067e 2015-08-29 Roma, Battista Sforza’s tattoo

Battista Sforza di Piero della Francesca tatuata

Italiano

Yesterday I went to visit the Museum of Palazzo Barberini in Rome; it was my very first time. I wanted to see Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio but I was disappointed, the painting had been loaned to some other museum.

That’s why my encounter with Battista Sforza was such a big surprise. This was no ordinary painting. The skin of her face was much to real. She was actually a tattoo on the right arm of a picturesque Swedish girl who was in the museum that day. You might say she was a walking work of art. She told me that it took more than one year to complete the portrait. Pleased with my knowledge of art, she also exposed yet another masterpiece, La Grande Odalisque by Ingres, the one with the very long thigh. I am now wondering if there are any other masterpieces hidden away.

Considering the long, dark and cold Swedish winter the girl must have been very happy to be

La Grande Odalisque by Ingres

able to show her skin under the warm Roman sun. All the pain she had endured was rewarded by the praises of the admirers.

I have strong reservations about tattoos in general, but in this case (maybe because she had chosen a painting by Piero della Francesca and the work had been brilliantly executed), I have to admit: I liked it, I was impressed.  

And what would Piero think of this?

Battista Sforza and Federico da Montefeltro by Piero della Francesca

I did not ask her, her name. If by chance you know her, please let me know because now I have many questions I would like to ask. For example, was she planning to have the famous Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, with his hooked-nose, tattooed on her left arm?

Marblehead, 30 agosto 2015

My blog “M’Arcordo…” www.biturgus.com/