Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, continued: Postwar Bazaar and Postwar Italy, 2 of 2

"Benevento Cathedral was wrecked last September
when allied bombers in high-level attack
struck at bridges and railroads near the cathedral.
Little railroad town on Benevento
is about 33 miles northeast of Naples.
Built in the Ninth Century,
cathedral was rebuilt about 1200.
Bell tower (right) added in 1279,
was miraculously undamaged."

Benevento Cathedral door panels undergoing restoration;
facade of cathedral and of tower.

Cathedral of Capua; Santa Chiara Church in Naples.

Cathedral of Capua; Santa Chiara Church in Naples.

Cathedral of Capua; Santa Chiara Church in Naples;
Church of Sant' Angelo in Formis.

Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, continued: Postwar Bazaar and Postwar Italy, 1 of 2

Watercolor and pencil.

Colored paper - all of it - in a dozen colors.

The rest of these are pages from a contemporary photojournal,
 Life Magazine. The caption reads: "Italian workmen under direction
 of AMG dig for valuable fragments of sculpture, fresco, architectural
ornament  in bombed Capua Cathedral."
Capua is inland a bit from the Allied landing beaches.

Same image, but the bottom half.  I don't have a giant scanner
so you are going to get these cropped or in halves.
"Allies try to save great relics."
Interesting how those bands of color appeared in iPhoto.
Do they have to do with the color printing process
used at the time?

"In the Palace of Caserta a British corporal takes a cat nap beneath a
16th Century statue of the Duke of Parma, who is being crowned by Victory.
Built in 1752 for Charles III, the palace was recently turned into a public museum.
Germans once used palace as official headquarters.
When Nazis were routed, allied officials made it their headquarters."

"The massive dome of 18th century Santissima Annunziata Church
in Naples, pierced by a bomb, is braced by scaffolding
built by AMG art officials."

From the text of the article:

   "Yet in spite of allied caution many architectural treasures have been damaged by allied as well as Nazi forces. On these pages LIFE Photographer George Silk shows how war has ravaged Italy's art."

   "The Nazis were not so greatly bothered by the spiritual conflict that beset the allies. They deliberately mined and destroyed the great library of Naples and stole millions of dollars worth of art from private collections and public museums. . . The British and U.S. governments have set up a group of experts to carry on the work of art preservation.  The experts have prepared maps for bombing missions, carefully plotting the location of art treasures so that the bombers can avoid any unnecessary damage. They erect scaffoldings  to support shaken walls and ceilings, put up temporary roofs to protect interiors from rain and weather, gather all rubble together so that it can be sifted for valuable fragments that can be used later to reconstruct damaged works. They have already helped compile a record of every important movable piece of Italian art, including all of the Nazi loot. This list will help to return to the pillaged towns many of their priceless paintings and sculptures."

So we can date this issue of LIFE Magazine to late 1943.

Santissima Annunziata Maggiore, the nave today

Robert M. Edsel has written two books about this, one being Monuments Men.  So I'm thinking "AMG" refers to an "Allied Monuments Group."  Previous to that he published Rescuing da Vinci.

Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, continued: Architectural Drawings

At Kensington High in 1946,
students used pencil and ruler to draw.
It's good to be made to practice that skill
while young, even now in the age of computers.

The "facade" is the facing;
with the surface decoration.
But under the decoration
are to be found structural elements
which exist in certain proportions.
What makes certain proportions pleasing
to the human eye?
It is an ancient question in aesthetics.

One sleepy house,
and another looking startled.

Something is happening along the street,
on the left.  Aliens?  Enchantments?

Teachers, always nit-picking.
Nice row of monoliths there on the lawn.

That's a good exercise, keeping proportions in mind
while drawing a floor plan.
What are those fishhooks, one next to each bedroom closet?
I'm not sure I want everyone schlepping through the kitchen
to get to and from the porch.

Dilbert's living room.

Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, continued: Costume

We continue our look through work related to a History of Art course from 1946. 

That black horizontal line, drawn about a third of the way up from the bottom of many of these drawings, makes a difference, doesn't it?  It sort of grounds the figure, instead of letting it float about. Is that the "horizon line?"

This amazes me.
The English fought a titanic struggle
against Napoleon, and for years
were under threat of invasion by the French,
yet all that time English ladies
followed the Paris fashions.
"Empire" refers to the
Napoleonic Empire. Yikes.

Check the Vivien Leigh hairdo on the figure.
Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta (!)
in December of 1939.
In 1946, no doubt,
the shock waves still reverberated
through popular culture.

I really like this dress,
although I am mystified by the panniers.
Or are they wearable bongo drums?
Either way, they are useful
and appealing.

Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, continued: Further Motifs

We continue our look through work related to a History of Art course from 1946.

Clara Matynka High School Art Folio, and Some Other Art News

  

Our CAMZ saved a couple of folios
from her art courses
at Kensington High School
in Buffalo, from which
she was a 1947 graduate.

This one contains a stack two inches high
of 12" x 9" drawings on heavy stock.
We never saw these but  once
during her lifetime;
all her work she kept up in the attic.

Pen-and-ink and watercolor.
Do you have some time?
We are just at the top of the stack.

The Greeks painted their
architectural detail
and the detail on their statuary.
We have to keep reminding ourselves
of that when what we see
is weathered stone scattered about.

Those three golden-brown things
are done in a shiny metallic paint.

Another art unveiling, in a different league, you might say, and on the other side of the planet, was recently in the news.  I put it up for my wallpaper:

Poland's great artist, Jan Matejko, is depicted in a bronze statue
just unveiled recently, as it happens, in the Square of the Old Town
of Krakow.  While photographing this bottle for the sake of the label,
I caught the wallpaper by dumb luck.

There, now you can see the photo properly.
Beard, Barbican, and all, it's from an article in "The News from Poland,"
mentioning the recent unveiling ceremony.