In a Roman Osteria, by Carl Bloch (oil on cavas, 1866)
A very popular genre painting (full resolution here) by the Danish painter Carl Bloch. Genre paintings have subject matters drawn from everyday life, rather than anything pompous, and often from life in the margins in particular: if you’re looking for rogues in European painting, this is where you’ll find them.
An osteria is like a humble tavern, primarily for wine, and maybe to grab a bite and socialise – one way or another. The concept arguably goes back to ancient Rome, and there’s something more or less like it wherever wine is made, but Italy’s oldest osterie, in Brindisi and Bologna, are from the 1400s. It’s a fitting setting for a genre painting.
You can interpret it as you like, but my take is: “POV: you are sitting in an osteria in Rome drinking wine and exchanging suggestive glances with a young lady at the next table, when her friend takes wind of it and tells the young man accompanying them, and he turns around to look at you and he’s NOT happy; uh-oh, he’s got a knife.”
It doesn’t look like an Italian knife, it looks like a Spanish navaja. Designs could of course be similar, and ideas and techniques were borrowed back and forth, but there’s a decorative element which doesn’t show up in Italy (AFAIK), only in Spain and sometimes Morocco: those white discs on the handle are called ojos de perdiz (partridge eyes), they’re bone inlays and the “iris” is usually brass. It makes a nice contrast with the darker material of the handle, which is horn or wood.
As it happens, I have one that looks a lot like it:
Spain, c.1850
And here are a few more navajas with “partridge eyes”, made around the time In a Roman Osteria was painted. (All these are with a carraca, a ratchet; our Italian friend carries a simpler folding knife.)
Albacete, 1860
Albacete, 1866
Cádiz, late 19th century
Back to Italy, a similar decorative element can be found in one very special case. The lover’s knife or love knife (coltello d’amore) is an extremely fancy folding knife, dating to the 18th century, and given as a token of love or as an engagement gift. Among other decorations, it features occhi di dado (dice eyes), which are similar to ojos de perdiz but with a much larger iris, placed off-center. Kind of like googly eyes.
21st century version by the Colterellia Saladini, a very high-end cutlery; it’s their most expensive knife (EUR 1220, lol)
an atypical fixed blade knife, small (16 cm total) and humbly made, 19th century
The eyes are supposed to “ward off the jealous gaze of anyone looking at your lover”, and I think they look a lot like nazars. Italy does have its own apotropaic symbols, however the south (where these knives hail from) has had significant contact with both Arabic and Greek culture, where nazars are super common, so it’s not a terrible leap to assume there’s a connection. But that’s just my speculation.
In the series Suburra: Blood on Rome, the young Sinti gangster Spadino is carrying this exact knife (the Saladini one). Sadly in a different context, it’s a parental / wedding / coming-of-age gift, they just picked it because it’s so extra.
Spadino's mama: “you’re a man now, act like it”. Spadino: *fumes in gay*
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Here we are in the next instalment of my You Don’t Have to Do This Alone series is up. Where in yet again Aureliano and Spadino have really confused emotional reactions that end up spilling over into sex.
Chapter 1 of probably 2 is up. It ends on an angsty note.
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Parla Italiano
I used Shazam to discover 7 vizi Capitale (feat. Il Muro Del Canto) by Piotta. https://www.shazam.com/track/257489094/7-vizi-capitale-feat-il-muro-del-canto?referrer=share
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Shows I like and haven’t finished:
Suburra blood on Rome: it is so good I get anxiety about watching it because I feel like I have to be in the right mood and the moment has to be right.
Trigun Stampede: I dislike most anime because I feel like I’m not the target audience for it, but I really like the couple of episodes of stampede that I’ve seen. But I am the target audience for stampede so I feel like I should watch it when I can fully appreciate it.
Vikings: I really like this show and I don’t want to dislike it, so if I never finish it then I can never dislike it.
Penny Dreadful: I’ve seen most of penny dreadful and city of angels, I think I got a bit burnt out over them and took a break, and getting back into it would be a lot.
I can’t think of the others atm
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Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Suburra - La Serie | Suburra: Blood on Rome (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Aureliano Adami/Alberto "Spadino" Anacleti
Characters: Aureliano Adami, Alberto "Spadino" Anacleti
Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, grief spilling over into sex, aftermath of canon deaths, Oral Sex, Praise Kink, Hair-pulling, Rutting, Crying, Not Beta Read, Unbeta'd
Series: Part 2 of You don't have to do this alone
Summary:
Spadino is not certain where they stand now. But the day has really caught up to him and they just lost Lele - and Teo - and Aureliano is somehow kissing his again? And fuck if he is going to turn down this opportunity to have things go his way, just a little.
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What could have (should have) happened at the end of S2
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