Florence - Overwhelming genius

Friday, March 28, 2014

     The Orsanmichele, erceted around 1314, is famous for the exterior statues (now copies) sponsored by the City's major guilds.  The originals are in local museums.

      This work by Nanni di Banco, the Four Martyrs, is the most elaborate.

The four masons were martyred for refusing to carve a pagan deity for the Roman emperor.

   Below many of the large works there is a panel, usually acknowledging the guild.  Here are sculptors working on a more acceptable subject.



The collection of works at the Orsanmichele includes the first use of relief prospective by Donatello, a major advance in Western art.

It took another decade for the academic use of perspective to appear in painting at the Brancacci Chapel. The Chapel is attached to San Maria del Carmine church, which burned down (except for the Chapel) in 1771.   The extensive frescoes, by Masolino and Masaccio, and Fillippino Lippi, were covered with soot until 1990.  They are now beautifully restored and well lit.  Fig leaves removed now.

Compare the change from the late gothic style of Masolino (temptation) to the early renaissance of Masaccio (expulsion):

[Something missing here]  This fresco was painted by all three painters.  Peter gets out of prison if he will raise from the dead the long dead son of the official.  He does and is then seated on the seat or cathedra (The cathedra is the seat of the bishop - hence cathedtral ).  Even with the audio video guide pointing it out, we were unable to discern which parts were Painted by whom.

Sat. 3/29  We went to the Pitti Palace.  We looked at half of the Palatine Gallery .  It is full of too many important pictures to start relating them.  We also went on to the Modern Art Museum part.  Modern art means between Napoleon and 1924.  We concluded this was not the best period of Italian art.  Or are we just spoiled by the French?  There were magnificent examples of piedre dure.

Sun 3/30  Casa Buonaroti --

    Michelangelo bought this place, but he didn't get to live there.  His nephew inherited and had later artists frescoed (yes, it's a transitive verb.) several rooms.  The main frescoed room presents scenes from the life of Michelangelo in the same manner as we see scenes from the life of a saint (except there are no miracles).

  Later descendants added whatever they could find, mostly drawings and models.   We found it fascinating and spent several hours in what we expected to be a short stop.

    Somewhat out of place, chronologically and aesthetically, is this utterly exquisite predella of the life of St. Nicholas of Bari by Giovanni di Francesca.  

    A predella is a small, horizontal work below an altar.  This one was previously beneath the Donatello Assumption at S. Croce, featured in  a previous blog post.   Here, the painting was separated in the photos into the 3 episodes depicted.   (Our thanks to the German tourist who broke the rule against photos and posted the results on the 'net.)    The painting is about 12" high,  40" long, and astonishing in its detail and technique.

    At the top (but left in actuality), the Saint anonymously tossed purses of gold coins to 3 young sisters who lacked funds sufficient to provide a dowry.  In the middle, the Saint brings 3 young men, who had been murdered and pickled in barrels, back to life.  Bottom (i.e. right) the Saint intervenes to prevent the execution of (yes) 3 young men who were wrongfully accused.

    We view these things with detachment and blunted emotions.  They are, in so many ways, more inaccessible to us than much contemporary art.   Admiration of this art was never universal.  The Reformation was coming up fast and it would cause a lot of iconoclastic destruction.

   Today, Florence is crowded...

...with gazillions of tourists, a large percentage of which seem to be Chinese.  Most come in groups and go through the big museums with a guide.  They pay close attention to lectures on selected works.  Some are old enough to remember the Great Leap and the Red Guards.  What are they thinking?  We wish we could discuss these matters with them and our grandchildren.  (Ready, Riley?)

L Ghillibini calzone ham
Mandarin chinese (potstickers, beef beer sauce, Mandarin duck - -surprisingly good or we are starved for Chinese food)
La Giostra (steak with parmigiano and arugula, osso buco, excellent free antipasto of tuscan liver, bruschetta, etc.)  Best meal yet

Florence -- A day off.

3/27/14

We stayed in today as we are a bit tired and the weather is a bit foul.

We covered a lot of ground Tuesday and Wednesday, taking in very well known sites and no doubt contributing to our exhaustion.

Medici Chapel and New Sacristy.   The Medici dukes rest at these adjacent mortuaries.  Both are designed by Michelangelo, who also did the famous sculptures.

For those of us enthralled by stone work, the place was amazing.  Of course, half of it is in scaffolding as the stones are starting to fall down.  They were backed with stone that is deteriorating and hung on iron hooks that are rusting.  They are replacing these with stainless steel backings and hooks.

The Library  at the San Lorenzo complex, with its famous staircase, was also a Michelangelo project.  The books did not circulate.  Patrons would find the books by using the lists at the end of each row and go to the books.  We assume that the books were chained to the benches.

The library had an exhibit of books written by Bocaccio -- literally.  He copied the Decameron and other works, sometimes with elaborate and beautiful initial letters.  The printing press came later.  It also included his annotations on other texts.

The Palazzo Medici Riccardi was designed by Michelozzo  for Cosimo de' Medici.

 The Medicis were thrown out and Savonarola came into power in 1494.  Then Savonarola was hung and burned at the stake and the Medici returned, but the palazzo had passed to the Riccardi family.   The Medicis lived in the Pitti Palace and the Palazzo Vecchio.

   This Palazzo Vecchio contained municipal halls and meeting rooms and is still in use as municipal offices on half the floors.   Needless to say, it is heavily frescoed, mostly be Vasari.  Bruce thinks Gozzoli's Procession of the Magi (1460ish) is the most impressive.   The people in the painting were all prominent Florentines.

Natalino  (fried chicken. gnocchi with pesto and pomodoro)
Lunch Circus(  smoked salmon salad, fried artichokes, the best focaccia)
dinner  mediocre donner kebab
supermarket prosciutto pasta with bolognese

Florence -2 "private" museums

March 24,2014

We visited 2 museums named after the donors:

At the end of the19th century,  Florentine antiques and art flooded the market.  The supply was fed in part, beginning around 1875, because the municipal authorities began to tear down the old city.  Stefano Bardini was a prominent antique dealer who benefited from this process.  He became expert in restoration techniques and taught at the Academia.  He left a palazzo with a lot of stuff -- mostly architectural elements, embedded in the walls, but also carpets, weapons, etc.  --  to the the city.

Henry Horne (below) was a leading figure in the arts and crafts movement in England.  He, too, acquired many objects from the homes that were being torn down.  And he, too, left a palazzo filled with stuff to the City.  But he also restored the palazzo so as to approximate its original appearance.  And, to his everlasting credit, he played a large role in stopping the destruction of Florence.  Horne organized a petition, signed by 200 prominent Americans and Brits, and worked to persuade the locals that it was in their best interest to preserve as much as possible.  He also wrote a massive biography of Bottecelli and designed fonts based on Renaissance printing and decorated letters.

And worked at perfecting his book plate monogram.  This is one example:

If your time in Florence is short, these are a skip.

    Later today, we also visited the Duomo Museum.  Every Italian Museum has parts closed for some kind of work, but the Duomo is almost all closed.  Nevertheless the two showpieces -- Michelangelo's Pieta and Ghiberti's doors -- are on display.  We also spent some time admiring the ceiling at the Bapistry.

    Filling in on the past few days:

  They're big on fashion here.   Lots of weird stuff.  But this is the only item made of gilded snake we've seen so far.

Much more appealing -- indeed often beautiful --were the historic scientific instruments assembled in the Galileo Museum.   The museum includes not only the instruments of Galileo but also some of his fingers in what  are to all appearances reliquaries.  There were useful videos throughout the museum explaining how some of the items worked.  But I think we will have to resort to youtube to understand a lot of it.  

Santa Croce is by far the best we've done since the last post.   A Brunelleschi design.  In Leslie's opinion, the space is not as impressive as San Lorenzo.  However, this is where the illustrious Italians are buried or have tombs.  This is Michelangelo's tomb there.  Nearby are Dante and Galileo, not to mention Brunelleschi himself.  One is reminded of the upside of staggering income inequality.

Also at San Croce are frescoes of Giotto and this high-relief Annunciation of Donatello ('net):

and a statue of liberty  said to have perhaps been the model for our Statue of Liberty ('net):







We are not including facades of the churches.  They are 19th century.  The facade of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) was designed to complement the Campanile and the rest of the churches apparently followed the style.  The Biblical narratives and Church histories dominate the exteriors of the Gothic cathedrals of France and Spain.   Here they seem more decorative.  We will have to study them further -- when it gets warmer.

We finally found toilet paper that is not scented.  Why scented toilet paper?

We have finally turned right out out front door to look for dinner. As a result the quality of our evening meals has improved tremendously:

I Ghibellini (tagliatelle, arista - rosemary pork roast, pine nut ice cream, vin santo with almond biscotti).

                  (gnudi - cheese and spinach ravioli filling without pasta, lasagne)

          

                  (ribollita, potato tortelli in meat sauce)

Context:  Ukraine troops evacuate Crimea; Malaysian plane still missing; DJ 16277.

Start Florence. Quite Secure

       Our 3rd Fl (your 4th floor) apartment door is quite solid metal, with a four-fold bolt on the side and bolts top and bottom, too!

         Here's our street door.  The key must be over 100 yrs old.

     And here's our street.  Piazza della Republica at the end, Duomo to the Right, Palazzo Vechio to the left.

Our neighbors include a wedding dress store and several lingerie shops (pictures not included).

  This is a meat store at the central market.

Butchers, cheesemongers and salumeria abound, along with produce. There are also a number of souvenir Italian food stores (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, odd dried pastas,etc).  Unfortunately, we have no way to get such things home.

     We visited the only Synagogue (Tempio Israelitico) , with about 900 congregants.  Very imposing and elaborately decorated inside.  The building went up around 1875, shortly after the Jews were granted full citizenship in Italy. 

 

They felt they needed a dome because of Brunelleschi's dome. The style is "Arab with some Byzantine", "oriental", "exotic".   Interestingly, the building is a basilica, a shape more associated with churches.  We were told that the original design was rejected by the arts licensing.  They were required to remove the neoclassical elements.  The board wanted exotic.  The exotic theme was continued in the garden.  The plants were not suited to the garden and died.

    It was a day of three cultures. After the synagogue, we went to the archaeological museum to see the Etruscan stuff.  We were surprised to reach the second floor and find an extensive Egyptian collection. Mental overload!

   We toured the Church of San Lorenzo.  

Magnificent.  Designed by Brunelleschi.  The columns and arches are a beautiful gray stone, contrasting with the light paint. The church is not overdecorated.

     We are beginning to recover from the jet lag.  This leisurely travel seems to suit.

In Florence -- March 2014

In Florence.

    We made all connections and arrived here less than 20 hrs after leaving Boca.  Our home for the next month is a well-located 18th cty palazzo, chopped up into smaller apartments.  We are in the center of the historic district, quite close to the Duomo and Ufizzi and within Leslie's walking capabilities for almost all the sites.

    Our apartment is quite spacious.  The building, with its thick stone walls, makes the apartment hard to keep warm.  But and Bruce thinks he knows how to get the hot water working.  The 19th C kitchen was left as decoration:

      Today we visited the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, a small museum dedicated to the inlaid stone craft that flourished here under the Medicis.  The vases and flowers are made from stone pieces, often selected for the color gradient within the piece.

       The craft continues.  The museum, I believe, is at the school where the craft is taught today.
And we visited a shop selling pieces.  Leslie is very tempted by a flower piece.

Alas, we have neither space nor funds for this malachite table.

Departing.Florida

       We leave from Boca Raton Friday.  It is 78, sunny & breezy.  Packing into carry-ons for many months. It has been hectic, with a lot of tasks and arrangements, and at least two weeks too soon.  

        We start with a month in Florence, ending up in Boston for Thanksgiving via Armenia and places between.

        Our plan is to add to this blog occasionally, not daily, with things we find of interest.