The History
GOUACHE: PICTURES FROM THE PAST
In the 1700s, European aristocrats participating in the Grand Tour were returning home with a big repertoire of pictures, sketches and engravings made by themselves or with the help of professional painters. The result was a huge production of pictures depicting real life in the main European cities, among which Naples, which, despite their quality and beauty, remain to this day mostly unknown. Taken all together today, these pictures have high value as documents from remote times. I chose to reproduce on the Eggs those images that I felt were full of unforgettable and exciting details; wonderful pictures of glimpses lost forever. Photographs of architecture where beauty and balance prevailed over common functionality. Representations of time spent slow, in fixed and enchanted sceneries, when Naples was at the centre of the Grand Tour’s european scenery for a time that has embraced several centuries.
THE EGG
Castel dell'Ovo castle in Naples is linked with the figure of Virgil, Naples’ patron saint who preceded Saint Gennaro, and whom some attributed with magical powers. His life was mythologised and his writings were interpreted by Christian religion, which gave him the role of a Prophet. Among different wonders attributed to him aimed at protecting Neapolitan people, one episode tells of him hiding a magic egg concealing the city’s soul in the dungeons of the ancient “Sea Castle”. In order to preserve the egg’s integrity, it was kept in a glass cloche surrounded by a metal cage, as the legend says Naples’ destiny depended on the egg’s preservation. That episode, more than others, made Virgil known in Neapolitan culture. A trace of this tale is left in the castle’s current name, Castel dell’Ovo, which translates as “Castle of the Egg”, assigned not only from oral tradition, but from the ancient writings as well.
Throughout history, the Egg represented premonition, arcane, charm, creative substance and nourishment. The philosopher’s egg symbolised Creation. According to Buddhism, breaking the shell of ignorance is equivalent to the achievement of Enlightenment. For the Chinese, the egg yolk represents the sky and the egg white the Earth. According to Christianity, the egg is the symbol of Easter: a sepulchre where the seed of life lies. In ancient Egypt, the goose living in the river Nile was said to have laid the cosmic egg from which Ra, the sun, emerged. For Ancient Greeks, the egg symbolised the mystery of life, creation and resurrection. According to Hinduism, the divine bird laid the golden, cosmic egg on primordial waters, out of which Brahma emerged, while the two halves of the egg represented Heaven and Earth. The egg is an essential principle for the Iranians, a seed of the whole creation. Starting from the Neolithic, funeral “pithos” were shaped as an egg, to symbolise the womb of the Mother Goddess. In temples, churches and mosques, one could often find an ostrich’s egg, or a porcelain egg hanging from the ceiling, representing the creation, life and resurrection. Sometimes huge amounts of eggs were buried under the houses being constructed in order to protect the buildings against negative influences. The profound metaphysical significance of the egg gave origin to secular traditions that see it as the absolute protagonist throughout the whole world.
THE BASE
Incorporating powder of volcanic stone, I wanted the small base supporting each egg of mine to be born out of the Vesuvius volcano. A “rib”, an infinitesimal part of this enormous mountain, called “The Exterminator” by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, a relic of geological history formed by destruction and rebirth, deeply imprinted in each living and passed away alike person’s soul who has lived under its steep green vines and flourishing pine groves alternating in time with red-hot lava and smoking magma racing to the sea, giving shape to black and twisted reefs teeming with life.
THE CORAL
In Greek mythology, Perseus cutting off Medusa’s head caused her blood to run into the sea, thickening to become coral. Since ancient times, the coral’s symbolic power has been considered as an eternal talisman, able to beckon divine inspiration onto whomever was wearing it. Because of this, in the past coral was passed on as dowry from mother to daughter. It was also donated to shrines as a votive offering, and put on newborns for superstitious reasons and against nocturnal witches’ abductions. The apothecaries ground it into powder for therapeutic and thaumaturgic uses, and coral was also used as medicine for some diseases.
The insertion of coral as tiny eggs or ovals in the lower part of the Eggs’ base is due to my desire to join different elements of my native tradition, creating an object that identifies my roots and my land, abundant with millennial history, inextricably linked to these ancient symbols.
