Capricious

All the negativity of my previous post on Italy aside, I liked Capri a lot. It was really beautiful there, and CLEAN. I loved the bougainvillea that were growing on almost every wall.

(Click to enlarge)

I liked the villa of Axel Munthe (1857-1949) in particular, Villa San Michele, which is actually located in the town of Anacapri, higher up the island. The towns of Capri and Anacapri harbour some sort of enmity towards each other for some reason.

Munthe was a Swedish writer and a doctor. He designed his villa himself, and wanted it to be the embodiment of his visions that he had over the years.



When they started working on the site of the house, they discovered old Roman remains of columns and statues, and plaques with writing on them.

The locals thought it was all a bunch of rubbish, but Munthe used them to decorate his villa. He was farsighted, as now everyone can of course appreciate their aesthetic, let alone historical value.



He claimed to have found many of the sculptures through the visions he had.

He'd one day been sitting down by the sea, and got an overwhelming feeling that someone was watching him. He told his employees to go search the sea in a particular spot, and what d'you know, they found the head of Medusa.



Another time he wanted to find a sphinx to add to his furniture. He sailed to a random island, told his people to wait for 24 hours and if he hadn't come back by then they should leave. He did come back in time, with him a small statue of a sphinx.

He placed it on a terrace of a kind, and there it was laying on a balustrade and facing the rising sun. Nobody can see its face, unless they're willing to plummet to their death.

(Click to enlarge)

They're nice stories, but I strongly suspect that our Mr. Axel was a bit of a cuckoo.

I realize I haven't been posting any new paintings in a while. Anyone who discovers this site now must wonder how come it's supposed to be about painting and art. Yet I think all these photos look really good against this new layout, so I hope others can enjoy them from an aesthetic point of view like I do.

I got a little carried away with my recent encroachments on my other hobbies, and I haven't even posted about all of my new ideas yet. I think it's positive that I don't always have to blather about my paintings. Sometimes they really aren't that interesting, even to me.

(Pictures 4 and 5: http://www.capri.com)