56 CONTEXT 177 : SEPTEMBER 2023 Sitting out Eyjafjallajökull ‘Why is everyone wearing orange?’ asked the distaff side as we emerged from Amsterdam Centraal Station, ‘it’s not a great colour!’ After musing momentarily about the apparent popularity of the cadet branch of the House of Nassau, the penny dropped: football. On such occasions two issues for the cultural tourist become apparent. First, it is hard to concentrate on the finer points of, say, the Amsterdam School while wondering where your next meal is coming from. Second is the world-wide statistical correlation between obsession with football and working in catering. We found a nice canalside table at a deserted bistro overlooking a bridge: an early work of Jo van der Mey. While we were enjoying a relaxed if erratically served meal, our waiter was enjoying the Netherlands beating Italy 3–0 in the 2008 Euros, through the window of the adjoining bar. We had form. In the Piazza Navona in Rome decades earlier, we sat at a table near Bernini’s Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi. In the inner depths of the restaurant the staff watched their team lose 4–0 to Brazil in the World Cup final, with the customers outside in the piazza sending search parties whenever something was required. Earlier, every car in Rome had been driving round the city packed to the gunwales with wildly gesticulating fans, with all the appearance of the Keystone Cops, had the Keystone Cops waved Italian tricolours rather than truncheons. But in the peace of the evening, broken only occasionally by distant groans inside the restaurant, we proposed a cross in the pavement where tourists should stand to recreate Leonard von Matt’s iconic photograph in which Bernini’s Río de la Plata reaches for the tower of Sant’Agnese in Agone in tribute to the genius of Borromini; or perhaps to the public outcry that prevented Rainaldi’s proposed narthex encroaching into the piazza. Near the end of an Andalusian tour we shared a table with a Dutch couple in that paragon of los pueblos blancos, Arcos de la Frontera. They had also decided to stay put for a few days and not default to panic mode, like the rest of Europe, about the Icelandic volcano that nobody can remember the name of, let alone pronounce – it’s Eyjafjallajökull, I looked it up. The eatery was packed for a televised match. It was the only primera división season ever for the local team, Xerez CD, and the result was a heroic away win against mighty Atlético Madrid. The most impressive player was our waiter, who acrobatically served us impeccably without for a second taking his eyes off the screen in the corner of the room. Hendrik Berlage proclaimed the ethos of the Amsterdam School to be systematic geometry, objectivity of purpose, the primacy of space and the importance of walls in defining form. One building that epitomises these principles is the church of San Vitale in Ravenna, completed a mere 1,361 years before Berlage’s 1908 lecture. The fundaments of architectural theory may be timeless, but they can not handle genius. Leaving aside the iconic mosaics and the muted ambiance of amber and marble ‘glazing’, the proportions of San Vitale’s domed and galleried octagon are perfection. But the alignment of the narthex at 22.5 degrees from the principal axis is a masterstroke of architectural subtlety. Ravenna’s history is prodigious. It is whence Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to found the Roman Empire. It was Justinian’s capital in the twilight of the Western Empire and Theodoric’s capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom. It was the place of exile of Dante and was where Byron lived in flagrante delicto with the runaway teenage bride Countess Teresa Guiccioli. In a bar 100 metres from Dante’s tomb, the staff were engrossed in the European Cup final between Real Madrid and Liverpool. It was clear that the room was supporting Real Madrid, but when we mentioned to the barman that we lived in Liverpool the mood changed, such that when Alan Kennedy scored the only goal of the match in the 81st minute there was a roar of approval. History was made. Culture? It’s everywhere – and it’s all just a beautiful game. James Caird Leonard von Matt’s photograph of Bernini’s Río de la Plata and the tower of Sant’Agnese in Agone
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