Veronese on a Hat
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Thank you, everyone, who responded so kindly to my last newsletter. I really appreciate your nice words.
And a very big thank you to those of you who recently subscribed. You inspire me to keep going!
Headlines
Italian tourism hotspot in the Dolomites caps visitor numbers and restricts access to famed lake (Trent Crimm, The Independent)
Italy begins to reckon with Fascist-era colonial collections (AP)
Ancient Roman camps from secret military mission spotted using Google Earth (Live Science)
Dramatic archaeological discoveries—including a marble Buddha in Egypt and jars of Mediterranean garum (fish sauce) and olive oil in India—have led scholars to radically reassess the size and importance of the trade between ancient Rome and India.
A Visit to Italy’s Gorgeous Lake Garda Brings Its Controversial History Into View (Wall Street Journal)
This Licorice-Obsessed Italian Town Is as Sweet as It Sounds (Thrillist)
Italian pasta prices are soaring. Rome is in crisis talks with producers. (CNN)
Italian historian claims to have identified bridge in Mona Lisa backdrop (The Guardian)
Veronese on a Hat.
Or, how seeing an ad on Instagram led me to rile up tensions between the Louvre and the Italian government.
Did I once mention that I was reading/listening to a podcast about the book Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast? I must have—because now, Veronese and Napoleonic things are following me around the Internet.
But that’s not always a bad thing. Witness this:
I was immediately intrigued by this baseball cap featuring “The Wedding Feast at Cana,” the very painting I had been reading about in the best-selling book. It turns out that this hat is one of several that the Louvre ok’d in a collaboration between itself and New Era.
After reading this book, it’s kind of fascinating to me that the Louvre would flaunt its ownership of this painting given its path of acquisition. The other two caps in this Louvre x New Era collaboration feature Jacques Louis David’s The Coronation of Napoleon (a taunt, when considered in combination with the Veronese) and Vermeer’s The Lacemaker, a gift to the museum from Napoleon III.
Anyhow, here’s some related reading that may interest you.
“Conquête Militaire”: The Ethics of Restitution of the Louvre’s Napoleonic Legacy (Francesca Bisi, Coalition of Master's Scholars on Material Culture)
Visions of Veronese Green in Venice (Italofile)
Have a happy weekend, everyone.
-Melanie