Monumentally Milanese
(Memorial in the Cimitero Monumentale: Milan, Italy)
I’m bringing you back to Milan today through the medium of ‘world meets rosie’. It was such a quick trip back in February that I never really managed to say much about it. This was one of my highlights. Alright, so maybe trundling around a cemetery isn’t really an idea for a great day out, but I think they’re always so interesting, especially the ones hosting the deceased wealth of large cities. They are almost always quiet, peaceful and surprising. Glasgow has a stunning one, the Necropolis, Paris has Pere Lachaise and Milan is certainly no exception to the rule with this, the Cimitero Monumentale. Monumental it was, in spades; take this family crypt as an example – one of my particular favourites. It is so monumentally over the top by way of a memorial, the falling figure reminiscent of a wingless Icarus falling to his death in an icy sea. The stark beam of sunlight is merely a reflection in the glass – you’ll have to forgive the fact that I positioned myself to ease it there. It was one of the only places I could get a clear shot of the figure, unobliterated by reflections, but well, I made it as poetic and simultaneously tacky as I could.
Despite its modern-ness and it being a quite unorthadox, if not unique design, there is something vaguely appealing about it. Some of the tragedy of losing a loved one is caught there, pinned to the glass, trapped in flux. I suppose as the sun moves across the sky, the shadow cast by the figure would alter, so dependant on when we might have walked past, the shadow scene may have looked quite different. Ying and I spent a happy couple of hours trotting past granite statues of weeping children, pyramids complete with caryatids, a sphinx, a spiraling stone dome of a battle scene, bizarre concrete sculptures of abstract and unfathomable meaning, all in the sunshine and the crispness of Milan in February.
In other news, closer to home, I was published yesterday in a blog (that wasn’t my own)! Care to see? It was a very random, very flurried couple of hours but considering the timeframe, I did not too badly with my illustration. Given another hour, it would have been so much better, but hopefully it will lead to more work. Paid work with any luck. Fingers crossed…
– Today Rosie is having afternoon tea with pinkies raised in Glasgow, Scotland –
Link to where you were published, please!
Yikes. Totally forgot to add that… it’s there now – via my site! Enjoy!
[...] Yes, yes ,yes, so I’m utterly shameless, I know it. I have been bandying this image around cyberspace as much and as fast as I could yesterday. Some of you are probably sick of the sight of it! I was out with my Gran when it went ‘live’ and I wasn’t able to see it first. I waved my Gran off on the bus and immediately reached for my phone, accessed my emails and lo! There was one in my inbox to let me know my image had gone live, headlining the article on Amelia’s Magazine blog. I think I actually gasped. It’s a small step, but it’s great to have my work out there, especially as I only just got my online shop up and running – good timing on my part, for once. Basically I answered a call for an illustrator to submit work for another article (you may remember one around the time of the Royal Wedding – see last paragraph). [...]