Hidden Beneath the Beauty

Kabbalistic secrets in italian art

Roy Doliner

• Editore: RIZZOLI FIRST
• Anno: 2012
• ISBN:
  9788858640074
• Argomento: Art
• Categoria: Art General

In the year 44 before the year Zero in the Gregorian Calendar, Rome holds one of the largest pagan funerals in history, the funeral of Julius Caesar. The Jews of Rome, instead of respectfully filing past, take off their sandals and sit on the ground around the tomb. Why? In 1165 CE, a monk lays down the last tiles in a vast mosaic that covers the entire floor of the Cathedral of Otranto, a port city far down on the heel of the boot that is Italy. It has taken him and his assistants years to create this highly complex and almost psychedelic mishmash of images from ancient mythologies, the Jewish Bible, Christian saints, astrology and even the legend of King Arthur. Why did the monk make this, and what on earth - or in heaven - does it mean? A new century, a new era is born: the Baroque, whose very name means "bizarre, eccentric". In 1624, the two masters of this new style work together as a team for one of the most sacred projects of the century - the colossal canopy over the main altar of the Catholic world, in St. Peter's in the Vatican. After nine arduous years, the work is finished - and so is their friendship, forever. What happened? The list goes on and on in an unbroken chain all over Italy, from the foothills of the Alps to the man-made isles of Venice to the wonders of Florence and Rome to the magic of Naples to the ends of Sicily. Even in our days, the secret tradition continues. This book is about that tradition. About a secret message that has carried on throughout the centuries. And about us all.

Hidden Beneath the Beauty

INTRODUCTION - HIDDEN BENEATH THE BEAUTY

In the year 44 before the year Zero in the Gregorian Calendar, Rome holds one of the largest pagan funerals in history, the funeral of Julius Caesar. All Rome turns out not only to praise Caesar, not only to bury him, but also to do something entirely unprecedented — to turn him into a god. The deification ceremony takes place in the Roman Forums, to make speeches and to prepare his entombment in what will become the Temple of the Divine Julius. All of Rome is there for the spectacle: pagan priests, senators, consuls, tribunes, solders, patricians, citizens, and even foreigners. Suddenly, one group stops the entire ritual. The Jews of Rome, instead of respectfully filing past, take off their sandals and sit on the ground around the tomb. Why?

A century later, in a VIP summer resort town about three hours south of Rome, on the slope of a beautiful forest-covered mountain, someone carves a magic square design from the mysterious East into a column of the Great Gymnasium. In this city filled with the most famous and fortunate figures in the Republic, why would anyone need a magic engraving?

A few years later, in the same resort town, on an August day chosen as propitious by the augur-readers, another pagan ruler is made into a god. A temple is dedicated in his name there, since in the hot summer months there are more movers and shakers to be found there than in Rome itself. A short time later, the peaceful forest-covered mountain starts to behave very strangely. The name of this mountain? Vesuvius. The name of the resort town? You guessed it — Pompeii. One person, in the last moments before running off to die or before evaporating on the spot, grabs a bit of coal and leaves a final, shocking message — and in a strange, foreign language.

In the third century in the Gregorian calendar, a wealthy Roman family has a beautiful crypt made in the Necropolis, the city of the dead located near the Circus of the mad emperor Nero. They commission the finest artisans to cover the chamber’s ceiling and walls with beautiful pagan images. There is just one bizarre detail — this family happens to be devout followers of the new faith, Christianity.

410 in the new Christian Era — the unthinkable happens. The barbarians, so long held at bay, finally overrun Rome and rip it to pieces. Wholesale rape, murder and pillaging continues unabated for days on end. The Templum Pacis, the Temple of Peace, the largest single temple in the history of Rome, is utterly ransacked. Its Forma Urbis, the gigantic marble map of every structure in Rome, is smashed to bits, a metaphor for what is happening to the actual city itself. The courtyard of the Temple of Peace and its inner sanctuary have held on display for three centuries the spoils of one of the Empire’s toughest wars — the Judean Revolt, the War of the Jews. These war trophies include the Veil of the Holy Temple, the vestments of the High Priest of Israel, and the seven-branched candelabrum of solid gold, the holy Menorah. They all disappear in the first wave of this Sack of Rome. Where did the Menorah go? And is it truly gone forever?

In 1165 CE, a monk lays down the last tiles in a vast mosaic that covers the entire floor of the Cathedral of Otranto, a port city far down on the heel of the boot that is Italy. It has taken him and his assistants years to create this highly complex and almost psychedelic mishmash of images from ancient mythologies, the Jewish Bible, Christian saints, astrology and even the legend of King Arthur, a story that had only just been written down for the first time in England about 25 years earlier. After all this toil of devotion, this extraordinary mosaic will be covered by benches, pews, chairs and the feet of the faithful. Why did the monk make this, and what on earth — or in heaven — does it mean?

In the next century, Italy experiences its own sort of “Camelot” under one of its most enlightened and mystical rulers ever — Frederick II, the “Stupor Mundi”, the “Astonishment of the World”. Around the year 1240, he creates two astonishing things, both unexplained until now. One is a peculiar castle in the middle of open fields deep in the south of Italy. It is not on top of a mountain, nor does it have a defensive moat or even a drawbridge. Frederick’s other creation is not a building, but rather an entire town, hundreds of miles to the north. Even though heavily involved with the demands of war and empire, this mysterious king takes the time and energy to found a completely new city where there had been nothing before. This city lives an amazing history until, suddenly, it is utterly destroyed in 2009.

Rome, 1508 — a brilliant young sculptor is forced to undertake the demeaning task of painting a ceiling. In the almost 4 ½ years of backbreaking labor that follow, he manages to conceal innumerable subversive messages in the artwork... so many, in fact, that it will require an entire book to reveal them all, exactly five centuries later — The Sistine Secrets.

A new century, a new era is born: the Baroque, whose very name means “bizarre, eccentric”. In 1624, the two masters of this new style work together as a team for one of the most sacred projects of the century — the colossal canopy over the main altar of the Catholic world, in St. Peter’s in the Vatican. After nine arduous years, the work is finished — and so is their friendship, forever. Their intense mutual hatred gives birth to a rivalry unparalleled in architectural history, and to the biggest building boom in Rome since the time of the pagan Emperors. Their rage impels them to insert countless secret messages, both spiritual and obscene, in most of their works, among them a church that is filled with Kabbalistic/Masonic symbols, a passageway to nowhere, and a “take-off runway” for Christian souls to reach the Holy Spirit.

In the second half of the 1700’s, a brilliant eccentric nobleman, facing his impending death, remodels his ancestral chapel in the heart of Naples. This one-of-a-kind esoteric sanctuary still fills the visitor with equal amounts of awe and dread, even without knowing the true nature of this place.

The list goes on and on in an unbroken chain all over Italy, from the foothills of the Alps to the man-made isles of Venice to the wonders of Florence and Rome to the magic of Naples to the ends of Sicily. Even in our days, the secret tradition continues. In 1998, an architect is commissioned to re-model and beautify the prestigious piazza in front of Palazzo Montecitorio, the Italian national Parliament. He manages to hide in plain sight, as Edgar Allan Poe would say, an attempt to illuminate Italy’s political “caste” with the mystical, ethical light of the Kabbalah.

What is it about this one country that attracts and breeds so many mysteries?

Of course, every country has its share of oddities: the British Isles with its haunted castles, Transylvania with its vampires, Nepal with its yeti, the United States with its eccentric mansions of the ultra-rich, and so on. Italy, however, is unique for the endless amounts of its enigmas — and their special qualities. They are not mere monuments to unbridled egos, such as Fontainebleu in France or the Hearst Castle in the U.S. They are neither supernatural creatures nor natural phenomena. The mysteries of Italy are much more original, mostly man-made, and multilayered in meaning.

One reason that Italy has more secrets than most other countries is that it has been subjugated by so many repressive rulers: insane emperors, barbarian invaders, Saracens, Normans, Bourbons, and even popes who reigned over the papal states with an iron fist. Secret symbols and messages were needed in order to organize, to resist, to express suppressed ideas — in short, in order to survive.

In this book, you are not going to find a catalogue of each and every secret and mystery in Italy — that would require an encyclopedia. Besides, to what end would a mere list serve?

This also brings up the question, to what end do these secrets serve today? If we feel that we live in a more or less free society, then why are we still attracted to these secrets?

For some people, it is the desire to feel smarter than others, to be a step ahead of the pack, or to show off what they know. For those people, this book will be a great help in striking up conversations, being a hit at parties, and hopefully meeting the love of their life with the opening line: “Did you know that...?”

For teachers of art and architecture history, these secrets can help to inspire the average student who might not otherwise appreciate the subject. I have seen the proof of this time and again, both in lectures and when I have acted as a docent to visitors who began our stroll with “I must warn you, I have no interest in art.” After one or two juicy secrets, they were all hooked.

For others, it is the explorer/Indiana Jones type of excitement of discovery, that frisson of uncovering something previously unknown. To put it in terms of Transactional Analysis, as developed by Dr. Eric Berne in the 1960’s, it is the act of nourishing the so-called “Little Professor” ego-state of our personalities. To put it in everyday terms, it is finding things that make you say “Cool!” The more secrets you uncover, the more you can truly understand that the Universe is multi-layered, that (to paraphrase Hamlet) there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy... and once you learn to welcome these secrets that are “wondrous strange”, that will make your whole world very “cool” indeed.

We seek out secrets to help stimulate our minds, to broaden our perception of the world around us. As Michelangelo said: “A true artist paints with his brains, not with his hands.” Therefore, we need to perceive true art with our brains, and not just with our eyes. Too many tourists spend fortunes to travel all over the globe in order to stand in front of a famous building or artwork, only to turn their backs on what they have supposedly come to see, take a snapshot to prove that they have been there, and then move on to the next item on their list. In this way, they never allow themselves the precious opportunity to actually experience these works, and to find out for themselves why these masterpieces are so famous. Knowing the secret...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Frontmatter
• Hidden Beneath the Beauty
• Glossary of Talmudic and Kabbalistic Terms
• Acknowledgements
• Footnotes