This past Sunday, I and about 400 other people were in St. Andrew’s Cathedral enjoying the Cathedral Choir’s superb Annual Carol Concert. If you remember, I designed the publicity poster and just in case you are wondering, the Madonna and child image was painted by Italian Renaissance artist, Masaccio, 1401-1428.
According to Wikipedia, Masaccio (1401-1428) was considered the best painter of his generation “because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death. The name Masaccio is a humorous version of Maso (short for Tommaso), meaning “clumsy” or “messy” Tom. The name may have been created to distinguish him from his principal collaborator, also called Maso, who came to be known as Masolino(“little/delicate Tom”). Despite his brief career, he had a profound influence on other artists. He was one of the first to use linear perspective in his painting, employing techniques such as vanishing point in art for the first time. He also moved away from the International Gothic style and elaborate ornamentation of artists like Gentile da Fabriano to a more naturalistic mode that employed perspective and chiaroscuro for greater realism.”
Some of you who were at the concert may have noticed former Governor Neil Abercrombie and his wife, Nancie Carraway, sitting in the front row. Imagine my delight and surprise, when the Governor asked John Renke for the large poster of the concert which was near the center aisle and asked if he could have it to hang in his office! Woo-hoo! (Of course, John said ‘yes!’)
Also, in case you were wondering what were the circumstances of this picture, it was taken by my sister at the Providence Hospital Urgent Care Center in Burbank, where I had just been informed I had fractured my wrist. I am staying in my sister’s brand-new guest room, and when I got up in the middle of the night at 3 am, I tripped over the treadmill, stubbing my toe and fracturing my left wrist, in addition to giving myself a black and purple eye which caught on the edge of the equipment! And just yesterday I was asking my sister about the night lights in the hallway (unfortunately there isn’t one in the guest room). I’m not so sure that I will be able to play the organ since I’m supposed to wear the splint for six weeks! Meaning that, on January 11th, I am supposed to play the organ at St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church for their organist who will be away— and right now I can’t even reach more than the interval of a fifth with my left hand.
Know any music for right hand plus pedal?