Venice, Pompeii and the Chapel where Daniel mourns the relationship with his daughter
I'm not American, and I'm ignorant about many things, including abstract art. I didn't know anything about the Rothko Chapel nor Morton Feldman before this post because I was also like, "Wait a sec, Daniel a catho? "
This makes me happy because I love Armand not only because he can be fucked up and evil, but also because of his layers, particularly what is probably my favorite one: religious trauma.
I remember fans arguing that his character was doomed by casting a Bengali actor and adding Islamic references to the character of Rashid in S1 (I read that here on Tumblr not even that long ago, maybe last October). They said it had ruined the character because Armand has to paint icons. If he doesn't paint icons, Marius won't "rescue" him, and if Marius doesn't do that, then he never becomes a vampire. 😰
As if painting icons were the only way to create religious art. (Arabic calligraphy, including Christian and Catholic Arabic calligraphy, is super complex and breathtaking. Geometrical patterns or nature-inspired designs that become almost fractal-looking are just some examples.)
Aaaanyways, I always knew that getting the right people in the writers' room could result in very adequate and accurate depictions of a character like Armand, with an equivalent depth, and that's a wish I'll probably never get. But my heart can't help feeling excited whenever the writers manage to include semi-religious elements surrounding Armand. I'm working on a post exploring more of the religious aspects of AA, even if they're not that relevant to the plot anymore, as well as my theory about Armand adopting a more ascetic lifestyle.
In the meantime, this chapel—omg, let's go!
Mark Rothko, a Jewish man born in Latvia who moved to the USA, particularly New York, when Latvia became part of the Russian Empire. Before modern art, he used surrealism and mythology to express tragedies. Here are some examples that somehow (because I can't think of anything else) remind me of Armand.
But he really becomes an icon for doing squares of pain, layers and layers sometimes mixing colours, sometimes just one giant layer with texture. Most of his paintings are red (very vampiric) ORANGE, PURPLE and dark brown or black. The artist described his intentions as to overwhelm the viewers, to intimate, and give a sense of the unknown...
Eventually his palette became darker, using obscure blues and greens as he became more and more reclusive. According to him his rules to create art were the following :
this could be a line for a play in the theatre the vampires, the fact that the guy wrote down rules, and the rules themselves feel very very Armand coded
He also found inspiration in a favorite DM classic : Pompéi, specifically the murals in the Pompeiian Villa of the Mysteries
Now the Chapel , is a non religious construction. originally it was going to be Roman Catholic but then Rocko and his patrons wanted to make it universally spiritual. It stills has Christian influences such as the shape that attempts to imitate a Byzantine church in Italy
Santa Maria Asunta in Torcello, Italy specifically. You know where is Torcello???
Venice of course, mmm🤔 Byzantine church in Venice I wonder if Amadeo mentions Torcello, it in the book?
( it's from when he goes back to Kiev, his home and doesn't want to go to the old church he used to go when kid because he knows the beauty of Venice churches will opaque it)
I can't fucking believe it.
This is Pompeii, this is Venice, this is the thing you think about when you see your past, and you know that is not comparable with the beauty that you know now. It's Past Devil's Minion and there are tears in my eyes and I feel as if God had talked to me.
Mark Rothko killed himself before the chapel was finished. He described the paintings that are inside and their process as follows:
this creation process reminds me of how many vampires describe transforming someone, Lestat not wanting to look at Nicki in the books, Louis with Madeleine, and Armand fears regarding making his own fledglings
The feelings that the chapel inspires are mostly tragedy, ecstasy, mortality, silence, and transcendence. There is no artificial light, and it tends to be dark, the eyes need to get used to it, silence is asked to visitors. I could imagine that before guiding Daniel to this place Armand could had been there just staring into the voidAlso there is an album with the name of the Chapel by Morton Feldman as previously stated by @clarasghosts post that made do this little research.
the album has this early violin that reminds me of the music that has played when Armand was in the AA and in the subway platform . This Chapel where Daniel went to mourn was Armand.
we can say that the new season is odd and lacks the charm of the first two but never, not for a second doubt that the writers are being careful with every single stupid detail.
