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514  

Monday, May 2. Rome.

her spirit will be with me again tonight - to compare and enjoy the music.

On Berenson -
'Berenson's mind overleaped the customary barriers of 19th century art criticism. He was not content merely to record, or appraise, or even interpret. Instead, he analyzed what he saw, & thus helped raise art scholarship to a new place of exactitude

B.B. "I wonder whether art has a higher function than to make us feel, appreciate & enjoy natural objects for their art value?

" -'A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the not-self that there is no self left to die."

The 'It' of Berenson's dreams stands for self-immolation in a world of beauty. He keeps looking out for the moments of immersion in beauty which are 'it', the purpose of his life.

Berenson confirmed, by close study, that every artist's picture making is as personal as his handwriting. Even if the painter works in a strict tradition, his personal touch will appear in small things: the way he paints ear lobes, or hair, or crosshatches a shadow. - 'Art must be experienced to be appreciated'.


515

Friday, May 3   Roma   

AM. Peikov called to drive me to the Museum of Modern Art, to see the contemporary show again. I still liked Alan Davie & Diebenkorn, best of all. After seeing reams of cubist art - I wonder how I could have spent years on it- in spite of what the study taught me.

Etruscan Art & Cimabue, now. With the color of Italy-Israel-Pompei. The greys, umbers gold, yellow - greyed blue of the sky & the juicy greens.

Afternoon, to the former Roman Senate & Museum. The square (star pattern - abstract) & buildings designed by Michelangelo. Tintoretto, Veronese. Best works - the sculpture. Particularly, the figure of a dog, tremendous life sized Dane in Serpentine stone (-green spotted black) so hard, one can chisel two inches at most a day. Wonderful piece. The view from the terrace of the museum, overlooking the roof tops of the city - simply magnificent. The garden with the different forms of the trees - superb. 
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[[image - doodle]] tree shapes?