There have been many visitors to Keane’s studio in Barga Vecchia over the past six months (some of them can be seen here) – they have been arriving to see for themselves how the latest work based on rock engravings and the pennati – the bill hooks, are progressing.
A whole series of new canvases using a mixture of techniques involving beech ash, an engraving tool and fire as a creative exercise.
Recently in the Apuan Alps numerous (over 100) rock engravings have been identified depicting pennati, on which were later engraved some crosses to “Christianise” pagan places of worship.
The incisions are normally placed on the mountain ridges (Monte Gabberi and the Pania complex)
The rock engravings (also called petroglyphs or graffiti) are signs carved into the rock with pointed tools of various kinds, such as a harder chisel-shaped rock tip, using a tapping technique, guided or not by a striker or a metal tip (like a dagger, made of bronze or iron), or using a scratch-scrape technique, hence the name graffiti.
The figures formed in some cases, by a dense concentration of holes, called cups served to convey the blood of sacrificed animals, during animistic rites.
The pennato has its origins in the Bronze Age as evidenced by some artifacts preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Florence.
The presence of pennati is documented on votive bronzes of Etruscan origin of the III century BC, found in Albenga and on a Roman sarcophagus of the II century. A.D.
The pennato was also associated with the deity of Silvano, as evidenced by the discovery made in 1924 in the quarry of Gioia in Carrara.
“Le incisioni Apuane sono di varia tipologia, con un panorama iconografico del tutto comparabile alle manifestazioni dell’Appennino Ligure. Sono sicuramente affascinanti, tutti i segni che l’uomo lo sono. Silenziosi ci trasmettono le storie, le emozioni, le credenze, i riti magico religiosi, la memoria e i valori culturali di chi abitava o frequentava l’ambiente montano secoli e secoli fa. Molti sono i siti significativi che sono stati individuati, rilevati e studiati in oltre vent’anni di ricerche. I siti più importanti sono caratterizzati dalla presenza di numerose incisioni raffiguranti “pennati”; tipico strumento ancora oggi usato dai boscaioli, la falx arboraria dei latini, la micidiale arma degli Apui. Credo fermamente che queste testimonianze storiche – antropologiche al di là della loro età siano importanti per capire le motivazioni e il valore simbolico che erano attribuiti a questi segni” – Giancarlo Sani
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