Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

Alexandra then told Walter of her discovery of the Giorgione at the Accademia. Walter’s eyes brightened. "Ah Giorgione,a very important man," he said with conviction and delved into a lecture about the art historical problems of the Tempest.The picture had been painted in 1506 and ever since had remained controversial.Alexandra remarked that she found the title La Tempesta exceptionally unimaginative, it did no justice to the three figuresshown. Certainly Giorgione must have had more in mind than painting a thundercloud above a bucolic landscape!"Gnädige Frau, that is exactly why the art historians named it The Tempest. The experts cannot agree on Giorgione’sintentions, a nude woman nursing a child and a contemporary soldier? He had to be an allegory! But whom did herepresent? Is he a mythological brigand who has come to harm her—I admit, he does not look ferocious—or some Godin disguise, who wants to abduct her? But she is nursing a child! This is a very early cinquecento landscape painting,what was its mythological reference? At this early time only heathen Gods and Goddesses appeared in the nude!"Alexandra, puzzled, knitted her brows. "But she is the soldier’s wife! He has returned home after years of war. Thethreatening clouds are receding. He sees his child for the first time. Giorgione painted the woman in the nude to showthat peace had finally arrived. Permit me to say that I cannot understand your interpretative problems, Herr Wolfson."Wolfson’s face lit up, he waved his open hand towards Alexandra. "Gnädige Frau, sometimes a woman sees things weart historians do not. Every now and then a woman reminds us—you could also say puts our nose on the fact that wemen love to get lost in complicated speculations."He shook his head, but then said encouragingly. "Your explanation is not only charming, but convincing. You are askingme to reconsider the present reading of La Tempesta. Your interpretation would make this painting the earliest nonmythologicalnude in the history of art. An almost revolutionary thought."Weighing this challenge, Walter explained. "You have to know that this honor belonged to another Giorgione in theLouvre which is of undeniably non-mythological character: two nude women in the company of two men playing a guitarand a flute in an extended landscape. And even in this case some insist that the women are nymphs. Giorgione paintedthis picture in 1508, two years after the so called ‘Storm’ and two years before his death."Walter spoke not only a peculiar, antiquated and often funny German, he simply was the way he spoke, formal, longwinded,and touchingly impractical. Sally, on the other hand, was his complete opposite. Notwithstanding her sentimentaloutbreaks, next to frail Walter she appeared refreshingly blunt and direct. She also was a head taller than he.As they passed the towns of the Emilia, Walter gave minute descriptions of the art found in each of them. Padova:Giotto’s frescoes of 1304 in the Scrovegni Chapel; Ferrara: the city of the d’Estes where in 1470 in the Schifanoia PalaceFrancesco Fossa left behind a lively cycle of the allegories of the months; Bologna: the oldest university in the worldfounded in 1085, where an unusually large number of women taught in the early fourteenth century.Walter glanced at Alexandra and lowered his eyes. "Gnädige Frau, you remind me of the most glorious of theseexceptionally gifted women, Novella d’Andreae, she was so ravishingly beautiful that she had to lecture from behind acurtain in order not to distract her students. Gnädige Frau, she must have been as radiant as you!"Here Konrad interrupted Walter’s lecture by casually mentioning that Novella d’Andreae was his oldest known ancestor.Alexandra frowned. Was he making this up to derail Walter’s dull discourse?Walter turned to Konrad in surprise. "Herr Professor Rost, such illustrious ancestry? Novella d’Andreae was one of themost remarkable women of her time and not only because of her radiant beauty! She taught Greek and philosophy atBologna. Would you, verehrter Herr Professor Rost, be so kind and describe to us how the d’Andreae are connected toyour family. Your young wife seems to be unaware of her?"Konrad had to recollect the details of his genealogy. One of his ancestors, a merchant in the city of Mainz, had, from atrip to Italy, brought back as his wife one Monica d’Andreae, the daughter of a business partner in Bologna. She wasreputed to have been as beautiful as she was rich. Monica’s earliest known forefather had been a certain ConradinusCalderini, Professor at Both Laws at Bologna. In 1299 Calderinus got married and mysteriously changed his name tod’Andreae."After a long search my father solved this riddle with the help of the very chronicle you mentioned. Calderini had marriedfamous Novella d’Andreae! We do not know whether her beauty, her money, or her erudition induced Calderini to adopther name. Be that as it may, you are looking at the rare case of a family tree founded upon a woman!"Konrad was amused by the excitement this anecdote evoked in Walter, the historian of beauty. He continued. "Novellaoccupied a prominent place in my childhood. As you see, I was named after her husband, but she was the intellectualrole model my father held up to his sons. Following ‘family tradition’ Father sent us to a classical Gymnasium to learnGreek. Maybe that is why I almost forgot this genealogical anecdote: my brother studied theology, I broke with traditionand became a scientist.""And your father was the director of this Gymnasium?" asked Alexandra."Yes, that added to the significance of Novella."Walter bowed to Alexandra and added portentously. "And after exactly six hundred years a worthy descendent of theincomparable Novella has taken a wife of even greater beauty."48