Who could forget Edmund's infamous supplication to the gods in King Lear (Act I, scene ii)? Not I. Which brings me to my first subject, Il Bastardo Winery's Il Bastardo Sangiovese di Toscana.
I somehow think that I have seen this wine before, but my most recent encounter was at Pietro's Coal Oven Pizzeria on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. While enjoying a lovely salad, what do I see across from me at the bar but a bottle of this wine. This was a pleasant surprise that complemented my previous weekend's excursion to the Delaware Art Museum. There I toured the exhibition of Fernando Botero, the Columbian artist known for his plump and voluminous if not voluptuous subjects.
To look at Botero's work is to be confronted with art history itself. Looking at his sculptures I could not help but reminded of classical Hellenic age Greek statues; his female torso statue an obvious allusion to the Venus of Willendorf. His paintings echo the generic poses and color pallette of medieval paintings while at the same time drawing from the rich, turbulent, often violent world of the Colombia in which he grew up. His still life paintings show the influence of van Gogh, and yet his drawings have a comical aspect to them, a casualness which belies their serious content, and yet I think it is this style that opens up Botero to a wider audience and the world of marketing. Another of Botero's drawings is featured on the paperback U.S. edition of the novel Borges and the Eternal Orangutans. I say "other" drawing, because I believe the Il Bastardo logo is a black and white Botero drawing colored in. I am not 100% sure, and I will update this post when I find out.
The fat bastard on this label is daring you to say something to him. This pencil-thin mustachoed jerk with no sense of fashion has the nerve to sit in the middle of the street drinking wine? What a bastard! And yet, there is something about him. His obesity, perhaps his color-blindness, and his Butch Patrick hairdo might just inspire what? pity? empathy? Not sure. What we can surmise, however, is that he is oblivious to the outside world. He is enjoying his wine, he is overtaken by it. Mesmerized. His savors its rich flavor, its aroma, and the feeling he gets as it slides effortlessly down his gullet. He is fat bastard wine connoiseur. And we love him.
To really appreciate Fernando Botero one must see his giant works of art (both paintings and sculptures) in person and up close. To the untutored eye, his subjects may seem generic in their voluminousness, but look again. Botero's use of color and proportion and his sensuous approach to politics and suffering as well as romance make him an artist worthy of a road trip. Viva Botero! Viva vino!
--PM
