The Cappella della Madonna di Vitaleta on the road from Pienza to San Quirico d'Orcia

In 2001 I came to live in Italy. I had some fun, wrote a journal and this is the blog of my story...

"Tuscany is a state of grace. The countryside is so lovingly designed that the eye sweeps the mountains and valleys without stumbling over a single stone. The lilt of the rolling green hills, the upsurging cypresses, the terraces sculptured by generations that have handled the rocks with skillful tenderness, the fields geometrically juxtaposed as though drawn by a draughtsman for beauty as well as productivity; the battlements of castles on the hills, their tall towers standing grey-blue and golden tan among the forest of trees, the air of such clarity that every sod of earth stands out in such dazzling detail. The fields ripening with barley and oats, beans and beets. The grape-heavy vines espaliered between the horizontal branches of silver-green olive trees, composing orchards of webbed design, rich in intimation of wine, olive oil and lacy-leaf poetry. Tuscany untied the knots in a man's intestines, wiped out the ills of the world. Italy is the garden of Europe, Tuscany is the garden of Italy, Florence is the flower of Tuscany." Irving Stone from my favourite book " The Agony and the Ecstacy" A fictional biography of Michelangelo



124. Boticelli and Filippino - Grace and Unrest

Good Friday and the weather isn’t so good, so we decide to check out the Botticelli exhibition down in Palazzo Strozzi.




It marks the 500th anniversary of Filippino, Botticelli’s protégé’s, death. And entitled ‘Grace and unrest’. Grace, for the Platonic ideals that inspired ‘the birth of Venus’ and ‘spring’ . And unrest, for the influence mad monk, Savonarola was to have at the close of the 15th century.

The exhibition brings together nearly 30 of Botticelli’s paintings from galleries and private collectors around the world. Highlights include two panels from the Prado in Madrid, two circular paintings and a detached fresco from the Santa Trinita church in Via Tournabuoni and some superb portraits – a perfect way to spend a wet day...

(Original journal entry 8/4/04)

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