by Rosemary Sadez Friedmann
Scripps Howard News Service
Pictures and books are the best external clues to the owner's intellect.
Think about that for a while, then look around the house and take measure of your intellect. If the place is full of Mad magazines, you're in trouble.
What about the art on the walls? If the prints are geometric or very abstract, the owner is probably on the go often. If the scenery is serene with seashells by the seashore, the proprietor is laid back or at least wants to be.
Of course, life is not as simple as that, and neither are we. So our selection of art shouldn't be viewed so simplistically.
But perhaps a glimpse of the classics will get us going in a more intellectual direction. Going back a few centuries before Mad, artists made their living by producing art that reflected the philosophy and religion of their patrons. Leonardo da Vinci, most will agree, was one of the greatest artists ever known.
Did you know that he was not only a painter and sculptor, but an author, philosopher, metalworker, scientist, musician, architect and mathematician as well? Did I mention he was a talented physicist, geologist and engineer?
His famous Mona Lisa, with that sphinx-like smile, has been the subject of much discussion in efforts to understand the circumstance of that smile. Some traditions, for example, state that Mona Lisa was painted shortly after her child had died and da Vinci employed musicians and jesters to create a temporary diversion from her sorrows, hence the mixed up, half-hearted smile. But there are 100 other suppositions, most just as improbable.
Religion also played an important part in the lives of people in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, as depicted by the famous artists of that time. Michelangelo Buonarroti spent four years on his back painting 10,000 square feet of ceiling space in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. He covered the surface with figures of Old Testament prophets and prophetesses portraying super human energy and expressing large attitudes. Much of Michelangelo's art is known for its monumental, heroic and muscular formation of both female and male subjects.
Michelangelo was also multi-talented; his proficiencies included architecture and engineering. The awe-inspiring dome of St. Peter's in Rome was designed by him.
By contrast, da Vinci was more given to self-appraisal. In the painting "The Last Supper," he catches the surprised and tragic expression of each apostle when Jesus says, 'One of you shall betray Me'. Was Leonardo a psychologist as well?
Is all of this more than you wanted to examine? Well, perhaps scattering a few Mad magazines around isn't such a bad idea.
But the point remains: Take a look at your surroundings. That image will be projected onto you. What others see around you will be included in the opinion they form about you, rightly or wrongly.
(Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, a member of the American Society of Interior Designers, is president of Rosemary Sadez Friedmann Inc. in Naples, Fla.)
Resources American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)
American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)
608 Massachusetts Ave. NE
Washington, DC 20002-6006
Phone: 202-546-3480
Fax: 202-546-3240
E-mail:
asid@asid.org
Website:
www.asid.org
interior design services - Rosemary Sadez Friedmann
Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, Inc.
Naples, FL 34102
Phone: 941-261-5944
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