hollywood generation –​ featuring young directors and actors, such as Scorsese, Coppola, Altman, De Niro, Nicholson, Hoffman, interested in taboo subjects in American society –​ it was a decision against the tide.​
Failed the negotiations for the movie rights with the publisher of Flash Gordon’s comic book, Lucas decided to write their own subject. The initial plot was about the apprenticeship of a young protagonist as a member of the space commando Jedi-Bendu. There were also influences from The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa, a 1958 movie set in medieval Japan, about a general escorting a young princess. The story is told from the point of view of two fools who accompany them, ignoring its true identity.​

In the next five years, both the subject and the script was completely rewritten several times, with the help of other collaborators. The two comedy characters became the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, while the combination of general / princess was re-used in different ways: in the first movie, with Darth Vader kidnaps Princess Leia to take on the Death Star, and in Attack of the Clones, with Anakin accompanying Padmé Amidala on Naboo, after the assassination attempt on her life . Were incorporated other elements, some of which, in my opinion borrowed from the Frank Herbert’s novel Dune (the desert planet Tatooine from Arrakis, the Trade Federation by the commercial corporation CHOAM; the Jedi Knights from the Bene Gesserit sisterhood –​​ both in able to control their opponents through the voice –​​ even the name of the Jedi has a corresponding one in the planet Giedi, from which is native the House Harkonnen).​

The choice of the space-fantasy (or space-opera) Flash Gordon’s genre was maintained. In this sub-genre of Science Fiction, the adventure component is more relevant than scientific: it’s almost a fantasy with sci-fi gadgets. Even the Japanese influence remained: we find it in the Jedi Knights (their clothes, the code of conduct and the fighting with swords/lightsabers). But the greatest source of inspiration recognized, indeed, declared by Lucas himself, were the essays and lectures of american mythologist Joseph Campbell.​

The Joseph Campbell​’s Hero

In his book The Hero of a Thousand Faces [1], Campbell argues that the narrative structure of many myths, though belonging to different cultures and ages, is the same and that tells the journey/search/evolution of a character through a series of trials. Of course, there’re infinite variations, including the possibility that the hero fails. Campbell shows how this scheme describing the myths of Osiris, Buddha, Moses, Christ. But there’re thousands of stories that follow the model of the Hero’s Journey: from the Divine Comedy to The Blues Brothers, from Moby Dick to The Lord of the Rings. A similar modeling had already been made by the russian linguist Vladimir Propp in Morphology of the Tale [2].​

Now we apply the Campbell’s scheme –​ called the monomyth–​ to the first SW trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI).

• The hero (Luke) initially lives in an ordinary world (the planet Tatooine, along with uncles farmers).
• The monotony of his daily life is interrupted by something external to his world (the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, purchased by his uncle from the Tuskens, but we do know escaped from the Princess Leia’s starship, attacked by Imperial forces).
• The hero is called to a mission/a world not his own (through one of the droids, Luke discovers the S.O.S. of Leila), meets a magical helper (Obi-Wan Kenobi) who gives him a magical object (the lightsaber belonged to his father Anakin). If the hero first refuses the call, an event can push him to do it (the imperial troops kill and destroy the uncle’s Luke farm).
• Once crossed the First Threshold, for the Hero begins the Road of Trials, which will guide him on a path of evolution (Luke joins the Rebel Alliance and is able to destroy the Death Star, thanks to the use of the Force).​

Throughout the Hero’s Journey, the supporting characters can alternate. By the way, the smuggler Han Solo and Chewbacca were present from the first draft of the plot. If the source of inspiration for the wookie seems to have been the Lucas’ dog Indiana (this name means anything to you?), in American Graffiti  is the character of Bob Falfa, a neighborhood boaster (played by Harrison Ford himself)​ driver of illegal car racing. The main character of that movie, Curt (alter ego of the director) don’t have a girlfriend and chasing a platonic love, while his friend John the mechanic pick up girls. Han Solo seems then a mix of Bob Falfa and John: a blowhard skilled with the engine (the Millenium Falcon), good at stealing the girlfriend to anyone (Leila, who we think at first should fall in love with Luke, falls instead in the arms of Solo, because Luke and Leia are really brother and sister).

Sigmund Freud

Returning to Campbell’s hero, in the middle of his journey he faces an abyss, that’s have a revelation/awareness. In Star Wars, what happens in Empire Strikes Back. On the planet Dagobah, Luke is trained by Jedi Master Yoda. In the course of the training, halfway through the film, Luke falls into an underground cavern and meets a “ghost” of Darth Vader. After hitting him, under the broken mask of Vader’s head rolling on the ground, discovers his own face. Is this a perception of his blood ties with the enemy or a prelude of the real fight that takes place at the end of the episode?

This other scene is very famous: Leila, Solo and Chewbacca are trapped in Cloud City. Luke arrives and engages a duel with Vader. At first. the Sith strives little, trying to get with words the youngman to pass to the Dark Side of the Force; then, because the refusal of him, he start pulling slashes, cutting off the Luke’s right hand. While this is clinging above the air duct of the city, Vader settles the coup de grace, revealing him to be his father.​

We are in the presence of two awards: first, the son recognizes himself and then his father. This is a topos of this Greek Tragedy (Anagnorisis). But in my opinion, here the reference is no longer Campbell: is Freud.​

The hero initially fells –​ in a underground place, symbol of the Subconscious –​ that the negative component of his personality (that’s, the Impulsivity) unites him to his antagonist, and then deal with it in person. What does emerges from this confrontation/clash? Darth Vader (Dark Father) is a parent wanting his son follows in his own footsteps, not allowing him to develop a different personality. Just before the duel, we discover that his intention is to take away Luke, hibernating him in a carbonite block (a process that he test on Han Solo).

Freeze, locking up the son in a stone, prevent his escape, and if he doesn’t cooperate, get to the violence cutting off him a limb. The mutilation of a son, by a parent, it’s an act of staggering severity: in his comic saga of the Meta-Barons, ​Alejandro Jodorowskij has explored the symbolism of this, while Laurent Bouzereau, in Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays [3], points out the scene was not included before the final draft. This act appears other times in the saga: in Return of the Jedi, Luke cuts off Vader’s hand to revenge​; in Attack of the Clones, we discover that Count Dooku had already cut the hand to Anakin Skywalker, who in turn will do the same to Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith. Is this an attempt to justify a brutal act, transforming it into a Jedi ritual? Luke, however, will not follow the fate of his father. Dropping by the main pillar of the city, he is discharged through a duct to be rescued by Leia, who has telepathically perceived him. Can we see this as symbolical rebirth of the hero, after the ultimate separation from his father and his exit from the uterus? However, from now Luke is no longer the impulsive guy we know: in the next and final episode of his trilogy, we find him more mature and master of his Jedi powers.​

Return of the Jedi is the conclusion of the evolution of Luke to Hero. According to Campbell, if the hero overcomes his trials, he become Master of Two Worlds. That’s, in the story, he belong to the world of origin and the one in which he ventured; on a symbolic level, to the outside world, that the inner dimension). This movie also marks the redemption of Anakin, through death –​ as required for a tragic hero –​ after defending his son from the wrath of Darth Sidious. But before he died, the father asked his son to remove the mask of Darth Vader, so the latter can see him for the man he really is: only in this way, they can be reconciled to each other.

The Anakin’s Trilogy 

But the justification of the Dark Father doesn’t end here. With the subsequent trilogy –​ in the Star Wars’ chronology, antecedent to the one of Luke Skywalker –​ Lucas repeats the scheme of the first. If in the previous, the story introduced Luke through the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, now this is through the Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn and a young Obi-Wan Kenobi.​

Anakin is a slave child, working in a junk shop, a skilled pilot and mechanic, which is even able to build a droid (C-3PO). The Jedi feel in him a huge presence of the Force, so as to consider him​ the Chosen One peacemaker of the Galactis Repubblic. Shmi, the mother, doesn’t know how she has conceived her child. This doesn’t mean a simple biblical quotation: David Adams, on the line of Campbell, introduces in the Hero’s Journey scheme the Miraculous conception and birth and Initiation of the hero-child. ​

I like to underline about this episode, the unheard objection of the Master Yoda, to the training as a Jedi of Anakin, beacuse him is too old and too close to his mother​. This relationship of attachment to her brings Anakin, in Attack of the Clones, to kill a whole Tusken tribe responsible for her death.​
Because Anakin is a child grew up without a father figure. So, he has an essentially emotional​personality, as it will that of his son Luke. Obi-Wan Kenobi is unable, due to his own inexperience, to guide him on the path of wise administration of its powers. So, the young man replaces the figure of his mother with Princess Padme, without break free himself from neurosis caused by the lack of acceptance of loss. Lived in slavery, Anakin is afraid of losing those who love him. When Padme tells him she is pregnant, he began to dream of her death in cause of the childbirth. The inability to control his fear drives him to pass to the Dark Side of the Force, instigated by Chancellor Palpatine (in fact, the Sith Lord). And this marks his misfortune: the Chosen One, becomes the fallen angel and the right arm of the Evil.​ We’ve here a topic previously treated by Lucas: the fears and rebellion impulses of youth.

In the dystopian THX 1138, the main character lives in a society controlled by the machines that enslaves individuals, through the administration of drugs. Eventually, he rebels and runs away from his hometown. In the end of American Graffiti, a clandestine race car of young people could turn into a fatal accident; also the protagonist of this film leaves his birthplace, but to go to attend college. Lucas himself as a young man had a passion for racing and will participate by driving a souped-up Autobianchi. An accident made ​​desist him, before enrolling at Canyon Cinema Foundation​. Anyway, in almost all the Star Wars movies, there’s still a sequence of a dangerous race (including fighters, speeder, pod-racer, etc.).

At this point, it’s natural to ask what autobiographical elements are in Lucas’ movies (except of course American Graffiti, explicitly set in Modesto, his hometown). Some claims that his father was the severe owner of a small stationery store, became in his early years an orphan and head of a family survived to the Great Depression. He was not Darth Vader, but anyway a conservative Republican Methodist that wanted his only son inherit the management of the store, rather than enroll in an art school. Some people say that Modesto is a dull little town, scattered in the californian desert and maybe portrayed as the planet Tatooine.​

Difficult to say what an author put of himself in his works, because sometimes he doesn’t know. Unless, he leaves a mark. So, it’s curious note that the name of one of the Skywalkers is Luke. This name is the English translation of the Latin Lucas. And by the way, even in the case of Indiana Jones, there’s an interesting clue: the real name of the character is Henry Jones, Jr., as well as that of the director is George Walton Lucas, Jr. Both have inherited the names of their fathers, men who wanted their sons follow in their footsteps.​

The Man with the Hat 

If Star Wars is primarily the product of a plot by Lucas, the first and second movies of Indiana Jones spring from the brainstorms between Lucas, Steven Spielberg (who will direct them) and Lawrence Kasdan. These discussions were recorded and transcribed, and some parts were later published in The Complete Making of Indiana Jones [4]. So, we can know the ideas which gave birth to this other saga​.​

While Spielberg was more interested in the comic gags and Kasdan was a mediator between the two, Lucas had a clear view of the main character: he had to be an adventurer, an American Samurai with a bullwhip, remembering James Bond and Clint Eastwood. The iconography was that of the serials of the Forties, in particular Humphery Bogart of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (although the definitive look of Indiana seems more like the Charlton Heston’s character of Secret of the Incas, a 1954 Paramount’s movie).

It’s not surprising to note that, in front of the unavailability of Tom Selleck to play the role, because his contract for Magnum, PI, this has been given to Harrison Ford, because apparently it is still in a tough guy, a buster, as they had been Bob Falfa and Han Solo. But Indiana Jones is a more complex character. He’s a person with two souls (as Clark Kent/Superman): on the one hand, the university professor of archeology, on the other, the adventurous explorer relics-hunter. If the first is what his father wanted him to become (repeating his choices), the second embodies the dreams of teenage Henry Jones Jr., who, not surprisingly, has chosen the battle name Indiana , namely that of the dog he had as a boy. Thus, even if the character of the Father only appears in the third movie, his shadow hangs in fact from the beginning of the saga.​

Percival

Unlike the tragic relationship between Luke and Anakin Skywalker, the debate between the two Jones is on the lines of Comedy; perhaps because, if at the time of the first Star Wars Lucas was 33 years old, when he made ​​Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (co-written with Jeffrey Boam), he was 45. In the latter movie, the adventurer who we had known becomes shy and embarrassed in front of his parent, sometime unable even to talk to him. It also here stated the reason for the conflict between father and son: the first is accused by the latter of not taking care of his mother, died of illness, because too busy with his work. As in the case of Anakin, we are in the presence of a son who has not accepted the loss of his mother. Then, we ask ourselves if Indiana Jones is not the evolution of the Luke/Anakin characters.​

While between Luke and his father, there is no possibility of communion, as the latter was corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force, Indiana lives an experience with his parent: on several occasions they discover to have common characteristics (even a love story with the Nazi Elsa Schneider: an idea by Sean Connery). The father discovers features of his son he didn’t know:
“Well… It’s a new experience for me!” he says.
“Happens to me all the time!​​” replies Indiana.

There’s more: in this saga the father is not only justified: he is saved by his son.

Mortally injureded by billionaire Donovan (as Anakin is wounded by Darth Sidious), Henry Jones Sr. survives by drinking from the Holy Grail, which is led by his son, having this passed a series of trial of faith. Interestingly​, in this way, Indiana follows the myth of Percival, a knight of the Round Table, who saved the seriously ill Fisher King, through the grail of Christ.

It’s not the only time Indiana performs such acts: in the Raiders of the Lost Ark, he warns Marion to don’t look at the opening of the Ark; in The Temple of Doom, he invokes the power of the Shiva’s stones. Paradoxically, he is both a robber of tombs and a devout of the cults he profanes. The gesture of the Grail is also a recognition of the sanctity of the King/Father and the values ​​in which he believes. This is the fate of the rebellious sons too, to inherit some of their parents’ values​​: Lucas himself, the son of a conservative, declared in 1997 that he is very conservative too.​

The Sons become Fathers

The solution of the conflict between father and son is in the fourth episode, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Waited for nearly two decades, announced several times, canceled and rewritten, when finally it has come to production, this movie had to satisfy the needs of Lucas, Spielberg and Harrison Ford. Perhaps for this, it’s not a masterpiece and the plot seems to be similar to the Raiders, with the Soviet secret service in place of the Nazis, being set in the days of the Cold War.​
Despite this, the movie contains an interesting element: Indiana finds Marion Ravenwood Indiana, the woman of the first episode, which reveals to have had a son by him, Mutt. This is not by the chance: a thing not learned by all in the first movie, but explicit in the brainstorms of Lucas and Spielberg, is Indiana and Marion have had a love story when she was still a minor. So, the adventurer, the rebellious son of Professor Jones, suddenly finds himself a father of a teenager symbolically dressed like Marlon Brando in The Wild One –​ in the same way, Lucas, who could not have children, he has become father through adoption –​. Following the rules of Comedy, Indiana discovers having the same attitudes that contested to his father, so he ends to understand them. But, unlike his parent, he didn’t have to wait years for an adventure with his son –​ opportunity that allows them to know each other –​.

The Hero of Campbell thus reaches his goal, becoming Master of Two Worlds –​ the inner self and the outside world –​. Where the adolescent Anakin had failed, Indiana wins, finding the synthesis of the two sides of his personality and his way of being a father, without giving up the dreams of youth.​

So, finally, the Hero of Lucas has become an adult.

[1] Joseph Campbell, “The Hero of a Thousand Faces”, Pantheon Books, New York, 1949
[2] Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp, “Morphology of the Folktale”, Academia, 1928
[3] Laurent Bouzereau, “Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays”, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997
[4] J.W. Rinzler, Laurent Bouzereau, “The Complete Making of Indiana Jones”, Del Rey Books, 2008

I Am Thunder

My illustration for my African fantasy novel: I Am Thunder, that you can read for free on-line on 20lines.
http://it.20lines.com/write/27814/io-sono-tuono

The Last Countess of Kaladhar

My illustration for my medieval fantasy novel in two parts: The Last Countess of Kaladhar, that you can read for free on-line on 20lines.
http://it.20lines.com/write/26995/lultima-contessa-di-kaladhar
http://it.20lines.com/write/27008/lultima-contessa-di-kaladhar-2

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,800 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Genius Loci

Bear Run (Pennsylvania) was a mild waterfall, until Frank Lloyd Wright there built above the finest house in the world: Fallingwater.

The Architecture is a tool
to reveal the Beauty of a place.

Gott ist im Detail #1

This gallery contains 2 photos.

“ Gott ist im Detail ” that’s “God is in the Detail”, is a sentence attributed to the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The designer of the Seagram Building in New York, the Crown Hall at the IIT … Continue reading →

An Artist, a Colour #4: Veronese Green

"La famiglia di Dario ai Piedi di Alessandro", 1565-1570 London, National Gallery

It may seem strange to you, but the Veronese Green, the Verona Green and the Viridian are not the same colour.

To the late-Renaissance painter called Paolo il Veronese, to be born in that city, is related one of the colours most misunderstood  by websites and some fine arts catalogs.
So, I try to clarify.

He born Paolo Caliari on 1528. The nickname was given to him in Venice, to mean he came from outside.  When he was thirteen his father, a stonecutter, sent him to work by the painter Antonio Badile, but Veronese was so capable that three years later he went to work on his own.

After he had been in Parma, he painted the frescoes of the Duomo of Mantua, then he went to Venice, where he performed works in the Palazzo Ducale: the fresco in the Sala dei Consiglio dei Dieci and in the Sala dei Tre Capi del Consiglio.  Also he collaborated on the decoration of the ceiling of the Biblioteca Marciana (National Library of St. Mark’s) and executed many works in the church of San Sebastiano.

At that time Verona, which in the Past had lived in great splendor under the lordship of the della Scala family, was subject to Venice, which ensured his peace, both from external attacks, and by internal fighting among local families – one of these feuds, between the Montecchi and the Capuleti families, is the background of the Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet –.

In “La Serenissima”, Veronese made his career quickly: he being at ease with both the sacred and mythological subjects, he had assignments both from religious orders, and from most prestigious private clients, such as that for Villa Barbaro, near Treviso, designed by Andrea Palladio. Here, the artist gave vent to his own imagination, painting a series of beautiful frescoes, with many trompe-l’œil, so from doors painted on the walls entering characters and on a virtual balcony in a hall overlooks the lady of the house with her nurse.

"Lady Barbaro Giustinian and her nurse", 1561, Villa Barbaro; Maser (Treviso)

From Titian, he had borrowed the technique of tonal variation of the colours, in the order to achieve a soft chiaroscuro and the juxtaposition of complementary colours, to allow these to exalt each other – for example, in some paintings, he matched the Reds to the Greens –.By Titian again and by the attendance of architects like Palladio, the fineness to emphasize the visual composition, through the inclusion of architectural elements painted. The result was a gentle Mannerist style, which had nothing to do with the brutality of Tintoretto.

A painting by Veronese where is clearly visible his use of complementary color harmony is the Cena nella Casa di Levi (The Feast in the House of Levi) of 1573. I and my wife saw it last year, visiting the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. It’s a huge painting (5.55 x 12.80 mt), which occupies the whole end wall of a hall. Its visual composition is divided into three vertical bands, highlighted by three round arches, supported by Corinthian capitals. It stands out here the harmony of Reds and Greens, indeed it’s clear that, when Veronese wants to highlight a character dressed in red, stands next to it something green and vice versa.

"Cena in casa di Levi", 1573, Venezia, Gallerie dell'Accademia

In fact, the real subject of the painting is the Last Supper of Christ and it had been commissioned by the Dominican Order of the Saints John and Paul’s basilica. However, the painter’s personal approach to the sacred subject  – by including non-biblical characters such as jesters, Landsknecht mercenaries, drunkards and dogs – cost him a convocation by the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. The Veronese’s justification:
“When inside a painting I still have space,  I embellish it with figures invented by myself.” [1]
not convinced the ecclesiastical judges, who ordered that the painting was remade. The artist found a quicker solution: he changed the work title.

“La scelta tra Vizio e Virtù”, 1567

It was just that brightest and highest in chroma green present in this painting – visible in other works too, like La famiglia di Dario ai piedi di Alessandro (The Family of Darius before Alexander, 1565-1570) e La scelta tra Virtù e Vizio ( Honor et Virtus post Mortem floret, 1567) – to link itself to the name of Paolo Veronese, as to be still sold today, after four and a half centuries.
Anyway, this is strange for two reasons.

The first is he had not a preference for the green only but, like all Venetian painters, he used all the available pigments in Venice – an important commercial city in its time – such as the ultramarine, azurite, smalt, indigo, cochineal carmine lake, vermilion, lead red, lead-tin yellow, orpiment, realgar, copper resinate. An example of this, is the polychromatic Le Nozze di Cana (The Marriage at Cana) 1563, at Musée de Louvre.
The second is that, as we have already seen about the Van Dyke Brown, the colour called “Veronese Green” – in France, Vert Paul Véronèse – produced not before the eighteenth century, is not the green used by the painter.

Differently from the possibilities offered to the Art, since the second half of 1800’s, by the chemical industry of the Colour, in the Past the painters used only colours tested by Tradition. At the time of Veronese, the greens could be of mineral origin (such as malachite or green earths) or vegetable (such as the Sap Green) or former-chemicals (such as Verdigris and Copper Resinate).

As recalled by Philip Ball, in his book – already quoted in this blog – “Bright Earth”[2], the introduction of Oil Painting, changed the choice of pigments, because the oil had a refractive index different from that of the previous medium used – the egg yolk – , thus some of these resulted so transparent, as are not longer used, like the Malachite Green, or reinforced with Flake White, like the Verdigris. Still others, were made again high in saturation by layering with colours of the same shade.
And that would be the case of the Veronese Green too. Because it would not, as some people written, a colour invented or discovered by Veronese.

In fact, Veronese Green was not a Colour, but a Technique.

It was used by half of the fifteenth century and was not a Veronese’s discovery –  microscopic tests on paintings have detected it was already known in fourteenth-century – which consisted of laying a coat of Copper Resinate, on a coat of Verdigris, Lead White and Lead-Tin Yellow; in its turn spread over an imprimitura (an undercoat) of Lead White[3].

the real "Veronese Green" technique.

But what are these pigments?

Copper Resinate is a term that indicated a generic mix (the doses were not determined) of green salts of Copper,Venice turpentine and wax.

Copper Resinate

Verdigris is  semi-transparent green in use since the Ancient Egyptians age – despite the name, from Old French vertegrez, that’s Green of Greece–. Because only in the Middle Ages, thanks to the Arab alchemists, were available strong acids like sulfuric and nitric acid, in the ancient times, the most acidic substance used was the vinegar. So, to take advantage of the bluish green properties of tarnished copper, strips of this metal were put into the vinegar to corrode.

Verdigris (Verderame), Copper Acetate, ColorIndexName: PG 20

Verdigris was mainly used for background landscapes. Much appreciated for its bluish shade, it fell out of use since the nineteenth century because, like all Copper pigments, over time darkened becoming brown. Anyway, its major defect was its toxicity. Defect that was increased by combining it with Lead White and that was enhanced in the eighteenth century when the Swedish Scheele combined it with Arsenic, achieving the Cooper-acetoarsenite (Scheele’s Green). In 1814, the German Sattler improved the compound, creating the more toxic Schweinfurter Grün, that’s the Emerald Green.

Emerald Green(Schweinfurter Grün), Copper Acetoarsenite, ColorIndexName: PG 21

 Just a Cooper-acetoarsenite compound is the “Veronese Green”,  put on sale only two centuries after the death of the painter. However this is a improper use of his name: indeed, the concept of many colours whose name was joined to a famous painter, is to sell in a single tube, something reproducing the effect obtained by the artists only through several steps – an exception is International Klein Blue, which was created and patented by Klein himself, with collaboration of the paint manufacturer Edouard Adam –.

Therefore, the original Veronese Green, not only is not the equivalent of Emerald Green, but nor of Viridian– despite what mistakenly says the Italian page of Wikipedia.it – because the latter is made of Chromium oxide dihydrate and, in the fourteenth century, the chrome was not even discovered.
The history of Chromium pigments is well described by Philip Ball [4]. In 1797, the French chemist Vauquelin – who had already discovered the Beryllium – began to examine a Siberian red crystal, discovered thirty-six years earlier by the geologist Lehmann: the Crocoite. In this mineral, from which was extracted a red pigment for paints, Vauquelin discovered a new element, which produced highly coloured compounds, so he named the element Chromium – from Greek: Chroma, i.e. “Colour” –. In 1809, trying to synthesize in the laboratory the crocoite (lead chromate), instead of getting a red pigment, he produced a bright yellow – Chrome Yellow –. He realized that, by varying the temperature of the process, you could get bright pigments ranging from light to deep yellow, orange, red.
Although beautiful, these pigments were extremely expensive, because the only known deposit of chromium was in Siberia. Only later, they were more localized in the Shetland Islands and the United States.

Viridian (Vert Guignet), Chromium oxide dihydrate, ColorIndexName: PG 18

 About the green colour derived from Chromium, already in 1809, Vauquelin had written it was possible to obtain a green pigment from Crocoite, which could be used as a glaze for pottery. But, being rather dull, it not met with great interest. In 1838, however, the French Pannetier, hydrating the Chromium Oxide, got a deep and intense green, which in France was called Vert Émeraude. In England, anyway, already existed Emerald Green, which we mentioned above, thus that colour became known around 1860 as Viridian – from Latin Viridis, that’s “Green”–.  The colour of Pannetier, although it liked, it was too expensive. Almost twenty years later, the chemical Guignet devised a different system for its production, which made it cheaper: the Vert Guignet (Guignet’s Green ) then became a very popular colour among the Impressionists.
It’s thus evident the Viridian has nothing to do with the Veronese Green.

Finally,  Veronese Green  should not be confused with Verona Green (or Verona Green Earth), which is a green earth – that’s a mix of Iron hydrosilicates with salts of Magnesium, Aluminum, Potassium – extracted, certainly not in that city, but in his province. Any reference to Paolo Veronese is purely coincidental.
This historic pigment was used in the Past, in the words of the Libro dell’Arte by Cennino Cennini – Italian painter born in the XV century, custodian of the medieval painting techniques dating from Giotto – into one of two possible recipes to perform the technique of verdaccio. This was an underpainting grisaille for the skin’s chiaroscuro, over which were applied successive layers of Red or Pink: in this way, were achieved gray shadows and avoided a too red complexion. The greenish hue of some character faces of medieval frescoes, reveals the use of this technique.

Verona Green(Verona Green Earth), Iron hydrosilicates with Magnesium, Aluminum, Potassium salts, ColorIndexName: PG 23

This problem was never involved works by Paolo Veronese: the perfect and delicate complexion of his characters, made it acceptable even the most daring subjects, such as the loving encounters between Venus and Mars (or Adonis), many times portrayed by him.

A curious age, that of la Serenissima: in which the Sacred and the Profane lived side by side; an intellectual class having as its ideal the humanistic culture, lived under the government of a lord with religious authority – the Doge –; finally, it was possible represent also the Lust, in a painting of mythological subject, but if you missed a reference in a sacred picture, you risked a process by the Inquisition.

"Marte e Venere con Cupido ed un cavallo", 1575, Torino, Galleria Sabauda

[1] “Se nel quadro li avanza spacio, io l’adorno di figure secondo le invenzioni […] nui pittori si pigliamo la licentia che si pigliano i poeti e i matti ”.
From the minutes of Paolo Caliari’s appearance in front of Inquisition of July 18, 1573, Archivi Sant’Offizio;
See André Chastel, Cronaca della pittura italiana 1280-1580, Fratelli Palombi Editori, Roma 1984.

[2] Ball Philip, “Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour”; University of Chicago Press, 2001

[3] H. Kühn, “Verdigris and Copper Resinate,” in “Artists’ Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics”, Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, New York 1993

[4] Ball Philip, idem

Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) 1938 – §

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Until one day, Monsieur Giraud smiling said: “au revoir”, “goodbye”. Then he turned on the other side of the Moebius’ stRIP.

Chopin and Delacroix: a Romantic friendship

Frédéric Chopin and Eugène Delacroix were friends.
I discovered this, reading the fine book by Roberto Calasso “La Folie Baudelaire” [1], dedicated to the French symbolist poet and critic, and some artists of his time, related to him.

The two Romantic artists had some mutual acquaintances. Among them, George Sand, the mistress of Chopin. According to the latter, while Delacroix loved and knew by heart the music of the Polish pianist, the latter, looking at the paintings of the first, didn’t know what to say, not because he criticized them, but because he seems to be indifferent to Painting in general. Each picture subject seemed eccentric to him. And when Delacroix spoke  of the “mystery of the reflections” and applies it to music, he remained confused.

I think this can be explained not only by the timid character of Chopin, but by the fact that figurative artists tend to describe, through visual sensations, also expressions of other Arts. The musicians, however, handling a more impalpable material but in a more directly way, expressing emotions and feelings, without the need to make similarities.

In his journals, Delacroix describes a Saturday in April, spent with Chopin, a few months before the death of this. After lunch, the two made ​​a drive by cab in Paris, sipping chincona wine.

« During the day [Chopin] told me about Music and this has revived him. I asked him what to ordain the Logic in Music. He made me understand what are the harmony and counterpoint, in music as the fugue is pure logic, and be experienced in the fugue is to know the reason and every element of each concatenation in Music. I thought how I would be glad to instruct me in all this, that mediocre musicians don’t bear.
This awareness has given me an idea of the pleasure which the sages, if worthy of this name found in Science. The fact is that real Science is not what is commonly meant by this word, that’s a part of the knowledge that differs from Art.

No, the science so considered, which is evidence of a man such as Chopin, is the art itself

and then the Art is no longer believes that the common man, that’s a sort of inspiration that comes from somewhere, which proceeds at random, and it does not have nothing but the picturesque exteriority of things.

It’s the Reason itself adorned by the Genius,

but that follows a necessary journey, governed by higher laws ».[2]

So, who was called the poet of the piano and the most daring colour artist at the end of 1800, two authors became famous for the ability of their works to express feelings and passions, were both strongly interested in the technical issues of their respective arts, in an almost scientific way. This should make us realize how the romantic idea we have of the Romantic artists is not completely faithful to reality.

In the case of Chopin, we understand that by the diligence required in the performance of his compositions and by the great number of innovations he brought to the Music (from the sonatas to nocturnes, from waltzes to the mazurkas, until the invention of the instrumental ballade).

In the case of Delacroix, however, the technical interest can be traced, as well as observation of his work, very accurate in the composition, in the reading of his journals. The fact he has taken note of everything: his thoughts, accounts of his travels, the books he read, the colour palettes used for the paintings, how much money he spent every day, those who had invited him to lunch, for more than forty years, tells us how he was a meticulous man. Furthermore, his interest in optical effects obtained with the brush strokes, later became an inspiration for the Impressionists.

As Baudelaire wrote[3]:

”Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible”.

left: E.Delacroix, Frédéric Chopin (1838), Musée du Louvre, Paris; right: E.Delacroix, Autoportrait au gilet vert (1837) Musée du Louvre, Paris

[1] Roberto Calasso, “La Folie Baudelaire”, Biblioteca Adelphi, Milano, 2008; pp. 155-157
[2] Eugène Delacroix, “Diario, 1804-1852”Giulio Einaudi Editore, Milano, 1954; pp.290-291
[3] Wellington, Hubert, The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, Cornell University Press, 1980; p. xiv