Postcard From Italy

Today I wanted to share a few of my views of a basilica in Rome that Pope Francis visited during the first days into his pontificate – the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major (Santa Maria Maggiore in Italian).

Statues on the top portion of the portico

This basilica, like so many other basilicas in Italy, has a long and rich history. Also, like so many other basilicas in Italy, Santa Maria Maggiore is opulently decorated.

 But what piqued my interest in this  basilica before entering, is the fact that probably the greatest sculptor who ever lived is buried is buried there.

Postcard From Italy -

November 9th is the anniversary of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. This is the cathedral that is actually the official “home” of the Pope, and the Diocese of Rome - not St. Peters (in Vatican City on the opposite side of the Tiber).

While not the size of St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran is huge and REALLY beautiful inside and out. There’s loads of amazing sculptures and paintings, set off by graceful architectural lines everywhere. Here are a few images:

I just needed everyone to exit the basilica so I could take my time setting up nicer shots for you - Did not happen.

Click here for more Italy images.

Postcard from Italy - Sistine Ceiling

According to the posted signs, there is no photography allowed in the in the Sistine Chapel.

Below are photos I shot while visiting the Sistine Chapel, which immediately tells you how much the above rule is enforced. The prime reason for this is (to quote a Paul McCartney song title) too many people.

Millions of tourist are herded through the chapel in large groups after touring the Vatican Museums, jostling for position and straining to hear their respective tour guides, so it is no surprise the 'no pictures' rule is ignored. This also helps to explain why my shots are so, ... well, touristy.

Capturing a few shots of Michelangelo's masterpiece while on a tour like that only serves as a memento of a fantastic holiday - a reminder that " Wow, I was actually there!"

If you want to see some quality images and read more about the ceiling of all ceilings, there are loads of great books out there. Below are three of my recent favorites:

"Michelangelo and the popes ceiling", by Ross King.

This book is a must, and a nice starting point to put everything into the context of the times. Among other things, it explains the process of fresco and tells just how a massive work like this was executed.

"Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel", by Andrew Graham-Dixon

Andrew graham Dixon is a very engaging art critic, historian, presenter and film maker. His book not only breaks down all the scenes painted on the Sistine ceiling, but gives perspective of the entirety of the work, refutes other critics theories of it and tells us what it all may, or may not mean.

"Michelangelo: The Complete Sculpture, Painting, Architecture" by William Wallace

If you want beautiful reproductions, and really sweet close-ups in a large coffee table volume along with critical commentary, then get this baby.

These are but a drop in the bucket of books that are out there about Michelangelo and the Sistine ceiling, but hey, you gotta start somewhere!

Postcard From Italy - More Venice Views

Earlier this summer I posted some pictures I shot in Venice, Italy to celebrate the beginning of this year's Venice Biennale. At that time I promised a follow up with more pictures.

After being side-tracked with setting up a new studio, and submitting artwork to various new exhibits for the last month or so, I'm finally following up on that Venice post.

It comes with a most unfortunate sidebar however - The historic gondola rides the world has enjoyed for centuries on the Grand Canal are about to be cut way back due to the death of a German tourist earlier in August. Read the Daily Mail article here.

But before you do, enjoy these shots, two of which I shot from my gondola. Fortunately my entire party survived our foray into the Canal (guess our particular gondolier wasn't doing drugs this day.)

Ciao!

Postcard From Italy - Venetian Views

The beginning of the Venice Biennale has arrived. Whether or not you like contemporary art, Venice is one of the most beautiful and fitting places to host an exhibit this huge (88 participating countries).

Art-loving hordes of tourists and modern art afficionados not for you? Well here are a few images I shot while the hordes were a bit more navigable prior to this years event.

More Venice shots to share with you next post, in the meantime you can always visit the events website by clicking here.

Digital "Painting"

Today's post doubles as one of my “Postcards from Italy” because the subject is a Swiss Guard at the Vatican that I shot with my Canon Rebel and a 300mm zoom.

I don’t do too many “digital paintings”, mainly because it takes me away from doing my real oil paintings. But with the loads of fun and endless possibilities this kind of image manipulation brings, how can one not dabble in it at the very least?

“Swiss Guard”

Did this in Photoshop while trying to follow a real confusing tutorial in a British Photoshop magazine I picked up at Barnes & Noble. It’s amazing how badly written some step-by-steps are. Makes me really appreciate a Photoshop guru like Scott Kelby.

Anyway, here’s the original processed and cleaned jpg that went into the family photo album.

Amazing what blowing out contrast, applying filters, isolating the image on its own layer, roughing up edges with art brushes, putting it over top of an abstract background, then playing with the curves will do!

So much can be done digitally to an image that it sometimes is a challenge to know when your done.

Please check out more of my Italy photos I uploaded the other day by clicking here.

Postcard From Italy

Just got word via facebook, that your favorite Beatle and mine will be doing a concert in the ancient Roman amphitheatre in the city of Verona!

So this weeks “Postcard from Italy” shows a few of my views of the ancient rocks in which he'll be rocking.

Verona is home to the world’s third-largest amphitheater to survive from Roman antiquity.

The amphitheatre was built in 30 AD and could host 30,000 spectators. (Better be more seating now if Paul is going to play there!).

Today the arena is regularly used for Verona’s opera performances. Pretty cool, and Verona is a very pretty place.

Next postcard we'll look at some other views of Verona.

Ciao!

Postcard From Italy

Since history is being made recently with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, today’s postcard shares with you my shots of the pope from my recent visit to Rome. These are from the weekly, Wednesday papal audience which the public can attend.

These are not great shots by any means and I wasn’t even going to show them. In light of the recent historical events however, figured I might as well.

Shot all these with my 300mm zoom on the old Rebel. Click on them to enlarge.

Didn’t really do any special effects to these shots. Just a bit of color correction, selective blur and sharpening, pump up the volume on the contrast - you get the picture.

The first "pope emeritus" in 600 years, and you and I were alive to witness it. How lucky we all are.

Tell you one thing, if you ever go to Rome for one of these papal audiences, better queue up early and be prepared to be pushed from behind by angry natives. I just pushed right back though. When in Rome right?

Click here to go to the Vatican’s website. Scroll down a bit to see previous “Postcards From Italy”

JoeWinklerArt.com

Postcard From Italy - Pictures of Police

Today’s postcard shows 3 versions of a shot I took of some Vatican police keeping the crowd in check during a weekly Papal appearance. Here is the original, unprocessed JPG:

I tend to underexpose in really bright sunlight as you can see! Took this with a 300mm lens on my old Canon Rebel, over the heads of hundreds of other people.

Even though the file was a JPG, I went through the same processing steps I usually do - using Adobe Camera Raw first, then finishing up in Photoshop. Since  I wanted the faces of the guys to get all the attention, I desaturated everything else to a certain extent. Giving me this image:

I recently downloaded the free version of Perfect Effects 4 from OnOne Software which allowed me to sharpen and “grunge” the image to new heights, as well as put the border effect on the shot, giving me this image:

Didn’t go too far with these effects - I like having very subtle color in the image, and thanks to the continued popularity of instagram, the sharp grungy look is very in style which helps give an innocent snap shot an air of mystery or drama.

Which version is better? No correct answer. Whichever one you like best (or dislike least as the case may be).

Tell you one thing for certain, Perfect Effects from OnOne Software ROCKS. I bought the full-blown version after doing this with the free version. Can’t wait to share more images after playing with the over 300 plus other filters they offer.

Click HERE to go to the OnOne site.

JoeWinklerArt.com

Postcard From Italy

Today’s postcard is this view (kind of, but not directly) beneath the great dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, which shows the light streaming in high above.

That light is over 400 feet above as one stands in this spot. It was late in the day when I shot this but still very sunny outside, yet I was surprised at how little natural light there was down where I was standing. All the more emphasis on the “heavenly” light above I suppose. The effect was amazing in any case.

By the way, the art that looks like paintings (frescos) along the walls and up above, are actually intricate mosaics. Much easier to clean and preserve over the centuries.

Ciao for now!

JoeWinklerArt.com

Postcard From Italy

In today's postcard(s) we remain in the Vatican (The smallest country in the world), but head outside the basilica and into St. Peter’s square. As one stands there, the colonnades, or "arms" that Michelangelo designed, embrace you. Sitting atop those arms are statues of well over 120 saints. Whether you are religious or not, the environment is impressive to say the least.

Here’s some close-ups of a few that I shot with a 300mm lens on my good old Canon Rebel.

Seeing these on television and in other photos, I had thought they were highly polished sculptures, like the David or Pieta. It wasn't until I was actually there, looking at these through my zoom lens, that I realized how weathered and unrefined they seem. Look at the blocky hands for instance. At first I was surprised and a bit disappointed at seeing that - but between remembering how old they are, the fact that they live outdoors and the enjoyment of just being there, I quickly got over it!

If you look closely, they seem to be wired. I figured that's either to light them, or to keep birds off them. I don't really know.

Visit saintpetersbasilica.org to see who is depicted in each and every statue, along with the artist and date of completion. Awesome!!

JoeWinklerArt.com

Postcard From Italy

Today's "postcard from Italy" shows one of the most dominating features of the interior of St. Peter's basilica in the Vatican - the baldacchino (the huge bronze canopy) - designed by the great Baroque sculptor, painter and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1620s.

Along with Renaissance master Michelangelo, Bernini had much to do with the look of the basilica we see today. Bernini’s talents were sublime to say the least.

Bernini’s baldacchino

Loads of amazing details all over this huge structure. Look really carefully at the top. There are small convex sections of the canopy, that run in-between the top of the columns. In a few of those sections there is sculpted groups of three distinct details:

Those are bees. That is the family symbol of the very wealthy Barberini family. Pope Urban VIII was a Barberini, and during his papacy he commissioned Bernini to design, among other things, the baldacchino. He wanted to make sure that all future generations who looked upon this structure remembered that fact.

Well, it worked! Kind of unfortunately for us today, figures of authority who commissioned buildings and sculptures during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, took loads of existing materials from the surrounding Roman ruins and used them to build their new structures. Materials like stone, marble and iron were extracted from buildings of classical antiquity, which served to ruin them even further.

“Pope Urban VIII” painted by Bernini

During Pope Urban’s time there was a popular saying that went like this: “What the barbarians didn't take from ancient Rome, the Barberini did.”

To watch a video on Bernini, click HERE.

JoeWinklerArt.com

Postcard From Italy

Today’s post is about one of the many images I shot while on holiday in Italy. In fact I have so many images that I could almost post one a day here on the blog for over a year. Instead, however, I'll show one a week going into the new year and title each post "Postcard From Italy" - pretty catchy title eh? (Don't answer that). Of course I'll keep shooting and sharing my oil paintings and sketches here as well.

Usually I like to shoot in RAW format, But since I knew I'd be taking so many shots, I just shot high quality JPGs, which are smaller files and can be processed using the same software I always use.

Adobe Bridge (left) and Adobe Camera Raw (right)

I processed over 400 images, so heavy retouching was not an option because of the time factor. I had a little workflow set up where I'd go from viewing the files in Adobe Bridge, opening and processing them in Camera Raw, and finishing up with light clean-up, color corrections, sharpening, and cropping in Photoshop.

I won’t show show before and after shots very often, and this example is really understated, but here is the raw, unprocessed JPG:

Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy - raw JPG

Shot it through our tour bus window with my Canon G10. The bus window acted as a bit of a light filter but that didn’t help the reflections which showed up. Here is the processed shot:

Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, Italy

Like I said, pretty understated, but I just wanted to “correct” the shot, quickly retouch out the junk on the window, and create a nice composition, without using a bunch of filters and effects. It was a sunny day, and even though I had the white balance set properly in the camera, I remembered the buildings being warmer than the raw shot, so I warmed them up a bit during the Camera Raw stage.

The sweet thing is that, if I ever use this shot as a photo reference for an oil painting, I can easily pump up the melodrama of this shot!

At the time I knew little about this structure aside from the fact that in the early 1500s the pope escaped to this castle while fleeing from marauding Spanish troops. Click here to learn a lot more about it.

In the next “Postcard From Italy” post I’ll show a more aggressive (and fun) processing job.

Arrivederci-

JoeWinklerArt.com