The Artist and his Patrons
Once we settled on the painting, we had to pay and of course he didn't accept Visa! I had to climb 3/4 of the way back up to the top of the mountain to get to the Banco-mat (Italian for ATM, in case you couldn't guess) and boy was I glad it was working. Kelly got his life history and a lesson on the difference between water color and oil. "Oil painting is about precision and detail - water colors are about light and emotion." This artist was a bit of a compromise as he had enough detail for me and enough emotion for Kelly.
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI establis... ... read more 
