Professor Butter Beard and Franz Ludwig Catel’s “Inside the Colosseum”
“You lofty hills and sacred ruins,
No longer bearing aught but the name of Rome,
What pitiful vestiges you now display
Of so many rare and sublime minds!
Colossi, arches, theatres, divine works,
Monuments to glorious and joyful triumphs,
All reduced to a little ash,
You tell but a mean tale to the common herd.”
- Baldassare Castiglione, 1503
In my heart, I believe stones can speak of their memories. I have listened patiently to the earliest standing circle stones harmonize with the wind. The British Abbey stones regale me with their whispers of weddings, coronations, assassinations and soulful prayers. The Dutch and Venetian canal stones gossip among each other, comparing tales of traitors and spies, rising tides and moonlit masquerade balls. But, for me, the towering stone columns of the Roman ruins speak loudest, with elegance and entitlement, reciting the speeches of emperors, priestesses, and emboldened ancient citizens.
The beguiling ruins of Rome have a long history of allure. They first engaged the attention of medieval tourists and pilgrims. The interest of travelers was captured in the Renaissance by artists, architects, topographers, antiquarians, archeologists and writers. In the 19th century, it was the Romantics who captured the very soul of the stones in their writing and paintings – especially when capturing the voice of the Roman Colosseum.
Henry James, in his 1873 essay entitled “A Roman Holiday,” writes: “this roughly mountainous quality of the great ruin is its chief interest; beauty of detail has pretty well vanished, especially since the high -growing wildflowers have been plucked away by the new government.”
Twenty years later, Augustus Hare was still lamenting the structure’s shabby condition: “As late as thirty years ago, the interior of the Coliseum was, like that of an English abbey – an uneven grassy space littered with masses of ruin, amid which large trees grew and flourished. In the gaunt, bare, ugly interior of the Coliseum as it now is, it is difficult even to conjure up the recollection of the ruin so gloriously beautiful under the popes, where every turn was a picture.”
Dear Mr. Hare, I don’t think you were truly listening to the stones’ poignant meditations. I believe it was the painters of that century who understood and appreciated their whispers and gleaned the beauty of their language.
Franz Ludwig Catel was born at Berlin in 1778. He began his artistic career by carving in wood, and then designed book illustrations, including, in 1799, ten plates for Goethe's “Hermann” and “Dorothea.” He went on to work in Indian ink and watercolors, producing in 1806 a large piece in the latter medium, representing “The Death of Nicholas of Bernau,” which gained him admission into the Berlin Academy. In 1807 he journeyed to Paris, where he studied oil painting with any master that would offer to mentor him. Catel found himself in Rome in 1812, where his education as an artist was much advanced by his connection with fellow German expatriates Joseph Anton Koch, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, and Peter von Cornelius.
Their inspiration encouraged Catel in the direction of painting landscapes with prominent ancient architectural details and contemporary figures in the foreground. He attached himself to the new “classic school of landscape,” laboring especially to make his perspective as effective (and romantic) as possible while also absorbing the great Italian talent of mastering light and shade.
Within his “Inside the Colosseum,” painted in 1823, a shaft of warm sunlight illuminates a group of figures dwarfed by the monumental architecture of the amphitheater in ruins. The towering, majestic arches and columns have been reduced to bare stone bones supporting a jungle of luscious flowering vegetation. In 1822, just a year before Catel’s painting, Pope Benedict XIV initiated significant restoration work, including reinforcing the outer walls and stabilizing the structure with tie rods installed to secure the facade.
In the foreground a figure identifiable as architect Giuseppe Valadier bows slightly while presenting plans to the red-stockinged Cardinal Ercole Consalvi at left. In the background, two dayworkers carry a sack filled with rubble from the Colosseum’s depths, visually representing the labor involved in the original excavation project.
Catel’s stones speak. The artist listened and interpreted their personal discussion in oils. And I am convinced that he must have also been familiar with Lord Byron’s own 19th century conversation with the stones:
“When the rising moon begins to climb
Its topmost arch, and gently pauses there;
When the stars twinkle through the loops of time,
And the low night-breeze waves along the air.
When the light shines serene, but doth not glare,
Then in this magic circle raise the dead:
Heroes have trod this spot – ‘tis on their dust ye tread.”
This morning, recollections of my own treasured dialogue with the ancient Roman stones morphed into these Browned-Butter Blondies accented with swirls of peach jam and a dusting of salt from the sea. Toasted almonds represent the aged trails of cracks within the stone, and a hint of nutmeg suggests their seductive whispers. My soul beamed as I witnessed the market farmers take their first bite and smile as they joined in the ancient conversation.
Professor Butter Beard’s Browned-Butter Blondies with Peach Jam
32 Blondies
1 cup sliced almonds, toasted with a dash of fine sea salt
20 Tbsp (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla paste
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 ½ cups dark (or light) brown sugar
10 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup of your best peach jam
Kosher salt to finish
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a half-sheet baking pan with parchment.
2) Toast the almond slices (with a dash of salt) in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, shaking often, until evenly browned and aromatic. Set aside to cool.
3) In a medium saucepan, cook the butter over medium heat, until the solids have browned and the butter has a nutty aroma. Pour into a glass measuring cup to stop the cooking.
4) In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, fine sea salt and nutmeg. Pour the slightly cooled butter over the flour mix and fold together. The mixture will be very thick, but make sure all the flour is moistened.
5) In a standing mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the eggs and then add all the brown sugar. Whisk on medium-high speed until tripled in volume.
6) Fold 1/3 of the egg/sugar mix into the flour mix to lighten. Fold in the second 1/3, and finally all the remaining. Fold in the toasted almonds and white chocolate chips. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan. Dollop the jam over the blondies and then swirl with a chopstick (see image).
7) Bake for 15 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for another 5-8 minutes until just set.
8) Remove the pan from the oven and set on a wire rack to cool. While still hot, lightly sprinkle the top with Kosher salt. When cool, trim the edges and cut into 32 portions (8x4).
