LETERATURE

From the olive tree that became Ulysses’ nuptial bed to oil as an ointment to anoint the body of the hero fallen in battle, the plant and its fruit are Poetry subjects. The tremulous silvery foliage and the tormented trunk, the millenary life and its symbolism inspire the Greek lyricists as much as the romantic poets, all the way to the travellers of the Grand Tour. In the window case dedicated to the latter, next to notebooks, tools, maps, guides and notes, there is what travel of the time required. Enclosed in their cases, there are writing materials, glasses and cutlery, various games, pocket books and, for those who wished to immortalise the landscape, people, stones, here is the vintage baton de peintre (or baton de Van Gogh), with brushes and a scraper sealed in by the unscrewable terminal knob, and oil paints concealed in a small niche carved in the length of the wood. As for the infinite literature on the olive tree, the giant photograph of a thousand-year-old plant holds quotations from Greek lyricists within its branches.