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The
"siesta" is an afternoon nap that owes its name to the Latin "sexta",
or the time that marked noon and that accompanied the journey of man
over the centuries; it is a theme that has involved not only scholars
of sociology and psychology, and therefore a whole segment of anthropology
- the human and social sciences - but art history as well.
In
fact, a large group of artists have pictorially represented the siesta.
Since the body experiences a momentary rest period, and the extremities
relax, it is akin to catching your breath, an important moment for recharging
physical and intellectual energy.The siesta can vary in length from
a few minutes to several hours. It has crossed the history of man, ticking
away the hours on the clock, and in the modern and especially contemporary
age, it has found a significant place, debunking the idea that it is
a habit used only in the rural traditions.
The
siesta is also urban, a weapon against stress, a commonly used word
referring in a general sense to overwork of the body. The word derives
from the ancient French word "destrece", meaning discomfort. Therefore,
the siesta in art, at least in the representations by the artists of
the last five centuries. There is the "Madonna del silenzio" by Domenichino,
where the Virgin Mary is visible with her right index finger in front
of her lips as if to indicate quiet, there is a baby sleeping. Giorgione
began the cycle of siesta paintings in his "Venere dormiente" (fig.
1), left unfinished after his death during the great plague that struck
Venice.
The
painting was later finished by Titian, who took his own brush to the
landscape and the sky, but did not modify the nude woman, with her hand
resting on her upper thigh. At the beginning of the sixteenth century,
Piero di Cosimo painted "Venere e Marte" (fig. 8), and in this work
it was Mars who was napping, stretched out naked in a field full of
life.
Caravaggio
painted "The Rest during the flight from Egypt" (fig. 2) in 1596, highlighting
well the siesta of the Madonna with child, in a moment that makes the
viewer forget the worries associated with flight. Only Joseph is portrayed
awake and conversing with an ephebic angel, while it would seem that
soft music lulling sleep and rest.
The
same "The Rest during the flight from Egypt"(1628)(fig. 3) by Orazio
Gentileschi shows Joseph lost in a deep sleep, Mary in a dreamy state,
and Jesus, who upon waking, hungrily suckles at his mother's breast.
Siesta
and work, this is what Bruegel the Elder paints in the "The Harvest"
(1565) as well as in the "Land of Plenty" (1567) where some men abandoned
themselves in a singular revelry after a hard day's work.
In
"The Harvest" the sunny weather and warm temperature cause the part
of the farmers to group together under a tree, while another group returns
to work in the fields. In the "Meditating Philosopher" by Rembrandt
we can see that he is indeed "thinking" but his posture also expresses
relaxation, or daydreaming, considering the peaceful darkness of the
atmosphere. The highly sensual painting entitled "Woman stroking a parrot"
(1827), by Eugene Delacroix, with its warm and carnal tones, opens up
the romantic world that influenced the Orientalists, Pointillists, and
Fauvists.
And
again Courbet, in his work entitled "Young ladies on the banks of the
Seine" (1856)(fig. 5) gives importance to the siesta taken by one of
the two women, while the other would seem rather bored.
The
siesta that awakens the senses but also the siesta that means surrender
and more importantly, rest. We must not forget that the 1800's and more
specifically the Romantic period developed quite a few "dejeuners sur
l'herbe".
Some
examples of these are "Bathers in Asniéres" (1883) and "A Sunday afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte" (1884) by Seurat, who would seem already
a champion of the "right to nap". A whole other group of artists including
Manet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and others often portrayed this
"suspended time", this personal, as the siesta has been called.
The
enormous amount of art that represents this theme - dear to the world
of medicine as well - captures various moments of the siesta and offers
ideas of a philosophical and sociological order.
It can soothe life, making it more liveable, just like the age-old adage,
"mens sana in corpore sano".
(traduzione
Intepres sas-Giussano)
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