Do you too see that huge, capital E formed by the bricks at the left of the Virgin, in this Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciazione? Why, you do now, right?

"Oh. My. God." - I know.

I couldn't have been farther from seeing it myself, back in January 2019, when I first bumped into this... thing, while strolling around the Uffizi with Peter (Tantsits, my long time student and beloved friend). I had a true fit of Stendhal's syndrome, I swear that that painting (?) was not just there: it was happening, then and - there.

When in front of it, I was positively sure of its alive physiological reality, happening in the present time, possibly at the expenses of mine. It definitely felt more like it was seeing me, rather than the contrary.

I had actually never, ever noticed that so not small E vowel (on a painting that has been on my mind for years, and on my desktop for the past few months) till last Tuesday, August 29th, at 5.30pm, when I was coaching a new student and having her vocalise on the open Æ.

(If you've read my Cantare Italiano, you know how much I care for that lost/misused/misunderstood vowel, to which I have dedicated a paragraph.)

Only in virtue of that "rhyme", what was in my ears and what I had (and had had) right before my eyes finally matched and made me see it.

(That is what a rhyme will do: it'll make you see things that are otherwise hidden.)

It is well known that Leonardo wrote only backwards.

But why, WHY, did he.

Is being born left-handed, for a genius with complete mastery of both his brains and limbs, a sufficient reason to leave every single page he has written - the state of the art of the science of the time, packed with freshly invented Italian vulgar lexicon to go with the new thoughts (hence things) conceived - readable only through a mirror?

Did he do it out of despise for humanity? Was he envisioning the advent of the selfie camera modality? Or was he rather trying to make a point, to make us see something?

Whatever the answer, with that question in mind, now, look again: can you see a reversed, specular E attached by the back to the first one? And then a third, reversed one, at the right of Mary?

Plus, if we consider the first E as the axe of symmetry of the painting, as the imaginary surface of his mirrored writing, does it make the Virgin and the Archangel Gabriel a mirrored image of each other?

Are they somehow the same entity - although in a diagonal, elongated perspective?
 

(Their hand gesture, together with the placing of the bright red in the composition -if you go look at the bigger picture, above- would seem to confirm the hypothesis.)

Finally, do you see that same, specular, fish-bone double E resounding in the shapes of the trees? (If you do, you'll then also see it in Gabriel's wings, fingertips, aura, in the grass and flowers, etc.)

And what if they were two specular Cs, framing the holy face of Mary?

This is what 'll do when I have an Opera score in my hands.

I'll see perfect shapes that work as a primary structure. And I'll see the vocal and vocalic technique they call for, in them. I see eternally still, portable, Italian-fashion-designer-branded purses to carry around the warm, flower smelling Florence sunsets, which for centuries have served as safety boxes for the most precious, virgin prime matter our poets had found, refined an forged, and wanted to send around the world unpolluted.

Opera was born to be the multifaced brine of Italian sound, the designer bottle for the Italian aria: can we claim to be able to read music if we cannot perfectly detect and render its linguistic structures?

(To be honest, though, I believe my work to also be leading-edge, new, creative: my own invention, an addition to the past, other than "just" an accurate revival of something that belongs to it.)

As you can see, the Gospel book sits on the left-handed side of reality, in the picture.

It was John -the youngest disciple, whom both Jesus and Mary adored- the one who wrote at the beginning very of his Gospel that "first came the word", and it sat by God and it WAS, God, altogether.

Which is the absolute truth, if it wasn't that that "first" has been, for hundreds of year, a tragically wrong translation (for it involves Time) of the original Greek: "en arké (en o lògos)": Arké being the principle, the origin, the brand, the trademark - NOT the starting point on a timeline.

In the arké is the LOGO(S), which IS God.

God as a LOGO, indeed: like Gucci's double Gs and Chanel's double Cs, which respectively call for, and look good on, certain things and not others.

Well, Leonardo brands his Annunciazione with a triple E.
Why? I have clues, and they are of musical nature, but not now, not now...

Click on the button below and find out what I have to offer under the sign of VIRGO to all my September beginning (as well as returning) students.

The more we see each other, the more we make each other happen.

From now on, though, I'll only see you two hours a day, five days a week of every other week (the one I am not teaching at the Conservatory).

Hence, I can only take in about 10 people: first come, first serve!

The offer will be available till Sunday, September 10, at midnight, Annunciazione time.
 

Love you all,
La Maestra
 

PS: Simply hit "reply" for any questions, inquiries or if you'd like to book your plan (benefitting of the same discount) without passing through the website.

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