Professor Butter Beard and Raphael’s sketch of “David”
“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”- William Arthur Ward
We all have our go-tos. Our teachers. Our inspiration.
I have many. When it comes to baking, Dorie will consistently suggest the right crust. Paul knows bread. Michelle always inspires with flavor combinations. And I wouldn’t even consider macarons without the guidance of Matthew. Cookies still come from my grandmother and cupcakes from Martha. My passion for history and teaching will forever be traced back to my father and his brother Joe, and my Buddhist soul listens to, and learns from, Rick. And, honestly, I can ask for no better teachers on the road to enlightenment than my journeys with Bruno, Seamus and Nellie.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”- Plutarch
I find it so interesting when I discover artists that have inspired, or kindled, the soul of other artists inhabiting the same moment in time. At the turn of the sixteenth century, three titans of the Italian Renaissance – Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vince and Raffaello Sanzio (better known as Raphael) briefly crossed paths in Florence. A current exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London explores the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo and the influence both had on the young Raphael.
“Raphael was perhaps one of the first to be awestruck by these artists,” writes Rebecca Salter, President of the Royal Academy, “jotting down a spirited sketch after Leonardo in the corner of one of his characteristically delicate metalpoint drawings within the current exhibition. More than five centuries later, it is as if we were catching Raphael peering over Leonardo’s shoulder.”
Unlike Michelangelo and Leonardo, Raphael was not from Florence. He was born in Urbino in 1483 and grew up in the “sophisticated” court of Federico da Montefeltro. He completed an apprenticeship within the workshop of Pietro Perugino and, by 1504, had completed his first independent commissions. He arrived in Florence in late 1504 and stayed, intermittently, until about 1508, concentrating on paintings of the Virgin and Child for private devotion.
According to the art historian Visari, Raphael had heard about the drawings that Leonardo and Michelangelo were preparing for their respective murals in the Palazzo della Signoria, and he was seized by a desire to see them. His impulse to study and learn from these extraordinary masters is born out in his chalk drawings from this period.
As I study these drawings, I imagine Raphael’s young mind and hand engaging in a conversation with his illustrious elder peers as he copies Michelangelo’s “David,” Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa,” and Leonardo’s now lost “Leda and the Swan.”
“Much like Michelangelo’s copies after Giotto and others from the early 1490’s,” continues Salter, “Raphael’s drawings convey a strong sense of one generation learning from another.”
Raphael’s relationship with Leonardo and Michelangelo was essentially one-sided, at least in 1504 Florence. Historians have found little to suggest that the two elder artists appropriated anything from the new arrival. But between Leonardo and Michelangelo, there is a plethora of evidence of exchange – especially when Michelangelo was struggling to develop the conversation between the Virgin and Child and St. Anne – but that is another story to explore another time.
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” - Benjamin Franklin
What impressed me most this week was the understanding of human anatomy demonstrated by all three of these Renaissance titans. All three fully comprehended the fluidity and purpose of every muscle beneath the protection of the skin. My baker’s mind instantly transformed this co-existence into a winter pie of citrus-spiced fresh blueberries “drawn” perfectly beneath their subtle skin of butter, sugar and flour. Once again, the “great teachers” have inspired.
Professor Butter Beard’s Blueberry Pie
One two-crust pie
Pie Dough:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (divided)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp fine sea salt
20 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled
¼ cup ice water
¼ cup bread crumbs
Egg wash and additional 1 Tbsp sugar to finish
Blueberry filling:
5 cups fresh blueberries
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
½ tsp ground allspice
1) In a food processor, pulse together 1 ½ cups flour, the sugar and salt. Add 16 Tbsp (2 sticks) of the butter and process into a paste. Break apart the paste into 1” pieces and add the final 1 cup flour. Pulse together four times. Empty the contents into a medium bowl and grate in the remaining 4 Tbsp butter. Quickly toss with your fingers, add the ice water and gather quickly into a dough. Halve the dough, wrap each portion in plastic and chill for at least one hour.
2) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and prepare an egg wash (one egg and 1 Tbsp water).
3) In a medium bowl whisk together the filling sugar, flour, salt, allspice and lemon zest. Add the blueberries and toss. Squeeze the lemon over the berries and toss again. Set aside.
4) Roll out the first half of the dough to a 1/8” thick circle. Place it in your pie pan and trim off the excess. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the bottom of the shell and chill the shell while you roll the other half. Once the top crust is rolled and ready, fill the bottom shell with the berry mixture. Using your fingertips, moisten the bottom rim with cold water. Lay the top crust over, trim the excess and crimp the edges together with a fork. Cut a steam hole in the center of the top crust.
5) Re-roll the excess dough and cut decorative pieces. Brush the top crust with the egg wash. Place the decorative pieces on the shell and then egg wash them as well. Sprinkle the finished top with sugar.
6) Bake at 425 for 30 minutes, rotate the pie, then reduce the heat to 375 and bake for 30 minutes more until the filling is bubbling through the center hole.
