Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

over dark waters to an undisclosed destination. All of these fantasies vanished, were replaced
by a simple, unquestioned happiness in the arms of this very real man.
One day, from one of the bridges, she saw herself arm in arm with Konrad reflected in
the waters of a canal. A boat passed and their image wavered, hovered a moment suspended,
and then exploded into a myriad of colorful shards.
She kissed him.
"Maybe you dream of Florence, this is my city."
"I have never been to a great art gallery. Could we go to the Accademia together?" She
asked one morning.
Konrad stalled. He, the Northern German Protestant, had still not come to terms with the
soft, sensuous colors and the overbearing Baroque of the Florentine churches. He was not
ready to explore the paintings of the Accademia.
Remembering their promise to give each other freedom, they agreed to spend the
morning separately and meet for a late lunch at a restaurant across the bridge from the
museum.
All during this morning Konrad wandered, forlorn, through the quarters around the
Campo di San Rocco. He discovered a workshop where they made masks for the Commedia
dell’Arte, black leather half-masks with noses like beaks. He smiled, thinking of Irakli’s joke
about the long noses of the Dadiani, while watching the artisans push the soaked leather
pieces into wooden dies and then dry them into shape. In the end he bought a long-nosed
Pierrot mask for himself and a large, gilded half-moon for Alexandra.
Giorgione, The Tempest
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