Travelling through Italy and being exposed to the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci is breath taking. His mastery of art is only one aspect of his genius, think of the Mona Lisa or The Last Supper, however one of my favourites is ‘The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist’. I think it was the short title that got me.
Imagine Leonardo pondering the artwork, its masterful use of the technique ‘sfumato’, which translates as smoky, working out the perfect balance and symmetry and its gradual transition between colour and tone and how to restrain the temptation of over complicating it. I imagine a cold room, with his artistic material difficult not to be trod on, chaos of books flung open, scent of paint and a busy but contented figure buried somewhere underneath.
I imagine the work room of the artisan butcher to be splayed with meat carcasses in an equally cold space, butchery equipment in racked in every corner, knives hung on walls, and the alchemy of a salumi master equally pondering the perfect balance. I hope the fear of stepping on something is not in the butcher shop I buy my salami though.
As Leonardo would be planning the sketch of his work, so too are Roberto in Lazio and Roberta in Tuscany, planning a flavour nirvana with the same profound dedication and genius to their work. The chaos in Leonardo’s studio is reverberated in the butcher shops, slabs of meat slapped on old butcher blocks, Roberto’s mother slicing meat, customers calling out for more porchetta for their dinner, whilst Roberto gently goes about slicing an array of his salumi for an inquisitive bunch of Australians to try. This is all over a few glasses of wine Roberto has cracked during our visit to his shop. Sharp knives and free flowing wine, what could go wrong.
During the renaissance I can see Leonardo working his brushstrokes across the canvas, imaging his patrons admiring his artwork whilst sampling with gusto the creative art of the butcher. Much like we did with Roberto and Roberta.
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