A trip on the Rhone River

The Rhone is a river whose route winds for 812 kilometers from Switzerland to the Mediterranean Sea passing through France.  South of Arles between the two arms of the river (Grand Rhone and Petit Rhone) extends one of the largest deltas in the world, the Camargue, which is characterized by the presence of marshes and ponds of pink flamingos, bulls and white horses. The area is full of quaint villages with important traditional festivals. Among these the most famous is the feast of the gypsies that sees on May 24 and 25 of each year the city of Saint Maries de La Mer become the ideal scenario for Spanish and French gypsies, Roma, kalé, sinti and manouches to venerate Sara la nero, patron saint of nomads (although it is not recognized holy by the main religious confessions). The night of Saint Maries de la Mer comes alive with music, dancing, drinking and celebration. Alongside these mundane moments on May 24, the actual religious rite takes place with the procession that brings the statue of Saint Sara to the sea. For lovers of nature, art and folklore, a cruise along the Rhone can be an opportunity to observe the flora and fauna of the Camargue and Santa Maries de la Mer Regional Park, as well as cities full of history and art such as Avignon and Arles.

The church of Santa Chiara, at Avignon, April 6, 1327. Francesco Petrarch saw for the first time, Laura. The encounter changes not only the life of the poet from Arezzo, but also the course of Italian literature. Benedetto sia ‘l giorno, and the month, et year, and the season, and the time, et time, and point,/ and the country, and the site where I come/ from’ duo lovely eyes that bound me ànno. That Laura really existed or is simply a literary invention, it makes little difference, the fact is that the woman becomes the centre, the star around which they move all the poems of the Rerum Volgarium Fragmenta, the “Canzoniere”. The work represents an unavoidable reference point for all the poets. In the Sixteenth century in the lyrics were not admitted to the words used by Petrarch and the ladies were not going around without carrying with them the “Petrarchino”, version pocket-sized collection of rhymes of tuscan poet as also reflected in some of the paintings of the Sixteenth century, such as “Dama col petrarchino” Andrea del Sarto, and “Portrait of Laura Battiferri” Bronzino. The poet was born into a family exiled to Arezzo (the father is a white guelph) and spends part of his childhood in Avignon, the seat of the papacy from 1309, before going on to study at Montpellier and later in Bologna. After the death of her father back, in 1326, with his brother Gherardo to Avignon, where the following year the meeting takes place with the woman angel Laura a lady in avignon, according to some of Laura de Noves. Real woman or senhal to hide the true identity of the lady beloved? A tradition accredited wants that Laura is only a symbolic reference to the plant of the laurel with which they were crowned poets. The same Petrarch received the crown of laurel at Rome in the Capitol in 1341. The most probable hypothesis is that of a youth falling in love to a young girl in avignon is the subject of a poetic world, rich and precious, that has gradually moved away from the figure of the royal woman to take on a life of its own. Avignon, a city on the banks of the Rhone, is inextricably linked to the lyrics petrarchesche and a period as the seat of papal (from 1309 to 1377), a time known as the “avignon captivity”. Linked to the city of the south of France is the current painting of the school of Avignon in the fourteenth century is characterized by the massive presence of Italian artists while the period of the Fifteenth century sees the great presence flemish. Among the most important representatives of this artistic movement there are Simone Martini and Enguerrand Quarton. 

Simone Martini left his native Siena in 1340 with his wife and brother to move to Avignon, perhaps due to a plague epidemic that had spread in the Tuscan city. The presence of the great painter in the Provencal city (where he died in 1344) marked an important moment for the evolution of Gothic painting in France although few evidence of its passage has come to us. In notre-Dame-Des-Doms in particular, there are two martini synopses preserved in the eardrum of the church. It is the "Redeemer" with Christ blessing and with the globe in one hand and "The Virgin and the Child and Angels" in which also you notice the figure of the donor, probably identifiable in Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi. The small table with the "Holy Family" of the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool also dates back to the Avignonian period. Made in 1342 and probably part of a diptych, the work shows Joseph intent on berating Jesus after discussion with doctors in the temple. The realism that permeates the work, the accurate psychological rendering of the characters and the ability of the painter to give a narrative tone to the episode represented greatly influence the French artists of the time defining the main characteristics of the International Gothic. On the other side of the Rhone from Avignon is the town of Villenueve-les-Avignon, which in the Musée Municipal preserves the important table with "The Coronation of the Virgin" (1453-1454) by the painter and miniaturist French Enguerrand Quarton , a key figure of the School of Avignon. In the aforementioned work Our Lady is crowned by the Father, son and the Holy Spirit in the midst of the Heavenly Choir, while in the background are represented the landscapes of Paradise, the Earth and the Underworld. The influence of Provencal painting that is reflected in the use of a clear light, the luminous realism of Flemish ancestry and the refinements inherited from the International Gothic give the artist's works an imaginative energy and a rare richness of color. Quarton stayed in Avignon from 1447 to 1466, the year of his death. In the southern French city of the Musée du Petit Palais is preserved the work of Laon's master "Le retable Requin" (1444-1445).

Another city that deserves a visit is Arles. Arles score for Vincent Van Gogh the beginning of the end. In the small town on the Rhone, the painter Zundert endured a period of very fruitful from an artistic point of view but also gives signs of mental imbalance with the first stays in nursing homes. The painter had decided to move to Arles after a period in Paris, in which the life of the capital had caused depressive states, pushing it to the limits of suicide. Nothing better to invigorate the spirit, then, that to stay in the country, maybe enjoying a solitude unimaginable in a big city, and share in the strenuous days of the simple people. Provence, therefore, becomes the place in which to search for a serene relationship with nature, to find the longed-for calm and spiritual. In Arles, Van Gogh worked hard. So much vehemence creative, however, the ninth manages to silence the ghosts of the inner life, to appease the obsessions that haunt his mind. To complicate the situation, there is the troubled relationship with Paul Gauguin, was invited to Provence by the painter through his brother Theo. The relationship between the two proves to be very difficult, and even on art questions, their differences appeared irreconcilable. The mind of the artist was on the brink of the precipice: it all falls on the 23rd of December 1888. The versions of what happened are conflicting, but the most probable of which sees the painter Zundert attack Gauguin with a razor and the parisian artist, leave the house of a friend to take refuge in a hotel. Van Gogh returned to the house in the meantime, you would then cut off an ear. Recently, some scholars have advanced the hypothesis that it was Guguin at the end of a violent quarrel maim the friend with a sword. However, both went for each other at the end of the parisian artist, abandons Arles: “The living room of Gauguin in Arles was brutally interrupted. The extreme excitability and recurrent depressions, Van Gogh transformed the lives of the two artists in a series of arguments and violence, and subsequent reconciliations (...) The attempt of suicide of Van Gogh put an end to the joint life of the two artists. As soon as Theo came to Arles, and had been admitted to the brother in a mental institution, Gauguin left for Paris” (Anna Barskaya, Paul Gauguin, edizioni Gribaudo, Savigliano, 2005). Also the paintings from which you should spread a feeling of calm would appear to be reliable evidence of a state of distress and discomfort inner, as in the famous “The bedroom” in which the contrast between the lines drawn in the perspective of the floor and the commettiture oblique of the same generates a state of tension (emotional) amplified by the jarring combination of colors laid in an approximate manner. Also in “The cafe terrace on the Place du forum in Arles at night” the intent of portraying a lively environment is contradicted by the contrast between warm and cold colors and by the distribution of the asymmetric in the composition. The mental instability of the painter has alarmed the citizenship of Arles, on the 26th of February 1889 signature, a petition, following which Van Gogh is forced to return to the hospital, where he remained for four months, before entering voluntarily into a care home in Saint-Rèmy.