Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

The Animal Gazer

a giraffe, a leopard, a few deer, a monkey, and a few aging gazel les. The only friend he spent time with was Giul io Ul isse Arata, the architect and art critic. At f irst Rembrandt tried to see him every morning at his studio on Via Mascheroni . The studio, which also doubled as his home, was on the second f loor of a bui lding that Arata himsel f had designed (an elegant bui lding, symmetrical , with a sober façade divided by pi lasters with acanthus leaves and a moderate display of eclectic elements such as a double-vaulted balcony on the piano nobi le . The bui lding could not have been more unl ike the gothic f l ights of fancy he would later design) . This is how Arata described those visits: “Rembrandt would enter the studio looking painful ly sad and melanchol ic. He would come in without saying hel lo, without saying a word, and sink into an armchair and start complaining about how tired he felt. He would attempt to work. He would start a statue but not f inish it, making and unmaking. Some days he would come to the studio only to destroy the work he had done the day before.” His appearances at Arata’s studio became less and less frequent, tapering off unti l they ended completely. He conf ided to his friend that some nights he could only breathe by holding a damp handkerchief over his mouth. He could no longer stand Mi lan. He had the impression it was the city that kept him from shaking off the exhausting sadness and revulsion that had suffocated al l his feel ings. At the beginning of the summer of 1915, Rembrandt returned to Paris. His father and mother had left the house on Rue Jeanne-d’Arc some time ago, and were now l iving in Pierrefonds- les-Bains. Carlo Bugatti had

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