MINIATURES

Every picture tells a story: The city was adorned with triumphal arches celebrating the glory of the Spanish crown and the army. But no conquering Caesar was riding a chariot. What was seen instead was a bunch of young Spanish lads squeezed out of the depleting manpower of the empire. The needed reinforcement long-awaited by the loyal subjects of Spain had finally arrive d. Thousands of miles away, from her last dominion in the Caribbean, upheavals, and revolutions were raging. In Spain itself, agitation heightens each day as different political groups wrestle for attention: The liberals, the conservatives, and the anarchists. Manila was under Martial Law since August of '96. The fresh troops gave the city a false sense of security. Soon these soldiers would be put into action, to hunt down the revolutionaries in the forest, in the marshes and in the countrysides outside of Manila. Every picture tells a story: A man watches as troops cross the "Puente de España'',...

From "De Novis Insulis" (Insule Moluccae-Cosmographia Universalis) ca. 1552-1558, Basel, Switzerland/Sebastian Muenster I recently stumbled upon a recipe book describing Venetian cooking in the 15th Century—a time often considered the pinnacle of Venice's grandeur as a maritime and commercial power. During this era, Venice stood as a hub of bustling warehouses where spices were traded. Clearly, the influence of the Turkish quarter had seeped into the palates of its citizens. However, despite being a mere speck in the expansive Mediterranean landscape, the yearning for spiciness had already been spreading across Europe. The term "spiciness" would later find expression in various Latin words linked to individual spices, like "caryophyllum" (also known as "gariophilum"), referring to the clove flower bud. The word "gingiber," derived from the ancient Greek term "zingiberis," or harking back to an even more archaic Indo-Eur...

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time (detail) by Bronzino  Thoughts about this Bronzino allegorical opus came to me today, Valentine's day.  I focused my attention on the central figures. Indeed a whirlwind of a canvas --Venus holding Cupid's wayward arrow with the naughty youngster himself in a rather awkward kiss to the goddess as his hand explores her mammary territories which perhaps Freud surely celebrated later as Oedipian. Some will argue it's just the mark of a "teating" c hild. Or have you ever heard of the Tagalog term "nangungutong"? (utong= teats) At the back lurks a hideous figure said to be representing "jealousy". Again, I thought of the right Tagalog word for it. "Selos" is rather Hispanic in concept and of course in origin. But the right Tagalog term could be "panibugho", which is darker, more sinister. Some in the medical fields years ago pointed it out rather scrupulously that the ravaged figure resembles tha...

Early chronicles describe the animal " to be stubborn and unfriendly". In some parts of the world, pigs were successfully domesticated. But in the Fertile Crescent, the semi-nomadic life of some known early tribes is partly blamed for the failure of domestication. The arid-dry land with limited water sources posed a big problem to pig herds who need a constant high amount of water. Its marauding ways, the type of feeding the animals do, often scavenging with its snout on many unclean things that it often took as feeds, added up to the general repugnance towards the animal and the unlikelihood of domestication. Thus swine was never considered part of livestock in the greater part of the Middle East, instead, pork became a prohibition that later was interpreted more like a religious and a cultural taboo. In Europe, in the Middle Ages, Jews were often ridiculed as "red men" having skin pigment similar to that of pigs. Even the Jewish religious tradition of circumcisi...