17 Comments
User's avatar
✨ e v e y ✨'s avatar

Absolutely fascinating. I loved reading this so much🤍

Alexander Smith's avatar

I found this story deeply moving. There is something so beautiful about Miró turning to the stars, music and imagination while the world around him was falling apart. It reminds me that even during the darkest moments, we can still create our own little space of beauty, hope and freedom.

Ömercan Kaçar's avatar

The Miró-Dante thread is both captivating and beautifully written. It offers a richer perspective on Miró’s art by exploring the themes of exile and the stars. The phrase 'what is above you cannot be taken away' is especially striking.

Vittorio Zappa's avatar

Thank you! That is very kind of you. I am gald you enjoyed it

Célestine's avatar

This article was so lovely to read !

It made me think of writers like Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir because, for them, we have to create our own path in order to give meaning to our lives; just like Miró connects the stars to form a constellation and to give meaning to the sky by connecting the dots ourselves !

I also loved the reference to Dante !! Thank you for this wonderful read 🩵

Vittorio Zappa's avatar

Hi Celestine, thank you so much. Indeed, I tend to draw from the French exhistentialists when I write, even though I do not make direct references

Sunshine's avatar

This was such a lovely surprise to find in my inbox at the end of a long day. Miró is one of my favorites, and reading this felt like a quiet moment to breathe and look up at the sky. I love how you wove together art, history, and that feeling of searching for meaning in the stars. Thank you for this gentle, beautiful piece. It was exactly what I needed tonight.

Vittorio Zappa's avatar

I am very happy it resonated with you

Maureen Doallas's avatar

How beautifully you've written of Miro's "Constellations."

I have always appreciated the ladder as metaphor - as means of escape, as road traveled to somewhere better, as means to begin anew. And, if free-floating, leaving all possibilities open.

Vittorio Zappa's avatar

Thank you so much.

Indeed, the ladder allows us to reach what seems unreachable and escape from the mundane.

burnhouse's avatar

Thak you for this, I enjoyed it. 🖤 It's hopeful in times like ours.

Willow Cerise's avatar

This is exceptionally well-written. Informative, interesting, researched, poetic. “One constellation stayed quietly at home, held back by the force Dante says moves all the others.” A really insightful analysis surrounded by stop-you-in-your-tracks prose is how I want to read all of my art history. Thank you for sharing

Robert Viking's avatar

A superb essay. It made me want to see The Constellations exhibited together again—something that hasn't happened, alas, since the MOMA show thirty-four years ago.

Henry Whysall's avatar

I count this series of paintings as some of my favourites and the only work of Miró’s I love. So delicate and mythic blended with the elasticity that we know the structure of space has. Joyous too. From Rimbaud ‘J’ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher ; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre ; des chaînes d'or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse’.

Stefania Benini's avatar

Beautiful essay and beautiful short circuit between a medieval intellectual with strong ordered metaphysical maps in his mind such as Dante and the wild, subjective skies of Miro’ where the connection comes from within, from lines, colors, and objects in a moment in which the skies are tumbling down with the war occurring. I really enjoyed your essay. Beautifully written.