Starting with Catholicism...

Reality can be interpreted simply as it appears, or it can be transformed into something more meaningful, through, for example, an encounter with religious ideology. Speaking of the Christian one, it has often involved the pictorial narrative, a means by which it has given form to a new symbolic nature of the plant subject of palms. The plants in question returned to being simply such, that is, specimens of the monocotyledonous family, belonging to the order Arecales, only from the last two centuries onward, and thus when, as a result of the desacralization of society, the figurative arts became almost definitively disengaged from the Christian narrative. From this point on, palms have mostly been portrayed within landscapes, where they simply figure as green "decorative elements." Before we get to that point, however, Leonardo, Verrocchio, Raphael, Giotto and Correggio will acquaint us with what meanings the plant in question took on in their devotional works, revealing how Catholicism, later in its early days of iconoclastic aversion, employed such a subject for didactic purposes, that is, to indoctrinate even those who could not read or spoke another language, through the simpler use of specific and recurring symbolic images. The Christ palm was mainly used as an allusive image of the triumph of faith in Christ over death and pagans, although the masters mentioned above will acquaint us with further nuances of the latter and more general meaning. Let us start with Verrocchio and Leonardo, briefly analyzing their Baptism of Christ (1469-1480), a masterpiece in which Jesus has been painted in the center of the support, where, in an upright position, he presents his feet immersed in the water of a river, while, to his right, John pours water over his head. Above the climax of the narrative, that is, the gesture of baptism, two arms are seen protruding downward, accompanied by a dove having open wings, a clear allusion to the Holy Spirit. Leaving aside the other characters in the scene, here I come to describe our object of interest: a palm tree, which, serving as a background to the group of angels, stands to allude, both to the ascent and to the victory of Christ. The narrative continues through the point of view on the subject offered to us by Raphael, shown in the Holy Family with Palm Tree (1506-07), an oil on canvas aimed at immortalizing the Virgin, Child and Joseph within a lush hilly landscape, where the figure of a palm tree stands out, making space between Mary and Jesus, alluding to the fact that the latter's martyrdom mainly marked the latter characters. Proceeding with Giotto, his Entrance into Jerusalem (1303-05) makes clear reference to the event of Palm Sunday, the Christian feast on which Jesus, a few days before his crucifixion, triumphantly entered Jerusalem, a place where he was precisely welcomed by a large crowd, which celebrated him by waving palm branches and shouting "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel!" Finally, wanting to unveil the last curiosity regarding "Christian" plants, I make use of Correggio, the creator of St. Catherine of Alexandria with the Palm of Martyrdom (1508-1510), a painting ready to reveal to us how the martyr saint in question was studiously accompanied by a palm tree, a plant that, in a somewhat analogous way, sacrifices itself by dying in order to blossom and generate its fruit.

PALM LEAVES,2022 (2022)Painting by Katwrina Golban.

AMONG THE PALM TREES (2021)Painting by Masha Danilovskaia.

Coming to the genre of landscape...

The narrative now becomes profane, as it cites masters who from the late nineteenth century to the present have progressively desacralized the image of the palm tree, at first placing it within the landscape theme and, later, even likening it to the Ready-made "genre," where it was literally flushed down the toilet by contemporary artist Juliette Blightman! Before arriving at this extreme gesture dated the 2000s, there were earlier and more "tame" landscapes, such as: Claude Monet's Palm Trees at Bordighera (1884), Pablo Picasso's Brick Factory at Tortosa (1909), David Hockney's Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes (1937), and John Baldessari's The Overlap Series: Palm Trees and Building (with Vikings) (2001). About the latter and more recent interpretation of the plant, taken as a "model" for the most current landscape research on the subject, Palm Trees and Building (with Vikings), part of Baldessari's aforementioned Overlap Series, juxtaposes an urban view of palm trees and buildings with a black-and-white photograph of Vikings. In doing so, the American artist has induced a confrontation between past and historical present, which are united precisely by the eternal presence of the palms, which, by being present in both narratives, allow two distant, distinct and perhaps otherwise incompatible eras to communicate. In conclusion, all these good intentions of exchange vanish in the aforementioned Ready-made, where one only has to ideally flush the drain to end any attempt at communication between eras, as well as between artist and viewer. Finally, the narrative about palms continues in the work of Artmajeur artists such as: Kate Revill, Iryna Kastsova and Natalia Shchipakina ...

IN THE SHADOW OF PALM TREES - TROPICAL WOMAN PORTRAIT (2023)Painting by Daria Gerasimova.

PALMS (2023)Painting by Kate Revill.

PALMS by Kate Revill

"The leaves, leathery, evergreen, persistent, palmate or pinnate, form an apical clump at the top of the stem." The above is an excerpt from Wikipedia's lengthy account of the features of palms, which I wanted to reduce to the part that affects the subject depicted by Revill, limited, precisely, to the leaves of the plant in question. If, however, the quotation given turns out to be undoubtedly faithful to the view from life of the "hands" of the palms, what is explicated by the Artmajeur artist's painting exceeds the real in chromaticism, perhaps borrowing from the more distant and lively example of the Fauves. However, the bright colors do not only enliven the green of the leaves, but also the background, enlivened by a ringing pink, which, in places, hints at the existence of an older, darker base. Speaking of Kate Revill, on the other hand, her painting, often precisely rich in garish hues, makes clear reference to Pop art, enriched by rather expressionist and sometimes abstract elements, which pursue the goal of capturing the subjects, in addition to their form, in their emotions, their subconscious and their unique aesthetic qualities.

PALM TREES. OCEAN. CALIFORNIA. (2023)Painting by Iryna Kastsova.

PALM TREES. OCEAN. CALIFORNIA by Iryna Kastsova

"Palm trees. Ocean. California. Seascape: blue ocean, waves, sunny beach, palm trees, flowers, sunny day, romance, impressionism, realism, water, painting, sea voyage, sky, sunny California coast create a relaxing atmosphere." What Kastsova has just written represents, somewhat succinctly but exhaustively, all that is seen and "felt" in her painting, having, among other things, California palm trees as its subject. So, given this last specification of place, I step in to enrich the narrative, speaking, in particular, of the Los Angeles palm trees, the most famous in American history. In fact, perhaps not everyone knows that the city in question is home, first and foremost, to the California Fan Palm, a specimen to which plants from the Canary Islands and Mexico were later added. In any case, it is important to specify how, returning for a moment to the sacred dimension, the palm trees found in California were imported during the construction of the Spanish missions in the late 1700s, presenting an ornamental purpose, also intended to symbolize the biblical nature of the missions. Only later were the palm trees intended purely for embellishment, as they were conceived as an alluring ornament of the landscape, capable of transforming part of America into a semi-tropical paradise, on a par with a luxurious and glamorous desert oasis. At this point, Hollywood also upped the ante, whose love for plants definitely contributed to their eternal consecration within the city of angels.

PALM TREES. BARCELONETA BEACH (2023)Painting by Natalia Shchipakina.

PALM TREES. BARCELONETA BEACH by Natalia Shchipakina

"Barcelona, Spain. The famous Barceloneta beach and the palm trees. The painting is rich in a variety of colors and conveys the atmosphere of a beautiful Mediterranean summer. The historic Barceloneta beach is known for its lively atmosphere, golden sand, and proximity to the city center. Visitors can swim, sunbathe, play beach volleyball, and engage in various water sports." These are the words of Natalia Shchipakina, aimed at accompanying her Spanish landscape enriched by the presence of palm trees, specifically, two in the foreground and a multitude, which appears incalculable in the background. The painter seems, with her words and her brush, to try to entice tourism to the Catalan city, showcasing its myriad qualities using every means at her disposal. The palm trees painted by the artist could also speak, telling the story of the neighborhood they have been observing for a long time: La Barceloneta, a network of narrow streets and alleys created in the mid-18th century to accommodate the Barcelonians whose homes had been demolished to make way for the Ciutadella (the large star-shaped fortress of King Philip V, in the Ribera district). In reality, it was the workers and fishermen from the surrounding areas who moved there, taking advantage of its proximity to the sea. Later, Barceloneta became the working-class neighborhood, and then transformed into the city's seaside area, although its narrow streets are still rich in those old buildings, whose facades, darkened by the sea salt, always harken back to the oldest tales of fishermen...