The Eternal Diogenes

Knocking at the Gate of Transcendence

Live in the present moment without giving offence to the mystery

The Butterfly
Painted by the rainbow,
tender
as the morning dew.
Messenger
of “another”
much greater than us,
it settles on
the old man’s hand.
He listens
to the message.
A ladder appears
from behind the cloud.
After that
one knocks
at the door
and enters.
Then
silence speaks.

Travelling through Italy I find a treasure trove of painted dreams and unusual imaginations – an artist’s creations compiled in the book, Behind the Canvas. Walking through this magical world from cover to cover, I meet “Diogenes”, a wise old man looking for “another” who is none other than himself; a nest which shelters an old man and which belongs to God; a harlequin on a trunk; a cross by the wayside; white canvasses hovering in the sky: passports for the infinite…

Every character in his paintings is like a universal metaphor and has its own story to tell. They are alive and evoke strong feelings and yet leave the beholder free to interpret them in his or her own way. As archetypes they mirror the viewer’s inner life and so he can recognise himself through them.

Black is the dominant colour in his paintings. This can be annoying or disturbing for some as it faces us with the issue of Death who is indeed one of the characters. “… death is with us all our lives, death is our constant companion – because death is the awakener. If it were not for this partial death and decay in brain and nerves, we could only exist in a comatoes state, sleeping, perhaps dreaming, but never fully awake. Death is the great awakener …” (Charles Kovacs)

Death is the mystery of life. There is no death. When the human being comes into the world, the Eternal enters him. And when the person dies, He returns to where He came from.

For the expert black is the main colour: the never changing and ever-present creativity, the fleeting moment, the captured instance, and so on. Black-and-white has 44 different shades that no other colour has; and so we can say it is the most “colourful” of colours. I go beyond colour: I offer my ideas and tell my stories, which are not perceptible but transcendent. What you see on my canvas is the object of my creativity, which is to be understood as thought becoming image and form.

At the same time black creates a sense of depth and the mysterious, like the vast expanses of the universe. And out of this space emerge his characters like on a cosmic stage.

Verdirosi’s painting “touches all the senses and embraces the soul, taking it into a universe full of symbols and allegories, where the theatre dominates with its characters and where the world is seen as a grand stage,” writes Fabrizio Legger.

My painting depicts the fantastic; it is a metaphysical argument; it is an encounter with ourselves.

Recurring characters, such as Harlequin, Pulcinella and Pierrot, are characters from the commedia dell’arte, a once popular from of improvised theatre which originated in Italy around the 16th century and can perhaps be seen as prototype of Shakespearean comedy, as we can, for instance, read about in Amy Drake’s Commedia Dell’Arte Influences on Shakespearean Plays: The Tempest, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and The Taming of the Shrew,¹ or in Kevin Gilvary’s Shakespeare and Italian Comedy.²

The vagabond is Verdirosi’s main character in his painted stories: the old man, the eternal Diogenes, the seeker, never satisfied with who he is, but who keeps on knocking at the gate of transcendence, searching for the Absolute and the ultimate truth.

Much had I looked for him!
Whilst yet a child I heard
his call,
his voice was in the air,
in the mountains,
in the sea...
Deeply did I look into his eyes...
He was no other
than I myself.

Looking at Verdirosi’s paintings one immediately notices the white canvasses hovering in the sky.

The canvas on canvas is a dualism. We always have to do with dualism; so the canvas on canvas becomes the stage for the artist, the main element, because without canvas there is no painter, as without pen there is no writer. We always need something to express ourselves. … The canvas on canvas becomes a friend, sister, lover of the painter, and the means through which he can express himself. It becomes a philosophy, … spirituality, and the umbilical cord that unites being with non-being and physical matter with heaven.

Umberto Verdirosi is a painter, actor, sculptor and poet. Born in Piedmont, in northern Italy, he lives in Rome where he has his studio, and another one in Orvieto. Growing up in a family of actors, he spent his youth in various theatre companies. After running his own, he decided to end his acting career and devote his life to painting and sculpting.

He has published some books with his texts in English and Italian, as well as his “unrepeatable book on the throne of poetry”, which marries Veridrosi’s world with Shakespeare’s sonnets.

What has been said about Shakespeare, that “in the whole literature of the world there are no plays which are so completley conceived from the standpoint of the actor”, can perhaps be extended to Verdirosi and his paintings – created by a man who has a “knowledge of the theatre” and an “understanding for theatrical effects.” The lively and theatrical quality of his paintings can no doubt be attributed to his background as an actor.

“He is a very charismatic man”, says Edoardo Vitale who first met Verdirosi in a hotel lounge at the opening of the artist’s personal exhibition. “You can talk to him for hours as he is exceptionally friendly and humble; and even though the maestro says about himself that he is self-taught, his knowledge is enormous.”

Verdirosi gave poetry recitals of Trilussa, D’Annunzio, Pavese, Pirandello, Shakespeare and his own. After a brilliant talk, he fascinated the audience with his performance, “because it was not simply one of those recitals we are used to hear at the theatre. It was much more. The sound of his voice and the intensity of his presence contributed to the stimulating effect of the verses and the pieces he was reciting. New emotions were evoked because his interpretation was coming not from the actor but from the real person who was acting himself. … Standing in front of his works, you get a sense of his relation to art: a great love, a challenge, a torment – salvation, disappointment, and a big triumph, His triumph. Because looking at his paintings you can’t help admiring the allegorical and esoteric significance of his poems.” He “asks us to reflect on the meaning of life, the value of human hope, and the future of our aspirations, compelling us to slow down and look deeper, trying to make us search for the Absolute, our inner life, and our fellow humans.”

Man is born and he dies without knowing himself. The most important thing is to find the meaning of life, which is always a discovery: the discovery of a human being in evolution, and this evolution belongs to the cosmic mystery. If man were to understand that he is a living Church he would look at his fellow men with enormous respect and there would be no more wars. Man keeps on making war because he has not gained enough self-awareness, otherwise he would inevitably be drawn to love.

Not all of his paintings are equally good, for sure. But there are equally certain some great gems amongst his extensive collection! Verdirosi’s painting is unique, “unusual art”, “mystical”, “magnificent”… “The style of the paintings, as well as the unusual, almost mythical subjects, immediately attract the eye.” He “has a gift of pointing to the evils of our time, in a way that is magical and deeply moving.” Words such as “unusual” and “magical” are often associated with his paintings which leave the viewer with a sense of wonder and enchantment, like in fairy tales. Verdirosi doubtlessly fits his own definition of what it means to be a “true” artist:

The artist will resound wherever you touch him. Because if he doesn’t he’s not an artist but a “muppet”. But this is not to say that the muppet can’t become an artist, because we are talking about evolution. We are all artists. Within us there is a spark of divinity, the Other, which is in harmony with the cosmos… So we artists give a message that is not even ours but belongs to this Other. It belongs to the creativity inherent in man, that was born with him. We can speak of painting wherever the artist makes this “something” that is unlike anything else. Thus he brings in a new message and so can be considered a master.

Whatever you do, be creative, do it in a new way, go on exploring the unknown, be a trailblazer, invent, discover, create something, because if God is the Creator, whenever you are creative, He creates through you.

Art is nothing but a universal message. The life we live is just the flapping of a wing in the everlasting eternity that will continue outside of me: I will leave this life behind, but what I have done will remain in my paintings.

1. http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=spovsc

2. http://deveresociety.co.uk/articles/KG-2004-ShakespeareItalianComedy.pdf