This is a photo of me looking for a Savonarola chair at an art exhibition in the old Masonic lodge building on the riverbank at Warkworth in late 2003.I was unable to find one at this time but I did find a gorgeously dramatic portrayal of one on Eisensteins 1944 movie Ivan the Terrible (Part One) which my son Sam gave to me, in the scene where Ivan is laying seige to Kazan.
Do check it out. You will not be disappointed.
All you many many many many Savonarola chair fans who have found your way onto my humble art blog by googling Savonarola's chair should know that this chair is an Ancient Roman design of folding camp stool used by the Roman legions and unfortunately named after a religious idiot, a rabble rousing fanatic who caused a fuss in Florence in the 1490's and was responsible for corrupting the vision of one of my main drawing heroes, Sandro Botticello, by filling him with guilt and shame, completely destroying this brilliant artist's mojo and this maniacal obsessive fuckwit of the first order was eventually burnt alive by the Catholic authorities and I find it somewhat disturbing that amatuer antique investors and furniture fashionistas should be forever and always landing on my blog looking for information on a Roman General's camp stool unjustly named after a Goddamned iconoclast....
And it's kinda fun where life takes us and definitely fun to have an abusive self righteous tirade just like my man Savonarola, only I don't insist on you following my belief system.
Whatever you believe will, I believe, be revealed to you as truth.
Belief systems are surely like everything we are conscious of: infinite in variety and a matter of choice in what we focus on.
Oh John...you don't think you might upset a few of those investors...? Any traffic is good traffic isn't it?
ReplyDelete(the word verification for today is "multrath" - what an interesting word...wonder if its a real word...your blog entry sounds like you're suffering a little multrath...)