Brown/Citta' di Castello, Italy/ January 2020
This podcast brings us to Citta’ di Castello in Umbria to discuss the color brown, and in particular umber. Compared to the elegant and intangible black, brown is more humble, physical, and closer to our fingertips.
As artists and food lovers, we know shades of brown as a color and as ingredients like cinnamon or chocolate. But, we realize that brown’s character goes beyond its appearance. Having a fragrant “earthy” quality shared by so many natural things: soil, dry leaves, mushrooms, chestnuts, leather, tobacco, oak --brown is something both wild or foraged, and also aged and refined. Like the complex alchemy of perfumery, brown can be savage and intimate at the same time. An indescribable aromatic elixir; from woodsy to sweet citrus.
When we consider brown as a pigment, the painters Rembrandt and Turner come to mind. They both embrace warm light and shadow, and their color of the earth is made from the earth. Both having been known to have used umber in their work. But, there are other artists that we want to focus on who are native to our location here in Umbria: Piero della Francesca and Alberto Burri, who express the poetic regenerative character of brown.
The English word BROWN comes from the Nordic word brunn, meaning “dark, dusky.” The most common composition for brown as a pigment-- from cave painting, to a child’s crayon, to Titian-- is umber. Direct from the earth, raw umber contains iron and manganese oxides and is a rich but dull brown. When cooked or burnt, it becomes deeper and warmer. The color varies by source and roasting methods, as well as by the manufacturer.
The etymology of the word umber can be traced back to Latin, umbra and the later Italian ombra, meaning shadow. According to some sources, umber means “coming from Umbria,” where the pigment was originally sourced. The region does have deposits, but so does much of the world. The primary source as a quality painting pigment was Cyprus, and it was imported through Venice from at least 1500 CE. More often it was simply sourced locally.
Readily available and therefore affordable, earth pigments have been used in nearly every period and technique of painting throughout world history. Umber, along with ochre and burnt black, was among the earliest pigments used in prehistoric painting.
There are other brown pigments that relate to the earth. Van Dyck Brown is made primarily of composted peat. During the high period of Eqyptian archaeology in the 17th century, a pigment called Mummy brown was very popular. Made from bitumen, asphaltum, and actual ground-up mummies, its color fell neatly between raw and burnt umber. With this in mind, we can understand brown simply as an artifact of the cycle of growth (wood) and decomposition (peat, soil) through the process of burning and recycling (charcoal and ash) and rebirth (compost.)
About Umbria
It is unclear if the region Umbria in Italy gets its name from the word umber, or vice versa. Pliny the Elder calls the people of Umbra Ombrii, which may relate to the Latin word for shadow. It’s possible there is no connection at all, and just a coincidence. But the poetics of coincidence influence how we connect the location of Umbria with the qualities of brown.
The color brown carries with it a synesthetic earthy aroma. Connected to the wooded landscape, there are traditions of hunting and foraging in Umbria--wild boar, mushrooms and truffles, for example, which have a direct relationship with the soil.The only region of Italy with no coast, Umbria with its woods and mountains, is a place of shadows. Often, this region is overlooked or considered “in the shadow of” its neighboring Tuscany.
Recurrent throughout our material research, the processes of smoking and burning are prevalent in Umbria. Besides roasting raw umber to make burnt umber and pigments made from ash and soot, there are the traditions of smoked wine, roasted chestnuts, and cigars. Burning wood provides warmth and sustenance through cooking, with the Hearth being the epicenter of the home and our work, as well as for preserving food.
Qualities of Brown
Levi Strauss suggests that “Raw vs Cooked” is a defining quality of civilization and culture. As fire became elemental in our human evolution; the physical transformations within cooking, food preservation, and visual expression also became elemental to our spiritual sustenance.
The processes of burning, roasting, smoking are manifested in many Umbrian products and traditions. Salt and dry air were a way of preserving food like prosciutto and salami, but not always available in Umbria. Furthermore, in 1540 Pope Paul III imposed a salt tax on Umbria, the only landlocked region, and so salt was limited. To this day, bread is still made without salt. In the humid and heavily forested Upper Tiber River valley, roasting and smoking accelerated and insured the processes of preservation.
Smoking has been used to preserve food since paleolithic times, perhaps initially learned by chance. Early humans hung fresh meat in their dwellings or caves, where the continuous fire provided warmth and cooked food. Soon they discovered the longer preservation of meat and fish due to smoking, the benefits were anti-bacterial and antifungal, and provided a solution for conservation.
Smoking can be cold or hot, depending on the distance of the heat source, and varying drynesses and therefore efficiency of preservation. Different woods are used for different flavor profiles and temperatures, most commonly beech or oak, but fruit woods are also used, and organic substances like peat are particularly used in whiskey manufacturing.
Vin santo, or “holy wine” is made by drying grapes in warm ventilated areas of a traditional Umbrian house. Various Italian wines are made from dried grapes in order to concentrate sugars as a kind of preservation. The concentrated sugars result in a sweeter and stronger (more alcoholic) wine.
“Passito” is produced on islands (like Pantelleria near Sicily), where the late summer sun and autumn wind can dry grapes simply on terraces or rooftops. While wetter climates like the Upper Tiber Valley were more fertile and had a more abundant crop base, preserving food was more challenging due to the humidity. Vin Santo of Tuscany and Umbria is made from grapes dried indoors. There are a few theories about the name vin santo, either it was simply used in the Christian mass, thus “santo,” or holy, and some say it was written on barrels traded through Venice from the Greek island of Santorini, thus “vin santo” being short for “wine from Santorini.”
Vin Santo affumicato is specific to the Upper Tiber Valley, and involves drying grapes with smoke. Grape bunches are hung in the house near the constant autumn hearth. Smoking was more adapted to this wetter climate, where air drying alone would be less effective. The smoke imparts a particular flavor, and together with aging in wood barrels, incorporates our inclusive understanding of umber or brown.
Tobacco
In Citta’ di Castello, we find the origins of tobacco cultivation. The same flavor characteristics provided by smoking foods and grapes also applied to the Umbrian tobacco industry. Often, grapes would be hung to dry in the same rooms used for drying tobacco. Tobacco leaves were sometimes dipped in vin santo to impart a deeper flavor. The relationship between vin santo and tobacco is symbiotic in production, not just in consumption. When tobacco, known as Nicotiana tabacum, first came to Italy from the New World, one of the earliest and most profitable areas of production was Cospaia, a once independent state just a few kilometers from Citta di Castello. By administrative error, it was an independent republic from 1441 to 1836. Free from Papal taxes, Cospaia and the surrounding regions profited from tobacco cultivation and the microstate and the industry thrived. This brown leaf made the region wealthy and has a particular role in the identity of the region of Citta di Castello. By 1600 and for much of the 20th century, almost every family farm near Citta’ di Castello had a drying barn for personal and commercial tobacco production. Tobacco has a complex cultural history. Understood to provide pleasure and livelihood, it of course is now known that nicotine is addictive and smoking quite harmful to our health. Like many natural ingredients, it was originally thought to be medicinal and have healing properties. Tobacco was well in use already but it was officially sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth I after Sir Walter Raleigh tempted her in 1600.
Truffles
Known since ancient times and miraculously born from the earth, truffles are identified as white or black but are really variations of brown. While the white truffle is more rare and sought after and therefore more costly, the black truffle is more common but still a treasure to find. They are a mushroom which grow underground near the base of trees and are best found in the wild by specially trained truffle dogs. Pigs used to do the hunting but would often eat too many of their finds. The climate and damp soil of Umbria make it a perfect location to hunt them. If we could imagine what the color brown would smell like, it might be exactly like a truffle. The word truffle comes from the Latin tuber and exudes a musky earthy aroma. The best way to enjoy the pure essence of a truffle is to shave it over a freshly cooked fried egg.
Chocolate
We cannot ignore the allure of chocolate- its aroma, texture, and flavor. Every October it is celebrated by the world in Perugia, the capital of Umbria where the Perugina chocolate company was founded in 1907. Although chocolate can be claimed by many countries, it did not arrive in Europe until the discovery of the New World. The cacao bean was brought to the Medici court in the 1600’s and like tobacco, it too was claimed to be curative; and today many would still agree. The cacao bean goes through a lengthy process that relies on fermentation to transform its composition and although most of us associate it with sweetness, it has a long history of savory influences in the kitchen. In various parts of Italy there are variations of sanguinaccio salami which is a type of sausage that combines chocolate, pig’s blood, pine nuts, and spices.
Art
Burri and Burlap
After World War II, the Italian artist Alberto Burri returned to his home town, Citta’ di Castello, the center of one of the biggest tobacco producing regions. As an Italian Army surgeon, he was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Texas, where he began painting to pass the time. On his return, he found a country devastated by war, where industry and agriculture had crumbled. Materials of any kind, especially artists materials, were hard to come by and the Arte Povera movement in Italy began. Artists worked with available and recycled materials challenging the historic elitism of high art. In Citta’ di Castello, Burri found an abundance of burlap sacks that were used to transport goods like tobacco. As Venetian painters exploited the availability of sail linen to paint “on canvas,” Burri painted on the surplus burlap tobacco sacks. Availability, as much as necessity, is the mother of invention. This recycling of materials into art is not only about the desperation of Post War Italy as it is the evidence of the urgency to create. Burri’s early paintings, called Sacchi (sacks), incorporate a surgeon’s sensibility and a literal attempt to sew back together the broken fabric of his country.
Burri also used industrial materials like tar, iron, wood, plastic, concrete, and in his later work; a modern insulation material called Celotex. Part of a landscape of recovery, he burnt wood and plastic works with a blowtorch, creating scars of transformed color and material. Burning is both dangerous and comforting, both untamable and familiar. Eventually Burri bought an old tobacco drying barn for his studio, (now the Ex-Seccatoio museums) reminding us of the importance of local availability and his relation with tobacco production as a legacy and as a resource.
The later Cretto series involved roasting paintings in an oven to create a geographic crackle effect. His largest work, the Grande Cretto, deals more directly with the landscape. This large earthwork addresses the memory of the town Gibellina’s destruction by an earthquake in 1968. Burri retained the original streets and made 4’ high blocks of concrete that represent the original buildings. Although for many it has become an ecological insult for its copious use of concrete, this work speaks of decomposition and recomposition. It effectively becomes a cemetery and allows the visitor to meander the streets of the town’s demise. A sense of pilgrimage is imbued when one visits, with a renewal and return to what once was.
Piero and Pilgrimage
This cycle of decomposition and rebirth, brings us to another important Umbrian artist; Piero della Francesca. He was born in San Sepolcro in 1415 not far from Citta di Castello. In addition to being renowned for his elegant paintings, he was and is regarded as an important mathematician; in particular, his work concerning perspective and geometry.
As we think of the color brown poetically, we understand it as emblematic of the cycle of life. Piero della Francesca’s paintings address this through the stories of Christ’s life and death. We can see this directly in his Madonna del Parto fresco in the small town of Monterchi, where his use of perspective and symmetry support the pictorial symbology of death and rebirth. Interestingly, Piero’s creation of this painting occurred at the time of his mother’s death in 1459. The very pregnant Madonna stands between two symmetrical angels that hold back curtains of a fabric tent. A metaphorical painting, the tent is understood to be symbolic of the tabernacle that holds the sacrament, as Mary is also understood to be the tabernacle for the Christ baby inside of her. Like many Madonnas, her sullen expression reveals her inner knowledge that her child will one day not only die, but how she foresees his struggles. Supporting the weight of her pregnancy with her left hand on her back, Piero’s Madonna’s physical burden and visual sadness portend Christ’s impending crucifixion. This regenerative understanding continues each time we look at his painting. Since its inception, the Madonna del Parto is a painting which calls for repeated visits to offer prayer and hope to those looking for protection and healthy childbirths. Many have made the “Piero Pilgrimage,” returning to this painting and to the sites of his other paintings. This repetition of revisiting sites, either holy or artistically holy, fortifies the awareness that the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning.
Piero died in 1492, the year Columbus sailed to the New World. With the return of these explorations, the advent of many new discoveries like tobacco and chocolate would change the course of history forever.
Conclusion- Circumnavigation
The color brown is about a landscape, and about how the processes of life recur and regenerate materials. This color, in its primary form, represents the earth.The earth as substance, as ground, and the earth as home, as the hearth. All things grow from it and return to it. Cycles of composition and decomposition provide food for survival, skins for clothing, wood for shelter, and the pleasure of a glass of wine by the fire to warm us. As the saying goes, dust to dust and ashes to ashes--we all must die. However, all will return to the earth and also be reborn.
We would like to thank Agriturismo Talacchio, Archeologia Arborea, and the Comune di Lerchi for their generous hospitality and support.
