Wet-Wall Tattoos : Ben Long and the Art of Fresco / by Richard Maschal
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/wetwalltattoosbeOOmasc WET-WALL TATTOOS Wet- Wall Tattoos BEN LONG AND THE ART OF FRESCO Richard JMaschal /ss John F. Blair, Publisher Winston-Salem, North Carolina Copyright © 1993 by John F. Blair, Publisher Printed in the United States of America All Rights Reserved Quotations from Vasari on Technique, by Giorgio Vasari, translated by Louisa S. Machlehose, are used by permission of Dover Publications. Quotations from Tlie Craftsman 's Handbook, by Cennino Cennini, translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., are used by permission of Dover Publications, copyright 1933 and 1934 by Yale University Press. Quotations from the Revised Standard Version ofthe New Testament are used by permission of the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, copyright 1946, 1952, and 1971. Imagesof the St. Peter's fresco, the NationsBank fresco, and Tfje Last Supper at Glendale Springs are used by permission of Benjamin F. Long IV, copyright 1989, 1992, and 1993. Photographs of the St. Peter's fresco are used by permission of Mark B. Sluder, copyright 1988 and 1989. Book Design by Debra Long Hampton Printed and Bound bx R. R. Donnelley CT So?is Library of Congress Cataloging-inTublication Data Maschal, Richard. Wet-wall tattoos : Ben Long and the art of fresco / by Richard Maschal. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-89587- 105-X 1. Long, Ben. 2. Painters— United States—Biography. 3. Jesus Christ— Passion —Art. 4. (esus Christ— Resurrection—Art. 5. Holy Spirit—Art. 6. St. Peter's Catholic Church (Charlotte, N.C.) I. Title. ND237.L699M37 1993 759. 13—dc20 93-13887 iBl To Polly Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 3 The Face 7 An Appetite for Beauty 18 Death, Death, Death 28 The Ecstasy in The Agony 49 A Painter of Humanity 71 Nanny and Grandmac 93 Annigoni 118 Hot Lime 145 Resurrection 167 A Ruction 188 Index 207 Acknowledgments One of the most satisfying aspects of this project was the amount of help I received, most of it from within my own city and state. I am deeply grateful for it. I needed money to travel to France and Italy and in North Carolina to do research and to take time to write. The following foundations, businesses, and individuals generously supported those efforts: the Culbertson Foundation, the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, the Charlotte Observer, two anonymous North Carolinians, Pan American Airlines, the Dickson Foundation, Max and Sally Jackson, Dr. Francis Robicsek, Sally Robinson, Dr. Reed Gaskin, Reynolda House, W. D. Cornwell, Steve and Libba Griffith, Joe King, Erskine Bowles, Lynn Lineberger, Natasha Bechtler, Kitty Gaston, and Anne McKenna. Billy O. Wireman, president of Queens College, generously made Queens my partner in applying for and receiving grant money. His help was x WET-WALL TATTOOS key. Thanks, too, go to Lidia Figiel, Dr. Wireman's secretary, for her kindness and efficiency. I am fortunate to work for a newspaper that believes in supporting its writers. I would especially like to thank editor Rich Oppel for his timely support of a sabbatical giving me time to write. Managing editor Frank Barrows, former managing editor Doug Clifton, and former assistant managing editor Foster Davis took a personal interest in this project. My immediate editors worked with me on the stories I wrote on the St. Peter's fresco for the newspaper and helped me get time and resources for the book. They are Caroline Beyrau, Tom Tozer, and Steve Snow. Polly Paddock, who is my wife as well as my colleague, brought her sharp eye and word skills to bear on the entire manuscript and made it a better read, first page to last. Assistant managing editor Bob De Piante, a computer whiz with a generous heart, was an inexhaustible source of information and advice. Other technological aces helped: Jim Hardin, Jamie Braswell, Phil Drake, Ron Grumbles, and Hank Durkin. John Daughtry and his staff at KPC Photograph}' did likewise. Former reporter Louise Lione helped with translations from the Italian. My colleague Mark B. Sluder generously allowed his wonderful photo- graphs to be used. Thanks for photographs also to Don Sturkey, Fred Wilson, the Charlotte Observer Library, Max Jackson, Bob Servatius, and NationsBank. Research for this book took me to several libraries, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the project. My thanks to librarians at the North Carolina Museum ofArt; the Department of History, Presbyterian Church (USA); the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Stewart Lillard in particular; the Iredell County Public Library, especially David Bunch; and the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. I'm grateful to Pat Ryckman and her staff at the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room at the PLCMC, main library. I appreciate the use of the Mary Brevard Alexander Howell Room for Mecklenburg Research, where most of this book was written. Ack.no w Ledg in e n tj xi The staff at John F. Blair, Publisher, was a pleasure to work with, supportive and professional throughout. Thanks go to Carolyn Sakowski, president, and Margaret Couch, Steve Kirk, Debbie Hampton, Sue Clark, Lisa Wagoner, and Heath Simpson. My thanks go to the people ofSt. Peter's Catholic Church. Without their efforts, there would have been no fresco and no book. Father John Haughey was, as always, patient and helpful. I also thank Father Gene McCreesh and parish secretary Mary Ann Sullivan. The church also cooperated in securing the photographs for this book. Through the research and writing, I came to know five wonderful artists. I'm grateful for that and for the cooperation of Ben Long, Chuck Kapsner, Anthony Panzera, Laura Buxton, and Joshua Rosen. They all suffered my presence and patientiy answered my questions. I am most grateful to Ben Long for agreeing to cooperate and for his courage in letting his art and his life be examined and written about. Anne McKenna and Kitty Gaston, Long's agents, gave me their time and cooperation. Many others offered moral and other forms of support. Thanks go to Bob and Peggy Culbertson, Dick and Meredith Spangler, Jerry Bledsoe, Jan Steever, Marilyn Perlman, Mary Kratt, Edythea Ginis Selman, Gary Jones, Gene Thornton, Myron Schwartzman, Diane Suchetka, Connie Grosse, Lew Powell, Dannye Romine Powell, John Vaughan, Hunt Williams, Dan Clodfelter, Bob Gibson, Pace Lineberger, Betty Chafin Rash, and Mark Legett. Joe, Gabriella, and Sulamita Ciceri extended warm hospitality on my visit to Italy. Frye Gaillard is the godfather of this book. A former newspaper colleague, the author of several books, and a friend, he shared everything he knew about writing and publishing a book. He believed in this book even when I was unable to, and I thank him. Because it was researched and written for the most part on nights, weekends, and vacations, this book took more than four years to complete. During that time, I was sustained by the love and support of my family: my wife, Polly, and our children, Laura and Ben. They good-naturedly lived xii WET-WALL TATTOOS with a sometimes distracted and often absent husband and father, giving up fishing trips, nights out, and beach time so I could work. This book could not have been done without their help. I hope it in some way repays their faith in me. My wife, Polly, especially was a pillar of support over these years, helping me with doubts and fears and offering sage advice, editing skills, patience, and good humor. Dedicating this book to her seems scant acknowledg- ment for all she has done for me and all she means to me. But I do so with all my heart. The following sources proved particularly helpful in learning about fresco: The Great Age of Fresco: Discoveries, Recoveries and Survivals, by Millard Meiss (George Braziller); Tlie Mural Painters of Tuscany: From Cimabue to Andrea Del Sarto, by Eve Borsook (Phaidon Publishers); The Great Age of Fresco: Giotto to Pontormo, Thomas P. F. Hoving, Millard Meiss, and Ugo Procacci (Metropolitan Museum ofArt); History ofItalian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, by Frederick Hartt (Prentice-Hall); Youth (vol. 1) and Tloe Sistine Ceiling (vol. 2) of Michelangelo, by Charles De Tolnay ( Princeton University Press); Leonardo Da Vinci, by Kenneth Clark (Penguin Books); The Sistine Chapel: the Art, the History and the Restoration, by Carlo Pietrangeli, Andre Chastel, John Shearman, John O'Malley, S.J., Pierluigi De Vecchi, Michael Hirst, Fabrizio Mancinelli, Gianluigi Colalucci, and Franco Bernabei (Harmony Books); Giorgio Vasari: Lives of the Artists, translated by George Bull (Penguin Books); Vasari on Technique, by Giorgio Vasari, translated by Louisa S. Machlehose (Dover Publications); The Craftsman's Handbook, by Cennino Cennini, translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. (Dover Publications); Fresco Painting: Modern Methods and Techniquesfor Paint- ing in Fresco and Secco, by Olle Nordmark (American Artists Group); Pietro Annigoni: An Artist's Life, as told to Robert Wraight (W. H. Allen); and Pietro Annigoni: A Retrospective Exhibition, by Thomas S. Buechner and Donelson F. Hoopes (Brooklyn Museum). W E T - W A L L TATTOOS Introduction One day in February 1988, I stepped through the door separating the sacristy and the sanctuary of St. Peter's Catholic Church, turned, and looked up at the altar wall. On assignment for my newspaper, the Charlotte Observer, I'd come to write an article about a unique art project at the church. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to what I saw. A large, curving slice of deep blue covered the upper part of the wall, the plaster seeming to project out about halfan inch. Barely visible through the pipes of a scaffold was an artist intently painting on a small patch of plaster.