Remembering Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresia

A few Austrian stamps from my collection issued in 1980 for the
200th Anniversary of the death of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresia,
mother of Maria Carolina, Queen of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

In memory of Maria Theresia (13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780), Holy Roman Empress, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, and the rest, we pray for the happy repose of her soul.

Eternal rest grant unto Her Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

A Lament for the Passing of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by Giacinto de' Sivo

Giacinto de' Sivo b. 29 November
1814—d. 19 November 1867

"I don’t say the old Regno was faultless, that it was a paradise. Wherever men govern each other there is always bound to be some discontent, whatever the country. Human good is relative – everything cannot be quite the same for everybody. Some nations are warlike, others consists of farmers, or of merchants, artists or manufacturers; what suits them is for them to decide. Only bad judges omit to weigh good against evil, since as many blessings as possible and as few ills are the real measure of a country’s prosperity. Political bias magnifies a government’s failings without taking the times and the circumstances into account, and crudely simplistic judgements obscure anything else worthwhile – as if perfection were attainable by human endeavours. Closing one’s eyes to all that is good makes everything else look bad and raises countless questions. Naples had fewer troops than France, fewer ships than London, less liberty than America, not so much of the fine arts as Rome, and less polish than Paris, though those are not the only things which make for happiness. Nonetheless, in relation to its size and status the country had enough of them to be second to none. Commerce, arts and letters, morality, religion, security, comfort, industry, civil rights, all these it had in plenty. People lived pleasantly and inexpensively, with an abundance of entertainment and amusements; anybody who avoided subversive politics enjoyed complete freedom and could do what he liked. In short the realm was the happiest in the world. Countless foreigners who came to it prospered so much that they settled. 

"During the last forty years the population increased by a quarter. There was a wealth of public buildings, of good roads, aqueducts, warehouses, free hospitals, bridges of stone, brick or iron, arsenals, arms factories, barracks, foundries, high schools, academies, universities, churches, royal palaces, convents, monasteries, harbours, docks, shipping, fortresses, prisons, orphanages, flourishing industries, scientific farming, prize herds, reclaimed marshes, reservoirs, rivers harnessed for irrigation, botanical gardens, pawnshops, corn exchanges, stock markets and finance houses, freeports, arts and crafts institutes, funded charities, savings banks, insurance agencies, shipping brokers, merchant banks, railways, electric and submarine telegraphs, and every other amenity of civilized life. As for crime, murder was rare. Paupers were few and hunger practically unknown, since there was provision by religious, private, municipal and government charities. There was no paper money, only gold and silver. Taxes were light and expenses small – one lived very well on a modest income. Work was plentiful, prices low and holidays many. There was respect for the gentry, for the law, for authority, safety and order for everyone everywhere. 

"Then Gladstone came and called the regime ‘the negation of God,’ fed with lies by the opposition who wanted to bring in their ‘God’, and ruined us…almost unbelievable calumnies were repeated in newspapers all over the world."

* Reprinted from Naples: A Travellers’ Companion selected and introduced by Desmond Seward, Atheneum, 1986 pp. 294-296. The excerpt is originally from Giacinto de' Sivo's Storia delle Due Sicilie dal 1847 al 1861 (Rome, 1863). 

Buona Festa del Ringraziamento (Happy Thanksgiving)

Celebration of the First Mass attributed to Léon Trousset

We at Il Regno wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday. Even in hard times there is still a lot to be thankful for. We're thankful for our family, our brethren, and our faith. We're thankful for opportunities to work, and provide for ourselves and our loved ones. We're thankful for the past, because there can be no greater teacher. May we learn our lessons well. God bless you all. Buona Festa del Ringraziamento!

Prayer at Harvest and Thanksgiving

O God, source and giver of all things, you manifest your infinite majesty, power and goodness in the earth about us: We give you honor and glory. For the sun and the rain, for the manifold fruits of our fields: For the increase of our herds and flocks, we thank you. For the enrichment of our souls with divine grace, we are grateful. Supreme Lord of the harvest, graciously accept us and the fruits of our toil, in union with Jesus, your Son, as atonement for our sins, for the growth of your Church, for peace and love in our homes, and for salvation for all. We pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Portrait of King Ferdinando II of the Two Sicilies by Giuseppe Cammarano

I recently had the opportunity to view my friend's latest acquisition: The Portrait of King Ferdinando II of the Two Sicilies (Palermo 1810-1859 Caserta) attributed to Giuseppe Cammarano (Sciacca 1766-1850 Napoli). The inscription on the reverse of the painting states that this was the "First study for the picture at the embassy of Naples in Paris." Dressed in the uniform of the Illustrious Royal Order of Saint Januarius, the Basilica Reale Pontificia San Francesco da Paola of Naples can be seen in the background. In addition to being a portraitist of the royal family, Giuseppe Cammarano served as a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Naples.

A Prayer for Queen Isabella the Catholic’s Intercession

Isabella the Catholic, ora pro nobis

Almighty Father, in Your infinite goodness You made Queen Isabel the Catholic, a model for young ladies, wives, mothers, women leaders and government rulers. As the first sovereign of the American continent You granted to her heart a sense of piety, justice, compassion and the vision of a new land full of promise. Grant us the grace to see Your infinite majesty glorified in her prompt canonization, and through her intercession...[ask for your particular needs] that we ask of You in this present need through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Servant of God, Queen Isabel, pray for us.

Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory Be...

Pray to the Servant of God Isabel the Catholic and ask her intercession for your particular needs. When you obtain your favor, please inform the: Comité Reina Isabel, P.O. Box 268237, Chicago, IL 60626-8237, U.S.A.

* Prayer courtesy of Queen Isabella the Catholic. Portrait of Isabella I of Castile (April 22, 1451— November 26, 1504) by Luis de Madrazo (1825-1897)

New Music — Luce D’Amore Divino: Neapolitan Christmas Songs by Franciscan Friars

New music that may be of interest to our readers.

• Luce D’Amore Divino: Neapolitan Christmas Songs by Franciscan Friars

Label: Nova Antiq
Release Date: October 30, 2024
Audio CD: $26.58
Number of Discs: 1

Available at Amazon.com

Read description

Photo of the Week: Hercules and Omphale, Queen of Lydia, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Remembering Emperor-King Franz Josef

In memory of Emperor-King Franz Josef of Austria (18 Aug. 1830–21 Nov. 1916), we pray for the happy repose of his soul. 

Eternal rest grant unto His Imperial Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Pictured is an antique postcard depicting the Emperor in prayer with the poem Unser Kaiser im Gebet by Harry Sheff. Reprinted below in the original German, we also offer translations in English and Neapolitan by Cav. Charles Sant'Elia.

Unser Kaiser im Gebet 

Vater im Himmel, Lenker der Sonnen, 

Zeuge für mich, der in Demut Dir nacht! 

Ich nicht habe den Kampf begonnen, 

Ich nicht streute die blutige Saat ! 

Doch von Feinden und Neidern umgeben 

Rief ich mein Volk zu eiserner Wehr, 

Laß Deinen Geist uns're Waffen umschweben, 

Uns sei der Sieg – und Dir sei die Ehr'. 

Our Emperor in Prayer

Heavenly Father, ruler of the suns,

Witness for me, who is humble in the night!

I didn't start the fight

I did not strew the bloody seeds!

But surrounded by enemies and envious people

I called my people to an iron defense,

Let Your Spirit float around our weapons

Victory be to us - and honor to you.

'O Mperatore Nuosto Mprejaría

Pate ca staje ncielo, Re d''o sole,
Addeventasse testimmonio pe me, ummele dint''a notte!
Nun aggio accommenciato 'a battaglia
Nun n'aggio jettato 'e semmenze 'e sango!
Ma attornejato 'a nemmice e gente mmeriosa,
Aggio chiammato 'a' gente mia a na defesa 'e fierro,
Fa' ca volasse 'o Spireto Tujo attuorno a ll'arme noste,
'A vittoria a nuje- e annore a Te.

Annual Angel Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

November 26, 2024 – January 6, 2025

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York

Exhibition Overview

On view in the majestic Medieval Sculpture Hall, this beloved holiday tradition features a 20-foot blue spruce adorned with 19 cherubs, 59 angels, and an additional 71 figures that evoke 18th-century Naples Nativity scenes.

The installation is set in front of the eighteenth-century Spanish choir screen from the Cathedral of Valladolid in Gallery 305.

For more info visit www.metmuseum.org

A Mass for Peace

www.musicatransalpina.org

In a rapidly modernizing world marked by conflict, Jacobus de Kerle masterfully weaves the ethereal votive antiphon Da pacem, Domine into a magnificent cantus firmus mass as a cry for peace. Possibly written as a commemoration of the epic sea victory at Lepanto in 1570, this work was lavishly published in 1583 by the legendary press of Christophe Plantin, the most prestigious publishing house in history.

We are proud to present the first complete performance of this glorious Mass setting in modern times, performed for the first time in America. We hope that you will find its soaring melodies & noble harmonic language a moving call to peace in your own heart.

Concert performance
Saturday, November 30, 2024 at 7 PM
The parish church of S. Andrew
311 North Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91103.

Free liturgical performance
Sunday, December 1, 2024 at 9 AM
The parish church of Ss. Peter & Paul
515 West Opp Street
Wilmington, CA 90744.

Remembering Giacinto de' Sivo

b. Maddaloni, Kingdom of Naples, 29 November
1814—d. Rome, Papal States, 19 November 1867

In memory of Giacinto de' Sivo, Neapolitan legitimist, historian and politician, we pray for the happy repose of his soul.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Photo of the Week: Male Figure, Restored as Augustas, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Male figure, restored as Augustas, 2nd century AD
Photo by New York Scugnizzo

149° anniversario della morte di S.A.I.R. Francesco V Duca di Modena, Reggio, Mirandola, Massa, Carrara, Guastalla, ecc.

 In Modena

Against Self-Expression

(L) Portrait of a man in a red cap, ca. 1510, Titian (Tiziano Vecellio).
(R) Portrait of woman in d'hermine pass (Olga), 1923, Pablo Picasso 

Recently, at the beginning of the new academic year, I took the opportunity to conduct an informal discussion with the young minds in my charge about the definition of art. I posed a question to the class: “What is art?”

Before we commenced with the semester’s proceedings, I figured we should at least attempt to define the word “art.” Students were made to write a paragraph answering the question before sharing their definitions with the class.

Much to my chagrin, yet not to my surprise, one particular and unfortunate aspect of art made itself present in almost each and every student response: Art is a mode of self-expression.

Why did each student mention self-expression in their definition of art as a matter of course? How did this concept become such an idée fixe in the collective mind?

There is no doubt that self-expression in art exists. That is fact. But why has self-expression become practically synonymous with art itself in the present day? From whence did self-expression originate? Was it always present in art?

In order to gain some clarity, let’s attempt to answer some of these questions. In the following paragraphs, I will as closely as possible follow the form and sequence of the discussion I led with my students in the lecture hall that day after they attempted to answer the question posed to them.

First, we must address the origins of self-expression in art. When asked, my students immediately proclaimed, without so much as giving it a thought, that self-expression dated back to the beginnings of art itself.

It does not.

The earliest examples of art, i.e. Venus figurines, cave paintings, images carved into pre-historic temples and the like simply cannot be described as results of self-expression. The collective efforts involved, directed by an overarching spiritual impulse, immediately negates any semblance at all of prehistoric art to modern self-expression. That our modern idea of self-expression has been grafted upon these early works of art is preposterous.

How can we ascribe our modern concept of individuality to prehistoric peoples who relied so heavily upon the collective for their very survival, both physically and spiritually?

We cannot.

So what of the ancient world, then? Surely this self-expression we speak of must have existed in the ancient world? 

No, it did not.

An artist of antiquity simply performed the task he was assigned. Pharaoh, emperor, and high priest all dictated what to carve and paint. Even those ancient Greek sculptors and painters of renown, of highly developed skill and a sensitivity to form were more akin to what we would deem artisans by today’s standards.

(L) Idealized Portrait of a Lady (Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci
as Nymph), 1480, Sandro Botticelli. (R) Portrait of a
Young Woman, ca. 1918, Amedeo Modigliani

The same goes for the Middle Ages. Pope and King directed the bulk of the course of visual output. Again, you painted and sculpted what you were directed to and you performed that task anonymously in service of the greater spiritual communion.

In the Renaissance, we begin to see a cult of personality emerge, names of individual artists recorded for posterity, and their life stories recounted time and again. Most importantly, art becomes replete with the discernible styles of individual artists.

Does this constitute self-expression?

No, it doesn’t.

Art of the Renaissance does not embody self-expression in the present sense of the term. Artists were still beholden to God, Church, and patron in that order. At least for the time being.

However, the seeds of destruction of the eternal impulse of art itself were being sowed during this time. The flowers, though growing a little more poisonous each generation, were breathtaking, at least for a few centuries.

It was only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that these flowers, once tender with the promise of spring, withered and died before our very eyes in the cold winter of a new world. But not before imparting their poison, blinding their beholders. In short order, the artist was finally “liberated” once and for all from the confines of the spiritual, the hierarchical, and the conventional. Here marks the birth of our modern, ubiquitous concept of self-expression.

So what exactly happened? 

Secularly speaking, the visual arts suffered due to several contributing factors of modernism. For example, the mechanization afforded by the Industrial Revolution allowed for the French painter and physicist Charles Daguerre (1787-1851) to invent the Daguerreotype in 1817, thus ushering in the age of photography. Though we take this modern amenity for granted, photography was revolutionary - and deadly to the time-honored naturalistic painting processes already established nearly six hundred years previously. No longer was painting the most effective way to fix a three-dimensional image upon a two-dimensional surface.

Photography laid waste to representational painting, and in a few generations, the requisite skill necessary for painting was inevitably replaced by abstraction. Following in the wake of the widespread acceptance of abstraction came the artist’s reliance on his “unique and individual view” of the world. All in lieu of the well-established representational tradition, a tradition artists were no longer beholden to follow.

As a result, the art academies with their “elitist” mentalities and their “high standards” in regards to accepting and educating students were no longer considered to be the bastions of culture and learning they once were. Instead, they were seen as “rear guard;” effete and ineffectual, the stuffy and stodgy domain of old academicians, out of step with the times.

Another invention worth mentioning that was detrimental to representational art was that of the collapsable paint tube, patented in 1841 by American painter and inventor John Goffe Rand (1801-1873). The paint tube allowed artists portability and freed them from their studios, enabling them to paint out of doors, albeit in an increasingly flat, impetuous and superficial manner. Gone were the months of thoughtful and studious labor necessary to craft a painting. Instead, the artist traded nuanced skill for rapidity, and subtle application of delicate glazes for the matter-of-fact flatness of the alla prima technique. Sadly, over time the erosion of the artist’s skill became accepted fact.

(L) Portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne, 1966, Francis Bacon.
(R) Girl with a Pearl Earring, ca. 1665, Johannes Vermeer

The modernist avant-garde, with its reliance on the shock of abstraction and headline-making scandalization quickly moved to the fore, replacing the traditional, rendering it as dry as dust irrelevancy.

Self-expression now took the place of tradition and became an ideal entrenched in the minds of artist and viewer alike. At its best, self-expression became a term which in most instances could be considered interchangeable with the word narcissism. At its worst, self-expression existed as a shameful display of the workings of a largely disordered inner state.

On the spiritual side, the story grew existentially more grim with the passage of time. The rejection of the spiritual brought about by the Age of Enlightenment resulted in the beginnings of a major shift in patronage away from the Church and towards secular institutions. This hierarchical shift was detrimental to the religious artist who had been practicing his craft since time immemorial. As religious art waned, the popularity of secular art increased, and a good portion of it became self-referential to a fault. Artists generally no longer aspired to spiritual ideals. Instead, they unceasingly worshipped at the altar of the self, no matter how profoundly deranged that self was.

Philosophically, art after the Age of Enlightenment devolved in a most dangerous fashion. Over the last century and a half, the eternal ideals which were once the given philosophic domain of art were replaced with du jour relativistic uncertainty. Gathering momentum, this uncertainty culminated in Postmodernism.

With its resistance to hierarchies and its insistence that there exists no overarching meta-narrative, the Postmodernist ideology is perturbing to any sane mind to say the least. Postmodernism has enabled and elevated the idea of self-expression to an ultimate, banal and meaningless terminus. Under the aegis of Postmodernism, self-expression continues to be a deliberate affront hiding in plain sight; a purposeful contradistinction to the ideal of self-sacrifice for the greater good, which is the embodiment and vivifying essence of the Christianized Western World.

Thus, the aforementioned has lead us to an impasse. Fortunately, however, the present situation is neither inexorable nor inextricable. A critical mind is indeed necessary when considering the dangers of self-expression; the singular, crucial facility that can lead our world towards a sane ideation of what art always was and what it should again be: selfless-expression.

Art is the visible result of the search for and attainment of greater meaning, reflective of beauty, ideal and truth.

Once a meaning-oriented selfless-expression in art becomes imperative in the mind of viewer and artist alike, it is then incumbent upon the artist to orient himself towards this greater meaning and create accordingly.

By Prof. Pico Retrocelli

Remembering Maria Clementina of Austria, Queen of the Two Sicilies

24 April 1777 — 15 November 1801

In memory of Maria Clementina of Austria, Queen of the Two Sicilies, we pray for the happy repose of her soul. Viva ‘a Reggina!

Eternal rest grant unto Her Majesty, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Brief Excerpt from "The Demon of Progress in the Arts" by Wyndam Lewis

Portrait of the Artist as the Painter Raphael,
Wyndam Lewis (1882-1957)

"We seem to be running down, everywhere in life, to a final end to all good things. Compared to fifty years ago, when the supreme and ultimate rot began, our food-our milk, our cheese, our bread, our concocted foods, everything, in short, is inferior, and there is every reason to suppose that it will get more so, decade by decade. The cloth our clothes are made of has declined in quality, not only in beauty but in durability, to such an extent that no tailor would have the face to deny it. The furniture at present manufactured, the materials with which our houses are built, the bricks, the mortar, the wood, the fittings, are notoriously inferior to what they were a short century ago. Paper is not what it was, in our newspapers, our books, our writing materials and so on; steel products, such as scissors, pins, etc., become less and less reliable; the gut used in surgical stitching is no longer graded; but it is not necessary to enumerate this decline in detail. Everything that is sold in the shops is necessarily inferior to what it was so short a time ago as twelve months. Why? For the very good reason that the word business may be defined as buying cheap and selling dear. Mr. Franklin Delano Roosevelt insisted that The business man is a crook.' He is, by definition, dishonest. The board meetings and conferences in every business establishment concern themselves always with some essentially dishonest device for putting more money in their pockets; in the case of the manufacturers, the subject discussed is how, in manufacturing their speciality, they may cheat the public-to make the public pay the same price (or more) for an article composed of less valuable ingredients. This must involve a progressive deterioration of everything we buy, from the gas in our meters to the socks on our feet.

"Meanwhile, the great suspense is a factor of daily, unrelenting ruin. The enormous cost entailed by the fabulous armaments imposed on both sides in the preparation for the next war is alone sufficient to bleed us white, to maintain a dangerous fever in all our blood; and, since the arms we are now manufacturing are potentially so destructive that when at length they are used they may entirely alter our lives, they are responsible for the great suspense.

"Well. Unless human beings are going to experience the same deterioration in the very tissues of which their bodies are composed, unless their skins are to lose their resilience, their warmth, and all the other qualities which make them so high class a covering for a man to have; unless nature is to begin to take less trouble over our nails, our hair (that may disappear altogether), our wonderful shining eyes, which may become dull and myopic, so that spectacles must be provided for all from the cradle onwards unless all this is to come about there will have to be some great revolution. That is why talking about the alarming outlook for the fine arts appears so trivial a matter when one has finished writing about it. It is infected with the triviality of everything else."

Reprinted from The Demon of Progress in the Arts by Wyndam Lewis, Henry Regency Company, 1955, pp.96-97

Meridiunalata: Nun Fa ‘A Gelosa by Cav. Charles Sant’Elia

Reprinted from Cav. Charles Sant'Elia's Meridiunalata / Southernade, an evocative bilingual collection of poetry written in Neapolitan and translated to English between 1989 and 2010.*

Nun Fa ‘A Gelosa

Cara mia
Nun fa’ ‘a gelosa,
Si me vide ‘e chiágnere addenucchiato,
Si me siente ‘e murmulià int’’o scuro-
Songo nnammurato ‘e n’ombra
Fina e bella
Ca ‘a tantu tiempo stongo ncuntranno
‘A strata d’’e Tribbunale.
‘A quanno aggio tenuto
Sta capuzzella dint’a sti mane,
Me songo nnammurato.
Nce faccio nu refrisco a ll’ánema
E spero si i’ arrivo a saglì ‘o’ priatório
Ca ‘o facisse tu pe me.

Don’t Be Jealous

My dear
Don’t be jealous,
If you see me kneeling and crying,
If you hear me murmuring in the dark-
I’m in love with a phantom
Fine and beautiful
That I’ve been meeting for some time
In the Via dei Tribunali
From when I held
This little skull in these hands,
I’ve been in love.
I offer a suffrage to her soul
And I hope that if I manage to ascend purgatory
That you’d do so for me.

* Self-published in 2010, Meridiunalata / Southernade is a treasury of poems gleaned from Cav. Sant'Elia's previous collections (Nchiuso dint''o presente, 'A cuntrora, and 'O pino e l'éllera), which were circulated among friends in New York City and Naples. Special thanks to Cav. Sant'Elia for allowing us to reprint his poetry and translations.

158° Aniversário do Falecimento de S.M.F. El-Rei D. Miguel I

In Coimbra, Portugal

A Look at the “Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350” Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea, and patriarchs and
prophets, ca. 1312-15, Duccio di Buoninsegna (active 1278-1318)

With over a hundred works drawn from the collections of The Met, the National Gallery in London, and dozens of other lenders, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's ongoing exhibit Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350, is an absolute triumph of the sublime. Boasting an impressive array of paintings, sculptures, and textiles by influential Sienese masters such as Duccio, Lorenzetti, Martini, and others, the viewer is offered an exhilarating glimpse of the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. Rooted in faith and tradition, it is a glorious celebration of Western art.

Upcoming exhibits of note at the Met Fifth Avenue:

• Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature (February 8—May 11, 2025)

• Sargent and Paris (April 27—August 3, 2025)

(L) Madonna and Child, ca. 1290-1300, Duccio di Buoninsegna.
(R) The Annunciation, 1311, Duccio di Buoninsegna

Crucifixion with Saints Nicholas and Gregory, and the
Redeemer with Angels, ca. 3111-18, Duccio di Buoninsegna

Back Predella of Maestà Altarpiece at Siena Cathedral,
ca. 1308-11, Duccio di Buoninsegna

(L) Madonna del Latte, ca 1325, Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319-47).
(R) Saint Sabinus before the Roman Governor of Tuscany, 1335-42,
Pietro Lorenzetti (active 1320-48) and workshop

(L) Virgin and Child with Saints and Angels, ca. 1350, Lippo Memmi
(active 1317-56). (R) Virgin and Child with Four Saints and Dominican Nun,
ca. 1325, Simone Martini (active 1315-44)

(L) Virgin and Child with Queen Sancia of Naples, Saints, and Angels, ca. 1332-33, Tino di Camaino (ca. 1280–ca. 1337). (R) Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine and John the Baptist, ca. 1340-50, Giovanni di Agostino (ca. 1310-70)

(L) Enthroned Virgin, first half 14th century, Goro di Gregorio (active ca. 1300-1334). (R) Man of Sorrows, ca. 1329-32, Tino di Camaino (ca. 1280–ca. 1337)

(L) Virgin and Child with the Annunciation and the Nativity, ca. 1310-15,
Goodheart Ducciesque Master (active ca. 1310-30) (R) The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, ca. 1340, Barna Da Siena (active second quarter 14th century)

Detail of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine depicting St.
Margaret of Antioch striking the demon Beelzebub with a hammer

Virgin and Child and Man of Sorrows, ca. 1340-45,
Pietro Lorenzetti (active 1320-48)

The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain,
ca. 1308-11, Duccio di Buoninsegna

Virgin and Child and St. Andrew, ca. 1326-30, Simone Martini (active 1315-44)

St. Ansanus and St. Luke, ca. 1326-30, Simone Martini (active 1315-44)

Christ Carrying the Cross from the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de
Berry, 1405-8/1409, the Limbourg Brothers (active 1399-1416)

(L) Angel Gabriel, ca. 1335-40, Simone Martini. (R) Christ
Discovered in the Temple, 1342, Simone Martini (1315-44)

Christ Carrying the Cross and The Crucifixion, Orsini Polyptych,
ca. 1335-40, Simone Martini (1315-44)

Stories from the Life of St. Nicholas, ca. 1332-34,
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (active 1319-47)

Photo of the Week: Male Figure, Restored as Augustas, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Male figure, restored as Augustas, 2nd century AD
Photo by New York Scugnizzo

Voices of Heritage: From Beneventan Manuscripts to Modern Music Through the Lens of Innovation

The Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Nicola Sala" of Benevento cordially invites you to join us for a remarkable two-day event in New York City, celebrating the ancient Beneventan chants and their evolution into modern music.

Tuesday, November 19th, 2024

4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

A Discussion on the Beneventan Manuscripts

Italian Cultural Institute

686 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10065

Guests are warmly invited to enjoy refreshments following the discussion.

Please RSVP here

*

Wednesday, November 20th, 2024

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The Conservatorio Statale di Musica "Nicola Sala" performing for the first time in New York, presents its inspiring repertoire.

Carnegie Hall

Weill Recital Hall

154 W 57th St., New York, NY

This exclusive event is offered with our compliments.

RSVP here to reserve your tickets, which will be provided upon confirmation.

We look forward to sharing this extraordinary celebration of heritage and innovation with you.