Ganga Mother Tiberinus Pater
Sacred rivers, streams of knowledge
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Reproduction of the Tabula Peutingeriana -“The Peutinger Map” – is an illustrated itinerarium (ancient Roman road map) showing the layout of the cursus publicus, the road network of the Roman Empire. The map is a 13th-century parchment copy of a possible Roman original. The Tabula shows the entire Roman Empire, the Near East and India, indicating also the Ganges river.
Introduction
Water is sacred – it is always important to remember this. We all owe our life on planet Earth to water. Although only a small portion of water flows in riverbeds on the planet’s surface, all the great civilizations were born along the banks of rushing water. India and Italy share many similarities, among these are their mythic rivers still treasured as national symbols, from where the foundations of their historic origins emerged.
While the Ganges is called Ma or Mother, the Tiber was addressed as Pater or Father. Both rivers exude a sense of the sacred, merging the harmony of landscape and culture with the life rhythms of its people. Through my lens, I have tried to represent these two dramatic riverine worlds in this photographic exhibition.
The Ganges is the holiest of all India’s rivers. On its banks, it is possible to reconcile modernity with rituals and thoughts that have deep and ancient roots. In earlier ages, Western culture also held a sacred vision of the natural world. However today only India is traversed by rivers that are still viewed as “gods”. This is the gift which Indian spirituality offers the world.
The Tiber River, flows down Central Italy like a backbone, finally reaching Rome, the eternal city. Along its journey to the sea, through Tuscany and Umbria, traces of the sacred are found everywhere as it passes many sites of the Christian faith where great saints like St. Francis and St. Benedict once walked and meditated. This river’s sacred aura also radiates throughout grand landscapes of art created by the Renaissance masters such as Piero della Francesca and Michelangelo.
When standing on the Ganges, the view is captured not by the waters of the river but by the multitudes moving along its banks. While along the course of the Tiber one is dazzled by the concentration of cultural heritage.
So in this work the figure is, for the Ganges it is humanity praying, for the Tiber it is the cultural heritage made up of cities, museums, landscapes. These millennial waters of the Ganges and the Tiber have shaped the cultural identity of two worlds that, like rivers, flow endlessly to meet each other symbolically in a great sea of humanity.
The Ganges
The goddess Ganga stands on her mount, the makara, with a kumbha, a full pot of water, in her hand, while an attendant holds a parasol over her. Terracotta, Ahichatra, Uttar Pradesh, Gupta, 5th century, now in National Museum, New Delhi
The Tiber
Ancient Roman allegory of Tiber River in the Capitol square, Rome. The twins Romulus and Remus, mytical founders of Rome, who were saved from Tiber’s waters, play in the left corner with the she-wolf that fed them.
Allora Enea dal mare vede un ingente bosco.
In mezzo ad esso con corso ameno il Tevere
con salti rapidi e biondo di molto limo
si getta in mare
(Virgilio, Eneide)
Titolo quanto mai appropriato per avvertire sia le origini che il lungo cammino della civiltà occidentale fino ad oggi.
Una calma e persistente attenzione alle immagini e alle didascalie permette di cogliere ombre e luci di questo cammino.
A tratti si ha l’impressione di un tutto ‘fermo’ e ‘consolidato’ come una meravigliosa e statica visione onirica a tratti si coglie e sgomenta il dissolvimento delle forme sul piano dell’esistenza. Nelle due facce della stessa medaglia l’impronta estetica e poetica dettata da Giancarlo Cammerini ci tiene lontani ed equidistanti da scontata ammirazione e facile avversione.