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"To truly love another, you must follow the lover's path whereever it may take you..."
- Filamena Ziani, 1545
"Here begins the Lover's Path in which joy and sorrow are joined as one"
-Kris Waldherr, 2005
To open The Lover's Path by Kris Waldherr is to take the first step of a journey through a story that, embracing tales of historical lovers, tells of the joys and pains that love brings. The Lover's Path is a tale of love through the ages, the historic tale of Filamena Ziani and her beloved, a tale that expresses the universality of the human experience of being in love. A celebration of the endurance and the importance of love, The Lover's Path is also an acknowledgement of the pain and hard-learnt lessons that love can incur. Filamena's experience of love's intense joy and pain is similar to Kahlil Gibran's description in The Prophet that "for even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning". Filamena's beloved is absolutely integral to her life, her learning and her freedom but her relationship with him is also the source of much frustration, grief and suffering.
Waldherr's book is inspired by La Via dell' Amante ("The Lover's Path") which was written and published in 1544 by the Venetian singer Filamena Ziani as a response to gossip about her past. Ziani was famous for composing and performing love songs and, as a result of her talent, was known to the Venetian public as "La Filomela", or "the nightingale". She was also known as the sister of one of the most famous courtesans of the time,Tullia Ziani. When first published, Ziani's book was quickly supressed because of its content, but began to be recognised again in the mid-nineteenth century. By writing The Lover's Path Waldherr, in co-operation with the Museo di Palazzo Filomela in Venice (which was Ziani's home and now houses art, letters, and journals that belonged to her), recognises the work and life of a woman who has been forgotten by history.
Although it is primarily a love story. The Lover's Path is also a story about one woman's attempt to escape the life that society dictates for her. Filamena's sister Tullia is depicted taking control of her life as much as a woman of the time could have by becoming a courtesan. However, rather than being beholden to one man Tullia is simply beholden to many, and though the "cage" that she lives in may be a golden and lavish one, it is a cage nonetheless. Growing up in the shadow and under the fierce protection of her elder sister, Filamena too desires freedom from the restrictive world that she lives in. Filamena is restricted by her status as a woman, but she is also restricted by the fierce love of a sister who, desiring a safe and comfortable life for Filamena is suffocatingly overprotective of her. Filamena, much like the nightingale from classical myth, initially seeks freedom through her music. Yet she is only able to create truly special music once she is inspired by being in love. Her story expresses how love provides the joyous and the tragic inspiration that her music needed in order to be a tool for her freedom. Filamena suffers in love, celebrates in her music, and becomes a famous singer able to look after herself without being reliant upon a man.
The Lover's Path is a pleasurable and evocative book to read. The experience of travelling along the path of love, in all its triumphs and trials, with Filamena is emphasized by the addition of pull-out letters, maps and tarot cards as well as details of paintings from her actual journals and the Museo di Palazzo Filomela. Waldherr cretes a truly sensual experience where sights, sounds, visions and feelings all contribute to creating her story. Probably one of the most interesting things about Waldherr's book is that it introduces us to a little known yet fascinating sixteenth-century Venetian woman and her work. The lasting, and comforting, implication is that stories of love have always and will always be told throughout time.
If you are intrigued by Filamena Ziani and (like I did!) want to learn more about her, check out the website for Waldherr's book which also has information about the Museo di Palazzo Filomela: art and words follow the link and enjoy....
reviewed by Kimberley Davis BA (Eng,Hons 1)
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