Dear Readers,
November notes with an Italian Connection:The US Postal Service, in an attempt to make everybody happy, issues religious and non-religious themed stamps for the Holidays. This year it’s “Holiday Knits”, non-denominational and “Italian connected” Luini’s Madonna, religious.
Bernardino Luini’s (1480-1532) painting of a Madonna and Child will be appearing on the new 41 cents religious Christmas stamp issued by the US Postal Service this year. The original work, by the Italian Renaissance artist Bernardino Luini, hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. For the benefit of readers who want to see via art books or virtual art walk websites, more of Bernardino Luini’s work, here are some Milanese frescos originally commissioned by wealthy patrons, later transferred to canvas and now hanging in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. for all to enjoy.
Bernardino Luini, during the Renaissance, had many wealthy patrons who commissioned him and other artists to paint the walls of their villas and palaces with episodes from Roman and Greek mythological stories. This series of Luini’s frescoes, transferred to canvas, is devoted to the legend of Cephalus (son of Deion and Diomedette.
He was married first to Procris, whom he accidentally killed) and Procris (daughter of Erechtheus and Praxithea, who cured Minos of his golden death-giving disease, before she was accidentally killed by her husband.) This series is a commentary on jealousy. Procris is accused of infidelity by her husband, Cephalus. The quarrel is resolved through the mediation of the goddess Diana. Procris in turn becomes jealous of Cephalus and spies on him while he is hunting. Hearing her footsteps, he mistakes her for a wild animal, hurls his spear, and kills her.
Also on display by Luini: Cephalus and Pan at the Temple, Cephalus at the Hunt, Cephalus Hiding the Jewels, The Despair of Cephalus, The Illusion of Cephalus, The Magdalen, The Misfortunes of Cephalus, Portrait of a Lady, Procris and the Unicorn, Procris pierced by Cephalus’ Javelin, Procris’ Prayer to Diana, and Venus.
It is interesting to note that in Italy Bernardino Luini, an Italian painter of the Lombard School (and later many French artists too), came under the spell of the most famous artist ever to visit France, Leonardo da Vinci.Leonardo spent the last three years of his life at Amboise, where he died in 1519. His personality and talent were so overwhelming they had also dominated the School of Milan, where he stayed from 1482 to 1499. The “chiaroscuro” modeling and the soft smiles of his Madonnas are reminiscent of the master’s work and can be seen in Luini’s Magdalen and Venus at the National Gallery.
***
In November, when talk of Pilgrims, turkey and pumpkin pie makes it seem like only those people who came over on the Mayflower and their descendants contributed anything to our American way of life, I am reminded that:
My faithful reader, the late Peter Sanmartino, once called my attention to a slim volume now out of print, published by the Center for Migration Studies, (209 Flagg Place, Staten Island, NY 10304) that would dispel that notion.The “Italian Presence in Colonial Virginia” was a welcome book for those interested in the role of the Italians in the United States before the Civil War. Dr. Glenn Weaver, Professor of History at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, did a very creditable job in delineating the presence of Italians in Virginia during the colonial period. Let us remember that Virginia was the most important of the colonies.
Most people think that no Italians came to America before the migrant waves that began in 1880, but Giovanni Schiavo, father of research of Italians in the United States, stated that the percentage of Italians in Colonial America was probably 3% of 1,500,000, so approximately forty five thousand colonists with an Italian connection!
It isn’t the role of the worker-immigrant that is important, it is also the role of pioneer leaders like Father Chino and Fra’ Marco da Nizza in the Southwest, Henry Tonti in the Mississippi Valley, Vigo in the north central states. Let us not forget the discoverers and the explorers before the colonial period. And then, the influence of Italians who never came to America, like Cesare Beccaria, but whose book Crime and Punishment was the basis for jurisprudence in the colonies. One would have to say that the United States could not have been what it is if it hadn’t been for the Italians.
In order to understand what happened during the colonial period, one must study how Italians went first to England and from there came to the colonies as did Philip Mazzei, who was in many respect a Founding Father. He played a major role in the colony of Virginia. Italians fought in the Revolutionary War and three regiments under Rochambeau were composed mostly of Italians.
We find names that are Italian, other names that were Italian but have been altered. At the time and throughout the immigrant period, spelling was careless. Different people would spell in different ways more or less as it sounded to them: Paca became Packer, Taliaferro became Tolliver. Sometimes the immigrant himself simplified his name or it was anglicized for him. Caboto became Cabot. Rossi became Ross.
If he was among Frenchmen, the name became French: Priolo became Prioleau, Leneare became Lanier and to this day everybody thinks Lanier of French derivation. Clinton Vivion (or Vivian), a shareholder of the Virginia Company belonged to an English family of Italian extraction. Henry Fonda, father of Jane Fonda, was well aware of the Genoese origin of the Fonda family.
Among those who landed at Jamestown on January 2, 1608 was Edward Gargano, listed as a gentleman and who helped organize one of the plantations. In 1610 another “gentleman” arrived, Albiano Lupo, who was an enterprising person and soon arranged to bring servants to the colony. He had a claim of 350 acres. John Polentine arrived in 1608 and eventually became a Burgess.
At one point, six Venetian glassblowers were brought over to set up glassworks but the enterprise did not succeed. The glassworks and the Virginia Company came to an end at about the same time. King James I appointed new commissioners to take over, among whom were two Englishmen of Italian extraction: Edward Pallavicino and Sir Julius Caesar.
It is interesting to note that the largest importer of tobacco in all Europe was Philip Burlamachi. It may be that the slim, brittle “Toscani” cigars were developed because of the Virginia tobacco. Perhaps “polenta” developed because of a new type of corn from the new world. Weaver suggests that the prosciutto of the Italians in Virginia led to Smithfield ham.
The steady Italian stream began in 1635 and, from then on, they can be traced by land records.
Robert Taliaferro, originally Venetian but then English, arrived in Virginia in 1646 or so with considerable financial capital. He started a dynasty that was represented in many public endeavors including distinguished military duty.
Italians of Huguenot persuasion came during the religious persecutions. Indeed, at one point, there were so many Italians on the Eastern Shore and in the counties on the south bank of the James River, that the area was called the Banks of Italy or Italia. Many enterprising Italians soon owned considerable acreage.When the revolution developed, many of the Italians served both in the Virginia Militia and in the Continental Army in addition to being part of the French forces.
Carlo Bellini was appointed as Professor of Modern Languages at the College of William and Mary, a position he held for 24 years. He was the first teacher of Italian in an American College.So, dear readers, the positive Italian connected contributions to early United States history, long swept under the rug, are finally coming to light.
10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410
