My Art Story
Lee Cooper
‘Art washes away from the soul the dust of every day life.'
Picasso
Introduction
2019
The experience of seeing an original masterpiece painting, sculpture or building is almost indescribable. Probably because it evokes a feeling and feelings are not always easy to express. The moment in your life, when you realise this fact standing before the the Sistine Chapel, the Venus de Milo, or the Parthenon, is pretty amazing and is repeated every time you are confronted with this beauty, whether for the first time or hundredth time.
For a certain Marie-Henri Beyle, better known as Stendhal, the feeling was too much. On an 1817 visit to Florence, while in the basilica of Santa Croce, confronted with the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, he was overcome with profound emotion and wrote, “I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty. I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations. Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves'. Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling”
There are numerous accounts of people fainting while taking in Florentine art from the early 19th century on. As from 1979 this effect is now a medical condition called ‘Stendhal Syndrome’ after the staff at Santa Maria Nuova hospital in Florence observed over 100 similar cases of tourists fainting.
I have the great fortune to work in this city, Florence, which has 72 museums, but actually you don’t even need to go inside as there are buildings, sculptures and even paintings (well, frescoes actually) outside to admire, but that part of my story comes later.
After (almost) a lifetime of visiting various museums, art galleries, archaeological sites and historic buildings, admiring the works of great artists, past and present, I have decided to write an account of my experiences so as to have a personal record and revisit some of the world’s most famous (and less famous) masterpieces I have seen in the flesh.
Although my first experience of a museum was as a nine-month-old baby, my memories of visiting and seeing art really began after I left school at 16 and then took on new impetus at around 29 years of age. So let’s go back to the beginning...
Part 1 1968-1984
(0-16 years old)
1
Pompeii 1969
2 Pompeii 2 1972
3 Pompei 3 1975
4 Regia di Caserta
5 Worthing Museum and Art Gallery
6 London, National Gallery
7 Royal Pavilion, Brighton
8 Arundel Castle and Cathedral
9 Chichester Cathedral
10, 11 Fishbourne and Bignor Roman Palaces
12 Hampton Court
Palace
13 Lincoln Cathedral
My earliest memories of an artistic nature were both life-inspiring and nondescript.
I was born in the Georgian seaside town of Worthing in West Sussex, England, not exactly well-known for its contribution to the world of art. Although it does have an art-deco pier and one of the oldest cinemas in Britain, the 1911 Edwardian Dome. There are 213 listed buildings in Worthing, although only 3 are grade 1. Jane Austin, Oscar Wilde and Harold Pinter all lived and worked in Worthing. Apart from the pier and Dome and several other buildings, there is one other notable artwork, the uninspiring Desert Quartet (four bronze heads) by Elisabeth Fink which were installed in Liverpool Gardens in 1990 and provides somewhere for pigeons to unload their lunch! My parents, brothers and sisters weren't particularly interested in art, or at least that’s how I remember it.
My grandmother on my mother’s side came from an equally nondescript seaside town in Italy, Castellammare di Stabia, that just happened to be five miles from one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in modern history, the Roman city of Pompeii, which was famously buried under ash from the 79 A.D. eruption of nearby volcano, Vesuvious and uncovered 1,669 years later in 1748. While visiting family I was taken along several times to Pompeii and I would say these visits had a profound effect on my love of old ruins. I have photos of me as a toddler crawling around the amphitheater and the treks we made along the ancient cobblestones are etched on my mind forever. We visited in 1969 when I was nine months old, again in 1972 when I was three and in 1975 when I was six. So these early memories are more subconscious than concrete.
I also have a vague memory of being taken round a huge park, which I believe was the Regia di Casserta, somewhere I would definitely like to return to one day. This 18th century royal palace is the largest in the world and modeled after Versailles.
My uncle Raffaele and cousin Franco, who was an architect, did a little painting and my grandmother had some of their weird and wonderful oil paintings hanging in her house. My grandparents also worked for Dr Giddins, who lived in one of Worthing’s grandest houses, Blacknest Hall. In the garden they had a bronze copy of the famous Poseidon/Zeus sculpture, which I thought was really cool!
In Worthing I remember visiting the local museum and art gallery on more than one occasion. In actual fact it is the largest museum in Sussex. It houses collections of women’s clothes and toys, (mostly dolls) which for a young boy, wasn’t that exciting. My memories are more of playing in there rather than admiring the exhibits. Near to Worthing I went to Arundel and Brighton many times and visited the Castle and Cathedral and Royal Pavillion.
As a child my parents took me and my two brothers and sister on various holidays and day trips. We did visit Madam Tussauds in London, but I’m not sure wax model reproductions really count as art? Obviously in London itself I would have seen some great architecture, such as Buckingham Palace, the houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I think we visited the National Gallery as I have some vague memories of Titian’s voluptuous ladies. I would of course visit London many times in the future too as an adult.
After having a child myself, I realise dragging children round art galleries against their will is not the easiest thing in the world to do or even advisable if one wants to encourage in them a life-long love of the arts! As a family amongst other holidays we also visited Fishbourne and Bignor Roman Palaces near Chichester, Hampton Court Palace and Lincoln Cathedral.
For some unbeknown reason I developed an interest in producing my own art. As a young boy I would enjoy drawing and coloring birds. I then moved on to cartoons, poster art, graffiti art, lettering, cars and basketball caricatures. I won a poster competition at school and took art GCSE. I was quite good and probably should have taken my moderate talents further. After doing a year of classical studies at high school I became fascinated with Greek mythology and my upbringing in the Catholic faith gave me a basis for knowledge and appreciation of Bible characters. These Greek and Catholic themes would become a common thread in my future art experiences.
Part 2 - 1985-1997
(16-27 years old)
14 The British Museum
15 Portmeirion, Wales
16 Knossos, Crete
17 Pyramids and Cairo Archaeological Museum, Egypt
18 Ephesus, Turkey
19 Jerusalem, Israel
20 the Acropolis - Athens
21 Pompeii 4
22 Rome 1
23 Brussels
24 Amsterdam
25 Cologne
26 Munich
27 Vienna
28 Florence
29 Rome 2
30 Venice
31 Milan
32 Pompeii 5
33 Paris.
34 The Metropolitan museum of Art
35, 36 Empire State Building, World Trade centre, New York
37 Pompeii 6
38 Rome 3
39 National Gallery, London
40 Paris 2
After leaving school at 16 I went on several trips to the British museum in London, one of the largest and most important museums in the world and was inadvertently exposed to the famous Elgin marbles and other treasures ‘stolen’ from Greece, the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities outside of Cairo, as well as Assyrian, Middle Eastern and British artifacts.
We went on a last family holiday to Wales and visited the Italian styled town of Portmeirion. Made famous in the ‘70’s TV series, The Prisoner. It was designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925-1975 and modeled it after Portofino. It has had many famous visitors pass through been admired and served as an inspiration. It was great to wander round and feel a part of the TV show.
I then embarked on various foreign holidays with friends starting with an Eastern Mediterranean cruise. I would visit the ancient site of Knossos in Crete, where I marveled at one of the oldest theatres, the throne room and the dolphin and bull frescoes, even though I believe now that they were only copies (the originals are in the Archaeological museum in Heraklion). I loved Knossos, despite learning years later that many people are disappointed with the crude restoration work, it kind of reminded me of Pompeii.
I visited the only surviving wonder of the world, the Great Pyramids and Sphinx in Giza, Egypt and was bothered by street hawkers trying to sell cheap souvenirs and was left open-mouthed in the Cairo museum at the beautiful death mask of Tutankhamen.
I strolled through the old city of Jerusalem and the ancient ruins of Ephesus, where I wondered at the library and theatre, was disappointed at another former wonder of the ancient world, the temple of Diana, which was now only rubble and dropped my camera down the communal toilets!
Our last stop was at the Acropolis in Athens, where I was blown away by the Parthenon, Propylea, Erection and Herod Atticus theatre.
At twenty, I was old enough to appreciate these incredible places and should be grateful to the family that took me along.
I also returned to Naples and visited Pompeii again and visited Rome for the first time as an adult, here I remember seeing the Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, the huge white Vittoriano tomb of the unknown soldier and St Peter’s Square.
In 1990 I went on a trip round Europe with a friend who wasn’t into art. I didn’t really do any research about what to see and missed a golden opportunity to visit some museums and art galleries to see some famous paintings and sculptures, but as we travelled through some amazing cities I did see a lot of cool architecture, like the very grand, Grand Place in Brussels and Cologne’s twin-peaked Gothic Cathedral the most visited site in Germany, both now World Heritage Sites. St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, which I climbed. The impressive Marienplatz in Munich, where I watched the Coopers dance on the Glockenspiel. I spent a few hours in Amsterdam and Venice of which I remember nothing. I saw the Gothic Cathedral, Scala opera house and Galleria Umberto in Milan, walked through the Circus Maximus in Rome, saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris and went back to Pompeii for the fifth time. I even visited Florence for the day. I don’t remember much about that visit, except being impressed by the copy of Michelangelo’s David in Piazza Signoria.
On another holiday to New York, I did actually get to visit the famous Metropolitan museum of Art, but I still had no idea about paintings or sculpture or famous artists to look out for. I remember wandering round for an hour or so feeling completely overwhelmed! I recall seeing the huge Temple of Dendur, the 15 B.C. Temple that was removed from Egypt in 1960 and given to the Met in 1978. I did
admire the architecture there, the Chrysler building, Flat Iron building, the Guggenheim and of course the Statue of Liberty.
After my trip round Europe I bought a second hand copy E.H. Gombrich’s ‘The Story of Art’ and read up about the Renaissance and started to look at pictures of Michelangelo’s sculptures and the Sistine chapel. The novel by Irving Stone about the life of Michelangelo quickly became a favorite. I also looked at pictures of Caravaggio’s paintings and read ‘M’, a novel about his life. Also I read some articles about impressionist painting and an old white bearded guy called Monet and saw photos of his poppies, water Lillie’s and Impression Sunrise. My interest in actually seeing these paintings and sculptures was finally aroused.
In 1995/1996 I went up to the National Gallery in London. They had a couple of paintings attributed to Michelangelo which I wanted to see.
Michelangelo was essentially a sculptor and one time painter of ceilings! He only executed a few panel paintings. Four have been attributed to him, two of which are here at the National Gallery in London. The Entombment of Christ and the Manchester Madonna.
The Entombment, was a commission in 1500, when Michelangelo was 26 years old, as an altarpiece in Rome. The subject is undocumented, but likely that this was the painting. There is some disagreement in the identity of the figures around Jesus and some figures are completely finished, while others like Mary not painted in, missing the expensive ultramarine blue oil paint. This style was different from other artists of the time and shows Michelangelo’s sculptural style and technique.
The Manchester Madonna, as it has been called since it was exhibited at the great Manchester art exhibition of 1857, is possibly on of the earliest panel paintings by Michelangelo executed in egg tempura, when he was only 22. There is a record of him withdrawing money in 1497 to pay for a wooden panel, possibly to be used for this painting. The sculptural style of this unfinished work and the transfer of the drawing, the experts say, suggests Michelangelo’s hand.
While I was here I saw a few other paintings, such as Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks and Pollaiuolo’s poor San Sebastián being pierced with lots of arrows, but it was a drawing or ‘cartoon’ I was particularly struck with. In a tiny, darkly lit room was a life size charcoal drawing of the Virgin and child with St Anne and John the Baptist, also dated to 1500, by Leonardo Da Vinci. It was mesmerizing and I stood opened mouthed. Years later it is still one of my favorite artworks.
In 1996 my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and retook their vows in Castellamare. Some of the family travelled with them and I got to visit Pompeii and Rome yet again.
On my last trip as a single guy I visited Paris again with two friends and climbed the Eiffel Tower.
Part 3 - 1998-2001
(28-32 years old)
41 Michelangelo and his influence @ the Queen’s Gallery, London 1998
42 Chiswick House 1998
43 Monet’s gardens @ Giverny and Paris 3
44 Monet in the 20th century @ the Royal Academy, London
45 Archaeological museum @ Olympia, Greece 1999
46 Mantegna @ Hampton Court Palace
Florence 2000
47 The Uffizi,
48 Galleria Accademia,
49 the Bargello
50 Rodin’s the Kiss @Lewis 2001
51 Caravaggio - the genius of Rome @ the Royal Academy, London 2001
Michelangelo and his influence @ the Queen’s Gallery, London
And so my art gallery experience didn’t really begin in earnest until I started dating my future wife Annette in 1998 at the tender age of 29. In the days before the internet I must have seen some advert for an exhibition of drawings by Michelangelo up in London. I quickly arranged the trip to the Queen’s gallery at Buckingham Palace where We saw some amazing drawings owned by queen Elizabeth, by Michelangelo and some of his contemporaries usually housed at Windsor Castle. Many of the old masters kept preparatory drawings, or cartoons that would eventually become paintings or frescoes. Queen Elizabeth II very sensibly invested some of her great wealth in acquiring many of these drawings and kept them in her Windsor Castle. At this exhibition 23 of Michelangelo’s drawings were selected and 50 by other artists from the same period, such as Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Annibale
Carracci and others.
Chiswick House, London
This was followed by a visit to the Palladian inspired Chiswick house where my then girlfriend Annette bought me a book on the architect, Andrea Palladio. I had known about Palladio when I saw a picture of his Villa Rotonda in a book several years earlier and had shown Annette a print in the North Star pub in Worthing. Unfortunately when I visited Vicenza with a friend, we spent the time looking at model railways rather than any of Palladio’s famous buildings!
Monet’s gardens @ Giverny and Paris 3
In September 1998 I had the brainwave of proposing to my wife on the Japanese bridge in Monet’s Gardens in Giverny near Paris. I told her we were going on a trip and to bring her passport. We stayed in Paris overnight and then the following day drove to Giverny. Monet lived for 43 years in this incredible house and created a paradise of flowers and water lilies in his garden and lake. It was a perfect day to visit and enjoy the beauty and fortunately Annette said yes! At our wedding our good friend and poet, John Bryant composed a poem for us, etching the name of this incredible place to our history.
In 1999, inspired by our visit to Monet’s gardens in Giverny near Paris, we went to one of the Royal Academy in London’s most popular exhibitions ever, Monet in the twentieth century, which brought together 80 of his later paintings from private and public collectors all over the world. Obviously there were a lot of water lilies, but also some of his views of London and Venice and the aforementioned garden at Giverny.
After our wedding in July we honeymooned in Zante and went on a day trip to Olympia where we visited the Archaeological museum. Amongst other things the marble of Hermes by Praxiteles was outstanding and there were some of the sculptures from the pediment of the temple of Zeus, which again like the temple of Diana in Ephesus was a pile of rubble.
At the end of the year we visited Lewis for a very special exhibition. ‘The Kiss’ by Auguste Rodin. Rodin sculpted three life sized versions and this version was commissioned in 1900 by wealthy American collector Edward Warren. He knew Rodin needed the money and paid him £1,000 for the sculpture. In 1914 he offered it to Lewes town hall for public display and it caused an outrage.
He eventually sold it to the Tate Gallery for £5,500. On its return to Lewes it had been insured for £10 million.
The subject's taken from Dante’s Divine Comedy, are adulterous lovers, Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Rimini. Originally designed for Rodin’s bronze ‘Gates of Hell’. One of other two versions, commissioned by the French government in 1888 is in the Musèe Rodin in Paris and a third version commissioned in 1900 by Carl Jacobsen is in Denmark.
In 2000 on a visit to Hampton Court Palace we saw the incredible 9 large paintings, the Triumph of the Caesars by Andrea Mantegna. The biggest Renaissance paintings outside of Italy
Florence and Tuscany
In June we would embark on a holiday that would forever change our lives and art was a big part of it...
It was our plan to move abroad after we got married and Italy was the likely destination. The only question was where and how? The answer came when we met a couple from Italy who lived in one of our possible destinations, Florence. They invited us to stay with them and in June 2000 we went for a two week holiday. The rest as they say is history!
In Florence we visited three museums, the Uffizi, the Galleria Accademia and the Bargello.
The Uffizi is one of the most visited, second oldest and largest art galleries in the world. The masterpieces are obvious without prior knowledge or a guide and I have since taken various family members round and acted as an amateur tour guide. I find something new and fresh to admire every time I visit and it just goes to show that the old ‘been there and done that’ adage isn’t always necessarily true! Anyway the first time was special as we saw for the first time Boticelli’s allegorical Primavera and the sublime Birth of Venus. My personal favorite Leonardo da Vinci’s Annunciation, beautifully detailed in its execution. Caravaggio’s provocative Bacchus, Titian’s sexy Venus of Urbino and Michelangelo’s Holy Family. There were some notable absences undergoing restoration. Caravaggio’s Medusa shield and Raphael’s Madonna with the goldfinch, but this first visit was unforgettable.
Our visit to the Galleria dell’ Accademia was just as impressive, as I got to see no less than seven Michelangelo sculptures in one hit. Four of the six unfinished slave/prisoners intended for the Pope Julius tomb in Rome (the remaining two, the dying and rebellious slaves are in the Louvre in Paris) St Matthew, the Palestrina Pietà and arguably the greatest sculpture in existence, the seventeen foot/5 meter tall David. We walked round and round it completely mesmerized. I’ve seen it many times since and am always left wondering how it was humanly possible to create such beauty and perfection out of what was essentially a damaged block of marble.
We also managed to squeeze in the Bargello on our two week holiday. The Bargello houses the largest collection of Gothic and Renaissance sculpture in the world. We marveled at one of Michelangelo’s early works, Bacchus, Giambologna’s Mercury, two other David sculptures by Verrocchio and Donatello, as well as the two original panels for the Bsptistery doors by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi.
Along with these three major art galleries, we wandered the streets of Florence admiring the Duomo, climbing Giotto’s bell tower, paused and soaked up the atmosphere in Piazza Signoria, tried to walk across the Ponte Vecchio. We also visited nearby Pisa, Lucca and Siena. We knew straight away Tuscany was our future.
At the beginning of 2001 we were back up to London for a last incredible exhibition before moving to Italy. Fittingly enough Caravaggio would be the main star - ‘the genius of Rome 1592-1623’ at the Royal Academy, which as well as masterpieces by Annibale Caracci and Rubens, brought together no less than 15 canvasses by the master Mannerist/Baroque painter of the low life genre, Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio. These included, A young boy peeling fruit, the cardsharps, the gypsy fortune teller, the musicians, the lute player, boy with a basket of fruit, the taking of Christ, the stigmatization of St Francis, John the Baptist, the Entombment, the Madonna di Loretta erc. the list was endless... an incredible privilege to see so many great Caravaggio paintings in one place.
Part 4 - 2001-2010
(32-41 years old)
2001
52 St Peters @ Rome 4 (Pietà)
53 Santa Maria Novella @ Florence
54 Casa Buonarotti @ Florence
55 Santa Croce @ Florence
56 San Francesco @ Arezzo
We moved to Florence, Italy in November 2001 and so began an incredible period of my life when I was not only exposed to an incredible amount of art in this ‘cradle of the Renaissance’ but also around Italy interspersed with trips to London, Paris and beyond.
Funnily enough my first ‘art experience’ was on a day trip to Rome at the end of November. I just managed to squeeze a visit inside St Peter’s. It was my third time to Rome and second time inside St Peter’s, the cupola which was designed by Michelangelo. However it was another Michelangelo piece I was here to see, the Pietà. I managed to see it and was very happy. Created when he was twenty-three/four years old is an absolute masterpiece in depiction and execution, as the youthful Mary cradles her grown son, in her copious drapes, after he is taken down from the crucifix. It’s s shame you can’t get closer, but this is a sublime work of art.
After moving in to our new house, I decided to have a look inside Santa Maria Novella. It is slightly strange in that from Florence station you only see the rear of this huge edifice. You have to walk round into Piazza Santa Maria Novella to admire the facade. Which is a miracle in itself. The lower Romanesque half was designed by Jacopo Talenti in 1370, but several features were added by Renaissance man, Leon Battista Alberti 100 years later in 1470, still making it one of the oldest façades in Florence, it is truly harmonious and one of the finest examples of Renaissance architecture. Inside there are a few things worth seeing. On my first visit I found myself standing before one of the earliest examples of perspective in art history, Massaccio’s holy trinity fresco. This incredible architectural effects gives you the feeling of being inside the painting. It had just been restored too and the pink colors were very vivid. Underneath there is a skeleton in a coffin with the inscription “I am what you will become.” Scary! I can’t remember much about Giotto’s crucifix or Ghirlandiao’s frescoed Tournabuoni chapel... so a definite return is long overdue!
I didn’t leave it long, in between job interviews, on 29 November, to visit the house of the master, Casa Buonarotti, in Via Ghibelline. There was a special collection of his letters on display, so a good excuse to visit. Michelangelo was actually born in a small village in the province of Arezzo called Caprese. He spent his childhood in the hills of Settignano outside of Florence and then apprenticed to Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. He bought this house, later in life, but never lived here. Still it had been made into a small museum. The rooms are frescoes, but it’s for a couple of his early works I’ve come to see. The Madonna of the steps is a bas-relief sculpture of Mary feeding the baby Jesus. It’s pretty crude, but pretty incredible fir a fifteen-year-old. It was influenced by the work od Donatello, but already you could see the potential of the future master. The other piece I’ve come to see is another bas-relief, the battle of the centaurs, which he carved when only seventeen years old and was one of his favorite pieces. A mass of nude youths, writhing in combat. A fluid composition that went further than previous artists, creating his new and unique style.
On a bitterly cold December day I sought refuge in Santa Croce, the largest Franciscan church in the world, building started in 1294, but the beautiful façade here was added in the 19th century. Inside I checked out the elaborately decorated tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo and Rossini and the monument to another of Florence’s famous sons, Dante, who was actually buried in Ravenna. I remember the very moving and emotional St Francis of Assisi and John the Baptist frescoes by Giotto too in two adjacent chapels, the Bardi and Peruzzi. I had a look inside the museum and saw Cimabue’s famous crucifix that had been damaged in the flood of 1966. Also I was lucky to see the Pazzi Chapel designed by Brunelleschi.
Our last port of call before Christmas was Arezzo, a town recently made famous by the film ‘La Vita e Bella’. We visited the church of San Francesco to have a look Piero della Francesca’s largest fresco cycle, executed from 1458/9 and 1466, ‘The history of the true cross.’ Generally considered to be an early Renaissance masterpiece. Piero studied first as a mathematician, so he used this knowledge on his geometric designs and perspective. His paintings are serene and detailed and after the 1991-2000 restoration even brighter and clearer and is definitely worth seeing. Many years later I taught a lady who had written a book about his life.
2002
57 Pienza
58 Michelangelo museum @ Caprese
59 Pitti palace
60 Fiesole museums
61 Volterra
62 Uffizi 2 mum
63 Galleria dell’Accademia 2
64 Uffizi 3 Chas and Mavis
65 Palazzo Medici Ricardi
66 Brancacci chapel
67 Villa Medici @ Poggio a Caiano
68 Medici chapels
69 San Marco
70 Archaeological museum @ Florence
71 Verona
72 Venice 2 (Doge’s Palace)
73 Villa Malcontenta - Palladio
74 In the shadow of Michelangelo @ Palazzo Strozzi
75 Cambridge
76 Sicily - Taormina
77 Bologna
78 Cortona
79 Massa Marritima
Rome 5, 6
80, 81 Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel
82 Uffizi 4
83 Palazzo Te @ Mantova
84 Masaccio @ San Giovanni Valdarno
And so to my first full year in Florence. We were living in Greve-in-Chianti, but Annette was working in the center of Florence and I was working all over the place. However, as well as starting a new life in a new country, with a new house, job and friends I managed to fit a lot of art in, especially as we had several visitors to play host and tour guide to.
In January we paid a visit to the south of Tuscany and a little hill-top town called Pienza. We arrived just as the sun was setting, which was beautiful from the city walls, but unfortunately the main church had scaffolding on it, so we weren’t able to fully appreciate it, but no matter as we would return... just a few times!
We had to go to Ancona for the weekend and stopped in Anghiari, the site of a famous battle (and lost Leonardo Da Vinci painting) for lunch. We drove on to Caprese, the birthplace of Michelangelo. It was a kind of personal pilgrimage for me to visit the actual house he was born in. There was a small, unassuming museum there containing a few copies of his work, as with many of these places, slightly disappointing.
After a trip back to England for my Nan’s funeral (sadly she would never get the chance to visit us) I visited the Pitti Palace. Built for the banker, Luca Pitti in 1458 and one time residence of Napoleon and the King of Italy and bought by the Medici family.
It is the largest museum complex in Florence containing four museums and the Boboli gardens. I came here to visit the Palatine gallery. For those intimidated by the Uffizi it’s actually quite a good alternative. I wanted to see a few pieces, foremost the Italic Venus by Antonio Canova. A very beautiful neo-classical marble created as a replacement for the Medici Venus, which in itself was a marble copy of a possible bronze by Greek Hellenistic master, Praxiteles. It introduced me to a new artist. I also wanted to see The Woman with the Veil, by Raphael. A beautiful portrait of his Roman mistress, Margherita Luti. I was also impressed by Titian’s Isabelle d’Este and portrait of a gentleman and Raphael’s Madonna with the chair. Caravaggio’s Sleeping Cupid was pretty cool too.
We also drove up to Fiesole, the town above Florence that actually pre-dated Florence, having both Etruscan and Roman origins. We visited the Archaeological ruins, small Bandini museum and the impressive theatre. Somewhere we would come back to many times and enjoy some outdoor concerts and operas.
In February I checked out a free exhibition at the Uffizi called ‘I mai visti’. Never seen before, the first of many selected displays of the thousands of paintings kept in storage, including some minor works by Titian, Veronese and Botticelli.
Volterra
My first visit to Volterra was rather disappointing. The drive here is very long and we arrived at 4 o’clock just as the sun was going down. We did get a glimpse of the Midicean fortress, a huge structure built in 1342 and enlarged by Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1474, but now a state prison. We would come to Volterra again.
My mum became our first visitor. I took her to the Galleria dell Accademia to see David (only my second visit) and to the Ufizzi. The Caravaggio room was now open, so I got to see Bacchus and the sacrifice of Isaac for the first time, but still no Medusa shield (still undergoing restoration). Mum particularly liked the Filippo Lippi paintings.
There were no less than two exhibitions celebrating the 600th anniversary of the death of Masaccio, one of the early pioneers of the Renaissance. ‘Masaccio and the painters of his time’ and ‘Under the influence of Masaccio - the invention of perspective.’ I had a quick whiz round to see how Masaccio learned the rules of perspective from Brunelleschi and Donatello. There were works by Durer, Leonardo and Van Eyck, as well as some technical instruments, showing how mathematics, geometry and optics were used in creating his masterpieces.
Annette’s parents, Charlie and Mavis followed hot on my mum’s heels.
While Annette took her parents to see Michelangelo’s David I took advantage to see an exhibition of Greek marble heads on display at the Palazzo Medici Ricardi. This Renaissance Palace was built for Cosimo de’ Medici by Michelozzo between 1445-1448. Influenced by Roman architecture and Brunelleschi, the building has huge, roughly hewn stones on the ground floor, which gradually became smoother as the levels go up, giving the building the appearance of being lighter and taller. The courtyard with Baccio Bandinelli’s Orpheus and some Donatello reliefs is impressive. Some of the artwork housed here is now in other galleries, but there are a few others that are worth seeing. There is a nice Madonna and child painting by Filippo Lippi, a ceiling frescoed by Neapolitan artist, Luca Giordano, but the real star is a fresco by Florentine artist and pupil of Fra Angelico, Benozzo Gozzoli, It’s in the tiny Magi chapel on the ‘Piano Nobile’ or first floor and there is a time limit for staying in. Painted in 1459 it is a beautiful three-wall cycle depicting the three wise men visiting Jesus, but here through the Tuscan countryside. The realistic depiction of nature was groundbreaking, the richness of color in the costumes and precious jewelry is simply breathtaking and his vivid portrayal of human portraits, including members of the Medici household and even a self-portrait are quite astounding.
After Annette’s parents went home I took the opportunity to see another fresco cycle, this time in the more famous Brancacci chapel, next to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. The church, like many in Florence has an unfinished façade, but the Brancacci chapel next door is where the action is at. To give you some idea of its importance, it’s sometimes called ‘the Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance ‘. The patron of the chapel was silk merchant and Ambassador to Cairo, Felice Brancacci. He hired Masolino Panicale and his twenty one year old assstant, Massaccio to fresco the chapel. Painting began in 1425, but half way through Masolino left for Hungary and the young Masaccio took over the commission. Masaccio was then called to Rome (where he tragically died six years later) and Filippo Lippi finished off the job. The results were quite incredible and future artists such as Michelangelo would come here and sketch the figures and gain inspiration. It was a kind of school for future artists. It is particularly Masaccio’s work that stands out and his techniques like those used on the Trinity in Santa Maria Novella of foreshortening, perspective, chiaroscuro and naturalism we’re groundbreaking for that period and he was instrumental in progressing the Renaissance movement.
The fresco cycle depicts the life of St Peter, but the sheer emotion on the faces of Adam and Eve’s expulsion are memorable. The delicacy of the Tribute Money is remarkable and attention to detail in the Baptism of the Neophytes is astounding, especially from the twenty one year old artist. The work by Masolino and Lippi is competent, but it is Masaccio’s masterpieces that you are blown away by.
During a visit by some friends from England we enjoyed a visit to our first Medici Villa outside of Florence at Poggio a Caiano. There are 16 major villas and 11 minor ones. In 2013 12 of these villas and 2 gardens were awarded UNESCO world heritage status, Poggio Caiano was one of them. It was commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1480 and built by Giuliano da Sangallo. Today it is state owned and there are two museums. The building itself was very innovative with the classical porch on the ground floor and Majolica
Pediment by Andrea Sansovino. The building is very symmetrical and beautiful to look at. Inside we enjoyed gazing at the colorful frescoes by Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto and Alessandro Allori.
In April I heard from a friend that entrance to all state museums were free for a week, so I met up with Annette after work. We had intended to visit the Palazzo Vecchio, but it wasn’t on the list, so instead we headed to San Lorenzo and the Medici Chapels. It’s the new sacristy (which is actually the older of the two) that we have come to see. It was designed by Michelangelo when he was 50-55 years old, from 1519-24 and intended to be a mausoleum for members of the Medici family. It was great to see no less than seven Michelangelo sculptures in one place. The unfinished Madonna and child, somewhat reminiscent of his earlier Madonna of the steps. Two of the Medici family, Lorenzo Duke of Urbino and Giuliano Duke of Nemours, sitting, similar to his Moses sculpture in Rome. However it was the four allegorical figures at the base of the two dukes that are the most interesting. His idea was to symbolize how active and contemplative life interact to free the soul after death represented by four reclining, twisting figures, the two males muscular, with veins popping, the two females, smooth and somewhat crude. Night and day and dusk and dawn. The tomb was not how Michelangelo envisioned, but impressive nonetheless.
Michelangelo in one of his poems made reference to his sculpture of night.
“My sleep is dear to me, and more dear this being of stone,as long as the agony and shame last.Not to see, not to hear, or feel, is for me the best fortune;
So do not wake me! Speak softly.”
We also made good use of the free museum entrance to visit the museum of San Marco, which includes the original living quarters of several famous monks, Beato Angelico, Fra Angelico and the mad monk himself, Savaranola. The museum complex turns out to be enormous. On the ground floor is the cloisters built by Michelozzo. Their are several chapels dedicated to the aforementioned monks, the one to Fra’ Bartolomeo has a stunning preparatory cartoon and there is the famous Savaranola portrait and a great ‘Last Supper’ by Ghirlandaio. Upstairs is the famous Beato Angelico Annunciation, as well as all the monk’s individual cells, each one with its own individual Beato Angelico fresco and Savaranola’s double cell, where he prepared all those crazy fire and brimstone sermons, including the 1497 Bonfire of the Vanities.
Annette had a lesson to go to, so I carried on round the corner to check out the Archaeological museum and it’s just as huge as San Marco. The museum is spread out on two floors. The first section is the Egyptian collection, which wasn’t wildly exciting, but then after seeing the Cairo and British museum, probably understandable. They do have the second largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Italy, after Turin, with 14,000 pieces, so a return visit is definitely due... the Etruscan section I found more appealing, with the star exhibit being the mythical Chimera, which is a lion, with the head of a goat coming out of its back and the tail of a snake. This Etruscan bronze was discovered in Arezzo in 1553 and claimed by the Medici family and brought to Florence. I feel sorry for Arezzo and think it should be returned there. Anyway it is a magnificent example of Etruscan mastery of bronze casting being dated to 400 B.C. and obviously very influenced by the Greek masters. I also liked the ‘L’arringatore’ or Orator, another Etruscan bronze found around Lake Trasimeno, near Perugia in 1566 and thought to date from around 100 B.C.
The Roman section was next, there was a nice bronze of a youth called ‘iodolino of Pesaro’ from 30 B.C. which apparently was a copy of an earlier Greek bronze, from 440 B.C. similar to the ‘Doryphoros’ by Polyclitus, now in Naples. Very impressive too was the Minerva of Arezzo, another Roman bronze, which in turn was a copy of a Greek bronze, after Praxiteles and again found in the 16th century in 1541. It was discovered in several parts, reconstructed and restored.
The last section was the Greek collection. There were some Kouri torsos, a giant Hellenistic horse’s head and various Attic vases, in particular one of the most famous Greek vases ever found, the Françoise vase, discovered in Chiusi in 1844 and thought to be dating from 560/70 B.C. It is s milestone in Greek pottery and signed by the potter, Ergotimos and the master painter Klietias. It depicts 270 figures 121 which have inscriptions from the life of Achilles. In 1900 a museum guard threw a chair at it and smashed it into 638 pieces, poor guy who had to put it back together!
All in all an incredible museum, generally overlooked by tourists.
For Easter we arranged a trip up north and spent s day in Verona. We went inside the Arena, which is the second largest amphitheater after the Colosseum, built in the first century A.D. it could hold 30,000 people and is still used today for operas and concerts. We also saw the Castel Vecchio and walked over the Ponte Scaglieri. The Porta Borsari was cool too
It was my second time in Venice and this time I actually did it some justice. We walked over the Rialto bridge and marveled at Saint Mark’s square, Sansovino’s Loggetta and after buying a guidebook discovered the Contarini del Bovolo staircase which was a personal favorite. we decided to go inside the Doge’s palace which was incredible. The giants staicase with Sansovino’s statues of Mars and Neptune was impressive. Inside their was room after room of huge, dark paintings by such illustrious painters as Tintoretto, Titian, Tiepolo and Veronese. It was a bit overwhelming to be honest. What was really cool was a secret corridor which we had to crouch to get inside, that lead over the bridge of sighs to the old prison. On the first floor terraces we could see over to the isola San Giorgio Maggiore and Palladian church. We finished our few days in Venice by seeing a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition of some of his working models.
Villa Malcontenta
On our drive home we drove down the Adriatic coast and stopped in a small town called Mira. This would prove to be the first of several pilgrimages to see various Palladian villas dotted across the north of Italy. This first one was called the Villa Foscari, nicknamed ‘Malcontenta’ after one of the Foscari wives who was locked up in the villa for not fulfilling her husband’s desires. Anyway the villa was closed, but I’d come to look at the outside, which was very beautiful and is today part of the World Heritage Site of Palladian Villas. Who knows one day I might be able to return for a better look and see the inside.
Once back in Florence I attended a temporary exhibition, the first of many, at Palazzo Strozzi. We were working at the British Institute, opposite Palazzo Strozzi in the smaller Palazzo Strozzino, so Palazzo Strozzi became a kind of second home to us. Strozzino, which actually predates Palazzo Strozzi by 32 years, was thought to be designed by Brunelleschi, although Benedetto di Maiano and Michelozzo had a hand in its design too.
The bigger Palazzo Strozzi was bought by Filippo Strozzi, a rival of the Medici, as a kind of one-upmanship. Work on the palazzo began in 1489 by Benedetto di Maiano, but wasn’t completed until 1538, by which time Ironically Filippo had died. The Medici confiscates it and didn’t return it to the Strozzi family until 30 years later. It is actually more impressive than the Palazzo Medici Riccardi. Interestingly for us it houses the Gabinetto Visseux, a library which, like the British Institute, served as a cross cultural center and was used by many famous writers throughout the twentieth century.
The exhibition was entitled ‘Michelangelo and the shadow of the genius and Florentine art from 1537-1631’, exploring the effects of Michelangelo on future artists. The interesting Michelangelo unfinished sculpture of Apollo/David usually in the Bargello was here, as well as pieces by Cellini, Giambologna, Pontormo and Bronzino. The strange Mengone Dwarf sitting on a turtle was here too.
In the Summer we were back in England. We went up to Cambridge, as Annette’s bother lived there. I think it was my first time there. I’m not sure what buildings we saw, but we would return many times.
We had a brief holiday in Sicily and amongst other things visited the Ancient theatre in Taormina. It was built in Roman times, but probably over a pre-existing Greek theatre and is extraordinarily preserved. The seating area and proscenium almost intact and in fact they hold summer concerts there. We had a nice wander.
In September on a visit to Bologna I sought out some smaller Michelangelo sculptures that are tucked away in the church of San Domenico. We arrived at closing time and the doorman only let me see two of them! The two saints, Proculus and Petronius. The Angel I’ll have to come back and see.
We also visited two Etruscan towns that Autumn, Cortona, near the Umbrian border and Massa Marritima on the edge of the Maremma. Cortona was a fleeting visit and we just got to have a picnic outside Giorgio Vasari’s imposing 1550 Santa Maria Nuova church and a quick blast round the main square. In Massa Marritima we admired the 13th century Romanesque Cathedral Saint Cerbonious and went for a walk on the medieval walls.
In November a friend from England came to visit. Unbelievably the David was being restored so I took him to Santa Croce to se the Giotto frescoes.
We decided to go to Rome for the weekend and I had something special in mind...
After three visits to the eternal city I was going to attempt to get into the Sistine Chapel. After making the three-hour drive down we arrive and park up near the Vatican. Unfortunately at 10.00am the queue is already miles long and it’s obvious I’m. It going to get in yet again as the museum closes at 1.30! We agree to try and come back earlier tomorrow. We had a wander round St Peter’s, walked past the Castel Sant’Angelo and to the station. We booked a hotel room for the night at the tourist information center. (The day’s before Airbnb!) in the evening we see a football match at the Stadio Olimpico and the following morning arrive at the Vatican museum at 8.00am. There is already a queue, but we arrive at the entrance at 10.00am. We are in! Entrance is free as it was a special cultural day and I have three and a half hours to get round 8 museums and 54 rooms!!!?!?! After years of reading about it and pouring over pictures I’m finally going to see the Sistine Chapel! There are obviously many other art treasures here, but just to make sure I almost run past all the other rooms to arrive at Michelangelo’s masterpiece, which just happens to be the last room. It’s smaller than I expected and the ceiling and walls are closer to the eye. It is an unbelievable sight, in my opinion the greatest work of art ever created by human hand. Every single figure seems to be alive, living and breathing in colors as fresh as the day Michelangelo frescoed them. I stayed for what seemed like an eternity soaking up all this magic. The Last Judgement behind the alter was cool too and I didn’t forget to have a quick browse at the frescoed walls by
I spent nearly two hours in there and so had an hour and a half to check out some other pieces I had my eye on. Nearby was the Raphael room. It was great to see another of my favourite frescoes, the School of Athens. We made our way to the Belvedere courtyard to see the Belvedere Torso and stumbled on the sublime Laocoon sculpture group! What an incredible morning, one that would stay in my mind forever...
In the afternoon I got to go inside the Colosseum for the first time, again after only ever seeing it from the outside. We had a free guided tour, which was very funny. A few other stops, at the Campidoglio, Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps finished off a memorable weekend
On returning to Florence I got to take my friend round the Uffizi for my fourth visit. There was a special exhibition on dedicated to the Rape of Europa, a Greek mythological story, which meant lots of paintings of big white bulls (representing Zeus) and a fair maiden (Europa)
We paid the city of Mantova in Lombardy a weekend visit in November. Our first stop was to see the beautiful façade of the church of Sant’ Andrea, designed by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472. Next we checked out the oldest church in Mantova, the 11th century Rotonda of San Lorenzo. We had come up here because there was a special exhibition at the Palazzo Te, a huge villa designed by Giulio Romano in 1525 it was entitled ‘Gonzaga - Le Galleria Celeste’ dedicated to the Gonzaga family who, along with Isabella d’Este had amassed a collection of 2,000 paintings and 20,000 precious objects, now spread all over the world. This show brought together 1,800 objects including 90 paintings. Some of our favourites as we wandered round were Titian’s ‘Woman with a mirror (normally in the Louvre) Mantegna’s breathtaking ‘Lamentation of the dead Christ’ (usually in the Brera in Milan) with its groundbreaking foreshortening and Coreggio’s beautiful ‘Venus, Mercury and Cupid from the National Gallery in London.
After the exhibition we took a look at the rest of the Palace, a series of rooms frescoed by Giulio Romano, who was a student of Raphael. In particular we liked the hall of the giants, frescoed from floor to ceiling.
We couldn’t leave without visiting the Palazzo Ducale, one time royal residence of the Gonzagas, With over 500 rooms in several complexes, obviously there was only time to see a small part. We wanted to see Andrea Mantegna’s frescoes in the ‘Camera degli sposi’ (wedding chapel) there was a time limit in this tiny room, but it was mind blowing. Three of the walls are frescoed, with the Gonzaga family pictured in an idealized Roman countryside setting and the unique ‘Oculus’ round fresco on the ceiling, again with incredible foreshortening figures.
Afterwards we were treated to a special surprise tour of three private rooms used by the star patron, the person largely responsible for this enormous collection, Isabella d’Este.
At the beginning of our Christmas holiday we made the short drive to San Giovanni Valdarno to see a small exhibition, ‘Masaccio and the origins of the Renaissance.’ The exhibition brought together no less than 38 pieces by such luminaries as Brunelleschi, Donatello, Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi, all contemporaries and friends of Madsccio. Masaccio was born here, but none of his works are displayed here, so it was quite a treat for the town to have some of them return for a short while.
Some of the highlights included the Donatello and Brunelleschi crucifixes and part of Masaccio’s Pisa altarpiece. Our tickets also included entrance to the Basilica, where we saw a sublime Fra Angelico Annunciation.
2003
85 Laurentian Library (vestibule)
86 Santa Maria dell Fiore
87 Museo del Opera del Duomo
88 Villa Vignamaggio
89 Castello di Poppi
90 Siena Cathedral
91 Allinari Brothers Ospedale San Paolo
92 Nora museum - Chia, Sardinia
93, 94 Rome 7 Tempietto Porta Pia
95 The Leaning Tower of Pisa
96 David @ Galleria dell Accademia 3
97 Piccolomini library, Siena
98 Badia a Coltibuono
99 San Biagio, Montepulciano
100 Castello di Brolio
The Laurentian Library (vestibule)
In January I tried to see the Laurentian library, part of the San Lorenzo complex and designed by the master, Michelangelo in the 1520’s, but opened in 1571 after his death. I got as far as the vestibule.
The library itself was only opened when there was a special exhibition. However the flowing, Mannerist style staircase was pretty impressive.
January is quite a good month to see museums in Florence as there are less tourists around. So I take advantage of this by having a peak inside Santa Maria del Fiore, the enormous main Cathedral in Florence. From the outside, spectacular, but inside, rather disappointing. There is the famous painting of Dante holding his Divine Comedy with the nine circles of hell, Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Ucello, a horse by Andrea del Castagno and the Vault is frescoed by the mediocre Vasari (and too high up to see) You can climb to the top of the Cupola or descend to an underground museum (for another day).
The Museo del opere del duomo is where the real action is. Tucked round the back of the Cathedral, originally it was the artist’s workshop, where many masterpieces were created. I thought it was funny that many of the pieces created to adorn churches, have now returned, to be replaced by copies.
Inside in the courtyards are the original bronze panels of the baptistery doors created by Lorenzo Ghiberti and dubbed by Michelangelo ‘the gates of paradise.’ Outside on the actual baptistery are copies. I marveled at Michelangelo’s Florentine Pietà or Deposition. He began sculpting this at 72 years of age until he was 80, when he tried to destroy it. The face of Nicodemus is said to be a self-portrait. There are many Donatello statues here, as well as the interesting singing gallery balconies by Donatello and Luca della Robbia. I found the museum very interesting and it was subsequently restructured in 2015.
In February I checked out the second edition of ‘I mai visti’ at the Uffizi, with fruit and flowers as the theme. Unfortunately it was pretty forgettable.
Villa Vignamaggio
At the end of March we were possible Hotel destinations for Annette’s brother Phil, who was planning a visit. After a few attempts we got to see Villa Vignamaggio, just down the road from us, past Greve-in-Chianti. Once owned by the Geradini family, as in Lisa Gherardini, subject of the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa. It is even thought Leonardo might have painted her here. The villa was also used by Kenneth Brannar for the filming of Much Ado about Nothing. The holiday homes are small converted farmhouses dotted around the villa, but somehow we managed to get a guided tour of the ‘private’ villa! It was incredible, beautiful, original stone floors and filled with antiques. She showed us the very expensive ‘Mona Lisa suite’, (now not available to rent) it was an unforgettable afternoon.
In April we went on a day trip to the east of Tuscany and while we didn’t visit any museums, we saw some cool buildings, stopping off to see Frescobaldi’s Castle at Nipozzano (cool wine), the Piazza Grande in Arezzo and the very imposing Castle at Poppi.
At Easter we welcomed Annette’s brother, Phil and his then 5-year-old daughter, Leonie. We didn’t visit any museums, but I did get to have a peak inside the wonderful Cathedral in Siena. Much better than the one in Florence. The black and white marble is striking and the mosaic floor one of a kind. There are also some sculptures by Michelangelo, including a large St Paul and 4 smaller saints. A Donatello bronze relief and some Bernini sculptures too. There is also the Piccolomini library which we don’t have time to visit. This is a Cathedral I definitely recommend.
At the end of May I just managed to squeeze in my first ever photography exhibition in the Ex Hospital of San Paolo Leopoldine in Santa Maria Novella. The subject was the Allinari Brothers, Leopoldo, Giuseppe, Romualdo and later Leopoldo’s son Vittorio. They are the world’s oldest photographic firm and started their work in 1852, only 10 years after photography was invented. The exhibition was an extraordinary journey through 150 years of images from Italian life. There were a series of 20 rooms, starting with their hometown of Florence and then into other towns and cities in Italy. My favourite section were two rooms on realism, showing everyday life in some of the pooorer provinces. Scenes of fishermen, street vendors and poverty in Naples, really captured the essence of the daily life and soul of the people.
N.B. in 2006 this building was turned into the MNAF, the national museum of the Allinari Brothers and in 2014 also houses the Museo Novecento, museum of Italian art of the twentieth century.
For our Summer holiday we spent 9 days on the beautiful island of Sardinia, mostly on the beach. We did pay a visit, however to the ruins at Nora on the Pula peninsula. Originally a Phoenician settlement in 900 B.C. it was occupied by the Carthaginians and then Romans.
It was an extremely hot day to be walking around ancient ruins. There were some mosaic floors, a few columns and a small theatre. Probably worth a visit if you are in the area.
We took the overnight ferry from Cagliari to Civitavecchia, arriving at 9.30am and as we were only 50 miles from the eternal city decided to have a quick whiz around Rome. After parking up near the Vatican our first stop is the Piazza Navona, where we admire the Bernini fountain. We had a peak inside the wonderful Pantheon, even though I’d seen it before from the outside it was my first time inside and it was incredible. The huge dome 142 feet/43.3 meters high, dominates with the open oculus at the top. Our third stop was up the Janiculum hill to the church of San Pietro in Montorio to see one of my favourite buildings, Bramante’s Tempietto. Built as a commemorative tomb In 1502, it is considered one of the finest examples of high Renaissance architecture. Donato Bramante came to Rome to study the ancient temples and was inspired to create this, almost sculptural building. Preparing him for his original plans, just down the road, of the largest church in the world, Rome’s St Peter’s Cathedral, where 7 other architects would continue his work. Anyway it was an absolute pleasure to see this often overlooked masterpiece.
Our last stop was along the Aurelian walls and a certain gate, Porta Pia. Designed by Michelangelo and built between 1561 and completed in 1565, one year after the artist’s death. Michelangelo actually presented three plans for the gate to Pope Pius IV and he chose the cheapest and least extravagant. However Michelangelo’s last architectural design was a pleasure to see.
In August we welcomed Annette’s niece, Bernice and her friend, Laura who were staying with us for a week. After several visits to Pisa I finally got the chance to ascend the famous Leaning Tower and it was a pretty surreal experience. The tower had been closed for structural restrenghthening between 1990 - 2001 and so was finally opened with a limited number of visitors per day.
We take them to see David, so I get to see the big fella’ again for the ... time
My mum and grandma paid us a visit in August and on a visit to Siena I got the chance to see the Piccolomini library that I missed out on an earlier visit. Painted in 1502 by Perugian artist Pinturricchio for Pope Piccolomino, one of the greatest humanist scholars in the library built to hold his precious manuscripts. The frescoes depict an idealized account of Piccolomini’s life in vibrant colors. Pinturricchio excelled in the depiction of decorative patterns, costumes and bright colors. I highly recommend seeing this fresco as an example of 16th century Renaissance art.
We took my mum and grandma to Arezzo and on the way stopped at Badia a Coltibuono. This is a beautiful 11th century abbey where you can visit, stay and taste their fabulous wine
In September we visited Montepulciano for the second time. Unfortunately there was scaffolding on the Cathedral, however we did see the temple of San Biagio, a very imposing structure designed in 1518 by Antonio Da Sangallo. We enjoyed a stroll round at sunset admiring the travertine covering.
In October we had another drive out to Castello di Brolio in Gaiole. Probably the best Castle in Chianti and home of Bettino Ricasoli, the guy who invented Chianti Classico wine. We enjoyed a tour of the grounds (you can’t go inside the castle) and admired the structure from the outside. The origins of Brolio date back to Lombard times and was in the possession of the Ricasoli family by 1141. The castle was destroyed several times and the current structure is mostly gothic revival from the 2800’s. The Renaissance gardens are pretty and the views spectacular.
2004
101 Castello di Montegufoni
102 Botticelli @ Palazzo Strozzi
103 Palazzo Ducale, Urbino
104 Monte Olivetto Maggiore
105 Caravaggio @ Rome
106 National Gallery, London
107 Cambridge
108 Oxford
109 Leonardo museum @ Vinci
110 Villa Petraia
111 Orvieto
112 Villa Castello
113 Todi
114 Assisi
115 Spoleto
116 Perugia
117 Palazzo Vecchio
We took a drive out to the west of Florence in March, stopping in Cerbaia and Montespertoli. The Castle at Montegufoni caught our eye and we went to explore. It had a crenellated tower similar to the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. We asked about looking round and for information about the restaurant. Unfortunately the owners weren’t very friendly and we were abruptly sent on our way.
On Annette’s birthday, 9 April we started our Easter holiday with a visit to the Botticelli and Filippino Lippi exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi. The exhibition, marking the 500th anniversary of Boticelli’s protege, Filippino’s death, was entitled ‘Grace and unrest’ Grace, because of the Platonic ideals that inspired ‘Primavera’ and ‘the Birth if Venus’ and unrest, because of the influence Savonarola was to have on Florentine art at the close of the 15th century. The exhibition brought together 25 of Boticelli’s paintings and 16 of Filippino’s from galleries and private collections all over the world. Boticelli’s famous Pallas and the Centaur and Calumny from the Ufizzi were here. Other highlights included two panels from the Prado museum in Madrid depicting stories from Bocaccio’s Decameron, two circular paintings and a fresco from Santa Trinita in Florence and some superb portraits, Man with a medal from the Ufizzi and a Woman from a private American collection. Filippino’s Portrait if a musician was here from Dublin. The return of Judith from the Ufizzi and drawings of the Divine comedy from the Vatican museum.
Filippino’s Queen Vashti and Madonna and child with angel musicians medallion, Boticelli’s the angel of the Annunciation. The Mystic nativity from the National Gallery in London. Lamentation over the dead Christ from Milan. Filippino’s St Jerome from the Ufizzi, Pietà from Washington and Mary Magdalen from an American collection filled out this exceptional exhibition.
Also that April we spent a few days in Le Marche and in particular Urbino, where we found the visually stunning, Palazzo Ducale. This Renaissance Palace was built in the mid 15th century for the Duke of Montefeltro. There was a special show on celebrating the Delle Rovere (another powerful nobile family) collection, but most of the pieces were here anyway. In the National gallery of Le Marche we saw one of the three famous ideal city canvasses (the other two are in America), Piero della Francesca’s moving ‘Flagellation’ and Madonna of Senegalia and Raphael’s portrait of a woman ‘La Muta’. There were also a couple of Titian and Paolo Ucello paintings. We enjoyed the wooden panels of Duke Federico’s study. Also interesting was the underground drainage system opened to the public in 1985.
In May I visited the magnificent red bricked Benedictine abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore south of Siena. It was built around 1320, but additions and restorations have been made throughout the centuries. Inside there are some beautiful Renaissance frescoes executed by Luca Signorelli and il Sodoma or Giovanni Bazzi to give him his real name. The frescoes depict the life of Saint Benedict. Signorelli started the cycle with 8 frescoes, before being called to Rome to work on the Sistine Chapel and il Sodoma completed the cycle painting 26 scenes including a wonderful self portrait.
Every year the ADS or Association of historical Italian residences hold an open day where the public can visit for free various locations around the country, usually closed to the public. This year I chose the Castello di Celsa, just south of Siena. Built around 1200 by Baldassarre Peruzzi for the Celsi family and enlarged in 1500, this beautiful ivy covered castle dominates the landscape and has imposing views towards Siena and Mt Amiata. There is also a pretty temple, limonaia, Italian garden and park.
Later in May I went to Rome for a concert in the evening, so had a free day to wander. I decided to continue my Caravaggio trail and so headed straight for the Capitoline Museum. This incredible museum is housed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo, and Palazzo Senatorio, the three buildings in the magnificent Piazza del Campidoglio all designed by Michelangelo and connected by an underground corridor. Opened in 1734 it’s thought to be the world’s first museum. On the second floor I saw two Caravaggio paintings. The Fortune Teller and Youth with a Ram, representing John the Baptist.
There are two almost identical versions of the Fortune Teller, the other is in the Louvre. The subject, a familiar one in Caravaggio’s paintings, is his ‘friend’ the artist, Mario Moniti , is having his fortune read by a gypsy, who while she is stroking his hand is also stealing his ring.
The Youth with a Ram, representing John the Baptist, exists also in two versions, the other one in the nearby Galleria Doria Pamphilj. The subject here is another of Caravaggio’s ‘servants/‘friends’ Cecco del Caravaggio. The painting is very suggestive, the lamb supposedly representing Jesus, the whole effect looks pagan, it was no doubt inspired by Michelangelo’s Ignudi in the Sistine Chapel.
While I was in the Capitoline museum I also checked out some of the other famous works, for example the huge bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (the one outside in the square is s copy) the colossal head, hands and feet of Constantine. Some of the other sculptures such as the Wounded Amazon, a marble copy after Phidias, the Dying Gaul, the Capitoline Venus after Praxiteles and Bernini’s head of Medusa.
It was an overwhelming museum and one that I would return to again.
In the afternoon I sought out the church of San Luigi dei Francesi to see three huge canvasses by Caravaggio. Inside this unassuming church is the Contarelli Chapel, where you are confronted with these three masterpieces, the calling, inspiration and martyrdom of St Matthew, painted from 1599-1600 for the French cardinal Matthieu Cointerel, Contarelli in Italian. The overall effect of these sudden bursts of light emanating from the shadows of the gloomy chapel are mesmerizing. They caused quite a stir when originally shown and in fact the ‘Inspiration of St Matthew’ painting was rejected and was sadly destroyed during the Second World War.
I was back in England in August, visiting family and working at a Summer School. I was being paid to escort a group of students up to London and Oxford. In London I got to pay only my second ever visit to the National Gallery.
I saw some of the works I’d seen before, but could now spend more time looking at some of the other masterpieces on offer. My personal favorites this time were Van Gogh’s eponymous Sunflowers, Turner’s explosive Fighting Temerarie and hypnotic Rain, Steam and Speed. I loved Seurat’s Bathers and obviously had to see Monet’s Japanese bridge and water lilies.
We also went up to visit Annette’s brother Phil in Cambridge. We walked through Christchurch and Peterhouse colleges, of course admiring the lovely architecture.
On my visit to Oxford I took a group of Chinese students on the river Ouse punting and the indoor ‘Oxford Story’ I remember seeing the 18th century Radcliffe Camera and being very impressed, but it would have been nice to see more of the city.
In October we drove up to Vinci 30 miles west of Florence and birthplace of Leonardo. We’d been before, but this time did a guided tour of the Leonardo museum. It was quite small but there were loads of cool interactive reproduction models of some of his inventions.
The next day we visited another Medici Villa, Villa Petraia to the north of Florence. The building dates back to 1364 and the design is generally attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, changing ownership until Cosimo I de’ Medici bought it in 1544. It has undergone many changes over the centuries, but the result is a very beautiful building and gardens with sweeping views over Florence. We went on a guided tour of the inside as you can visit the two floors and most of the rooms. Along with the other Medici villas it attained World Heritage status in 2014
Somewhere I had been wanting to visit since living in Italy was Orvieto in Umbria. When I did an Italian course in 1996, the course book was based on Orvieto and its inhabitants, so I was curious to visit. The Etruscan town is perched on a volcanic hill with spectacular views of the Umbrian countryside. On our first visit we saw the outside of the Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral dating from 1290. It is covered in white travertine marble and green basalt, similar to the Siena Cathedral. It has striking gold mosaics and rose window. We climbed the 47 meter high 16th century Torre del Moro, with its distinctive clock face for some great 360 degree views.
At the end of October we visited yet another Medici Villa, Villa Castello. The Villa was closed, so we couldn’t go inside, but the gardens were open. There were several statues in the gardens including Appenino, a shivering man representing the mountains in Tuscany by Ammannati. There was a cool grotto too, decorated with exotic animals.
For the November holiday weekend we were back in Umbria for a whistle stop tour.
Our first stop, appropriately enough on All/Saints day, was Assisi. It had just attained World Heritage status in 2000. We climbed what seemed like a thousand steps to reach the city, but we were rewarded with a real gem of a place. Home obviously to Italy’s most important Saint, Francis. After lunch we walked to the large Piazza del Commune, containing the 13th century Palazzo del Capitano, 14th century Torre del Popolo and 15th century Palazzo dei Priori. We particularly like the 1st century B.C. Roman Temple to Minerva complete with Corinthian columns.
We eventually reached the famous Basilica of Saint Francis, one of the most visited pilgrimage spots in Italy. The earthquake of 1997 damaged some of the vault and frescoes and was closed for two years while it was repaired.The exterior, built into the side of the hill, was quite impressive. There was an upper and lower church. I took a peak inside the upper church. The Cimabue frescoes had faded, but I loved the Giotto frescoes in the upper church depicting the life of St Francis. I went down in the crypt where many people were entering to kiss the burial place of St Francis.
In the evening we had dinner in Spoleto, so I saw some of the town in the dark, but would have to return another time for a proper visit.
Our next stop was Todi an ancient city built on two hills. We had a stroll around and got talking to a friendly local who told us there were 365 castles in Umbria, one for each day of the year. We stood in the Piazza del Popolo and admired the great buildings. The simple Gothic Cathedral and the four main Palazzi; Del popolo, Del Capitano, dei Priori and Vescovile, certainly an impressive square. On the outskirts of the city we admired too the views interestingly shaped Santa Maria della Condolazione, a Renaissance church dating to 1508 and often attributed to Bramante.
Our final destination was Perugia, which I have to say was a bit of a disappointment. We entered the hill-top town through the ancient plumbing system via a series of escalators. I found the main square Poazza 4 November a bit dreary, although we were probably a bit tired. Perugia’s most famous son, the artist Perugino, didn’t really excite me and we didn’t visit the museum.
Our last outing of the year was my birthday request to visit the Palazzo Vecchio. We had admired it from the outside for three years and now I was getting quite excited about seeing the inside. The building was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio, the same architect that created the main structure of the Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore and Santa Croce. Work began on it in 1299, although various additions were made over the years. The 94 meter tower, known as La Vacca or the cow, was built over an exsisting tower, which is why it is not quite central.
Inside is the impressive courtyard, designed in 1453 my Michelozzo, which is frescoed by Giorgio Vasari, contains a copy of the bronze Putto and dolphin by Verocchio.
The largest and most imposing room is the Sala del Cinquecento (hall of the 500) which today is used for many official engagements and featured in the Dan Brown book and film, Inferno. It is famous for the two frescoes carried out by Michelangelo, the battle of Cascina and Leonardo Da Vinci, the battle of Anghiari, that are now lost. The two walls were frescoed on by Giorgio Vasari and still today scientific tests are carried out to see if the anything of the two original frescoes exist.
There were several statues around the room, but one in particular stood out, Michelangelo’s the genius of Victory. Executed between 1532-1534, when Michelangelo was 57-59 years old, the 2.61 meter marble was originally intended for the Julius tomb. The young man, modeled on Michelangelo’s friend Tomasso dei Cavaliere stands victorious over an old, bearded man, with the features of Michelangelo. It is a very striking sculpture.
At the end of the Hall we looked at the small study with some nice frescoes by Angelo Bronzino, including portraits of Cosimo I and his wife Eleonora of Toledo.
In the Sala dei Gigli we saw the cool bronze sculpture by Donatello of Judith
and Holofernes, rounding off a very successful first visit.
2005
118 Cerreto Guidi
Rome 8, 9
119 Villa Borghese,
120 Hadrian’s Villa
121 Tivoli gardens
122 Villa Medici @ Cafaggiolo
123 Monterchi
124 Gubbio
125 Sansepolcro
126 Villa Torrigiani, Florence
127 Villa Corsini sul Prato, Florence
128 Villa Bibbiana, Capraia e Limite
129 Palazzo Comunale, Prato
130 Villa Vittoria, Comeana
131 Castello dell’Imperatore , Prato
132 Stonehenge
133 Bodiam Castle
134 San Gerasimo monastery, Kefalonoa
135 Argostoli museum
136 Spiros museum, Ithaca
137 Medici Chapels 2
138 Montepulciano
139 Certaldo
140 Biennial @ Palazzo Corsini
141 Villa Garzoni
Our first outing of the year was to yet another Medici villa in the tiny hamlet of Cerreto Guidi, about 30 miles west of Florence. The villa, built in 1556, was enormous, taking up nearly the whole town. We ascended by the huge red zig zag staircase, attributed to Bernardo Buontalenti, to the fairly plain villa. Originally designed as a hunting lodge for Cosimo Medici it is now a national museum. We checked out the Medici portraits, Bardini antique collection and the hunting museum complete with weapons and various stuffed animals.
In March we welcomed Annette’s parents for their second visit. We took them round the Roman ruins in Fiesole and to another villa, this time though not a Medici villa. In the town of Lastra Signa 15 miles west of Florence, lies the Villa Bellosguardo. Built between 1585-95 it was bought in 1906 by the great Tenor singer, Enrico Caruso. He lived there for the last 15 years of his life and left possessions and recordings and now is a museum dedicated to him. The villa is pretty and we enjoyed a pleasant stroll in the beautiful gardens containing many animal sculptures.
Annette’s parents had never been to Rome before, so we booked a couple of nights at a farmhouse between Rome and Tivoli. We decided a hop on hop off bus would be a good idea and it was. On the first day we stayed mainly in the bus, alighting only to see the Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps.
On day two we spent time in St Peter’s square, the Colosseum and Arch of Titus, before our 24 hour bus pass expired.
We left Annette’s parents in the Borghese park while we went for a whistle stop tour of the Villa Borghese, which of course is one of Rome’s most important museums. Cardinal Scipione Borghese amassed a huge collection of sculptures and paintings in the 17th century and either commissioned or bought works by his two favourite artists, Gianlorenzo Bernini and Caravaggio.
We somehow managed to get in not realizing we needed to buy a ticket and nobody checked. The Bernini sculptures were simply amazing,
Hades and Proserpina is the star of the show here, depicting the moment when the god Hades abducts Proserpina and takes her to the underworld. The indentation of the fingers of Hades where he grabs Proserpina on the leg are so realistic, Bernini’s skill at only 23 years old to create this masterpiece just blows you away.
The Apollo and Daphne sculpture, created when he was 24-27, run Hades and Proserpina a close second. Depicting the story from Ovid’s Metamorphosis where Daphne flees the amorous advances of the god Apollo and is turned into a laurel tree.
The three figure group representing the story from the Aeneid by Virgil, where Aeneas is carrying his aged father Anchises and son Ascanius on his shoulder as they escape from Troy is even more incredible as Bernini was only twenty years old when he sculpted it.
The David sculpture, executed when Bernini was 25-27, was interesting. Completely different to Michelangelo’s idealized pensive giant. Bernini’s was low and crouching, all about movement and action, as an angry realistic David is biting his lip. Groundbreaking features for its time.
We also liked Canova’s very evocative Neo-Classical Venus, portraying Napoleon’s sister Paolina. The Caravaggio paintings were sublime, we saw the Madonna of the serpents, St Jerome, the Sick Bacchus (a self Portrait) and the Boy with a basket of fruit that we’d already seen in London 5 years ago. There are also paintings by Titian, Raphael and Rubens here. Noticeable absences were Caravaggio’s St John and David with the head of Goliath, ironically on loan at the National Gallery in London. Still a pretty amazing gallery.
For our last day we decided on a couple of locations outside of Rome. Our first stop was Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli, 18 miles from the eternal city. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny morning as we arrived at what amounted to a small town. The site is actually 250 acres, larger than Pompeii. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, the one who built that long wall in England, had this summer residence, although he liked to live here all year round, built in 120 A.D. We again left Annette’s aged parents relaxing while we whizzed round trying to see as much as possible. The ruins were extensive and surprisingly well preserved. There were around 30 buildings,
The most famous and interesting was the Canopus. A large pool surrounded by copies of famous statues, including the Caryatids from Athens. Many other statues were discovered here and are now kept in various museums around the world. We had fun exploring the ruined buildings of what must have been an incredible place in its heyday.
In the afternoon we carried on to the famous gardens of the Villa d’Este, or as they are more commonly known, Tivoli Gardens. The 16th century villa was built on a hill with a huge terraced gardens and has 51 superate water fountains one more elaborate than the next. Sadly as we arrived the heavens decided to open, there was an electrical thunderstorm and all the fountains and lift down to the gardens were switched off. We waited around for it to clear up, but in vain.
After Annette’s parents went home we relaxed back home in Florence. We visited our favourite park at Pratolino and then checked out the castle of Cafaggiolo in the Mugello. Actually it was yet another Medici Villa, but it looked more like a castle. The Medici family actually originated from the Mugello area to the north of Florence and built several villas in this area. This particular villa lies on the road between Barberino and Scarperia. The estate was in the possession of the Medici from the 14th century and reconstructed in 1452 by Michelozzo. Its design is more classical and gothic rather than Renaissance looking more like a castle than a villa. After centuries of being used as one of the favourite Medici villas it was abandoned. In fact it had only reopened to the public in 2002 after many years of neglect. We enjoyed a tour of the inside and relaxed in our rug in the beautiful gardens surrounded by magnificent cedar and sequoia trees.
For the Festa della Liberazione holiday we booked a couple of nights near Gubbio in Umbria. On our drive we stopped at Monterchi near Arezzo to check out a fresco by Piero della Francesco. The Madonna del Parto, pregnant Madonna, which he frescoed in only 7 days in 1460 is housed in its own small museum and was well worth the detour.
And so on to Gubbio. We parked up near the Roman theatre, apparently the second largest theatre in the world. I don’t remember much about it. The weather was a bit dreary and we walked through the narrow, medieval streets to the top. The dark grey stone buildings in the rain didn’t make it a pleasant experience. The Palazzo dei Consoli however was impressive. This huge edifice was built from 1332-1349 and dominates the square standing alone and offers spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. We would visit Gubbio again and have a better impression, but I’m still trying and failing to love this town.
On our drive home we made another stop to see what Aldous Huxley described as ‘the greatest painting in the world’ and it’s that man again, Piero della Francesco. This time in Sansepolcro. The Resurrection is in the Museo Civico and is a great freso depicting Jesus stepping out of the tomb while four guards are sleeping. I found it quite comical, but the composition is filled with much symbolism.
In May we attended the ‘Open Courtyards and Gardens’ event. On the first weekend we stayed in Florence along with some friends. Our first destination was at the Torrigiani Gardens, we usually drive along Via Petrarca, the road that joins San Frediano to Porta Romana. The private gardens are hidden by an enormous wall and you can just see the spiral tower peeking over the top. At 17 acres it’s the largest private gardens inside city walls in Europe. In the 16th century it was a botanical garden, but bought by Pietro Torrigiani and transformed in the 19th century into a romantic English style garden covering 25 acres. We joined a guided tour, but wandered off on our own and kept getting told off. The gardens were beautiful, with some magnificent trees, including cedars, oaks and magnolias.
Our second port of call was the Palazzo Corsini al Prato, near Porta al Prato again hidden from view to the public by high walls. Built in 1594 by Bernardo Buontalenti the pretty villa is flanked by statues and surrounded by a pretty gardens. We had a nice stroll and enjoyed some baby turtles.
The following weekend we headed out to the village of Limite e Capraia to the Villa Bibbiani. Built by Cosimo Rodolfi, he decided to experiment with his botany skills by planting two dozen exotic trees. Some of these are now 300 years old. We enjoyed an extensive tour around the villa and then wandered around the 20 acre gardens admiring the palm trees, sequoias, junipers, cedars, pecan, chestnut, pine, magnolias and many cypresses. There was a cool stone arch, called ‘the arch of man’ which was the old entrance and a tree house built high up in the forest. (In 2018 the property was sold to an American magnate for €20 million.)
At the end of May we experienced our first wedding, Italian style. The ceremony was at the town hall in Prato, which just happened to be the 12th century Palazzo Communale. The main hall was frescoed in 1415 with biblical scenes and portraits of local benefactors.
The reception was in Comeana at the Villa Vittoria, another minor Medici villa. The gardens were nice with some cool statues.
At the end of June we went to a concert in the Castello dell’imperatore in Prato. It was built between 1237 and 1247 for the medieval king of Sicily, Fredrick II of the Holy Roman Empire and is a major landmark in Prato. Pretty cool for a concert too.
Stonehenge
We were in England from the middle of July to the middle of August and got to see a few art related places. It was amazing to think that in 30 years of living in England, I’d never seen Stonehenge, even though it is less than a hundred miles from Worthing. My mother had lived in the West Country for about 10 years and my brother was currently living in Devon. We drove him home from Worthing to Devon, so I took the opportunity to stop and finally see Stonehenge. Like many people I wasn’t that impressed. The site was quite small and we couldn’t really get near the 5,000 year old stones. Maybe I need to try another time.
The other site we visited was Bodiam Castle in Robertsbridge, East Sussex. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge a former knight of Richard II. Square in shape with a cool moat, the exterior is really well preserved, but the inside is mostly ruined. We joined onto a guided tour and enjoyed relaxing in the beautiful grounds.
For our Summer holiday we visited the Geeek island of Kefalonia, made famous by the book and film Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. Obviously most of our time was spent on the beautiful beaches, but we did find time to visit the monastery of Saint Gerasimos, the patron saint of the island. It’s a relatively new building as they suffered a massive earthquake in 1953 that destroyed 90% of the buildings. The walls are colorfully frescoed and everybody was going to kiss the Sant’s relics in a silver casket.
We went on a day trip to the tiny, historic island of Ithaca, home of Odysseus. There was a small archaeological museum in Vathi, the capital, that we visited. There was only one small room containing various vases from the Roman period.
In September my grandmother made her second visit to Florence, accompanied by my mother, in her third visit. I wanted to take them somewhere where they didn’t have to walk too much and so opted for the Medici chapels. It was my second visit here to see the Michelangelo sculptures, but I’m not sure they shared my enthusiasm.
We also took them to see Montepulciano, this time there was no scaffolding on the main Cathedral, the plain façaded, Santa Maria Assunta to blight the view. We enjoyed a drink in the square also admiring the Palazzo Communale, remodeled by Michelozzo in the 15th century.
In October we made only our second ever trip to Certaldo and we got to have a peak inside the Palazzo Pretorio. Dating from 1117-1164, there are some nice frescoes by the school of Benozzo Gozzoli, some Etruscan and Roman artifacts and today a rather erotic temporary exhibition.
We attended the Biennial antique fair in the very beautiful 17th/18th century Palazzo Corsini, (the one by the river Arno) it actually faces the British Institute library, where we work, so we were used to seeing the façade, as well as admiring some of the antique paintings on sale, by Canaletto, Poussin, Van Dyck, Canova and Tintoretto, it was great to see the inside of the Palazzo, especially the monumental staircase and grotto.
In October we visited Collodi, home of Italy’s world famous wooden boy, Pinocchio. There was a lovely villa and gsrdens there, Villa Garzoni. The villa was closed, so we could only see the outside, but the gardens were very impressive, somewhat reminiscent of those in Tivoli. Carved out of the side of the hill, with some cool water features and statues. Very pleasant to stroll around.
2006
142 Monte Olivetti Maggiore 2
143 Montichiello
144 Bagno Vignoni
145 Sant Antimo
146 Pienza 2
147 Galleria dell Accademia 4
148 Arnoldo and the origins of the Renaissance @ the Museum of the works of the Cathedral 2
149 Cathedral of Como
150 Villa Carlotta @ Lake Como
151 Villa Torrigiani @ Lucca
152 The Ufizzi 5
153 Santa Croce
154 History of Science museum @ Florence
155 Glass museum @ Montalcino
156 Archaeological park @ Baratti
157 Giambologna - ‘Gods and Heroes’ @ the Bargello
158 Alberti @ Palazzo Strozzi
159 Peterhouse, St John’s, Trinity colleges and bridge of Sighs @ Cambridge
160 Castello of Romena & Pieve @ Pratovecchio
161 Ghirlandaio @ Santa Trinità
162 Pistoia
163 Barga
164 Apoxymenos @ the Palazzo Medici Ricardi
As we were now living in a small flat on the outskirts of Florence, we took every opportunity to get out of the city and into the countryside. So in January we made the first of four Winter break holidays in the Val d’Orcia area of Tuscany. On our first visit I took Annette to Monte Oliveto Maggiore to see the Luca Signorelli and Sodoma frescoes.
We had a wonderful meal in the tiny Etruscan/Roman hamlet of Montichiello and a stroll round to admire some of the architecture and sights, such as the Teatro Povero.
We stopped for lunch in Bagno Vignoni, in the middle of the lovely old square with the square Etruscan/Roman Antiche Terme di Santa Caterina hot springs. In the afternoon we drove on to Sant’ Antimo for our first look at the abbey. Documents relating to the abbey date back to 813 A.D. and work started on it before 1118. Unfortunately it was having a facelift and had scaffolding on it, so we would have to return another time to see it in its full glory.
Obviously being close to Pienza we visited several times, stopping to admire the famous square, used by many filmmakers who wanted to recreate medieval Italy. This time we could appreciate the main square. Originally named Corsignano, the town was completely rebuilt by Renaissance humanist, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, or Pope Pius II as he would become, as an ideal Renaissance town., the first application of humanist urban planning. He renamed it Pienza, meaning city of Pius. Construction started in 1459 and the Cathedral consecrated in 1462. The trapezoidal square is surrounded by four buildings. The Cathedral, is one of the earliest Renaissance churches, but the bell tower, more Germanic.
To the right of the Cathedral is the three story Palazzo Piccolomini. the façade is similar to Alberti’s Palazzo Rucellai in Florence. Internally there are loggias in all three stories that overlook an Italian Renaissance garden and spectacular views over the Val d’ Orcia and Mt Amiata.
To the left is the Palazzo Vescovile, bishop’s Palace, which was built to encourage cardinals to come and stay and attend the Pope.
Across the square is the Palazzo Communale, or town hall. There is a beautiful three-arched loggia on the ground floor and a brick bell tower, slightly shorter than the Cathedral tower to show the churches superior power. In the square there is also a lovely well, built in travertine stone with the Piccolomini crest. The design of this well was copied all over Tuscany in the subsequent hundred years. All in all a perfect square, which has to be seen to be believed.
In the tv mini series ‘I Medici’ starring Dustin Hoffman they used Pienza for much of the filming.
My sister, Rita paid us a visit in March and I took her and her new partner, Mat to see David at the Galleria dell’ Accademia.
On a trip to San Gimignano they visited the torture museum, which I’m not sure qualifies as art.
On our way back to the airport I took them for a quick tour of the Piazza dei Miracoli and they went up the leaning tower.
At the end of March I attended a special exhibition at the Works Museum of Santa Maria dell Fiore called ‘Arnolfo at the beginnings of the Florentine Renaissance, celebrating the works of Arnolfo di Cambio, sculptor and architect of the early Renaissance. He was born in Colle Val d’Elsa, an are I had worked in a few years ago, in 1232/4. He built the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Palazzo Vecchio.
This exhibition brought together 100 works from various artists, most of which were in Florence anyway. However I got to see his Annunciation relief from the Victoria and Albert museum in London. They also had the Charles I of Anjou statue normally in the Capitoline in Rome and various pieces from private collections. As ever with these exhibitions it was interesting to see artworks by the same artist together in one place.
At Easter we booked a two-center holiday, in Piemonte and Como. In Piemonte, wine and food were the focus and Como, seeing the lake. We did get a glimpse of the Cathedral in the city of Como. Apparently the last Gothic Cathedral built in Italy in 1396. An imposing façade with Pliny the younger and elder sat on either side of the entrance.
We visited the very beautiful Villa Carlotta, complete with museum and botanical gardens. The architect of the white villa is unknown, but it dates from 1745. We had a tour inside the villa, where there were four copies of statues by Canovà, Eros and Psyche, the Muse of Terpischore, Palamedes and the Repentant Magdalene. Other sculptures included Bertel Thorvardsen’s Alexander and Luigi Acquisti’s Mars and Venus.
We had a nice wander in the gardens with their flowering camellias Azaleas and Rhododendrons. There were many species of tree to admire and a lovely little temple with gorgeous views out toward Bellaggio.
For May Day we took a drive out to Camigliano in the countryside near Lucca to check out the Villa Torrigiani. It dates back to 1593 belonging to the Buonvisi family. The south façade was rebuilt at the end of the 17th century in a Baroque style, with ornate balconies and statues. There is an English style park surrounding the villa which we enjoyed having a read on, before escaping a torrential downpour.
At the end of May my father came out to visit us. I took him to the Uffizi and there was also a special exhibition ‘The mind of Leonardo’ which we checked out at the end. Incredibly we got to see his chalk self-portrait from the Bibleoteca Reale in Turin and Jerome from the Vatican museum in Rome. I finally got to see Caravaggio’s Medusa shield, which my dad loved too, but Raphael’s Madonna was still absent (in its 7th year of restoration)
Dad had requested to see the History of Science Museum, now called the Galileo Museum. My dad worked in optical and Pharmaceutical companies, so had an interest in these kinds of objects. Set in the 11th century Palazzo Giudici, behind the Uffizi. It houses one of the world’s major collections of scientific instruments, from the Medici and Lorraine periods. There were twenty rooms of all kinds of weird and wonderful instruments, from telescopes to microscopes, barometers, lenses, pumps, electro-magnetics, clocks, surgical instruments. Probably the most bizarre item though, was Galileo’s middle finger (obviously the one he stuck up at the Catholic Church!)
On a roll I also showed my dad inside Santa Croce to see Galileo’s tomb, Giotto’s frescoes and Brunelleschi’s pretty Pazzi Chapel.
He timed his visit very well, as we took him to Cantine Aperte, to Castello Banfi’s estate in Montalcino at the 13th century castle of Poggio alla Mura. There was a small bottle and glass museum which we visited. It had pieces dating back to the 5th century B.C. The Roman glass collection is thought to be one of the largest in n the world and was fascinating.
For his leg by the coast, I joined him on the Friday. The weather, as is sometimes the case the first week of June, wasn’t that good. However that meant we could do something a little more interesting. We decided to check out the Archaeological park of Populonia and Baratti. I had driven past it many times, but it was usually too hot to come and visit. This open-air museum is a huge area, 80 hectares, starting from the hill of Populonia and stretching down to the sea at Baratti. It was only discovered in 1996 and opened in 2001. There are several routes you can take through the park, we opted for the ‘Via del Ferro’, or ‘iron way’. Here we skirted along the coast and saw some of the buildings used for manufacturing iron from the 6th to 3rd centuries B.C. Afterwards we went of a tour of some of the necropolises. Etruscan burial tombs from the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. It was an incredible experience wandering among these ruins, nearly 3,000 years old!
Only a week later we got to visit an exhibition in Florence at the Bargello museum. Our favorite Mannerist sculptor, Giambologna was being showcased with his own exhibition, ‘God’s and Heroes’. Giambologna, or Jean de Boulogne to give him his real name was born in the Flemish town of Douai, now part of France around 1529. At 21 he went to Rome and was influenced by the then 75 year old Michelangelo.
Of course there are already a few Giambologna sculptures here permanently, like the famous bronze Mercury, the large marble allegory of Florence triumphing over Pisa, the even bigger Oceanus and the bronze Bacchus.
They also had, amongst other things, the ‘Fiorenza’, or Venus bathing, from the Villa il Castello in Florence (now in The Villa Petraia). The Cesarini Venus from Rome small bronzes of Mercury, the Sabine and allegory of Astronomy from Vienna and the Mars from Dresden. The amazing Samson slaying a Philistine marble from the V&A museum in London, somewhat reminiscent of the Sabine group.
Incredibly, showing the riches I am surrounded with. The following day I went to check out yet another special exhibition here in Florence, this time dedicated to Renaissance man extraordinaire, Leon Battista Alberti. Of course Alberti is famous for his buildings, but the show brought together 130 pieces including works by other artists, with the highlight being the ideal city painting from Urbino, thought to be an original drawing by Alberti.
Alberti epitomized the whole range of Renaissance ideals, as an Architect, writer etc and his ideals influenced countless others who followed him.
We went up to Cambridge to visit Annette’s brother, Phil and this time were immersed in architectural magnificence. He managed to get us a fellow’s suite in his college, Peterhouse. Peterhouse is the oldest college in Cambridge, founded in 1284. He gave us a tour of the 1628, Renaissance style chapel, designed by Christopher Wren’s uncle, Matthew. Then he took us to see the 13th century dining room, with William Morris stained glass windows and our rom which had a huge four-poster bed.
We saw a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the grounds of the largest college in Oxbridge, Trinity.
We also got to walk over the Cambridge’s own Bridge of Sighs in St John’s college. The covered bridge, designed by Henry Hutchinson in 1831 was apparently Queen Victoria’s favourite spot in the city.
We started October with a drive out to Pratovecchio in the Casentino to the east of Florence. We had a look first at the castle of Romena, well the ruins anyway. The three Conti Guidi towers founded in the 11th century, stand at an elevation of 1,900 feet.
We also saw the Pieve of San Pietro a Romena, a small Parrish church which was very pretty. A 12th century building built over an 8th century church, it was damaged in a fissatelo in 1678 and an earthquake in 1729 and restored several times.
While walking to work down Via Tournabuoni I had a spare half hour and decided to go inside the Santa Trinità church and check out a particular fresco. The church has 20 chapels, but I had come to see the Sassetti chapel, masterpiece by Michelangelo’s master Domenico Ghirlandaio. The cycle has the stories of Saint Francis as its theme and one particular scene, the Confirmation of the Rule, sees St Francis being received by Pope Innocent III, but the background is Florence not Rome. Ghirlandaio has pictured Lorenzo the Magnificent and Angelo Poliziano tutor to the young Medici boys, Giuliano, Piero and Giovanni, who are ascending the steps. It’s a great fresco and well worth popping in to see.
At the end of October we paid a visit to Pistoia, which is about 29 miles west of Florence and somewhere I had stayed 16 years earlier, but never actually visited the city. This time we had a wander round some of the main sights and it was actually quite nice. Our first stop was at the Ospedale del Ceppo, somewhat reminiscent of the ospedale degli innocenti in Florence. It dates to 1277 and above the loggia has some pretty glazed ceramic frieze with to does by one of the della Robbia family.
We made our way to the very impressive piazza del duomo, with the pretty 12th century Cathedral of San Zeno with a Romanesque façade. The 14th century Gothic, Baptistry and bell tower. We went in the Cathedral and took a peak st the Madonna di Piazza altarpiece, once thought to have been painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, it is now attributed to his master, Verrocchio and Lorenzo di Credi.
In November we ventured a bit further to Barga, in the province of Lucca, 60 miles northwest of Florence. We visited the Collegiate church of San Cristoforo and admired the beautiful pulpit resting on lions.
We finished ofc the year with something a bit special. In 1996 a bronze figure covered in incrustations was fished out of the sea off the coast of Dalmatia. The Croation Athlete, Apoxyomenos underwent six years of cleaning and restoration, supervised by the Opifice della pietra dura here in Florence. It was dated to 50-40 B.C. A Roman bronze, from a Greek workshop. The wrestler/boxer was copied after a type of Greek model originally by Praxiteles who was around in 325 B.C. There are currently eight Apoxyomenos bronzes and this is the best preserved.
Before going back to Croatia it was on display here in Florence at the Palazzo Medici Riccardo for four months, from October 2006-January 2007. So of course we went to see it.
It was incredible. Standing at 6’3” or 192 cm, so life sized, it was so realistic it seemed as though it would step off its pedestal. The athlete is holding a ‘strigil’ an instrument for scraping off oil, after competing. The detail especially on his face and hair was quite remarkable. It was an unforgettable experience seeing him.
2007
165 Abbey of San Salvatore
166 Rocca di snd Sorano
167 Etruscan Museum @ Chiusi
168 Sant Anna in Camprena
169 San Quirico d’Orcia
170 Cezanne in Florence @ Palazzo Strozzi
171 San Galgano
Seville
172 Giralda, Real Alcazar, Casa Pilates
173 Plaza d’Espana
174 Cordoba Mesquita
175 Vermeer @ Modena
176 Collegiata @ San Gimignano
177 Villa San Michele @ Florence
178 Avignon
179 Roman Museum @ Vaison la Romain
180 Villa Rothschild
181 Villa Kerylos
182 Larry Fink @ the Alinari museum
183 Palazzo Publicco @ Siena
In January we returned for a short holiday to the Val d’ Orcia. We enjoyed lunch in Bagno Vignoni, but our first artistic stop was at the Abbey of San Salvatore. A long drive up to the 2,400 feet 800 meter-town on the side of Mt Amiata brought us to this small and slightly disappointing abbey. Founded in 743, it was given to the Benedictines and then the Cistercians. The exterior is a Proto-Romanesque style in dark grey stone. We should have gone inside for a look, but I think it was probably closed. It used to house the Codex Amiantus’ which is the oldest handwritten example of the Latin Vulgate bible, but it is now in the Laurentian library in Florence.
We drove on to the hill-top Etruscan town of Sorano, the smaller brother of Pitigliano and Sovana, all being built from the same light brown ‘tufa’ sandstone. The main building is the Rocca degli Orsini, an imposing military fortress built in the 14th century and renovated in 1552 by Niccolò IV Orsini, hence the name. It has two huge bastions flanking the main gate.
The next day we visited another Etruscan town of Chiusi. We had come to see the Etruscan tombs. Chiusi was one of the most important Etruscan towns between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C. and many important artifacts have been discovered here and are to be found in various museums around the world. We met up with our guide at the museum and then went to see no less than three very impressive tombs, the lions tomb, the pilgrims tomb and my personal favourite, the monkey’s tomb. All three contain their original frescoes. Then back at the museum we admired the many funeral urns, sarcophagi, bronze tools and superb Attic vases. My favourite piece was a mosaic of a wild boar hunt.
On our last day we took a quick peak at San Quirico in Val d’ Orcia. A lot smaller than nearby Pienza, but a couple of buildings worth seeing were the Collegiata church. A mishmash if different buildings and additions, starting with an 8th century Pieve (Parish church), the majority of the main building dates from the 12th century in the Lombard style with lions and other animals and more additions were made to the interior in 1653. Still the overall result is quite pleasant.
The other church, Santa Maria Assunta, dating from the 11th century is much more simple, but next to it are the very pretty Horti Leonini gardens, which we had a quick look at.
After a trip to England for a wedding, we paid a visit to the Villa Caruso in Signa, before checking out this Spring’s very special art exhibition at Piazza Strozzi, ‘Cézanne in Florence.’ It started on Mar 2 and tickets had been sold out for the first three weeks. The exhibition was celebrating the two American Cézanne collectors, Egisto Paolo Fabbri and Charles Alexander Loeser, who bought 47 of his paintings and displayed them in their Florentine residence and thereby contributed to the once despised painter gaining popularity. This exhibition brought back to Florence 20 of these canvasses from their various art galleries and a selection of paintings from the 1910 first impressionist exhibition in Florence, as well as 4 Pissarro landscapes, a Van Gogh portrait and a couple of Singer-Sargent’s. It was an incredible exhibition.
Some of the highlights included: Madame Cézanne in a red armchair, House on the Mame (from the Whitehouse) The Orchard and The Bathers, all on loan from the Met, the Hermitage and the National Gallery in Washington.
At the beginning of April we took a drive to the south of Tuscany to visit the roofless abbey of San Galgano. Built in 1224 by Cistercian monks, it was plundered by English Mercenary John Hawkwood in 1364. It became abandoned and the bell tower fell, destroying the roof. It was a fascinating experience walking amongst this ruined monastery, with light streaming in.
We also took a walk up the hill to Montesiepi, where San Galgano, a noble knight is said to have rode up and thrust his sword into a rock and renounce his warring ways. In 1184 the monks built a pretty round chapel over his grave and the sword in the stone.
Seville
For Easter we had decided to go to Seville for 5 days. Our hotel was opposite the Renaissance style Andalusian Parliament. Seville was founded as the Roman city of Hispalis, but conquered by the Moors in 712. Much of the architecture was influenced by this period. Ferdinand Magellan departed from Seville in 1519 for the first circumnavigation of the Earth. After the discoveries of the Americas Seville became one of the economic centers of the Spanish empire. Today it’s a thriving tourist city as we were to discover. Coming in third after Barcelona and Madrid.
Our first stop was to see the Golden tower It is a dodecagonal military tower built in 1220 overlooking the very wide river Gualdaquivir.
We carried on to the El Arenal district passing by the Real Maestranza, a 12,000 seater bullfighting arena, dating from 1749. It was actually quite a pretty structure considering what went on inside.
Eventually we made our way to the main square, where we were greeted by three major monuments. The Cathedral, bell tower and royal palace.
The Cathedral, Saint Mary of the see, originally a mosque, was converted into a church after 1248 and is the third largest church in the world, after St Peter’s in Rome and in Aparaceda in Brazil and the largest Gothic Cathedral.
We admired the 104 meter/342 foot Giralda bell tower, originally built as a minaret by the Moorish Caliphate Almohad in the 12th century. The Catholics added the Renaissance style top layer in 1568.
We decided to go inside the Real Alcazar, the Royal Palace opposite the Cathedral. It was built in 1366 in the Mudejar style over an already existing Muslim fortress. The entrance is through the impressive lion’s gate. We wandered through many rooms, patios and courtyards all decorated with these incredible little colorful geometric patterned mosaic tiles called azulejos. We went out into the equally beautiful gardens, with lovely terraces, fountains and ubiquitous orange trees.
The Alcazar was used in the filming of Lawrence of Arabia and would go on to be used for Game of Thrones.
The Cathedral, Giralda bell tower and the Real Alcazar all gained UNESCO World Heritage status in 1987.
After lunch we went to check out the Casa de Pilatos. Built in 1483 in the Renaissance style with Mudéjar elements. The first courtyard had some wonderfully bright bougainvillea. The rooms were, like the Alcazar, decorated like the royal palace with these incredible azulejo tiles, apparently there are over 150 different designs here. We enjoyed a guided tour of the upstairs rooms, with an intricate honeycombed ceiling. There are some nice frescoes by Italian artists Sebastiano del Piombo and Luca Girlordano and a Francesco Goya painting.
We took the train to Córdoba on a day trip, but unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable. However we had come here to visit a place recommended by our architect friend, Piero, the Moorish Mezquita. This mosque was built in 785. Inside there are a series of 856 red and white arches built in granite, jasper, marble and other precious stones. It’s an amazing visual effect. We walked around open-mouthed. I’d never seen anything quite like this. The overall harmony is somewhat spoilt by the Catholic Cathedral that was built in the 16th century right in the middle of the mosque. However it was an incredible experience. The Mezquita, along with the historic center of Córdoba were given UNESCO World Heritage status in 1994.
The rain had eased off a bit, so we decided to tackle the Alcazar, royal palace. It was built in 1328 and again, like the Alcazar in Seville had some impressive courtyards and patios. In some of the rooms there were huge Roman mosaic pictures mounted on the walls. The gardens were immense, with pretty waterfalls. Unfortunately the rain returned, but we had enjoyed our day in the lovely Córdoba.
The following day we took a walk out to the Plaza d’ España. Built in 1928 for the Ibero-American exposition in 1929 in a retro-Renaissance and Moorish style. There were these cute little ceramic benches representing different cities in Spain. We also saw the Parque Maria Luisa, with palm trees, flowers and fountains and the Mudéjar styled pavilion, also built in 1929, which is now a folk museum.
On our last day we walked past two beautiful buildings. The luxury hotel Alfonso VIII, which like the Plaza de España, was built in 1929 and the Royal Tobacco factory, built in the 18th century and now the university of Seville. Of course the building was the setting for Bizet’s opera, Carmen.
Back in Italy, at the end of April we paid our first visit to the elegant city of Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. We had lunch in the main square, Piazza Grande, which was breathtaking. The Torre Ghirlandina, built in 1179 on five floors, was imposing. Interestingly we saw it just before a four year restoration bargain in December 2007. but the Romanesque Cathedral, consecrated in 1184, was unfortunately half covered in scaffolding. The Cathedral complex had been awarded World Heritage status in 1997. Opposite the Cathedral was the 17th/18th century, Palazzo Communale complete with 15th century clock tower.
After lunch we saw some posters advertising an art exhibition at the Foro Boario, entitled ‘Vermeer - the girl at the harpsichord and painters of Delft’, so we went to explore. It turned out that this was the only Vermeer painting, on loan from the National Gallery of London.
In May my Auntie Fiorella paid her first visit to Florence. I took her and her friend to San Gimignano. Of course I had been here many times, but today the weather was awful so for the first time I had a peak inside the Collegiate church of Santa Maria Assunta. The church was made famous in the film Tea with Mussolini, which saw Judi Dench hiding the Ghirlandaio frescoes of Santa Fina from the Nazis. The frescoes are very beautiful so I can see why she wanted to protect them. There are other frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli, Lippo Memmi and others. I can definitely recommend having a peak.
In July Annette’s brother visited us and stayed at the Villa San Michele up in Fiesole. They invited us for dinner one night and a small tour and swim in the outdoor pool the next. The villa was originally a 15th century monastery. The present building has a façade which is thought to have been designed by Michelangelo and a spectacular loggia, where the outdoor restaurant is situated, overlooking Florence. Outside we spent some time relaxing in the beautifully sculpted gardens and Inside saw a nice fresco of the last supper.
For the first leg of our summer holiday we were touring round Provence and the Cote d’ Azure. We stayed in the pretty town of St Paul de Vence, where Russian/French artist Marc Chagall lived. There were lots of modern and contemporary art galleries here.
We then moved on to the Renaissance town of Barjac and then Chateauneuf du Pape (for obvious reasons) before spending a day in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Avignon. We had a guided tour on the famous half-bridge, Pont Saint Bénézet. Originally a wooden bridge built from 1177-1185, it was destroyed and a new bridge with 22 stone arches built in 1234. By the 17th century it was abandoned as the arches would collapse ever time the river Rhône flooded. Four arches and the gatehouse have survived. There is also a little 12th century chapel, St Nicholas on the bridge. We enjoyed our guided tour and even managed a little customary dance to the song ‘sur le pont d’ Avignon’.
It was good timing as we visited while they were in the middle of their arts festival and so we stopped to watch many street artists perform. Unfortunately we didn’t make it inside the Palais de Papes, the Popes’ Palace, but we admired it from the outside. Incredibly in the 14th century no less than 6 popes made Avignon their home. Construction of the palace begun in 1252 and became the Pope’s residence in 1309.
The Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral next to the Popes’ Palace wasn’t that memorable, but the overall effect of the two buildings in gleaming white stone, was pretty impressive.
We moved on to Vaison la Romain, which in contrast to the big, buzzy, bustling city of Avignon was almost deserted. It was however very pretty, with its Roman and Medieval ruins, together with the modern town. We walked up to the Castle of the Counts of Toulouse on the hill and down through the narrow, windy streets and over the small 1st century Roman bridge. Despite the hot weather we decided to visit the Archaeological Museum Theo Desplans. Unfortunately many of the artworks found here have been scattered to museums all around the world, but there are still some cool pieces here and a nice walk around the extensive ruins and the Theatre Antique, dating from 20 A.D.
We drove on to the Cistercian Abbey Senanque, famous for the lavender fields, of which there were some rows remaining, but it was actually quite a nice building and cloisters, dating from 1148.
For the second part of our French holiday we drove down to the Cote d’ Azure and our base in Beaulieu-sul-mer. We went for a couple of day trips to Nice and Monte Carlo, both slightly disappointing considering their fame.
We enjoyed the hill-top town of Eze more, but no art stories to report.
We were very near to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat which we did enjoy and we visited the two historical villas at each end. The first one was the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. This elegant rose colored villa was constructed between 1905-1912 and the gardens are classified by the French Ministry of Culture as one of the notable gardens of France. We enjoyed strolling among the nine themed gardens and the views over the coast were spectacular. There was a cool fountain display complete with music, which was amusing.
On our last day we spent a pleasant morning at another villa, the Villa Kerylos, built in the early 1900’s in an ancient Greek style, inspired by the 2nd century B.C. noble houses of Delos. The interior was inspired by houses from Pompeii, Rome and Egypt. It was very quirky to walk round a house in France with the feeling of being in Ancient Greece. There were all kinds of furniture and mosaics made to ancient designs from various museums.
In September I had a peak at a photographic exhibition at the Allinari museum in Piazza Santa Maria Novella. Entitled ‘Somewhere there’s music’ it was celebrating the work of American photographer, Larry Fink and especially his jazz musician photographs.
In November I found myself in Siena for the day and finally decided to check out the Palazzo Pubblico, or town hall. I’d been to Siena many times and always just seen the outside of this Medieval/Gothic stone and brick masterpiece and 102 meter/334 feet Torre del Mangia.
It was the seat of government of the Republic of Siena starting from 1297. On the first floor is the civic museum. Nearly all of the rooms are frescoed and the subjects are secular rather than religious, which was unusual for the time, as they were commissioned by the governing body of the city rather than the church. The Hall of the Nine is the main room where the nine chosen members of the council would sit and it’s here you can find the most famous frescoes, the Allegory of good and bad government, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Huge, sprawling, colourful scenes set in the city and countryside executed in 1338. In particularly I liked Simone Martini’s Siege of Montemassi in the Sala Mappamondo room, which also contains his impressive Maestà. There are lots of other frescoes by other artists here too and you can go out on the loggia and climb the 400 steps of the tower if you so wish.
2008
184 Luca Signorelli @ Cortona
Rome 10, 11
185-194 Forum, house of Livia, Moses @ San Pietro in Vincoli, Galleria della Spada, Caracalla Baths, Museo Nazionale,
Castel Sant’Angelo
San Luigi Francesi
Capitoline museum
195 Open courtyards and villas pt 2
196 Impressionists @ Palazzo Strozzi
Puglia
197-200 Lecce, Alberello, Ostuni, Trani
201 Salisbury Cathedral
202-203 Bath Royal Crescent, Spa
- Verona
205 Villa Borromeo, Isola Bella
206 Luca Signorelli @ Orvieto Cathedral
To start the year off we were back in the Val D’Orcia for five days. After our less than inspiring first trip to Cortona, we returned to give it another try. This time we visited a couple of museums and had a much better time.
We had lunch by the imposing Santa Maria Nuova church on the outskirts overlooking the valley of the Valdichiana towards Lake Trasimeno. The church was built between 1550-1610 and is attributed to Giorgio Vasari.
The Etruscan city of Cortona dates back to the 7th century B.C. and was originally part of Umbria. The Medieval streets are steep, narrow and winding and today fortunately there are few tourists.
Our first stop was the Diocesan museum, where we enjoyed the Luca Signorelli paintings depicting the life of Jesus. There were also two very beautiful Fra Angelico paintings, an Annunciation and the Cortona Triptych.
We moved on to the Etruscan museum, or MAEC ‘Museo Accademico Etrusco Cortona ‘ as it’s called here. It’s housed in the 13th century Palazzo Casali or Palazzo Praetorio. It actually only opened in 2005 in its present form. There are four floors, two above ground and two below.
The collection of Etruscan artifacts from several nearby necropoli is extensive and dates back to the 3rd century B.C. My personal favourite item was the bronze chandelier from the 5th/6th century B.C. There is also the Tabula Cortonensis, a 2,000 year old inscribed bronze document.
In February on a trip to Pistoia I popped in to see the Verrocchio painting ‘The Piazza Madonna’. Once attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci, but now experts agree his master Verrocchio executed it, starting in 1474 and finished with input from his studio and Lorenzo Credi in 1479.
For the Easter break we booked a four-day trip to the eternal city. Timed very well as all state museums in Italy were free that week. Being let loose in Rome is a bit like being a child in a sweet shop, where to begin?
We started with a guided tour of the Roman Forum. The tour was short and not particularly that good, but we had time afterwards to wander at our own pace and admire some of the incredible ruins. Normally if you walk at ground level you can’t see much, so it was good to go down below and see them up close. Of course there are so many buildings here, from so many periods. The Roman Forum was in use from the 8th century B.C. to 600 A.D. that’s 1,400 years of history!
Standout monuments were the Temple of Antoninus and Faustino, now converted into the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, the three Corinthian columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, part of the round Temple of Vesta, the house of the Vestals sculptures, the remains of the huge Temple of Venus and Rome and the two arches of Titus and Septimius Severus.
We were very lucky too as the recently restored 1st century B.C. House of Livia had just been opened and we got to have a special tour through the rooms with their incredible frescoes.
After this mammoth visit we just managed to squeeze in a visit to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli to see a certain tomb. It is a pretty unassuming church built in 432/440 to house the chains that were supposed to have bound St Peter when he was imprisoned in Jerusalem. It is the family church of the Della Rovere family, whose most famous son, Giuliano became Pope Julius II, the man who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. He also wanted Michelangelo to create a monumental tomb for him with no less than 47 statues. He did carve about 20 statues, but only 3 actually ended up on the tomb, Rachel, Leah and the main attraction, which is pretty special, that of Moses. Bearded, Seated, holding the Ten Commandments, glaring out at the Israelites, with two small horns. Michelangelo thought it was so lifelike he struck the knee and commanded it to speak.
Day 2 and we had a wander through some different neighborhoods. We put our hands in the ‘Bocca della Verità’ alla Roman Holiday. This was in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. The 1,300kg marble, probably depicts the god Oceanus and was originally a drain cover in the very beautiful round Temple of Hercules Victor opposite.
As the museums were free we had a very quick peak in the Galleria della Spada. I just wanted to look at the Baroque style Francesco Borromini courtyard, a forced perspective gallery created as an optical illusion made to look longer than it really is. Very bizarre.
Day 3 and we headed out to the Baths of Caracalla for the morning, this was the setting for the famous 1990 three tenors concert.
Built around 212 A.D. and used until 530 the public baths covered 62 acres and could hold from 6,000-8,000 bathers a day. We again got in for free and also made use of the audio guide and wandered round the various rooms, such as the large central frigidarium, tepidarium, caldarium and gyms. The roofs are gone, but many of the walls are fairly intact. Of the once huge granite columns, only one survives and was given as a present and stands near where I work in Florence. There are many cool mosaics dotted around to give you an idea of the decorations that would have adorned this enormous structure.
In the afternoon we escaped the rain by visiting the Museo Nazionale Romano. I’m not sure I realized it at the time, but it’s actually four museums in one. We visited the main building the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme. A neo-Renaissance building erected from 1883-1887 and from 1981 forming part of the National Museum of Rome. It houses mainly sculptures and archaeological discoveries from Ancient Rome. We walked around the first two floors and saw some amazing sculptures. The bronze Boxer at Rest was my favourite. It’s a Greek Hellenistic sculpture, which along with the Seleucid Prince was dug out of the Quirinale hill in Rome in 1885 and dated from 330-50 B.C. It is perfectly preserved and the detail is quite unsurpassed in art history. His cuts and bruises, broken nose, cauliflower ears are unbelievably realistic.
The other bronze, the Seleucid or Hellenistic Prince, dates from the 2nd century B.C. and is now thought to portray a Roman general and executed by a Greek artist living in Rome. His is resting on his spear in a pose somewhat similar to Lyssipos’ Hercules.
There were many other cool marble sculptures to admire, such as the Tiber Apollo, the Menophantos Aphrodite.
On the second floor were some of the frescoes that adorned the villa of Livia, wife of Augustus on the Via Flaminia. The frescoes were discovered in 1863 and date back to 1st century B.C. The garden scenes of trees, plants, flowers and fruit were wonderful and the different shades of blue and green were glorious, especially considering they were painted 2,000 years ago.
We were also lucky to see a special exhibition of frescoes from Naples and Pompeii entitled ‘Rosso Pompeiano’ showcasing the deep red paint used in the frescoes of these Roman houses in ancient Pompeii. Not many paintings exist from antiquity, so we had a real treat.
For our last day we packed in yet more artistic treasures by heading out towards the Vatican. We had a stroll round St Peter’s square and discovered you could actually go inside the Castel Sant’ Angelo.
We picked up our free ticket and went in to explore. Built in 123-139 A.D. this was originally the Mausoleum of Hadrian, but later used by the popes as a fortress and castle and today is a museum. The name Sant’ Angelo comes from the legend of 590 A.D. when the archangel Michael is said to have appeared at the top of the castle and shesthed his sword as a sign of the end of the plague. In the 14th century the popes converted it into a castle and fortress where in 1527 Pope Clement VII hid from the sack of Rome. In 1536 Raffaele di Montelupo (the next town from where I live) sculpted a bronze of the archangel Michael for the top of the castle. It was replaced by a newer sculpture executed by Finnish artist, Peter Anton Von Vershaffelt in 1753 and you can see the old one in the courtyard near the top. The castle was also used as a prison by the popes and in fact the Florentine artist Benvenuto Cellini was one of its more famous prisoners. The castle was also the setting for Puccini’s 1900 Opera, Tosca, where the heroine leaps to her death in the final act. More recently it was featured in the Dan Brown book, Angels and Demons. The film was due to be shot next year. There wasn’t really a lot inside the castle, but the views of Rome were pretty spectacular.
We crossed the monumental Ponte Sant’ Angelo bridge, also built by Hadrian in 134 A.D. the 10 angels adorning the bridge were executed by various sculptors during the 17th century.
We walked on to the Piazza Navona and admired this beautiful square. It was built on the old 1st century A.D. stadium of Domitian around the 15th century. Surrounded by some nice buildings, such as the church of Saint’ Agnese in Agone by Borromini and the Pamphili Palace. There are three fountains, but the star attraction is of course the masterpiece of Gianlorenzo Bernini, the Fountain of the Four Rivers with the obelisk of Domitian in the center.
I took Annette to see the three Caravaggio paintings that I’d seen three years ago in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, just round the corner. The calling, inspiration and martyrdom of St Matthew in the Contarelli chapel were still looking awesome.
Our last stop of this incredible four day feast was the Capitoline museums, to see a couple more Caravaggio paintings. Again I’d been here three years ago, but it was a pleasure to return. They had revamped the museum since I was last here. The Marcus Aurelius bronze horse sculpture now had its own courtyard. We enjoyed seeing the Capitoline Venus and all the other marvellous marbles. Bernini’s head of Medusa and the she wolf proved hard to find and the wounded Gaul was still dying. We admired the amazing view of the Forum from the terrace that connects the Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo. We said goodbye to Rome on Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the Campidoglio, with the statues of Castor and Pollux gazing out to the sunset, literally.
Back in Florence on a drive up to Fiesole, we bump into a small minastery we have never seen, the Badia Fiesolana. Dating to 1025-1028. It has a really pretty façade dating from the 15th century and is now the seat of the European University Institute.
We paid our third visit to the Villa Bellosguardo, or Caruso’s Villa as its affectionately known, in Ladtra a Signa. We had a nice stroll round the gardens. There was a flower and painting exhibition and we caught the end of a classical concert.
At the end of April we welcomed Annette’s mum, who enjoyed her third visit to see us. We took her to Lucca and for the first time went inside the lovely Palazzo Pfanner, built in 1667 and setting for the 1996 film, Portrait of a Lady. It was a beautiful day and the roses and lemons were out and waterfalls working, making it a beautiful sight.
We also took a drive out to Artimino and enjoyed a picnic in front of the villa. Known affectionately as ‘the villa of the 100 chimneys’, the Villa Medici La Ferdinanda was built in 1596-1600 by Bernardo Buontalenti for Ferdinand I de’ Medici.
We drove down to Pienza for lunch and while we were there we wanted to show Msvis where we stayed for New Year’s near Sant’ Anna in Camprena, the monastery they used for filming in the English Patient and what do you know it was finally open. So we had a wander around the gardens and even got to have a peak inside at the il Sodoma frescoes. Apparently you can stay here in the summer too.
In May I attended my second/third? Open Courtyards and Gardens’ day in Florence. On the Saturday morning I cycled into the center to see how many I could visit.
My first stop was the at the Palazzo Rucellai in Via della Vigna Nuova. It was designed by Renaissance man, Leon Battista Alberti between 1446-1451 and was one of the first buildings to fulfill the ideals of the Renaissance. The three levels of the grid-like façade have three classical orders of pilaster, Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian. I get to go inside and have a look at the courtyard with its columned arches. Opposite the Palazzo is the Rucellai Loggia, also designed by Alberti for the Rucellai family and displaying the family emblem, billowing sails.
My next port of call is the Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni, in Piazza Trinità, in Vis Tournabuoni. Designed by Bacio d’Agnolo 1520-1523. It was the first palace in Florence built according to the "Roman" Renaissance style, details included the portal with columns at the sides, the use of pilasters, the square windows with a triangular pediment and the rusticated corners. Again I got to go inside to the Classical style courtyard, with porticos, columns and round arches.
Next up I cycled round to the Palazzo Corsini on the Arno. I’d been inside before to see the Biennial art show, but today I have the place virtually to myself with an unspoilt view of the monumental spiral staircase. I came back later for a musical concert in the courtyard. A 12-piece woodwind rendition of Mozart’s Magic Flute and some Debussy.
For my fourth Palazzo of the morning I came to the Palazzo Antinori, in Via Tournabuoni, a building close to my heart being owned by the Antinori wine family. Designed by 1461-1469 Giuliano da Maiano, with embellishments by Bacio d’Agnolo. The Palazzo housed my school, the British Institute of Florence from 1923-1966. In the courtyard I am treated to another musical interlude by a string trio. I went for a stroll in the pretty gardens too.
I moved on to the Palazzo Guicciardini, next to Boboli Gardens. Opposite is the house where Dostoyevsky wrote ‘the Idiot’. The courtyard here was cool and there was a copy of Amananti’s Hercules and Caccus sculpture. The garden was very impressive with blooming roses everywhere.
I had a quick peak in the Palazzo Bartolozzo (not very much to see) and the Palazzo Ricasoli (slightly better) rounding off a grand total of 7 Palazzi in 3 hours.
After lunch I picked up Annette and the car for the afternoon leg.
We drove up and out of Florence, through San Domenico to the tiny hamlet of Maiano, home of the famous sculptor, Giuliano da Maiano. The Villa Maiano was built in the 15th century. In 1850 British politician, John Temple Leader bought it. Queen Victoria was a famous visitor and sketched the pond in 1893. The Gothic style central keep, was somewhat reminiscent of the Villa Petraia. The views over Florence, Fiesole and Settignano were spectacular and we enjoyed strolling in the terraced garden with boxwood hedges. There was a cool abandoned Neo-Gothic pool too.
Our last villa of the day is on the Via just outside of Fiesole. The Villa Nieuwenkamp, was built over an existing property in the 19th century and belonged to the Badia Fiesolana. It was bought by the Dutch painter, engraver and architect Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp in 1926. After traveling extensively in the Dutch Indies he settled here and decorated the villa with lots of objects he had collected along the way. We caught a guided tour of part of the house along with the gardens, with their many fountains, statues and marble furniture. We even got to meet the current owner and her daughter.
All in all a pretty productive day, 9 villas and lots of memories.
We were given free tickets to the premier of the Summer exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi entitled ‘Impressionism - painting light, the hidden techniques of Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh’. After all the speeches and buffet dinner we got to have a walk round the day before the show was open to the public. The exhibition brought together over 60 canvasses from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, Germany. The idea was to show how new innovations in artists materials, such as paint in metal tubes and flat knives and brushes allowed the artists to paint outdoors en plain air and show the effects of light and shade. We got to oggle at Masterpieces from Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet, Gauguin and Cézanne, all on our doorstep and for free.
For our Summer holiday we were in the heel of Italy, Puglia. We didn’t visit any museums, but saw plenty of cool architecture. We stayed in a traditional ‘Masseria’ complex near San Vito dei Normani. We popped into the town a few times
We visited the ‘white town’, Ostuni. Inhabited since the Iron Age, it was a town in the 7th century B.C. then destroyed in the Punic wars in the 3/2century and rebuilt by the Greeks and given the name, Ostuni, meaning ‘new town’. It was then sacked in during the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In 996 A.D. it became part of the Norman county of Lecce and the Norman’s built a medieval town on the hill. The main Romanesque Cathedral was built in the 13th century, but damaged and then rebuilt in the 15th century in a Gothic style. The Bishop’s Palace and Scoppa Arch were cool too. We had a nice wander along the narrow white streets, dinner in a cool restaurant and listened to a concert in the square with the Saint Orontius column.
We also had a day in Alberobello, world famous for the very peculiar Trulli houses. Given UNESCO World Heritage status in 1996. Alberello is a relativo new town dating only from the 16th century. We found the town full of tourists, but the trullo houses were very unusual. The reason for their existence is that the owners of the territory imposed a building tax, so to get round not paying the tax the peasants came up with a unique dry stone wall structure using only bricks and no mortar, so they could easily be taken down. The roofs were decorated with elaborate pinnacles and sometimes the signature of the builder. Today they have become the symbol of Puglia, or Apulia as it’s known in Britain. We had a guided tour, coffee in a Trullo and stayed for dinner in a Trullo too.
We spent a very pleasant day in Lecce, which is sometime called ‘the Florence of the South.’ We parked up near the castle and made our way to the main square, Piazza Duomo. The Cathedral dates from the 12th century, but was rebuilt in the 17th century. All the buildings are made in this almost white local limestone. We saw the 2nd century Roman Amphitheater in Piazza Saronzo and strolled through the very elegant Baroque streets.
On our last day we stopped in Trani and had a walk along the seafront. We admired the Romanesque Trani Cathedral, dating from 1143. It is made of a local stone and is light pink, almost white and there is an unusual arch under the bell tower.
Bath
Our trip back to England was pretty uneventful Art wise, but I did get to go with my mother and grandmother to see my brother, Carl, who was living between Bristol and Bath. On the journey down we stopped off for coffee in Salisbury, in the cloisters next to the Cathedral.
After seeing Carl we checked in to our hotel near the Severn Bridge and headed out to Bristol for dinner.
The following morning we spent some more time with my brother and then had a picnic lunch on the lawn of the Royal Crescent in Bath.
In the afternoon while my grandmother waited in the car, I had a whizz round the city with my mother. I spotted the Roman Baths and I treated my mother to a guided tour. As an extra treat the audio guide was read by one of my favorite authors, travel writer, Bill Bryson, who added a bit of sardonic humor.
The complex was huge with four main areas, the sacred spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the museum. The site of the baths may have been a center of worship by the Celts.
The hot springs were dedicated to the god, Sulis. Geoffrey Monmouth’s ‘fictional’ history of Britain describes how in 836 B.C. the springs were discovered by the British king, Bladud.
The Roman Temple was built in 60 -70 A.D. and for the following 300 years the caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium were added. Most of the structure above ground was built later.
The museum houses Roman artifacts such as coins and votive offerings. One of the oddities here are the 130 curse tablets, generally aimed at people who had stolen possessions from the changing rooms and invoking the wrath of the gods to take revenge.
Verona
We still had two weeks left of holiday before returning to work. One of my students had kindly offered us his family flat in Verona for 5 nights. We decided to take our tent and go camping on Lake Maggiore and Liguria.
Our flat was near Piazza Zeno, so we went to check out the church, the Romanesque Basilica of San Zeno. It was constructed between 967-1398 and is traditionally where Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet were married. The bronze doors with 48 panels were cool and are thought to date from the 11th century. The triptych alter piece by Mantegna, executed between 1457/60 was very impressive. The Romanesque cloisters belonging to the abbey next door were beautiful and a haven of tranquility.
We had lunch in the courtyard of the Castelvecchio and walked over the stunning Scaglieri bridge. Afterwards we walked through Piazza Bra (to pick up Opera tickets at the Arena) and then to Piazza Erbe, the Roman archway, finishing up at the Duomo.
After a few days on Lake Garda we were back in Verona. We decided to check out the Roman theatre. (not to be confused with the Arena amphitheater) Built in the 1st century B.C. alongside the Adige river. They show plays here during the summer. We walked across the Ponte Pietra, the oldest bridge on Verona, built in 20B.C. There is also an archaeological museum, which we had a wander round, with many artifacts and a cool mosaic of Bacchus and some panthers.
Afterwards we took the short walk to the Giusti Gardens, one of the finest in Italy and a favourite place of Goethe. The gardens were planted in 1580 and are a series of terraces climbing up the hill. There are some huge cypress trees here and and we have a quick run round the maze.
On our journey to Lake Maggiore we made a stop at Bergamo for lunch. We parked up and walked up to the upper part of the city through the 16th century Venetian walls.
The 15th century Colleoni chapel was really pretty and we had a stroll to the Piazza Vecchia, a very harmonious square where we admired the Palazzo della Ragione, bell tower and cool staircase.
Arriving at Lake Maggiore we found a campsite at Baveno, right on the lake. The following day we took a boat to visit two of the three small islands.
Isola dei Pescatori, or Isola Superiore had some pretty streets and nice buildings and we had lunch there.
Isola Bella was a bit special. Completely owned by the Borromeo family, they built a Palazzo starting from 1632 and the gardens weren’t completed until 1671. We enjoyed a guided tour of the Palace, walking through beautifully furnished and decorated rooms, cobblestone and shell grottos. The Baroque gardens were incredible, with various terraces, statues, a theatre and white peacocks wandering freely.
In November we drove down to Orvieto for the day. We went inside the Cathedral to see the Luca Signorelli frescoes of the last judgement and apocalypse, executed between 1499-1504 in the Brizio Chapel. They are somewhat reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel painted after Luca Signorelli’s from 1508-1512. In fact Vasari recounts that Michelangelo saw and admired the Signorelli frescoes.
2009
207 Correggio @ Parma
208 Raphael Madonna and Chaffinch @ 209!Palazzo Medici Ricardi
210 Canova @ Forlì
211 Uffizi 6
212 Vasari Corridor
Paris
213-215 Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Versailles
216 Walking with Palladio
217 Salisbury
218 Bath
219 Open Villas autumn edition
220 Venice
This was a pretty impressive year. Our first outing of the year was to the small city of Parma in Emilia Romagna, famous for its cured ham and strong cheese. We had come here to see a special exhibition of Correggio. Parma dates back to the Bronze Age between 1500-800 B.C. and was founded as a city by the Etruscans. A Roman colony was established here in 183 B.C. The weather was freezing when we came, so we were glad to be inside, however we had time to admire the 1196 octagonal baptistery, made of pink Verona marble. Next to it is the 1059 Cathedral and Gothic 1284-94 bell tower.
The Correggio exhibition was situated in four locations, the Cathedral, the National Gallery, the Camera di San Paolo and the church of San Giovanni. Some of his work is here permanently and other works were brought in from other galleries all over the world. Antonio da Correggio was born, as his name suggests, in a small town called Correggio, near Reggio Emilia in 1489. He was apprenticed in Modena, then went to Mantova and back to Correggio. In 1516 he started working in Parma, where he stayed until his death in 1534 at the age of only 44. Now considered to be revolutionary, his work became popular in the Romantic period of the 18th and 19th centuries.
The main works were concentrated in the Palazzo della Pilotta which houses the National Gallery of Parma. There were several Correggio paintings already here which we saw, including ‘Martyrdom of Four Saints’, ‘Madonna della Scodella’, ‘the Deposition’ and ‘Madonna and child with Jerome and Mary Magdalene ‘. There were many other artworks by famous artists here, by Van Dyck, Parmigianino, Guercino, Carraci, Fra Angelico, El Greco and Hans Holbein. We also saw the famous ‘Scapigliata’ cartoon by Leonardo Da Vinci.
There were other Correggio paintings brought in from other galleries, such as the loves of Jupiter paintings inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphosis. The beautiful ‘Jupiter and io’ and Ganymede from Vienna. Leda and the Swan from Berlin. Danaë from the Borghese Gallery in Rome. Venus and Cupid with a Satyr from the Louvre and the ‘Nativity’ from Dresden.
In the Cathedral we saw the amazing Correggio fresco, Assumption of the Virgin. Painted between 1526-1530, the whole vault is covered with one whole pictoral unit. The illusionist technique of foreshortening, whereby the figures appeared to come out to the viewer were unique at that time.
The Camera di San Paolo was in the monastery. Again, like the Cathedral, the whole ceiling was frescoed as if it were a pergola opening to the sky. Groups of putti looked down and there were trompe l’oeil lunettes with statues. The effect was fascinating.
The last place we visited was the church of Saint John the Evangelist. Correggio executed five frescoes for this church between 1520-1522. Some had been removed and were in the National Gallery, but here remained the vault depicting John’s vision of the ascension while on Patmos, in the pendentives the four evangelists and the lunette above the altar of John with an eagle. Again a quite remarkable fresco and a remarkable exhibition of an undervalued and under appreciated artist.
In February I finally got to see Raphael’s Madonna del Cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch. This was a painting that was usually in the Ufizzi, but had just undergone a 6-10 year restoration. It was on show in the Palazzo Medici Riccardi before going back to the Ufizzi, so I took the opportunity to go and see it.
Raphael painted this particular Madonna in 1506/7 and gave it as a wedding gift to his friend, Lorenzo Nasi. In 1548 Nasi’s house was destroyed by an earthquake and the painting broke into 17 pieces. It was put back together, but the seems were visible. In his Florentine period Raphael painted two other similar compositions, the Madonna of the Meadow (in Vienna) and La Belle Jardinière (in the Louvre).
The colors were superb and the young and beautiful Madonna was clothed in red (symbolizing Christ’s passion) and blue (symbolizing the church). The baby John is holding out a Goldfinch (symbolizing Christ’s crucifixion) and Jesus is reaching out to touch it. The peaceful, natural surrounding frames the picture giving a sense of calmness to the scene.
For our half-term break we took a drive out to Gaiole-in-Chianti and ended up doing the ‘Via dei Castelli’, which is a route that takes you to various castles of the area. First stop was at Castello di Cachiano. Founded in the 10th century by the Ricasoli family, during the Middle Ages it played a crucial role in the Florence Siena wars. In the 16th century it was transformed into a villa and farm and today is run as an agriturismo holiday homes and produces its own wines.
Our second stop was at Castello di Brolio, somewhere we had been to a few times before. for some wine tasting at the enoteca. We admired the views of the castle, originating from 1141, but rebuilt in the 1500’s, from the road.
Our third stop was at Castello di Meleto, again somewhere we had already seen before, this time however we joined on to a guided tour. Originally owned by the Benedictine, in 1269 Meleto, like Brolio and Cachiano was listed as the property of the Ricasoli family. The huge cylindrical fortifications were added in the 15th century. We got to see some of the rooms and the small theatre.
Next we moved on to the Castle of Spaltenna, a little group of houses now a ‘Small Luxury hotels of the World ‘. built around Pieve of Santa Maria, which dated back to 1102. The hotel had a delightful outdoor restaurant.
Our last stop was Vertine, again there was a beautiful hamlet of stone houses, a cool tower and old church, San Bartolomeo. The castle was first documented in 1013 and again came into the ownership of the Ricasoli family in 1203. We had a wander round and soaked up the atmosphere of this lovely place.
At the end of February we took the train up to Forlì, near Bologna for an exhibition of one of our favourite sculptors, Canova. We had already seen some of his works in Florence and other areas of Italy and do were looking forward to this.
The exhibition was entitled ‘The Classic ideal between sculpture and painting.’ It brought together, at the San Domenico museum, over 200 works of art, including 26 marble and plaster sculptures.
Antonio Canova was born in Possagno, in the Veneto region in 1757. Like Michelangelo he grew up with stonecutters and in fact was already carving marble before the age of ten. At 13 he began his apprenticeship in Venice at the Academy and at 20 was carving life sized figures, like hid Orpheus and Eurydice. At 23 he went to Rome where he studied and sketched Michelangelo . He then carved his Theseus and the Minotaur and then various funerary works. The next ten years were very fruitful sculpting Cupid and Psyche, the Hebe and Penitent Magdalene. By 1800, at the age of 43 he was the most celebrated sculptor in Europe. His Neo-Classical sculpting in highly-polished, white marble was obviously very popular and he began acquiring Royal patrons from all over the continent, including Napoleon. His masterpieces from this time included Mars the Peacemaker, Venus Victrix and in 1814 his crowning glory, the Three Graces. He returned to Italy and sculpted the Italic Venus and what would turn out to be his own tomb, the Tempio Canoviano. He died in Venice aged 64.
There were works by many artists, but of course Canova was the star. The three sculptures he made in Forlì were here. The Dancer with her finger on her chin, (from Washington) the Funeral Stele relief and the (second) Hebe. Hebe was one of the daughters of Zeus and his cupbearer. Canova had sculpted her in 1800/05 almost as if she were floating, holding a cup in one hand and a jug in the other.
Also here were Psyche revived by Cupid’s kiss, the Dancer, holding up her dress and the Penitent Mary Magdalene all from the Hermitage, his two Boxers from the Vatican and the Italic Venus from the Pitti Palace in Florence.
Two of the Hebes were placed next to the ancient sculptures, Adriadne with the Panther, from the Ufizzi, (no doubt influence for his Venus Victrix) and the Hellenistic (headless) Dancer at Tivoli, from Hadrian’s villa (inspiration for his Dancer). Nearby was Giambologna’s Mercury in flight. The Terpsichore Orpheus from the Hermitage was here too as was the beautiful (standing) Cupid and Psyche from the Louvre.
It was an incredible collection of this prolific sculptor, giving us a detailed glimpse into Canova’s sculptures and influences and a desire to see more of his work.
Vasari Corridor
Back in Florence Annette got a very special birthday present. She’d been teaching a group of ladies who worked at the Ufizzi and they had invited her (and me) on a free private tour of the Vasari Corridoor. At the time it was closed to the public, or you could pay in excess of €100 a head for a closed group tour.
The Vasari corridor is an elevated, enclosed passageway connecting the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace. We met the ladies in their offices under the Ufizzi at 8.30am and they took us for a brief walk round an empty Ufizzi as it hadn’t opened yet. It was incredible being almost completely on our own, standing in front of all these masterpieces. Annette got her first look at Caravaggio’s restored Medusa shield and we got to see Raphael’s Madonna of the Goldfinch again, in its newly installed original spot. We met up with our group found the secret door and started our journey over Florence.
Built in only five months by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de’ Medici so he and his family could move freely about the city without having to mix with the plebs. or any would be assassins.
It was really bizarre having a completely new view of roads and the Ponte Vecchio that we were used to walking along. We wound our way from the Palazzo Vecchio, alongside the Ufizzi and parallel to the river Arno. Over the Ponte Vecchio, around the Torre dei Manelli, because the owners refused to alter it, past the Santa Felicita church, where there was a private viewing balcony do the Medici family could even hear mass undisturbed. There were many self-portrait paintings on the walls
that had been donated by the artists, the Marc Chagall one was definitely a highlight, but it was the view over Florence out of the tiny windows that was fascinating. We finally exited next to Buontalenti’s Grotto in Boboli garden, next to the Pittii Palace,
For our Easter holiday we went to Paris for five days. It was our first time here in ten years, when I had proposed, so a ten-year anniversary return was quite appropriate. We stayed in the very upmarket area of St Germain des Pres, just across the road from the two famous historic bars, Cafe Flore and Les Deux Maggots.
On our second day we strolled through the Latin Quarter and checked out the huge Neo-Classical Pantheon, built from 1758-1765 and the mish-mashed 1646 church of St Sulpice which had scaffolding on it and then went for a cruise on the river Seine. We had a wander around the íle de la Cité and admired Notre Dame. Built from 1163-1345 the Gothic Cathedral was immortalized in the Victor Hugo novel about a certain hunchback. Then on the recommendation of some friends took the Metro to the Place des Vosges, a small square near the Bastille in the Marais district. It’s actually the oldest square in Paris, originally called the Royal Place, built in 1605 by Henry IV. There was a pretty garden with linden trees in the middle where you can relax on. There were arcades around the edge with some interesting shops, cafes and art galleries. A peculiarity was that all the surrounding houses had the same design and colour, of red bricks and blue, slate dormers, giving a harmonious effect. There have been many famous residents in the square, most notably Victor Hugo at No. 6. The house now houses a museum to the great writer.
Day 3 unable to contain ourselves any longer we headed straight for the world’s largest and most visited museum, the Louvre. I was finally going to see the Mona Lisa.
The Louvre was originally a castle, built in the 12th and 13th century. In 1546 it was converted into a palace and in 1682 Louis XIV moved to Versailles leaving the royal art collection of mostly Greek and Roman sculptures in the Louvre. The museum opened in 1793 with a collection of 537 paintings. (today there are over 460,000 objects) The collection was increased under Napoleon and subsequent kings. About 36,000 objects are on display in 8 different museums within the Louvre. Unless you spend all day in here, or visit several times, you kind of have to choose your poison. In fact there were 25 rooms dedicated to just the Italian paintings.
After getting in, under the famous glass pyramid, with no time spent queuing (like most people) we went for the Denon wing. Passing on the way on top of the Daru staircase, the Magnificent Winged Victory of Samothrace a 2nd century B.C. Original Greek sculpture. Discovered in 1863 in Turkey. It is one of the greatest surviving Hellenistic marbles and breathtaking to behold. The Mona Lisa was with the other Italian paintings and is kept behind a bullet proof window. When I was there, there was also a barrier up, so you couldn’t get very close and of course hordes of people. It was smaller than I had imagined and behind the barrier it was the size of a postage stamp. Unlike the Sistine Chapel, although it was great to finally see it, to say it wasn’t a slight disappointment I would be lying. Still there was so much more to see here. Just round the corner we’re some of Leonardo’s other paintings. The incredible Virgin of the Rocks, which was bigger than the Mona Lisa and you could get much closer. The pretty Virgin and child with Saint Anne, La Belle Ferroniere and his haunting John the Baptist. There were no less than 18 Raphael paintings, including La Belle Jardinière and We also saw Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin and the Fortune Teller. As we were in Paris we thought we should at least check out some French paintings, so we saw Jacques Lois David’s Coronation of Napoleon and Oath of Horatti. Gericault’s Raft of Medusa was pretty impressive.
We moved on to the sculpture section starting with the Venus de Milo, in a corridor on its own. Of course arguably the most famous sculpture in the world (although Michelangelo might have something to say about that) it was found by a peasant in 1820 amongst some ruins on the island of Milos. Interestingly the fame of the sculpture might have been helped by a propaganda effort by the French authorities when they had to give back the Medici Venus to Italy and wanted to promote their Venus as greater. I’ve seen the Medici Venus several times and it is pretty special, but I guess that’s the power of self-promotion. Anyway the Venus de Milo, even without her arms is a mesmerizing masterpiece. You could walk round it and get quite close, which we did.
It was great to see Michelangelo’s two other slaves from the original Julius tomb project, the Dying and Rebellious slaves. Of course the other four I had seen in Florence several times. Michelangelo had given these two to Roberto Strozzi who then presented them to the king of France. Of course a dream exhibition would be to unite all six slaves with Moses, Rebecca and Leah from Rome.
There were lots of other sculptures, two highlights were the Versailles Diana, a Roman copy of a Greek bronze by Leochares and the Apollo Sauroctonos, another Roman copy of a Greek bronze by Praxiteles.
It was almost a sin to leave the Louvre having not seen more, but we were happy to have seen some incredible artworks that I had waited a lifetime to see.
In the afternoon we walked to see the Moulin Rouge, up through Montmartre ending up at the summit and the huge white church of Sacre Coeur. Built in 1874-1914 in white travertine stone it’s style is a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine and pretty unique. The views over Paris from here were spectacular.
Day 4 we decided to take the Metro out to Versailles to see what all the fuss was about. We had to queue for about an hour to get in and as it was cloudy we decided to go round the inside, in the company of a very useful audio guide of the palace first. The Palace was the official Royal residence from 1682-1789, so as you can imagine there was room after room of opulence and over-the-top furnishings, which were stripped during the French Revolution, but have now been restored. Highlights included the incredible hall of mirrors and the beautiful Royal chapel.
We moved outside and after picking up a roll for lunch made our way round the monumental gardens. Laid out in the formal French style from 1660 it features many fountains with water features containing sculpture groups. Unfortunately the fountains only operate at weekends (there has always been a problem with plumbing here) and several sculpture groups had been closed off. Still there was much to admire and we had a pleasant enough day.
Day 5 and we weren’t flying until the evening, so we had practically the whole day. After breakfast we made the short walk to the Musée d’Orsay. Originally built as a station, the Gare d’ Orsay in 1898-1900, it was converted into a museum to house French paintings and sculptures from 1848-1914 and opened in 1986.
There were no queues and we got straight in. It was enormous, there were two floors and we started on the ground floor and the main hall and worked our way up. They have the largest collection of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the world. We spent about four hours walking round with our mouths open. The sheer number of masterpieces and major artists represented was staggering. Some highlights included Van Gogh’s Church at Auvers, Cézanne’s Card Players and Apples and Oranges, Renoir’s Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Monet’s Haystacks, Monet’s Luncheon on the grass, Degas’ Ballet Dancers painting and statuettes, Gaugin’s Arearea, Caillebotte’s Floor Scrapers and Bouguereau’s Birth of Venus.
A particular highlight was Rodin’s Gates of Hell original plaster. Several bronzes exist and are on display at various locations around the world, but it was cool to see his original plaster, inspired by Dante’s Inferno.
Not a bad effort for five days in Paris.
In June we received an invitation from our Architect friend, Piero to stay at his house on the island of Elba. While we were there he took us to Napoleon’s Villa dei Mulini. Napoleon only lived on Elba for nine months in 1814/15, but left quite a mark on it, building and improving infrastructure. The villa is now a museum, with some of his original furnishings and library that he had brought with him. We had a nice stroll through the garden too and the view over the port were pretty spectacular.
In July we drove up to the Alps and spent the first part of our Summer holiday enjoying the ‘natural’ art of the Dolomite mountains, but on our drive back to Florence we stopped in Vicenza and booked ourselves onto a 2-day Palladio tour, which by chance celebrated the 500th anniversary of his birth.
Walking with Palladio - Vicenza (and beyond)
Andrea Palladio is arguably the most famous, most influential and most copied architect. From his own masterpieces such as the Villa Rotunda and Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, to his 'Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura' (The Four Books of Architecture) which is perhaps one of the most famous and well read and referred to books in architecture. He has influenced British, American and European architecture over the past four hundred and fifty years. Inigo Jones was influenced by the Palladian style so much so that many of his buildings in England reflect the Palladian style. William Kent, Colen Campbell, Sir Christopher Wren and Sir William Chambers are some of the other famous architects who also used Palladian designs in their buildings. In the United States the Palladian style is seen in the manor houses of the Southern plantations. This Palladian influence can be seen in Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.
Andrea Palladio was born on 30 November 1508 as Andrea di Pietro della Gondola in Padua, Italy. He never trained as an Architect, but as a stonemason. He moved to Vicenza, which became his adopted city, at the age of 16.
Vicenza, is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the sheer number of Palladian Villas. I actually came here in 1990 with a friend and didn't even visit the city... I had to wait another 19 years for that pleasure!
Day 1 was the Vicenza city tour and started at 2pm, so the morning gave us a chance to visit the city at our own pace and stop for a relaxing lunch.
Our first stop was at the Teatro Olimpico, which was actually Palladio's last work. A permanent, indoor theatre, possibly the first of its kind. It is the revival of the structure of a Roman theatre with seven roads, representing ancient Thebes, that recede into the background, giving the effect of being longer than they actually are. It was surreal.
Opposite the Teatro Olimpico was one of Palladio's most beautiful buildings designed in 1550. It opens up onto one of Vicenza's prettiest squares, Piazza del'Isola, so called because two rivers, the Retrone and the Bacchiglione once flowed into each other. The square was originally the site of a timber and cattle market. The original building was quite small, so the owner, Girolamo Chiericati asked the council if he could use a four metre strip of public land in front, while still allowing the public access. This is why Palladio incorporated the raised Portico. Like many of Palladio's buildings in Vicenza, he had to create something harmonious within an existing space.
We made our way down Corso Andrea Palladio (where else!) to a building. Casa Cogollo, popularly known as Palladio's house, although he never actually lived here. Unlike other Renaissance architects, Michelangelo and Bramante he never trained as an artist, but as a humble stonemason. He worked his way up from the workshop to become the unofficial architect of Venice by his death in 1580.
This elegant house was remodelled at the request of the council, into something more in keeping with the decorum of the city and for him to gain citizenship of Vicenza. Scholars are divided as to its authenticity as a Palladian design, however it shows all the attributes of the master.
Special mention has to go to a narrow road that crosses the corso, Contra Porti. This is one of the most interesting streets in Italy, but not as well known as it should be. It contains many important Palladian and Gothic buildings, which you can see together as the road winds towards the main square.
One of the most interesting buildings along this street is the Palazzo Barbaran da Porto. It's a good example again of how Palladio worked with existing spaces and adapted his designs to bring together a harmonious composition. The solemn outside façade is enriched in the courtyard with the beautiful loggia decorated with lower Ionic columns and upper Corinthian columns, styles which Palladio incorporated from the temples of Marcellus and Saturn in Rome, thereby seamlessly uniting two previous residences. The genius of Palladio!
Next stop was the very well known, Palazzo Thiene, which today is the headquarters of the Bank of Vicenza. Originally a gothic palace, a remodelling project was begun by Giuliano in 1542 and completed by Palladio. We got to go inside and check out the basement, which houses an interesting coin collection.
This brought us to the centre of the city and the main Piazza, dei Signori. Here we have Palladio's crowning glory, the Basilica Palladiana and the Loggia del Capitano, both beautiful works of art and the real heart of Vicenza.
The Basilica Palladiana is an immense structure and breathtaking at first sight. In fact it left German writer Goethe, speechless too, upon his first glimpse he wrote, "It is not possible to describe the impression made by Palladio's Basilica..."
Again built over an existing structure that had collapsed, 'The Palazzo della Ragione.' Palladio covered it in white marble, with classically inspired, but original designs to the Loggias and Portico, which were to become his trademark. The effect of light and shadow is mesmerising! Especially on this intensely bright August afternoon. Underneath the structure are ancient markets and shops and a café, where many people were enjoying a refreshing drink.
Opposite the enormous Basilica is this very pretty 'loggia' designed by Palladio in 1571 to take the place of a medieval building which was the residence of the 'capitano', the highest Venetian authority in Vicenza. Constructed on two levels and incorporating huge 'composite' columns it does give the impression of being a rather grand triumphal arch. The red brick and white stucco does give it an interesting depth and the niches contain two statues, one representing a god of naval victory and the other of peace.
We had nearly arrived at the end of our first day's itinerary and found ourselves in a large sprawling square called Piazza Castello, where there are no less than four of Palladio's creations.
The first one is Palazzo Thiene Bonin Longare. Palladio was involved in the initial construction of this Palazzo, but it was then added to after his death and only completed in the 18th century. Interestingly the left hand side, facing into the Palazzo shows the simplistic design of Scamozzi, while the right hand side the more intricate work of Palladio.
The second building is Palazzo Capra. Antonio Capra (the same guy that commissioned the famous 'Villa Rotonda') commissioned this building in 1540 and was one of Palladio's earliest works. It is probably the most bizarre of Palladio's creations, so much so for the fact that it has been altered beyond recognition and today houses a 'Coin' department store chain! Basically the central section is Palladio's, but even that has been altered!
The third building is Palazzo Porto Breganze. This building is a case of 'what might have been'. Originally Palladio had designed seven bays, but unfortunately he died before it was even started. Scamozzi, built the two bays to Palladio's designs at the beginning of the 17th century. Palladio drew up his designs after his third visit to Rome. The three enormous Corinthian semi-columns and capitals decorated with rich festoons demonstrate his artistic maturity. If the other five bays had been built the façade would have dominated the square even more.
The final structure is the Loggia Valmarana. And so we ended the day where we started, at the very tranquil Loggia Valmarana. This somewhat reminds me of the Villa Malcontenta that I saw in 2002 on my way back from Venice. Set in the Valmarana gardens with the Seriola River, providing lovely reflections of the Loggia. The six simple Doric columns are crowned with a triangular gable. A very fitting way to end an exhausting, but very fulfilling day...
Day 2 of 'Walking with Palladio' was a coach trip to see some of the Palladian villas outside of Vicenza.
DAY 2
Villa Caldogno
Sunday morning, we checked out of our farmhouse in the Colle Berici hills and our way back into Vicenza. It was sizzlingly hot again and we had a full program, meeting up with our coach in Viale Roma.
We headed north to our first port of call, the Villa Caldogno Nodera, in the small town of Caldogno. It it's the headquarters of 'C4' a centre for education through contemporary art. The villa was very simple. From the outside we admired the trademark Palladio arches and steps, great symmetry and clean lines. A Latin inscription dates the building to 1570 and although it is not includes in Palladio's book 'i quattro libri di architettura' it is similar to other villas Palladio created. Inside there are some nice frescoes by Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, who also decorated the Teatro Olimpico and Giovanni Battista Zelotti, who also decorated other Palladian villas.
It was onward and northward to our second villa of the day the Villa Godi Malinvernini, which is set on the beautiful Lonedo hills in Lugo di Vicenza, with sweeping views of the river Astico and surrounding area. Apparently this was the first ever villa designed by Palladio. The villa was occupied by the British command during the second world war and was used by Luchino Visconti as the loction for his 1954 film 'Senso'. The structure is enormous, especially when compared to some of his other villas and has a wonderful loggia with three arches on the first floor. Again inside the many rooms are lavishly frescoed in two distinct styles, the classical school employed by Battista Zelotti and Battista del Moro and the 'Mystic' style favoured by Gualtiero Padovano.
I went exploring and found there was a wedding going on at this really cool outdoor restaurant that is part of the villa, called 'Ristorante il Torchio Antico' what a setting! Also I spotted another villa up the hill which looked rather 'Palladian' only to discover it is, it's privately owned and not on our tour. I manage to get some sneaky photos while a woman was distracted, hanging out her washing!
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Coffee time was approaching and we had a very pleasant stop in the lovely medieval town of Marostica. It’s famous for a human chess match which they play every two years. After the second world war the local chess club used to play in the square and decided to use people instead of pieces and why not! The stakes got higher when they incorporated in the game a story from a play written by a local writer, where a Lord's daughter is being courted by two young noblemen and not wanting to make enemies of the two suitors or lose them in a duel, comes up with this novel idea of a chess match. the winner obviously marries the daughter and the loser the younger and probably prettier daughter! This story was recreated in the English tv drama 'The Prisoner' with Patrick Mcghooan.
The sun was still burning away and today there was an antique market spread around this enchanting square. We managed to resist parting with our money, but nonetheless enjoyed an interesting hour or so soaking up the atmosphere...
Lunchtime was calling and we pushed on to our next stop... and that famous Palladian bridge.
After our brief Palladio 'interlude' we were back on track with one of the master's unique pieces, a bridge! The ponte vecchio or ponte degli Alpini as it is poularly known.
The coach parked up and we alighted in the scorching midday Venetian sun. We walked towards the town of Bassano del Grappa, originally called Bassano Veneto, its name was changed after the first world war when thousands of soldiers lost their lives on nearby mount Grappa. Ernest Hemmingway spent many days in Bassano as an ambulance driver and eventually setled here writing his famous book, A Farewell to Arms. Famous of course is Bassano for being the town where Italy's favourite after dinner shot, Grappa was invented, which is on the side of a hill and we got our first glimpse of the majestic wooden bridge...
Palladio designed it in 1569 and it crosses the Brenta river.
"Near Bassano, a village lying at the foot of the Alps that seperate Italy from the German countries; I have designed the wooden bridge over the Brenta, a very fast river flowing into the sea near Venice... In the site where the bridge has been erected, the river is one hundred and eighty feet wide..."
Andrea Palladio
The bridge has become a kind of symbol for the town, destroyed many times, but always restored to Palladio's original plans, the Alpine soldiers return often to the bridge and remember their heroic feats of past battles.
Today we crossed it and partook of the flavoured grappa from the Nardini distillery, making fine grappa since 1779!
After a hearty lunch and a fruiltless wander in the centre on this eerily deserted August lunch-time day we headed back to the coach for our last two appointments.
First stop was the Villa Cordellina Lombardi. A bit of a strange choice for our penultimate destination, in the town of Montecchio Maggiore, as e were visiting a villa that wasn't actually designed by Palladio, but much later in 1735 by Venetian architect Giorgio Massari. (It's the present day headquarters of the Province of Vicenza and therefore they don't have to pay extra for our entrance!) Massari expertly joined Palladian features such as the ionic porch to Baroque style and came up with a quite stunning result.
A special feature that no doubt helped the organizers of today's trip are the very impressive frescoes of Gianbattista Tiepolo inside.
And so on to our final stop and the one I've been waiting for. Palladio's most famous creation, the Villa Rotunda. We drove back towards Vicenza and the coach stopped at the bottom of a hill in a small lay-by, and our guide told us to feel free to get off the coach, walk down the road and we would see the villa at the top of the hill. I manage to get someone to take a photo of yours truly and the lovely Annette.
We got back on the coach, whereon the guide thanked us for our attention and informed us that we would now be driving back to the centre and dropped off back at our starting point in Via Roma. Somewhat confused I made my way up to the front of the coach and inquired if we were actually going to visit the Villa Rotunda, upon which she said, no it was never a part of the tour as it's a privately owned, this 5-minute stop at the bottom of the hill was all we were going to see. Oh dear! Talk about disappointment! But I had been waiting for 20 years and travelled a thousand miles to see it! Too bad... that's your lot.
So with bowed heads and tail between our legs we headed back to the car.
It was about 5.15 and Annette could see the sadness in my eyes.. . and then she had a brainwave, why don't we try and find it? (Remember these were the days before navigators!) So we spent the next half hour desperately trying to retrace our steps. Finally we arrived. Annette ran up to the ticket office, while I parked up. She returned with two magic tickets in her hand!!! Even though it was 5.45 and last entry was at 5.30 she had managed to convince the doorman to let us have a quick run round... happy or what!
Vicenzan native Paolo Almerico was a priest who upon his retirement from the Vatican in Rome decided to return to his hometown and build a house just outside the city. Palladio described the site as follows,
"The site is one of the most pleasant and delightful that can be found, because it is on the top of a hill with a very easy slope and it is washed by the navigable river Bacchiglione, on one side, and surrounded, on the other side, by beautiful hills, so that it looks like a great theatre."
Building started in 1566 and the rough work was completed in 1571 and unlike some of Palladio's other country houses was not designed to incorporate a farm, is was to be more of a 'palazzo' than a villa. Unfortuantely both architect and comissioner died before its completion. The new owners, the Capra brothers, Mario and Oderico, bought the property in 1592 and comissioned architect Vincenzo Scamozzi to finish the building. Originally Palladio had envisioned a high domed ceiling, but Scamozzi, inspired by the Pantheon in Rome designed a lower domed roof with an open oculus thereby completing the villa as it is today. The inside was frescoed by Alessandro Maganza and Louis Dorigny to complete the whole building.
We spent half an hour or so running round, admiring the different angles and snapping some photos. It was a perfect balmy, almost cloudless Sunday afternoon and it was with some relief that were able to see and experience the magi of this absolute masterpiece, which has of course inspired thousands of other buildings, this one created in a short time, for all time...
We only spent a week in England, but I again had time to get out of Worthing and visit my brother, Carl who was still living between Bath and Bristol, but this year I went up with my dad, sister Rita her son Will and partner, Mat. Again we stopped in that cafe next to the cloisters in Salisbury, looking up at the majestic Cathedral spire. We stopped for lunch again in the Royal Crescent in Bath.
For the next part of our holiday we went camping, but again like the Dolomites, our beauty was not man-made, but natural.
Back home in Florence, in September there is s special ‘Autumn’ edition of Open Gardens and Courtyards. Like the Spring edition in the morning I get on my bicycle and had a whizz round Florence to see how many Villas I could see in three hours.
My first stop was the cloisters of the Santo Spirito church. There are two cloisters here, I’m not sure which one I saw, but it was nice anyway.
Next I cycled on to the gardens of Palazzo Malenchini (Alberti) in Via dei Benci. The Palazzo, originally owned by the Alberti family dates from the 15th century, but altered in the 18th century. It went through several owners, eventually coming to the Malenchini family from Livorno. There isa very pretty courtyard and swirly spiral outside staircase.
On my third stop I was greeted by a string quartet in the Palazzo Antinori Corsini- Serristori in Borgo Santa Croce. This building was designed in 1520 by Giuliano da Sangallo and bought by the Corsini family in 1587. The Antinori family finally acquired it in 1886.
Palazzo number four was in Piazza Santa Croce, the Palazzo degli Antellisi, or Palazzo dell’ Antella. The very elegant façade with a series of small frescoes. I had a look at the gardens. Once containing various sculptures that are today elsewhere. There were colorful roses, a well and some mosaics.
My fifth stop was the Palazzo Borghese (Aldobrandini) in Via Ghibelline. In the 15ty century various buildings were combined by the Salviati Brothers. It passed to the Royal Borghese family by marriage. For this place I got to go inside and check out the huge, opulent banqueting room, complete with chandeliers. It is used today for events, weddings and gala dinners.
Palazzo six was just behind the Duomo, the Palazzo (Guadagni) Strozzi Sacrati. Built in 1604 for the Aristocratic Guadagni family, it was refurbished in the 18th century. The Strozzi family then took it over, followed by the Sacrati. Today it’s owned by the Regione Toscana. Again I got to go inside and see the monumental staircase and frescoed rooms.
The clock was edging towards 1 o’clock and closing time. I was at building number seven, the Convento di Santa Maria dei Candeli, which was now the Police Barracks. There was a nice ‘Last Supper’ fresco and Annunciation in there.
My eighth stop was the Palazzo Ximenes Panciatichi. Originally built by the Sangallo brothers in 1490. The building passed to the Portuguese, Sebastiano Ximenes. It then underwent some changes with a new façade and Italian garden added. With the death of Ferdinando in 1816 it passed on to the Panciatichi family. There was a nice English style garden and some cool sculptures including a Hercules.
Building number nine was pretty impressive. The pink Palazzo Grifoni Budini (Gattai) in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. Ugolino Grifoni commissioned Ammannati to build it in 1571-1564 and the Budini-Gattai acquired the building in 1890. Again some nice frescoes in the corridor and pretty garden.
I was almost done, number ten, Palazzo Pandolfini, in Via San Gallo was actually designed by Raphael in 1514 had a strange art exhibition on and at 12.55 I poked my head inside the Palazzo Tolomei, in Via dei Ginori to make it a grand total of 11 historic residences in three hours.
After some well earned sustenance I picked up my better half and the car and we headed out of Florence.
Our first port of call was the Castello di Torregalli. Somewhere we had driven past many times. Built in 1427 for the Nerli family. It was nice to get close up to this very yellow structure and have a wander round the grounds.
Our second stop was just around the corner at the Villa La Nerlaia. Again a building we had seen many times up the hill in Via Bagnese and originally belonging to the Nerli family. It was a very pretty building with a nice garden and in 1957 was sold and turned into an old peoples home.
We then drove to the next place on our list and end up in the middle of nowhere near San Casciano at the Villa Cigliano, which is another Antinori property. Dating from the 14th century, it eventually passed to the Antinori in 1546. The villa is somewhat reminiscent of the Santo Spirito church and there was a really cool pond and Lebanese Cedars and weeping willows in the garden.
We headed back to the Via Volterrana and found our third villa of the afternoon, the Villa La Sfacciata. Built in 1427, it went through the Vespucci, Antinori and Capooni families. Similar in style to Villa Le Corte back in San Casciano, it was a huge building with views back towards Florence (and an inviting outdoor swimming pool too)
For our last villa of the day, Annette’s 5th and my 16th, we stopped at the Villa Giogolirossi, dating from the 15th century. It was very atmospheric, an old stone building and Italian style panoramic garden, with a cool balustrade. The sun was just setting and it was a great way to finish a busy afternoon and day.
We arrived home and collapsed. Exhausted, but content.
For our Christmas holiday my good friend, Enzo offered us to stay in his flat in the Dolomites and so we drove up for some snowy fun.
Before heading back home to Florence we decided to tag on four nights in Venice. It was only my third time here and our second time together. Our hotel was round the corner from the famous Car d’Or.
We arrived in the afternoon to a sunny Venice. We weren’t sure we’d see the sun again, so after dumping our clothes off had a run round to St Mark’s square by way of the Rialto bridge.
On our first day after walking round the old Rialto market I checked out Santa Maria Glorioso dei Frari. I came in to see several artworks. The altarpiece, Assumption of the Virgin by Titian, painted in 1516/18 was huge and colourful and painted in a High Renaissance style. Its dynamic, three-tier composition established him as the preeminent painter north of Rome.
Nicely contrasted with another Titian painting, the Pesaro Madonna, painted for Jacopo Pesaro in 1518. Again very large and colourful, depicting the patron kneeling and the Madonna (here modeled on Titian’s wife) and child, unusually off center.
I had also come to see two funerary monuments. Titian, at his own request was buried here in In 1790 Canova won a commission to build a monument, but it was never realized. Finally in 1838 one of Canova’s pupils, Luigi Zandomeneghi and his two sons carried out what we see today, which is a beautiful sculptural group with Titian in the middle. Ironically the tomb that Canova had designed for Titian was sculpted by the same pupil, Zandomeneghi and used as a memorial to Canova. The pyramid mausoleum is here in the same church as Titian.
There was a wooden sculpture of John the Baptist by Donatello and a nice Bellini Madonna and child too.
In the afternoon we finally got our gondola ride.
On our second day we visited Murano to see the glass factory and Burano to see the colorful houses
On our last day I wanted to go to the Accademia art gallery. We stopped on the way to see the staircase I had seen on our last visit. Next we found the Fenice theatre. Famous for literally rising from the ashes no less than three times. The original theatre was destroyed in 1774 and rebuilt in 1792. The second fire came in 1836, but it was rebuilt only a year later. The third fire in 1996 was as a result of arson, but again it had been rebuilt and only opened five years ago in 2094. We were lucky to get tickets to go inside and hear the rehearsal for the New Year’s day concert.
We finally arrived at the Galleria dell’ Academia only to find that the most important painting, Giorgione’s Tempest was out on loan. Very disappointed would be an understatement, so I decided to save a visit here for another time. Oh well, some you win, some you lose.
2010
221 Ferrara
222 Marc Chagall @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Spoleto
223 Cathedral - Filippo Lippi
224 Roman house
225 Fiesole ruins
226 A look into the invisible @ Palazzo Strozzi metaphysical Strozzi
227 Open villas
228 Giotto @ Scrovegni Chapel, Padova
229 Trento
230 Bolzano
Ferrara
2010 was a very interesting year... it started quite nicely with a visit in January, during or Christmas holidays, to the city of Ferrara. I had been wanting to visit here for a while and so we made the two-hour drive on a cold, cloudy Sunday. Before long we were strolling the pretty streets and came to the red, medieval, moated Castello Estense. Built in 1385, it took the death of Niccolò II d’ Este’s official, by a local mob to make him realize he needed to build himself a fortress. We had a walk round the enormous exterior, over the drawbridge and then inside the courtyard where we ate our packed lunch.
We walked down the Corso Ercole to the Palazzo Diamanti. Commissioned by Duke Ercole I d’Este and designed by Biagio Rosseti, it was built between 1493-1503. The name comes from the pink marble bricks that were carved to look like diamonds. The visual effect is quite stunning. We had a peak inside, there were two art galleries, the Pinacoteca painting gallery and the Modern Art Gallery, where there was an exhibition of Italian impressionist, Giovanni Boldini, which we didn’t see.
We made our way to the old part of the city around the market and Palazzo Communale and checked out the Cathedral of St George. Built in white marble in a Romanesque style and consecrated in 1135, the façade with Loggias and rose windows was very ornate.
Interestingly the following exhibition at the Palazzo Diamanti featured Marc Chagall, but also I spotted a Chagall exhibition in Pisa, so on the last day of our holidays we went along to check it out. It was held at the Palazzo Blu, on the banks of the river Arno. The building really was blue, quite appropriate for Chagall. The exhibition, ‘Chagall and the Mediterranean’ was incredible. 150 artworks by Chagall, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics and lithographs, coming from the Chagall Museum in Nice, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Matisse Museum and private collections. We wandered through some lovely rooms admiring the very colourful and fanciful imagination of this Russian/French artist of Jewish origin. His art crossed many styles, but it was his use of colour that attracted you. Also his themes of life memories and fantasies, including reoccurring subjects, like musicians, lovers and clowns that made him instantly recognizable.
There were around 20 of his canvasses here, including Music, Circus in Red, the Lovers In St Paul and the Big Bunch of Flowers.
For our February half-term break we booked a couple of nights near Todi in Umbria. On our way down we stopped at Civita di Bagnoreggio.
The following day we drove to Spoleto and visited the Roman House. It’s located below the town hall and dated to the 1st century A.D. it was discovered and excavated in 1885 and restored in 1991. There are several well-preserved floor mosaics. You enter through a small glass door to the central Atrium. In one of the adjacent rooms is the Triclinium with three dining couches and the ancient remains of a fresco.
We also went inside the lovely Romanesque Cathedral where we admired the incredible fresco cycle created in 1466-69 by Filippo Lippi. The subject is the life of the Virgin and he died just before completing it. He is buried here, so it was good to see the last work of one of our local Florentine heroes. The fresco was pretty cool too and included a self-portrait.
We had a peak at the 2nd century A.D. Roman Amphitheater which was down a side street and incorporated into the adjacent houses.
On our way home to Florence we stopped at the Monsters’ Park in Bomarzo, a very strange place filled with all kinds of monstery stone sculptures.
In March we took a drive out to Barberino Val d’ Elsa to some of the tiny hamlets. Our first stop was Linari. We then stopped at San Appiano and found the oldest church in Chianti, the Romanesque Sant’ Appiano. It has Etruscan origins and became the property of the Bishops of Florence in 990. In front of the church are the remains of the baptistery, built in the 4th century. It collapsed and four stone pillars remain. We went inside the small archaeological museum next door with some Etruscan funerary urns and medieval and Renaissance pottery.
At the end of March we drove out to one of our favorite villas at Artimino and I got to have a brief look inside, unfortunately the queues for the archaeological museum in the basement was too long so that would have to wait for another day.
For our Easter holiday we booked a few nights in the Chianti, near Castellina. I took a drive to find a nearby Etruscan tomb, at Poggino and after parking up and walking for a bit I found it. As well as the tomb, various objects were found and the site is dated to the 6th century B.C.
I had a drive out to the Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano and was treated to a guided tour of the inside.
At the end of April Annette’s sister, Ruth paid us her first visit as she came with her daughter, Elise and their mum, Mavis.
We took them up to Fiesole for a stroll round the Roman ruins and amphitheater.
At the end of May I made do with just the afternoon edition of Open Courtyards and Gardens. I decided on the Bagno a Ripoli area. My first stop was the Villa Ninfeo Bandini, or Villa del Bandino. It was constructed in 1100. One of its owners Bernardo Bandini Baroncelli, was hung for his part in the Pazzi conspiracy and immortalized in a Leonardo Da Vinci drawing. Anyway I enjoyed a pleasant guided tour of the courtyard and enormous gardens.
My second villa was Villa il Riposo. Constructed by Bernardo Vecchietti (as in Via Vecchietti in Florence) in the 15th century. There was a pretty frescoes loggia and Italian garden with fruit trees with splendid views towards Impruneta.
After that I drove on to the Castello di Montauto. Originating from 980 and the Gheradini family. There was a nice crenellated tower in the middle of the building. In 1550 some work was done on it by Bacio D’Agnolo. It was surrounded by a romantic garden with cypresses and holm oak. Inside there were some frescoes by the school of Vasari and a terracotta from the school of Luca Della Robbia.
I finished up with a villa I used to drive by every day when I lived in Greve-in-Chianti, the Villa L’Ugolino. Situated on the Via Chiantigiana road, for some reason it had been painted a garish bright yellow. Built in 1427 it was sold in 1444 to the Ugolini family. Behind the villa, hidden from the main road was a beautiful enclosed formal rose garden and a sweeping lawn with some very tall pine trees.
I attended my first Italian Holy Communion and the reception was held in the Villa Le Mashere, also called Villa Gerini, in the Mugello. It was named after the 22 masks carved into the façade. The villa was a luxury hotel and in the past many important writers, royalty and even a pope stayed here. There was also a 26 hectare garden and park which we were able to stroll in, with many features such as a rose pergola, a pond and some woods.
Scrovegni Chapel
In July we went up to the Cortina in the Dolomites again for the first leg of our summer holiday, but we had a very special stopover on the drive up, Padova. After living in Florence for nine years, I had been wanting to see the artist Giotto’s masterpiece fresco in the Scrovegni chapel, probably the second most famous fresco after Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel painted some in , so before leaving we had booked tickets. It was a scorching hot day, so we decided against having a look around the city and after parking up and eating our sandwiches in the aptly named Giardini Giotto. made our way into the chapel. The Scrovegni Chapel, also known as the Arena Chapel next to the Augustine Monastery. The building was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni, a Padovan banker as his family’s private chapel, to be built in the early 1300’s. Giotto carried out the fresco cycle from 1303-1305 (with the help of 40 collaborators) he was 36-38 years old at the time.
We entered through a pressure chamber and had to wait there for 15 minutes. Once inside we were confronted with a chapel with completely frescoed walls and ceiling. It had recently been restored so the colors were extra bright, especially the ultramarine blues that Giotto was well-known for. Under the starry vault were four tiers of stories from the New and Old Testament as well as the virtues and vices and stories from St Augustine. It was a masterpiece of storytelling and execution.
Some highlights include the Deposition with the crying, flying angels, the Kiss of Judas and of course the Last Judgement.
We had a quick dash round the civic museum and courtyard, but after Giotto’s frescoes, everything paled into insignificance.
On the way back from the Dolomites we stopped off very briefly in Italy’s two wealthiest cities, Trento and Bolzano.
In Bolzano, which is ranked number one in Italy for quality of life. We parked up near the Cathedral, Maria Himmelfahrt (German for Mary of the Assumption) and had a brief look around the exterior. Consecrated in 1180, the medieval church was built on an earlier 6th century basilica. A reconstruction of the church and the bell tower in a late Gothic style was begun in 1300 and finished in 1519. The glazed roof tiles had just been restored and were sparkling. The town, with its medieval streets and outdoor bars was buzzing and we liked the atmosphere here.
After lunch we drove on to Trento. We liked this place less as we picked up an (unwarranted) parking fine. Again like Bolzano it ranks highly for quality of life and standard of living in Italy. The Piazza Duomo was actually a very cool square. With the Romanesque/Gothic Cathedral of St Vigilius, dating from the 12th/13th century, the 12th century Palazzo Pretorio with a bell tower and spectacular fountain of Neptune, built between 1767-1769. The statues on it are copies.
We stayed the night on lake on Lake Garda and before heading home took a walk round the pretty town of Sirmione. At the entrance to the town is The 13th century Scaglieri Castle. A fine example of a medieval port fortification. It has the very distinctive Ghibelline swallowtail merlons, typical in the north of Italy.
In December Annette gave birth to her own ‘work of art’, Isabel, and then we were three...
Part 5 - 2011-
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2011
231 Rimini
232 Cerveteri
233 Pitti Palace + costume gallery
234 Palazzo Pfanner
235 Picasso Miro Dali @ Palazzo Strozzi
236 Hever Castle
237 Salisbury
238 Folon @ the Rose garden
Because we now had a new little baby we would have to ‘adapt’ somewhat our ‘artistic outings.’ The first year was relatively easy as she slept most of the time in her buggy.
Some family came to visit and we flew to England to see the others. On the plane I saw an advert for an exhibition in Rimini, on the east coast of Italy and thought it would be the perfect excuse to visit somewhere we’d never been before. We picked a nice sunny Sunday in April and we made the 2 1//2 drive up.
The exhibition was entitled ‘Paris, the Wonder Years. Impressionism versus the Salon.’ Bringing together some 70 canvases from galleries and private collections all over the world. The Paris Salon was the most important biannual art event from 1748-1890. Unfortunately the impressionist movement was excluded.
The exhibition was in the Castel Sismondo, built in 1437 by Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini. Several architects worked on the design including Brunelleschi.
After a hearty lunch, we entered the castle. Fortunately our daughter, Isabel slept most of the way round the exhibition, so we had plenty of time to admire the works on display.
Highlights included, Monet’s snowy scene, ‘Boulevard Saint-Denis, Argenteuil in winter,’ Sisley’s ‘Avenue of Chestnut trees,’ Courbet’s ‘Sleeping Spinner’ and Bouguereau’s ‘Bathers.’
After the show we went for a stroll round the town to see some of the sights. We walked over the Roman Bridge of Tiberius. Construction actually started under the reign of Augustus, but finished in 20 A.D. under Tiberius. The 62 meter bridge has five arches and crosses the river Marrechia.
Our second stop was at another Roman structure, the Arch of Augustus, the oldest surviving Roman Arch dating to 27 B.C. The central arch is quite large with two fluted columns with Corinthian capitals. On the top was a medieval battlement dating from the 10th century.
After a stroll round the main square our last stop was at the Temple Maletasiano. Originally a 13th century Gothic church, Sigismondo Maletesta commissioned Leon Battista Alberti to reconstruct the building around 1450 and make it into a mausoleum. It was partially destroyed during the Second World War and reconstructed.
Considering it was our first attempt to go to an art exhibition with a four-month old baby, I think we did quite well.
For our Easter holidays we had booked three nights on Lake Bracciano in Lazio, just north of Rome.
On our way down we stopped in the surprisingly pretty town of Viterbo, dating back to the 8th century. We had a nice wander round and found the very beautiful 1266 Palazzo dei Papi, with its unusual loggia and wide staircase. Everything was made from this dark grey stone.
On the banks of Lake Bracciano, in Anguillaria Sabazia we met an artist from Calabria who had made an alphabet using photos of objects making shapes of letters.
The following day we visited the Etruscan town of Cerveteri, which along with Tarquinia became a World Heritage site in 2004. It was one of the most important Etruscan towns, dating back to the 8th century B.C. There is a large necropolis, called Banditaccia, a burial site of 1,000 tombs, dating from the 9th to 3rd centuries B.C. which we had come to see.
As it was drizzling we went inside the museum first. There were two floors containing various objects from the tombs, such as vases, finery urns and statues, but unfortunately the most famous pieces are in more important museums, like the sarcophagus with the spouses in the Villa Giulia in Rome. However it was the tombs here that were impressive.
After we drove to the to the site and had a stroll round. II carried Isabel in a sling and she was happy to be carried round. We got to go inside several tombs, including the tomb of the reliefs, discovered in 1847. There were stucco frescoes inside on the walls, fascinating to look at.
We were staying near the Castel Odescalchi, where Tom Cruise and Katy Holmes we’re married in 2006. Built in the 15th century for the Papal families, the Orsini and Borgia. There was a museum inside which we didn’t visit and the castle has been used as a location for many films.
Villa Lante
On our way home we stopped at the Villa Lante in the small town of Bagnaia. The 16th century villa wasn’t particularly interesting, but the mannerist garden was a real gem. Featuring cascades, fountains and grottoes. There was a cool sculpture of the four Moors, by Giambologna and small jets of water spouting from various river gods. There were also some colourful flowers in bloom. We had a very pleasant time, as did our baby Isabel.
In May Annette’s mum came for a visit and so we had to negotiate a push chair and wheel chair. We managed to visit the Pitti Palace, where one of my students got us some free tickets to the Costume Gallery, which was interesting. We also visited the Palazzo Pfanner in Lucca, the setting for Jane Campion’s film, Portrait of a Lady, where we’d taken the heroine’s name for our daughter.
At the end of June, I took the chance to see the Spring exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, in between lessons, on my own. It was entitled ‘Picasso, Miró and DalÍ Angry Young Men: The Birthday of Modernity.’
The exhibition concentrated on early works from these three Catalan artists. Apparently Picasso visited Florence twice and Dalí came here too.
Some highlights included: ‘The Two Saltimbanques, by Picasso. Self-Portrait, by Dali and Mirò’s ‘Little Univers.
In the Summer we went to Hever Castle in Kent. Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn’s childhood house. Dating back to 1276 with the walled bailey, gatehouse and moat, a Tudor house was added in the 15th century. We had a nice walk round the grounds with including rose, Italian, herb and topiary gardens and a maze.
I went to see my brother who was still living between Bristol and Bath, but this year I just got to stop off in Salisbury for coffee next to the Cathedral in the cloister bar.
After England we spent a week in Le Marche. One ‘artistic’ outing was to the city of Ascoli Piceno. The town actually pre-dates Rome and was founded in 268 B.C. It turned out to be a very elegant place, constructed mostly from grey travertine stone.
Our first stop was the oldest square, Piazza dell’ Arengo. So called because a platform was erected in the 12th century where public speakers could address the citizens. St Francis of Assisi spoke here. The rectangular piazza is surrounded by several buildings including the Palazzo dell’ Arengo, the Cathedral of Sant’Angelo Emidio and the baptistery of St John. There were also some lovely fountains.
We then made our way up to Renaissance Piazza del Popolo which was splendid, surrounded by beautiful colonnades. The two important buildings are the 1258-1371 Romanesque Cathedral of San Francesco and the 15th century Palazzo dei Capitani del Popolo.
On our way home we stopped in Gubbio for dinner and enjoyed a nice sunset stroll up to Piazza Grande, where we again admired the Palazzo dei Consoli.
In September we went to a wine tasting event in the very grand Castello di Oliveto in Castelfiorentino. The castle was built in the 15th century for the Pucci family. Two mullioned towers flanked the main building and the tasting was in the pretty courtyard and some of the frescoes rooms.
Annette’s mum visited us in October and we went on several trips. A morning drive up to the Rose Garden where we saw the newly installed sculptures by Belgian sculptor Folon.
The next trip was to Bologna. There was some kind of rally on, but that didn’t stop us enjoying the historic centre, especially the always enchanting Piazza Maggiore. Of course it was good to see Giambologna’s Neptune sculpture, San Petronius Cathedral and very red Palazzo del Podestà.
We also took Mavis to Orvieto and enjoyed a coffee in Piazza del Duomo, enjoying the magnificent Cathedral.
Our final outing with Annette’s mum was to the Villa Pietraia, bathed in glorious autumn colors. By now we were getting used to pushing Isabel in her push chair and Mavis in her wheelchair and we enjoyed a guided tour of the ground-floor and wheel round the grounds.
In our first year with Isabel we hadn’t done too badly, although in December she had learnt a new trick... walking! Let’s see how we would manage the next year
2012
239 Picasso @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
240 Money and beauty Botticelli @ Palazzo Strozzi
241 Americans in Florence, John Singer Sargent @ Palazzo Strozzi
242 Winchester Cathedral
2012 was a fairly quiet year for art, our daughter Isabel went from 1-2 years old and we moved house again in April.
At the end of January I managed two exhibitions, the first with Annette and Isabel, the second by myself.
Picasso @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
The exhibition this year at the Palazzo Blu in Pisa was dedicated to Picasso. Over 200 works, including paintings, ceramics, drawings, lithographs, books and etchings were brought together principally from the Picasso museums in Barcelona, Malaga and Antibes.
Some highlights included the funny little Faune from his 1960’s Wildlife. The Still life guitar from the Pompidou Centre. The Head of a Woman in a Hat from 1962, the Cubist, Fruit Basket and the portrait of a woman after Cranach the younger from 1958.
Money and beauty Botticelli @ Palazzo Strozzi
Just a few days later I made it to the winter exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled ‘Money and Beauty, bankers, Boticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities.’ An exhibition that highlighted the link between high finance and the 15th century Renaissance in Florence. Co-curated by English author, Tim Parks.
There was lots of money related paraphernalia such as coins, ledgers, safes and maps and there were some nice artworks on view too, such as Botticelli’s Calumny if Apelles from the Ufizzi and Madonna and child, St John and two angels from the Galleria dell’ Accademia, a couple of Fra Angelico panels from San Marco, Lorenzo di Credi’s Portrait of a young woman and other money related paintings.
Americans in Florence, John Singer Sargent @ Palazzo Strozzi
I had to wait for Spring for my next art fix, with the following exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, ‘Americans in Florence’ coinciding with the 500th anniversary of the death of Amerigo Vespucci. It explored the relationship between American artists traveling to Florence between the 19th century and the First World War. There were some beautiful impressionist paintings here by John Singer Sargent, ‘Torregalli’ ‘portrait of Henry James’ and Whistler, ‘portrait of George Vanderbilt’, from various galleries in America and Italian artist Telemaco Signorini’s paintings of Florence.
Winchester
In our trip to England in August we visited Winchester, in Hampshire, with Isabel (in her push chair) and Annette’s mum, Mavis (in her wheelchair)
We got to see Hamo Thornycroft’s 1901 statue of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex and the Anglo Saxons in the 9th century.
Unfortunately I failed to have a look at the castle with King Arthur’s round table, but we managed to see Winchester Cathedral, the longest Gothic cathedral in the world. Founded in 642, the current Norman Cathedral was built from 1079-1093. The exterior buttresses were very pretty and we had a nice walk around the outside.
And that was really it for the year...
2013
243 Kandinsky @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
244 Dali @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi
245 Early Renaissance, Donatello, Di Cambio @ Palazzo Strozzi
246 Life and death in Pompei @ the British Museum, London
247 Ely Cathedral
248 Houghton revisited @ Houghton Hall
249 King’s College @ Cambridge
250 Russian Avant Garde @ Palazzo Strozzi
251 Impressionism @ Palazzo Pitti
Kandinsky @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Our first trip of the year was to the Kandinsky exhibition in Pisa at the Palazzo Blu. Isabel had a great time running around and we just about had time to enjoy some colourful canvasses by the Russian abstract artist.
Highlights included; Composition 224 on white, Black spot, two ovals and Murnau Summer Landscape from the Russian museum in St Petersburg.
I snuck in a visit to Palazzo Strozzi for the less than inspiring entitled Italian Art in the 1930’s Beyond Facism.
At Easter we stayed local and spent a pleasant day at the Villa Reale in Marlia near Lucca.
The Renaissance villa dates to the 15th century and was owned by the Buonvisi family. The Italian gardens with water features, theatre and lemon garden were created in the 17th century. Napoleon’s sister acquired the villa in 1806 and renovated the villa in a neo-classical style and the gardens remodeled in an English park style with groups of trees.
We were practically the only visitors to this vast property with some interesting nooks and crannies. Isabel enjoyed running around the park, lake and grotto.
Dali @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi
In May there was an exhibition dedicated to Spanish surrealist, Salvator Dali, callee Dalí Universe. The main body of works was at the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, but all over Florence, there were these bronze installations, such as the Space Elephant and Surrealist Piano. Adding some mystery to the streets of Florence.
Another exhibition had started in March at Palazzo Strozzi, ‘Springtime in the Renaissance.’ I went along to visit in between lessons also in May.
Exploring the early sculptures of the Renaissance, there were many pieces here from local galleries, such as the two bronze panels of the Baptistery, by Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. Donatello was represented with his bust of St Louis of Toulouse from Santa Croce. There was a Lucca Della Robbia glazed terra-cotta Madonna and child and bas-reliefs by Donatello ‘George and the Dragon, from the Bargello and Desiderio di Settignano ‘Jerome in the desert’ from Washington. There weren’t any crowd pleasers here, but interesting for Renaissance lovers.
Villa Mangiacane
Annette’s brother, Phil visited in June and was staying at the nearby Villa Mangiacane, in the San Casciano hills. We went for an aperitivo and nosey round the property.
It was built in the 15th century by the Machiavelli family. The design has been attributed to Michelangelo with additions by Vasari. In 1645 it was acquired by the Mazzei family. Recently the interior was restored by one of my students’ father, Gianclaudio Papasogli Tacca. The 600 acre grounds are amazing and you can see Florence Cathedral, which is 12 km away.
London
Life and Death in Pompei @ The British Museum, London
In the summer we had booked some tickets for a very special exhibition at the British Museum up in London. Bizarrely it was entitled, ‘Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum.’ Which meant we were traveling from Italy to England to see artifacts from Italy! I suppose it was the exhibition of my life! The British Museum and Pompeii were two of my most frequent destinations.
We had borrowed a push chair for Isabel, which she didn’t want to get in while we wandered round some of the sights. It was her first time in London. Before our allotted time we had a quick whizz round the Greek and Egyptian sections and then Isabel fell asleep, so we could walk round at a fairly relaxed pace and enjoy the artifacts on show.
Around 250 pieces had been assembled, to show the everyday life enjoyed by these Roman towns before the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvious killed the inhabitants instantly, thereby freezing them in time for 1,613 years until they were discovered.
Plaster casts of twisted bodies and entire families were on display alongside objects, utensils, jewelry, crockery, mosaics, frescoes and sculptures.
Some famous highlights included the fresco portrait of Terentius Neo the baker and his wife, the four frescoes of Flora, Diana, Medea and Leda, the two ‘cave canem’, ‘beware of the dog’ mosaics, all from the Archaeological museum in Naples.
It was an incredible exhibition, beautifully set out, in six months it attracted 250,000 visitors and was a great success.
Ely Cathedral
We went up to Cambridge to stay with Annette’s brother, Phil. We had also booked some tickets to see an exhibition in King’s Lynne about an hour and a half away. We drove up to Ely as Phil wanted to show us the Cathedral.
Originally an abbey church dating to 672 A.D. the present Norman building, was built in a Romanesque style from 1083 and gained cathedral status in 1109. Inside, the ladies chapel, choir and octagonal tower were built in a Decorated Gothic style.
It was pretty impressive and he took us inside to admire the octagonal tower. The large stone and timber tower was constructed in the 14th century to replace the Norman tower which had been destroyed by a fire. Along with the stained glass windows it was an incredible sight.
Houghton Hall, King's Lynn
We drove on to King’s Lynne with Isabel and Annette’s mum. The exhibition was at
Houghton Hall, a Palladian country mansion commissioned by Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole in 1722 and surrounded by 1,000 acres of parkland.
Sir Robert Walpole was a great collector of art, but due to his extravagant lifestyle and mounting debts, sold the collection to Russian Empress Catherine the Great in 1799. The collection became the cornerstone of the Hermitage museum. Miraculously some 60 paintings were returning to Houghton for 6 months.
The exhibition, entitled ‘Houghton Revisited’ was the brainchild of French Historian, Thierry Morel, whose contacts with the Hermitage made this once-in-a-lifetime loan.
Unfortunately two-and-a-half year old Isabel was a bit bored and started climbing over the William
Kent designed antique furniture, so Annette and I took it in turns to race through the rooms, without fully having time to appreciate the artworks.
Still there were some nice pieces on display, mostly portraits by Van Dyck, Rubens, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Poussin, Veronese, Carlo Maratta, Luca Giordano, Murillo, Le Brun and Andrea del Sarto. Obviously this man had good taste.
The following day we had a stroll round Cambridge and Phil took us on an impromptu tour inside King’s College.
Henry VI laid the foundation stone for the college in 1441, building work was then interrupted by the Wars of the Roses and then continued in 1446 and finally finished in 1554 during the reign of Henry VIII. The college chapel was built in the Late Gothic style and has the world’s largest fan vault. Its stained-glass windows and wooden chancel screen were exceptional.
Back home in Italy, in November I attended the autumn exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi entitled, ‘The Russian Avant- Garde, Siberia and the East.’ 130 works, including 79 paintings by Kandinsky, Malevich, Goncharova, Leon Bakst, Alexandre Benois and Pavel Filonov.
Highlights included; Ilya Mashkov’s ‘Lady in a chair’, Kandinsky’s 1919 ‘White Oval’ and Pavel Filanov’s 1925 ‘Animals’
Our last exhibition of the year was an extraordinary exhibition ‘Impressionist masterpieces at the Pitti Palace.’ The result of a loan exchange with the Musée d’Orsay for 12 impressionist masterpieces as the Pitti Palace would send 19 artworks to the Musée d’Orangerie for an exhibition there.
Some highlights were; Degas’ ‘Ballet rehearsal on stage’, Cézanne’s ‘Blue Vase’ and ‘Still life with open drawer’, Pissaro’s ‘A corner of the garden’, Monet’s ‘The Seine at Port-Villez’ and ‘Champ d’Avoine’ and Renoir’s ’Gabrielle with a rose ‘
A nice way to end a very special year.
2014
252 Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino @ Palazzo Strozzi
253 Poggio Torselli, San Casciano
254 Uffizi 7 (mum and Natalie)
255 Bury St Edmonds Cathedral
256 Tenuta il Corno, San Casciano
It took me to the middle of March to have my first art fix of the year with the spring exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled, ‘Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, Diverging paths of Mannerism.’ It explored the late 1500’s as the high Renaissance style merged with the new Mannerism movement.
Pontormo, or Jacopo Caruci, to give him his real name, was born in Pontorme, a small village near Empoli in 1494. He trained under Andrea del Sarto and was known for his haunting faces and elongated bodies.
Rosso Fiorentino, or Giovanni Batista di Jacopo was born in 1495 in Florence. He was called Rosso because of his red hair and like Pontormo also studied under Andrea del Sarto.
Some highlights included;
Rosso Fiorentino’s Musical Angel from the Ufizzi, Bacchus, Venus and a Cupid, The Death of Cleopatra and The Spedalingo Altarpiece.
From Pontormo there were; The Visitation from Carmignano, Portrait of a young man and Madonna with child and saints.
Andrea del Sarto was represented by The Madonna of the harpies.
In May I took Isabel up to the villa of Poggio Torselli as they had an open day.
The villa dates back to 1427 and like many villas in the San Casciano area, was owned by the Machiavelli family. Through the centuries it passed to different families including the Capponi and Antinori. The villa itself was quite simple, but the garden was really beautiful and full of roses. We had a pleasant afternoon immersed in this lovely setting.
In June my mum and niece Natalie visited. I took them fir an evening tour round the Ufizzi. It had been years since my last visit. Some of the rooms had been renovated and paintings moved round, but we managed to see all the usual suspects. It was my mum’s second visit and Natalue’s first. We had a great time and there were less people to maneuver round.
Natalie quite liked Michelangelo’s colourful Doni Tondo and Caravaggio’s Medusa shield.
In August we were in England as usual and went up to Cambridge to stay with Annette’s brother for the weekend. He took us to Bury St Edmonds for the day.
Originally called Beodericsworth and built in 1080, although Bronze Age objects have been discovered here, Bury St Edmonds is an historic market town in Suffolk. In 1095 King Edmund’s relics were transferred to the Abbey, but in 1608 a fire reduced the Abbey to rubble and destroyed hundreds of buildings surrounding the Cathedral. We visited the ruins in the pretty Abbey gardens.
We walked through the very impressive Norman Tower, once the gateway to the great Abbey. Built between 1120-1148 and standing pretty complete.
We also went for a peak inside St Edmundsbury Cathedral, originating in the 11th century, it was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. The style is Gothic and Gothic Revival.
In the grounds of the Cathedral we saw the sculpture by Elizabeth Frink (the same artist responsible for the four bronze heads in Worthing) entitled ‘Hither and Thither.’ Representing a young King Edmund.
In September we visited the Tenuta il Corno in San Casciano for a Mexican themed evening.
Built in the 12th century for the Del Corno family who had origins in Pistoia, it has a crenellated tower surrounded by buildings and today is a working farmhouse.
2015
257 Modigliani @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
258 Picasso @ Palazzo Strozzi
259 Power and Pathos @ Palazzo Strozzi
260 Villa Badoer
261 Villa Pisani
262 Padova Palazzo della Ragione
263 Villa Poiano Maggiore
264 Human, Anthony Gormley @ Fortezza Belvedere
265 Palazzo Vecchio
266 Castello di Sammezzano
267 Michelangelo bronzes @ the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge
267 Divine beauty, Van Gogh Chagall @ Palazzo Strozzi
268 Jeff Koons in Piazza Signoria
2015 in contrast to 2014 was a pretty good year for me art wise. Isabel was now four-years-old, more patient and beginning to enjoy our various outings.
Modigliani @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
In January we were back in Pisa at the Palazzo Blu for this year’s exhibition, ‘Modigliani and friends.’ Bringing together his artworks from the Pompidou Centre and other private and public collections, along with pieces by Picasso and Chagall.
Amadeo Modigliani was a Jewish Italian painter and sculptor. He was born in Livorno in 1884. He moved to Paris to join the Avant-Garde movement, fully immersing himself in the drinking and drug taking Bohemian lifestyle, unfortunately he died destitute in Paris aged only 35. He is well-known for his portraits with elongated necks and sculptures.
There were over 70 works by Modigliani here, including; the Portrait of Gaston Modot, Portrait of Dèdie, The Young Red Boy, Portrait of Paul Alexanders and the Portrait of Jeanne Hebertene.
At the end of January, just before it finished, I caught the Winter exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled ‘Picasso and Spanish modernity.’ Some 90 works by Picasso and other artists such as Miró and Dalí were on display, on loan from the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Highlights included; Woman’s Head (1910), Portrait of Dora Maar (1939), The Painter and the Model (1963) by Picasso. Siurana, the Path (1917) Figure and Bird in the Night (1945) by Miró and Arlequin (1927) by Dalí.
Power and Pathos @ Palazzo Strozzi
I was very excited at the next exhibition up at Palazzo Strozzi, ‘Power and Pathos, Bronze Sculpture from the Hellenistic World.’ This was the first exhibition under Palazzo Strozzi’s new director, Arturo Galansino. The exhibition, which brought together 50 bronze figures and portraits from the 4th to 1st centuries B.C. from some of the most famous museums in the world, was the greatest collection ever assembled in modern times and after Florence would travel to the J. P. Getty Museum in L.A. and then the National Gallery of Washington D.C. Only between 100 and 200 original bronzes exist from the Hellenistic period, so this was a unique opportunity to see many rare pieces together.
There were many lifesize bronzes. The stars of the show were definitely the Croatia and Vienna Apoxyomenos’, so realistic and lifelike I really thought they were going to step off its pedastal! The seated Boxer from Rome was here. I’d seen it before, but it was great to see it again. The Getty Bronze, Ststue of an Athlete was cool as was the Dancing Satyr from St Egidio in Sicily. The Spinario from Rome, two Kouros from Pompeii and the Louvre. Also here from the Florence Archaeological Museum were the Arringatore, Idolino and Athena Minerva.
There were many smaller statuettes, like Alexander the Great on Horseback and Hermès/Perseus from Naples, Hermès from the British Museum, Hercules from Chieti and heads on display too like Seuthes III from Bulgaria, Apollo from Salerno, the beautiful Ephebe from the Louvre, head of an athlete from Texas.
It was the exhibition of a lifetime. So good that I returned for a second time!
The weather for Easter looked promising, so we booked a few nights in the Colli Euganei, near Padova. The idea was to visit Padova and also check out a couple of Palladian villas.
Our first stop was in the small town of Fratta Polesine in the province of Rovigo. We had come to have a look at the Villa Badoer. It was all closed up, only open on a Saturday and Sunday and closed between 12.30-15.00 anyway. We were kind of used to this by now and I was happy just to have a look at the exterior.
It was built between 1555 and 1557 for Venetian noble, Francesco Badoer to designs by Andrea Palladio on the site of an ancient castle, which guarded a bridge over a navigable canal. The building was quite simple, the first time Palladio had used his temple pediment in the façade. It is set on a high basement reached by a scenographic staircase somewhat reminiscent of Giullio Sangalli’s Villa Medici at Poggio a Caiano. The central loggia has ionic columns, while the two side, barchesse outhouses have Tuscan order columns.
After lunch we drove on to to check in to our farmhouse near Monselice. As it’s a lovely sunny afternoon we decided to take a drive out to the town of Stra along the Brenta river to visit Villa Pisani. It’s a national museum and free today as it is was a bank holiday.
Villa Pisani is a late Baroque Palace, commissioned in the late 18th century by Alvise Pisani, the 114th Doge of Venice. It has a very impressive, large oversized façade with caryatid style pillars. It was bought by Napoleon in 1807 and became the property of the Hapsburg’s in 1814. In 1934 Hitler met Mussolini here.
We didn’t visit any of the rooms, instead with our four-year-old, opting to walk round the gardens, which were enormous. There was a cool maze and large ponds.
The following day we explored Padova, famous for its 1222 University, where Galileo went, Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew and the Scrovegni chapel, which we had visited in 2010, but never visited the centre.
We started with the huge area of Prato delle Valle, a large, elliptical, moated square, measuring 90,000 square meters, with two rings of 78 different statues around the edges, which was amazing. We also took a look at the outside of the huge Basilica of Saint Anthony.
After lunch we checked out the Palazzo della Ragione in Piazza delle Erbe. A huge building similar to the basilica in Vicenza. At 81 meters long and 24 meters high it takes up most of the square. It was built from 1172-1219 it stands on arches on the ground floor and an open loggia on the upper floor.
We also took a look at Piazza dei Signori, with the church of San Clemente and Torre del’ Orologio.
We did ho inside the baptistery and marveled at the frescoes by Giusto de’ Menabuio. A Florentine artist who executed the scenes of paradise and Christ Pantocrator on the dome between 1375-1378.
We finished up at the bizarre, Café Pedrocchi, an 18th century building created in different styles and famous for its attraction to artists and poets like Stendhal, Dario Fo and Lord Byron.
The following day we checked out of our hotel and went for a peak round Monselice and the castle. Apparently American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson had some nice words to say about this place.
"Monselice is the most picturesque town I have seen in Italy. It has an old ruin of a castle upon the hill and thence commands a beautiful and extraordinary view. It lies in the wide plain – a dead level – whereon Ferrara, Bologna, Rovigo, Este, Padua stand and even Venice we could dimly see in the horizon rising with her tiara of proud towers. What a walk and what a wide delightful picture.”
We could definitely echo his words!
Villa Duodo
After visiting the castle we then walked up the hill to the Villa Duodo, which was designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi in 1592. The pretty L-shaped façades do have Palladian influences. On the way down we saw the Villa Nani with its amusing dwarf sculptures.
We had a lovely stroll round the quaint medieval town of Arquà Petrarca and in fact it’s on the list of ‘I borghi più belli d’Italia.’ The Tuscan poet lived the final four years of his life here and in 1870 the town added his name to theirs.
We crossed the border into the province of Vicenza to have a look at our second Palladian villa in the small town of Pojana Maggiore. Again the villa is part of UNESCO and a pleasure to see. Built in 1548/9 for Bonifacio Pojana, the austere design was inspired by Palladio’s visit to the baths in Rome. On the façade is a ‘serilana’ with five circular ‘oculi’, stripped classical features, a broken pediment and statues that depict military and agricultural deities.
Our final destination of our Easter break was to the medieval, walled town of Montagnana, also on the list of ‘I borghi più belli d’Italia.’ We’d come to see our third Palladian villa, the 1552 Villa Pisani, but actually the town was more impressive. Palladio’s villa was on the corner of a junction. It was a plain rectangle with ionic over Doric pediments on two floors.
Montagnana was very pretty and we had a stroll to the pretty center
Human - Anthony Gormley @ Forte Belvedere
At the end of April we were invited, through the British Institute, to the premier of a very special exhibition at the Forte Belvedere in Florence, somewhere we’d never been before (as it was closed to the public for some years and o only reopened in 2013). British ‘Angel of the North’ sculptor, Antony Gormley was holding an installation of his bronze figures entitled ‘Human’.
We took Isabel along and she loved it. There were various bronzes dotted around this location with spectacular views over Florence. It was quite interactive as you could touch the bronzes and pose for photos with them. There were some of his serious groups such as ‘Critical Mass’ representing victims of the 20th century. The highlight was the ‘Ascent of man.’ Twelve body forms spread out across the lower terrace arranged in a linear progression from foetal to stargazing.
Palazzo Vecchio (private tour)
At the end of May one of my private students, Stefania, invited me onto a private guided tour of the Palazzo Vecchio. I had been in 2004, so this would be only my second ever visit. It was quite nice too as they were filming Dan Brown’s Inferno, some of which takes place here.
We met our guide in Piazza Signoria and then she took us inside for the visit. Her relaxed style and stories about Cosimo de’ Medici made it very enjoyable as we moved through the Sala del 500 and upstairs to the other rooms. I more or less saw the same things as the previous visit, but it was nice to have things explained.
Some highlights included; Michelangelo’s ‘Genius of Victory, Donatello’s ‘Judith and Holofornes’, Bronzono’s ‘Deposition’, Dante’s Death Mask and Verrocchio’s ‘Putto with a Dolphin.’
Our penultimate outing in May was the annual Open courtyards and gardens event and we got the chance to visit our local, Castello Sonnino in Montespertoli. The weather wasn’t nice and the visit was underwhelming. We did get to go inside the Vinsantaia room where they dry the grapes, but not the tower. The gardens were probably the nicest part.
This year’s Cantine Aperte was pretty special as we decided to visit Antinori’s ‘relatively’ new winery at nearby Bargino.
Although the Antinori family have been making wine for 600 years and own wine estates all over the world, this new project was opened in 2012. Originally their headquarters was in nearby San Casiano, but was moved to Cortona. This new building was created as a kind of visitor centre. The building itself is very futuristic, but blends in with the hillside. It was designed by Marco Casamonti as ‘a temple dedicated to the ancient rituals of winemaking’ with local materials. Even the car park is amazing. We walked up the incredible staircase and emerged at the entrance. We tried to go on a tour of the cellars, but Isabel lost interest. We had a quick peak at the wine museum, paid €5 for our abandoned tour and glass of Chianti Classico and checked out the young vineyards outside.
Castello di Sammezzano and Instagram
In June I saw an advert in the Florentine magazine offering free tickets for ‘instagram’ users to the Castello di Sammezzano. This was somewhere I had been wanting to see for years. I had no idea what this ‘Instagram’ was, but applied for two tickets anyway. I was lucky enough to get in early, as they only had about 20 tickets and this place was almost impossible to get into. I quickly found out that Instagram was a new social media site and immediately set up an account.
Si on a beautiful Sunday in June I drove to Leccio in Regello, with Annette and Isabel and entered the magical world of Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes.
The original building was erected in 1605 by Spanish nobleman Ximenes of Aragon. In the 19th century the property was inherited by Ferdinando and between 1853-1889 remodeled it into one of the largest examples of Moorish revival architecture. After the II World War it was used as a luxury hotel and then closed. It was more or less abandoned for many years until a committee of volunteers took charge and showed small groups of visitors around the property.
There are 365 rooms all decorated in colourful mosaics and we got the chance to wander round, admire and take some photos for this new social media platform. We had a whale of a time and four-and-a-half-year-old Isabel in her yellow dress was the star princess of the castle for a day.
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
During our Summer visit to England we stayed with Annette’s brother, Phil, in Cambridge. I had seen there was a special exhibition of two statuettes attributed to Michelangelo on at the Fitzwillam Museum, the Rothschild bronzes. Surprisingly on all our many visits up to Cambridge, we’d never actually seen the museum.
Founded in 1816, surprisingly it includes one of the best collections of antiquities and modern art in Western Europe, with over half a million objects and artworks.
We had come to see the two 1 mette high bronzes of youths riding panthers and they were very amusing. Michelangelo usually worked with Carrara marble and these were thought to be the only bronzes he ever created.
We spent some time looking at the permanent exhibitions of paintings which included works by Canaletto, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Monet and quite a few canvasses by Turner.
Nymans Gardens
We also visited Nymans Gardens, near Handcross, Haywards Heath. The house was partly destroyed in a fire in 1947 and the ruins made an interesting backdrop to the extensive gardens.
Back in Italy, in October we paid only our second ever to Borgo a Mozzano to see the cool Devil’s Bridge.
Divine Beauty, from Van Gogh to Chagall and Fontana @ Palazzo Strozzi
I caught the Autumn exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled ‘Divine Beauty, from Van Gogh to Chagall and Fontana.’ It explored the relationship between religion an art in the 19th and 20th centuries. There were around 100 artworks from around the world.
Highlights included; Van Gogh’s ‘Pieta’ from the Vatican museum, Millet’s ‘Angelus’ from the Musee d’ Orsay and Chagall’s ‘White Crucifixion’ from Chicago.
Jeff Koons in Piazza Signoria
The year finished with the strangest of installations in Piazza della Signoria in Florence. For the first time in 500 years a new sculpture was placed in the square. American ‘artist’ Jeff Koons’ brightly polished, stainless steel, gold reproduction of Bernini’s Pluto and Proserpina. It caused quite a stir and was the first of many temporary installations to be displayed in this famous, historic square.
2016
Villa Mansi, Lucca
Masaccio @ Cascia
269 Kandinsky, Pollack @ Palazzo Strozzi
270 Laurentian Library
271 Baptistery
272 Opere del Duomo (refit) @ Florence
273 Sardinia Nuraghi
274 Ai Wei Wei @ Palazzo Strozzi
San Galgano 2
After 2015’s mammoth year, 2016 actually turned out to be quite interesting too.
Villa Mansi, Lucca
Our first outing wasn’t until March. As part of the Camelia flower festival we drove out to the Villa Mansi in the small town of Segromigno near Cappanori in the province of Lucca.
The villa was constructed by the Benedetti family in the 16th century, but sold to the Cenami family in 1599. The villa and gardens were rebuilt in 1634. The façade has a central portico with thin double columns and two wings, accessed by a double-ramped staircase. In 1675 the villa was acquired by Ottavio Mansi. In the 18th century it underwent a major refurbishment including Roccoco statuary and monumental gardens with water features by Filippo Juvarra. We enjoyed walking around the, now less formal gardens and grottoes
On my eternal quest to see the Laurentian Library, I had a spare hour between lessons and decided to check out the restoration work going on to the Donatello Passion Pulpit in San Lorenzo. A wooden scaffold and platform had been erected and you could get really close to this masterpiece. Donatello created two pulpits in San Lorenzo, the Resurrection Pulpit had been previously restored and now it was the Passion Pulpit ‘s turn. Carved in marble and bronze containing events leading up to Christ’s death.
Masaccio @ Cascia
We spent Easter at home, but on a visit to one of my students, Fiorenza in Regello, she took us to the small town of Cascia to see a very special triptych.
Local boy and trailblazer of the early Renaissance, Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone Cassai, better known as Masaccio to you and I, painted an altarpiece, originally destined for the basilica of San Giovanni in Florence in 1422. It was discovered in 1961 in someone’s loft in a state of disrepair. It was apparently hidden during the Second World War to prevent the Nazi’s stealing it. After being restored it was installed in this small museum behind the Roman Pieve of San Pietro, here in Cascia.
It was awe inspiring to see it in this small room. The central panel, the enthroned madonna is flanked by two angels and holding Jesus who is eating a vine. On the left panel are St Bartholomew and St Blaise and on the right panel, St Anthony and St Juvenal.
From Kandinsi to Pollack @Palazzo Strozzi
On my return to work I checked out the Spring exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled ‘From Kandinsky to Pollack.’ Featuring artworks from the Solomon Guggenheim collection in New York his niece, Peggy Guggenheim in Venice. A nice chance to see some American and European masterpieces from the 1950’s and 60’s side by side. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress to the mining fortune was living between Paris and London in 1921, mixing with and befriending with artists, buying their art, putting on exhibitions and even marrying one of them, Max Ernst. In 1949 she chose Florence to exhibit her collection that would eventually find a home in Venice.
At this incredible exhibition, across from where I worked were over 100 pieces of Neo-Avante Garde masterpieces. Highlights included: Upward, Dominant Curve and Composition 8 by Kandinsky, Bust of a man in a striped shirt by Picasso, the Kiss by Max Ernst, the Moon Woman, Autumn Rhythm 30 and Enchanted Forest by Pollack and Preparedness by Lichtenstein.
Laurentian Library
After 15 years I finally got to go inside the Laurentian Library! I had a morning lesson and there was a special exhibition on so it was open.
Commissioned in 1523 by the Medici to show how learned and intellectual they had become, work began in 1525. By the time its architect, Michelangelo had left for Rome in 1534 only the reading room had been completed. It was then finished by Tribolo, Vasari and the Ammannati based on plans and verbal communication from Michelangelo. It finally opened in 1571. It is one of Michelangelo’s finest architectural achievements and a joy to finally see.
Florence Baptistery
Annette took Isabel to England in April, so I paid my first visit inside the Baptistery. after 15 years of admiring it from the outside I finally got to go inside and it was a pleasant surprise.
One of the oldest buildings in Florence, it was built between 1059-1128 in a Romanesque style. Inside it’s quite dark. it’s divided into two levels. The lower level is surrounded by columns and pilasters and the upper has a walkway. The interior walls are clad in green and white marble with geometrical patterns. There is a tomb by Donatello and Michelozzo and the original font was removed in 1571. The piece de resistence is the golden mosaic ceiling, which took a century to complete. It was begun in 1225 by Franciscan Friar Jacobus and the themes range from the Last Judgement, scenes from the book of Genesis to New Testament scenes, with artists including Cimabue.
I then took a peak inside Santa Maria del Fiore, which was as uninspiring as ever.
Museo dell Opere del Duomo
I finished off with a visit to the newly refurbished museum of the Opere del Duomo. It was really impressive with an enormous new hall containing many of the statues from the exterior and interior of the Cathedral. The original gates of Paradise now reunited. A great new room for Michelangelo’s Pietà and the Singing Gallery.
Sardinia
In the Summer we went on holiday to Sardinia and while we didn’t visit any indoor art we did see a couple of interesting things. The first was a Nuraghe archaeological site in Arzachena, near Porto Cervo. It was our second time in Sardinia, the first time in 2003 we had visited the archaeological site at Nora l, in the south of the island. These ruins come from the Nuragic civilization in Sardinia and date back from 1900 B.C. to 739 B.C. There are about 7,000 nuraghe on Sardinia. Nobody really knows what these ancient megalithic structures were used for, but amazing they are still standing after nearly 4,000 years.
This particular archaeological site, in the North-East of the island is made up of about 14 different complexes, 8 of which are visitabile on this itinerary:
The Malchittu temple
The Moru tomb
The Albucciu Nuraghe
The Giant’s tomb ‘Coddu Vecchju’
The ‘Nuraghe Prisgiona’ site.
The Li Lolghi’ Giant’s tomb
The Li Muri Necropolis
The ‘Mont’Incappiddatu’ mushroom
You can buy a ticket to visit individual sites or all 8. As the weather was very hot and we had our 5-year-old, we bought a ticket for 4 of them.
Our first stop was at the Coddu Vechju tomb. It’s referred to as ‘the Giant’s tomb’ not because the inhabitants were tall, but because the stone slabs were enormous. It was a strange structure with a huge central slab representing a false door. A series of smaller slabs surrounded it with the burial chamber extending behind. It was surreal walking inside knowing that someone was buried here so long ago. Next to this was a modern day winery, rows of vines providing an interesting backdrop.
Our next stop was at the nearby Nuraghe La Prisgiona. This was very interesting. There were the ruins of a small village of around 100 huts surrounding a ‘Tholos’ or domed tower in the centre. Again walking around was strangely bizarre and a welcomed shade from the intense July heat.
After lunch we drove out to our second complex starting with another Giant’s tomb’, which was smaller than the other, but standing on a small hill. Again there were slabs of various sizes along The front, but this time the burial chamber still had the stone slabs covering it.
We finished with a look at ‘Li Muri’ necropolis, of which not much remained.
Another interesting place we visited was on the second leg of our Sardinian holiday in the Orisei area. We were staying near the small town of Irgoli. There were these incredible murals depicting scenes from everyday life painted on the side of dozens of houses and we drove round admiring them. Some were so realistic it seemed as if they were real people!
Luckily it wasn’t the more famous town ‘Orgosolo’, which was also known for its political murals and its high crime rate and banditry, thankfully well in the past!
Wilton House
In England we visited Wilton House near Salisbury. Originally built as a priory in 871 A.D. Transformed in the 16th century by the first Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert. In 1630 the 4th Earl pulled down the south wing and the front was then rebuilt in an English Renaissance style possibly with the influence of Inigo Jones.
Unfortunately we didn’t get to go inside the house as we had Isabel and Annette’s elderly mother with us. Worse still the Palladian style bridge I had specially come to see was undergoing restoration and covered in scaffolding. Oh well, some you win...
Michelham Priory
We also went for a day trip to Michelham Priory in Upper Dicker near Hailsham. They were having an open day for children and we took Isabel and her cousins Mya and Asher.
Founded in 1229 the once Augustine Priory of the Holy Trinity was built in stone with a tiled roof and had a west wing added in the 16th century. There are several other buildings including the 15th century gatehouse with three floors, which we climbed, a cool barn built between 1587 and 1610. The 18th century Dovecot where there was a small museum of farm tools. There was also a working water mill which we walked to, unfortunately it had just closed so we didn’t see it working. The whole 8 acre complex is surrounded by England’s largest medieval water filled moat, making it a really pleasant trip.
Back home in Italy we spent a few days at the beach and visited the city of Grosseto for the first time. We had a drink in the main square. We had a look round the main cathedral, San Lorenzo. Dating from the end of the 13th century it wasn’t finished until the 15th century. Built in a Romanesque style in layers of black and white marble by the Sienese architect Sozzo Ristichini. The bell tower dates from 1402.
Also of note was the pretty Palazzo Aldobrandeschi. It has medieval origins and Neo-Gothic designs by Lorenzo Porciatti.
Libero - Ai Wei Wei @ Palazzo Strozzi
When we went back to work we saw these red dinghies appearing on the side of Palazzo Strozzi. They were part of the new Autumn/Winter exhibition by the famed/controversial Chinese artist Ai WeiWei. It certainly causes conversation among Florentines, from traditionalists outraged to progressives who loved it. I managed to get a ticket to the premiere at the Odeon cinema in the presence of the artist himself. Unfortunately he was too tired to appear and we had to make fo with the art gallery director, Arturo Galesani and the mayor Dario Nardella.
Afterwards, after a bit of queuing, some free nibbles and drinks, I got to go round the exhibition before it was open to the public.
Ai WeiWei was born in China and at only one year old was sent with his family to a
labour camp and then exiled for 16 years. He spent time in America, back in China, where he was imprisoned in 2011. His work has as a theme human rights abuse and he is a symbol of residence against censorship. His artworks consist of installations, videos and photographs and he is probably best known for helping with the design of the ‘birds nest’ stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
This exhibition was entitled ‘Libero’ or Free and was the first major retrospective of Wei Wei’s works, from 1980 to the present day. The 22 rubber lifeboats on the exterior of the building, an installation from 2016 called ‘Reframe’, represented the plight of refugees who risk their life to cross the Mediterranean and criticizing government’s poor handling of this crisis.
In the courtyard was the installation from 2014, called ‘Refraction’ a series of solar cookers, kettles and steel.
On the Piano Nobile you entered through a chamber of 960 bicycles, an installation from 2012, entitled ‘Stacked’.
Inside were various pieces, ordinary everyday objects, rearranged in a unique way, like ‘He Xie’ from 2011 thousands of red and brown porcelain crabs, ‘Snake Bag’ from 2008 snakes made of 360 black grapes’ from 2015, which is a collection of Qing dynasty stools.
Downstairs there were thousands of photos he had taken and collections of objects from his time in prison including 2012’s ‘Souvenir from Shanghai.’
Looking back it was a pretty groundbreaking exhibition and quite a scoop for Florence.
Our last outing of the year was back to San Galgano (see 2007), the roofless abbey in the south of Tuscany. It was our second time here, but Isabel’s first.
2017
275 Museo degli Innocenti @ Florence
276 Bill Viola @ Strozzi
277 Prato delle Valle @ Pavia
(Sicily)
278 Cefalu
279 Palermo
280 Erice
281 Segesta
282 Selinunte
283 Agrigento
284 Monreale
285 Constable country sites @ Dedham
286 Herstmonceux Uk
287 In Search for Utopia - Jean Fabre @ Piazza Signoria
288 Ghirlandaio @ Santa Trinità
Museo degli Innocenti
My first art fix of the year was in March to visit the Museo degli innocenti, which had just finished its new restoration in June 2016, in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. I had always admired the Brunelleschi designed hospital from the outside and finally took the opportunity to go inside. The first orphanage in Europe was founded some 600 years ago in 1419 and was also the first Renaissance building of Brunelleschi. The museum was created in 1853 and contains various rooms on the ground, first, second floors and basement. Some of the highlights include a Madonna and child with angels by Boticelli, the Adoration of the Magi by Ghirlandaio. Luca Della Robbia, whose glazed terracotta adorn the outside, is represented by a white version Madonna and child. There is a really cool café on the top floor with a great view.
Castello di Brolio
At the end of March, I drove down to Gaiole-in-Chianti to visit the castle at Brolio. It was my third time here. The other 2 times in 2002 and 2003 I only got to see the outside. This time I managed to join a guided tour of the museum, in one of the rooms adjacent to the main castle. The exhibits showed the history of winemaking in the Chianti Classico region and articles and objects relating to the former Prime Minister of Italy and founder of Chianti Classico wine, Bettino Ricasoli. Afterwards I enjoyed a stroll round the very pretty Italian gardens and grounds of the castle.
Electric Renaissance - Bill Viola @Palazzo Strozzi
In April between lessons I caught one of the strangest exhibitions I’ve ever been to as American master of video art, Bill Viola was being represented at the Palazzo Strozzi with his show ‘Electric Renaissance.’ It traced his work from the 1970s until today. His connection to Florence went back to 1974. His video installations included cool slow motion versions of Piero della Francesco’s Deposition, Pontormo’s Visitation, but also other depictions of people being engulfed in fire and water. Other strange videos included ‘Arshake’, people walking past a doorway which is eventually flooded and a woodland scene with people walking through. Truly a weird and unique experience.
Pavia
For Easter we visited Pavia in Lombardy. We spent some time looking at and crossing the Ponte Coperto or Ponte Vecchio, on the Ticino river. The original bridge dates back to the 2nd century BC. It was rebuked in the 14th century and was designed by Giovanni da Ferrara Jacopo da Cozzo. It was partially destroyed by Allied forces in 1944. The current bridge with 5 arches and 2 portals at either end was constructed in 1949-51, as a copy of the previous one. There is a small church built on the middle, due to an old legend.
We also visited the famous Certosa di Pavia, charterhouse. It is one of the largest monasteries in Italy of the Carthusian order. It was commissioned by the Duke of Milan and designed by Marco Solari in 1396
It’s free to wander the grounds and admire the façade from the outside. We had a peek to at the cloisters, but didn’t go inside as it was closed for lunch and didn’t open until 4pm.
Orsanmichele
I have another free hour between lessons and decide to go for my first visit to Orsanmichele. I had walked past the outside, with niches of copies of various statues, maybe hundreds of times, but never gone inside. Originally built as a grain store in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione. Between 1380 and 1404, it was converted into a church. Inside on the ground floor is the church with as its centrepiece, Andrea Orcagna’s Tabernacle, but on the first floor are the real gems. There are no less than 12 sculptures depicting Jesus and some of his apostles, that originally adorned the outside niches. Only 1 is not here, St George by Donatello, which is in the Bargello museum. The most impressive one here is the Doubting Thomas and Jesus by Vercocchio. Other highlights are, St Peter and St Mark by Donatello, St Matthew, St Stephen and St John the Baptist by Ghiberti and St Luke by Giambologna.
Sicily
In July/August we went to Sicily for our summer holiday and art was definitely on the menu. Our first port of call was Cefalù. The main attraction being the cathedral which is one of the 9 structures included in the UNESCO World Heritage list of Arab-Norman Cathedral churches of North Sicily. We managed to see 5 out of the 9. The Cathedral of Cefalù dates from 1131 and was built in a Norman style in the reign of King Roger II. The façade is dominated by two Norman towers with mullion windows. We had a peek inside at the Byzantium gold mosaics on the ceiling and walls of Christ Pantokrator, Virgin Mary and angels. Roger II brought mosaic masters from Constantinople to carry out the work and very striking it is too.
Palermo
From Cefalu we took the train to the capital of Sicily, Palermo for a day trip. We saw the outside of the Palazzo dei Normani, but it was closed over lunchtime, so we didn’t get to look inside. Our first real stop was at San Giovanni degli Eremiti, a former monastic church with its distinctive red, Norman-Byzantium domes. We had a look inside and around the very peaceful medieval cloisters and gardens. We also climbed the bell tower and enjoyed a panoramic view of Palermo.
Probably the highlight of the day was the Praetorian fountain situated in a small square. The fountain was actually built in 1544 in Florence by Francesco Camiliani and transferred to Palermo in 1574. Its many statues represent the 12 Olympians, animals and rivers of Palermo.
We went inside the Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Virgin Mary of the Assumption. It was pretty impressive, both from the outside and in. The origins date back to the Punic and Roman ages and were added to throughout history.
Monreale
The following day we checked out at Cefalù and on the way to our next destination at Menfi, we stopped on the hill outside of Palermo to visit another unmissable gem, the Cathedral of Monreale. Construction began in 1172 and was completed in 1267. The interior is covered in tiny golden 12th and 13th century Byzantine style mosaics, depicting Christ Pantocrator. We had a nice wander afterwards in the splendid cloisters, one of the finest in Italy, built around 1200.
Selinunte
From Menfi we visited the first of 3 archaeological sites, Selinunte. This was the site of an Ancient Greek city founded in 628 BC and today containing the remains of 5 temples centered on an Acropolis. We took a buggy to get around and see the various temples. The most complete, Temple E, dates to 460/450 BC and was dedicated to Hera or Aphrodite. It was controversially restored in 1950/60 using the original material and today you can walk around inside which is really cool. We took the buggy to one of the partially restored Temple C, the oldest one, dating back to 550 BC and dedicated to Apollo.
Agrigento
A day earlier than we had originally planned, we decided to visit Agrigento and a good thing to. We arrived in the morning only to discover that they were closing the whole site down in the afternoon for some fashion shoot. Fortunately we had the whole morning to wander round. The Valley of the Temples is a UNESCO World heritage site in its own right and one of the largest archaeological sites in the world. It contains the remains of 7 ancient temples, the most notable is the Temple of Concordia (the Roman goddess of harmony) from 440-430 BC. It’s in a pretty good state of conservation and we admired the six-column façade With 6X13 Doric columns complete with architraves. The bronze sculpture lying in front makes for a great photo. Other temples, partially intact were, the Temple of Hera and Heracles. It was a huge area and foolish to look round in the August heat
Segesta
After several days based at Menfi we drove up to our final destination of Castellammare del Golfo. On the journey we stopped at our third and final archaeological site at Segesta. The origins are not clear, but it was already mentioned in 580 BC. We parked up and walked to the very well preserved Greek Doric Temple, constructed in 420 BC. There are 6 X 14 columns, which weren’t fluted and the roof was never completed due to a war between Segesta and Selinunte. After lunch we walked up to the well-preserved 3rd century Greek theatre would have held 5,000 people. This brought to an end a pretty amazing holiday to this magical island.
Constable Country - Deadham Valley
On my trip to the UK, with my mum, I visited my brother, who was now living in Colchester. While I was up there I paid a visit to Constable country, Flatford, Dedham to be precise and the river Stour. The area is a National Trust property and includes several of the locations which feature in Constable’s paintings. Constable actually lived and grew up in the village and would walk along the river every day. I saw the setting for his most famous painting, the Hay Wain, as well as Willy Lot’s cottage, Flatford Mill the scene for the Boat Builders and even went inside Bridge cottage. It was like being in Constable’s paintings.
Also on our trip to England we took mine and Annette’s mums to visit Herstmonceux castle near Hailsham in East Sussex. I may have come here on a primary school trip to see the Royal Observatory many moons before.
The hamlet of Herst gives the castle the first part of its name. I’m the 11th century, William the Conqueror’s closest supporters granted tenancy of the manor at Herst to a man named Wilbert. By the end of the twelfth century, written accounts mention a lady called Idonea de Herst, who married a Norman nobleman named Ingelram de Monceux. Around this time, the manor began to be called the "Herst of the Monceux", a name that eventually became Herstmonceux.
The castle was subsequently built in 1441 by the then owner Sir Roger Fiennes and completed by his son Lord Dacre in 1449. The moated castle is surrounded by extensive gardens, which we enjoyed wandering round. There was a private function on in the castle when we visited, so it was closed. However, I did have a sneaky peek inside the courtyard.
In Search for Utopia - Jean Fabre @Piaza Signoria
Back home in Florence 2 new art installation had been placed in Piazza Signoria, as part of his ‘Spiritual Guards’ exhibition. The first one, was a shiny bronze of a man riding a giant turtle, entitled ‘Searching for Utopia’, the second smaller bronze of a man standing on a ladder with a tape measure, entitled, The man who measures the clouds’. Both were very surreal, being placed next to the Renaissance sculptures.
The Cinquecento in Florence @ Palazzo Strozzi
In October I visited the new exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, entitled il cinquecento a Firenze or in English the sixteenth century in Florence, showcasing the crossover from the Renaissance to the Mannerist period in Florence. It brought together over seventy works by artists such as Michelangelo, Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, Rosso Fiorentino, Pontormo, Santi di Tito, Giambologna and Bartolomeo Ammannati. It was actually the third part of an exhibition that included Bronzino in 2010 and Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino in 2014. It was a pretty special exhibition. The highlight was the bringing together the three depositions of Pontormo, Bronzino and Rosso Fiorentino in one space for the first time in history. Bronzino’s Deposition from Brsançon in France was amazing and Michelangelo’s restored sculpture of a river god sublime.
My last art fix of the year was between lessons to have a peek at the frescoes inside the church of Santa Trinità in Via Tournabuoni in Florence. It had been a few years since I’d come inside to admire the 1483-1486 frescoes by Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti chapel, depicting the life of Saint Francis. Many of the Medici family are pictured here. The Adoration of the shepherds altarpiece by Ghirlandaio is pretty stunning too.
2018
289 Pisa Baptistery, Cathedral, Camposanto
290 Dawn of a Nation @ Palazzo Strozzi
291 Natural history museum, London, Uk
292 Palazzo Davanzati
293 Andrea del Sarto - Cennacolo @ San Salvi
Pisa Baptistery, Cathedral, Camposanto
A fairly low key year started with a trip to Pisa in March. I was dropping Annette and Isabel off at the airport for a visit to England, so while I was in town I thought I’d check out some new art. I drove to the Piazza dei Miracoli and bought a 3-part ticket which gave me entrance to the Cathedral, Baptistery and Camposanto. Even though I’d been in this square on many occasions, usually accompanying visitors, I had only been up the leaning tower once and never been inside these three buildings.
First off was the Baptistery, constructed between 1152 and 1363 it’s actually the largest baptistery in Italy, completed in a Romanesque style with Carrara marble. Inside the main attraction is the pulpit sculpted by Nicola Pisano in 1260. It is supported on columns bearing lions. The parapet is decorated with 5 o panels depicting the life of Christ. Inspired by Roman art the definition of the figures is incredible and obviously inspired the Renaissa sculptors that followed. On the first floor of the Baptistery I got an an amazing view of the Cathedral.
Next I went inside the huge Camposanto cemetery and again there were some nice photo ops through the arches amongst the tombs of Pisa’s ancient rich and famous. It was constructed in 1270 and was originally covered in frescoes. Many of which were damaged by bombings in 1944. They were detached and restored and are now housed opposite in the former hospital, now the Sinopie museum.
My last stop was inside the Cathedral, which was the least interesting of the three buildings I visited that day. There was a mass in progress as it was Palm Sunday the following day. The Romanesque style Cathedral is the oldest structure in the square, it was built between 1063 and 1092. Various artists are represented inside such as Cimabue, Giovanni and Nicola Pisano, Giambologna, Andrea Del Sarto and I’ll Sodoma.
Birth of a Nation @ Palazzo Strozzi
Before we broke up from school in June I checked out the Spring exhibition across the square in Palazzo Strozzi, entitled, Birth of a Nation. Dedicated to the period in Italy from the end of the Second World War til 1968. The artists represented were all Italian and comprised eighty 80 works by artists such as Giulio Turcato - ‘Political Rally’ Renato Guttuso - ‘the Battle of Amiraglio’ Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova - ‘Clash of Situations’ Enrico Castellani, Piero Manzoni, Mario Schifano, Mario Merz and Michelangelo Pistoletto. Displaying artistic styles as diverse as Realism, Abstraction, Informal Art, Pop Art, monochrome painting, Arte Povera and Conceptual Art.
Archaeological park @t Populonia and Baratti
On the first leg of our summer holiday on the Tuscan coast we visited the archaeological park of Populonia and Baratti. I had been here with my dad in 2006, but even though we’d driven past many many times, Annette and Isabel had never been inside for a tour. We took the shorter tour, the same one as I’d done with my dad, taking in the big tumulus tomb, which we went inside and the smaller tombs on the lower field. The tour was in English and we had fun, even though it was very hot!
Natural History Museum, London
In the Summer we went up to London for the day and took our 7-year old Isabel to the Natural History museum. Not exactly an art museum, but a collection of some 80 million specimens from the natural world, including some collected by Charles Darwin. Unfortunately the massive diplodocus exhibited in the main hall had been replaced with a blue whale in 2017! The building itself and in particular the Romanesque style façade is pretty impressive. Built between 1873 and 1880 in architectural terracotta tiles to resist the London smog. We spent several hours inside and there were lots of interactive displays to keep a 7-year old happy.
Palazzo Davanzati
Back in Florence I took another opportunity during a break in lessons to check out somewhere I had walked past every day for 17 years, but had never been inside, the Palazzo Davanzati, a perfectly preserved and furnished 14th century Florentine town house, that was literally two steps from our school. Erected by the Davizzi family, wealthy members of the wool guild. Then sold in 1516 to the Bartolini family and finally to the Davanzatti family in 1578. It remained with them until 1838. It was bought by Elia Volpi and restored it and opened it as museum in 1910. The Italian state bought it in 1951, but by 1995 it was in danger of falling down and it closed. It was partially restored in 2005 and by 2012 all the floors were opened to visitors.
The high ceiling ground floor consists of an atrium and courtyard, which now is used as the reception area. The first floor, the great hall, was once used to conduct business, is now a museum, with a large wooden table and various displays. There are another 4 rooms on the first floor, the Room of the Parrots, so called because of the wall hangings, designed to look like patchworks, have parrot motifs. There are lots of maiolica ceramics from Montelupo on display too. Apart from a small bathroom and study there is also a bedroom on this floor, the Sala dei Pavoni, or Peacock Room, Which has peacock frescoes and a false geometrical tapestry and a row of coat of arms of families allied with the Davizzi. It is currently set up with a bed and cradle.
On the second floor is another bedroom and is called of the Chatelain of Vergy in honor of the frescoes inspired by the medieval romance, full of love, adventure and death. In the same bedroom you can see a beautiful "Desco da Parto" painted by Scheggia, Masaccio's brother.
On the third floor is the Camera delle Impannate, another bedroom, and the Kitchen. The Impannate were cotton or linen textile, dyed in wax, put in a wood frame and inserted in the windows were in substitution of the glass, that was very expensive.The kitchen is on the top floor because the hot air rising from cooking stayed away from the lower living spaces in the heat of summer, and also to minimize damage in the event of an out-of-control fire. The room features a fireplace with bellows and two turnspits, a wooden bread-kneading machine, a metal butter churn and other tools from that period, or later on. All in all a very interesting museum and idea of how nobles would have lived in a town house of the 15th century.
Montegufoni
After dropping Isabel off at school I decided to check out the castle at Montegufoni. I had been driving past it for the last 5 years and thought it was about time. I had come here with Annette many years ago and the owners were a bit rude. It is now a hotel and restaurant. Luckily the owners were away and there was a local artist there with an exhibition of his work. I had a quick look at some of his paintings and then asked him if I could have a quick look round the gardens. He said yes and so I was able to wander around freely. The courtyard was nice and the gardens pretty. There was a cool grotto, swimming pool and outside restaurant too. I had an enjoyable half hour without any rude owners bothering me.
Andrea del Sarto - Cennacolo @ San Salvi
In the Autumn I was doing some lessons at Liceo Gramsci, towards Coverciano, so decided to check out a few places. I’d heard there was a ‘Cenacolo’ Last Supper fresco in the area, so went in search. It’s situated near the church of San Salvi. I walked round the outside of the church, which appeared to be all closed up. Then I saw a sign for it down a side street. It’s actually housed in the refectory of the adjacent monastery. Today a small free museum. It was very impressive and colourful. One of seven last suppers frescoed here in Florence, this was the penultimate one. First commissioned in 1511, the work was eventually carried out between 1526 and 1527 by Mannerist painter, Andrea Del Sarto.
The most original part, which will have great success in the following decades, is the upper one where the artist represents a terrace with architraved passages, where two characters, against the background of a sunset sky, watch the scene. It is a small genre scene, since one of the two holds a tray and is therefore a servant of the inn, while the other, with his arms firmly resting on the terrace as if he had just finished peering down, turns his gaze towards him, turning his head in profile.
In the fresco, Judas, is to the right of Jesus, with his hand on his chest to demonstrate his disbelief, while receiving a soaked piece of bread. To the left of Christ is his favorite disciple, John, leans towards him as if to better listen to his words, while Jesus offers him a gesture of affection by holding his hand and looking at him with a reassuring expression. The figure of Christ thus appears isolated in the centre, amidst the bewilderment linked to his words which spreads to the ends of the long table, in the emotional but measured gesticulation of the apostles.
The color is brilliant, but the tones selected are not the primary ones of the fifteenth-century tradition (reds, blues, intense yellows), but rather half-tones that give a sense of slight stridor: violet, greenish, orange, turquoise, etc. Numerous iridescent effects, such as in the guise of Judas, further embellish the painting. This refined poses and range of feelings expressed varies from surprise, to discouragement, to anguish, to mutual questioning, to self-doubt.
National Football Museum @ Coverciano
On another day, while at Gramsci. I decided to check out the National Football Museum at Coverciano. It’s part of what’s called Centro Technico Federale di Coverciano.’ The Italian national team is based here. They meet and train before international matches and tournaments. Conceived in 1953 and opened in 1958. The museum was conceived after the 1990 World Cup, which was held in Italy and opened in 2000. There are 6 rooms, the first with items such as jerseys and pendants from Italy’s 2 World Cup wins from 1934 and 1938 and the 1936 Summer Olympics, including replicas of the 2 Jules Rimet cups they won. The second room contains items from the 1994 World Cup and Di Stefano, Maradona and Pele jerseys. The third room is dedicated to the history of the national team going back to 1898, including memories of the Superga air disaster. The fourth room contains memorabilia and replica trophies from Italy’s victories in the 1968 Euro Cup and 1982 World Cup. The fifth room is dedicated to Italy’s successes from 1970-2000 and the sixth room to Italy’s success in the 2006 World Cup win, including the trophy. (A 7th room was added in 2021 celebrating Italy’s Euro win) An incredible collection of the history of Italian football… with certainly a bigger collection of trophies than poor old England!
2019
294 Marina Abramovic @ Palazzo Strozzi
295 Santo Spirito
296 Badia Fiesolana
297 Verrochio @ Palazzo Strozzi
298 Painshill, Cobham
299 Van Gogh @ Tate Britain
300 Arundel Castle Park
Marina Abramovic @ Palazzo Strozzi
My year started with a bang in January as I just caught the Winter exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi before it finished. It was the first exhibition here dedicated solely to a female artist and followed on from Ai Wei Wei and Bill Viola, where the artist is present. I have to say it’s the strangest exhibition I have been to to date and I’m not sure I would define it as ‘art.’ Anyway, the exhibition was entitled ‘The Cleaner’ and the artist in question, Serbian, performance artist, Marina Abramović. It was a retrospective, bringing together some 100 artworks and offering visitors an overview of the most celebrated works in her career stretching from the 1960s to the 2000s with videos, photographs, paintings, objects, installations and the live re-performance of her celebrated works by a group of performers specifically selected and trained for the show.
To enter the exhibition visitors had to walk through a naked man and woman standing by the doorway, which was a reinactment of her 1977 film, ‘imponderabiliia.’ The idea was to see how people react to nakedness. Uncomfortable was my answer!
From here on the exhibits became even more bizarre.
There was a video of people striking the artists body with various objects, from her 1974 work ‘Rhythm 0’ first performed in Naples in 1974. There was also ‘Rhythm 10,’ a video of her sitting at a desk with her fingers spread out. With her other hand holding a scalpel she repeatedly stabs between her fingers (obviously trying to avoid cutting them off!)
One of her most famous works ‘The Artist is Present, where she sits at a table and invites a member of the public to sit opposite and stare at her, was present here as a video and for the Florentine public to come and sit opposite a performer and see how long they could stare at each other.
There was one room full of animal bones with a rotting odour pumped through a sensorial machine. Recalling her 1997 work ‘Balkan Baroque’, where she drew attention to the massacres suffered during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.
The most senseless video was of the artist and her then partner, Ulay, walking randomly into walls… maybe it symbolised their epic walk along the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle. It took so long that by the time they met in the middle they had split up! Maybe also a metaphor for this exhibition?
Verrochio @ Palazzo Strozzi
In March I wasted no time in attending the Spring/Summer exhibition, the first ever exhibition dedicated to Andrea Del Verocchio, who was the teacher of one Leonardo Da Vinci, on the 500th anniversary of his death. 120 works of art had been brought together from over 70 museums from the 4 corners of the globe. It was a fascinating insight to the teacher whose own artistic talents merited this special exhibition. There were some beautiful Madonna and child paintings on display, including the one from the state museum in Berlin, the Madonna and child with two angels, from the National Gallery in London, executed with the help of Lorenzo Credi. This was contrasted with Sandro Boticelli’s Madonna and child with two angels, from the Capodimonte in Naples. The playful ‘Tobias and the Angel’ from the National Gallery in London was on display. It is thought that Leonardo may have painted the dog and fish in the painting.
Santo Spirito
In May I had another break in between lessons and got to check out the inside of Santo Spirito. This is the church where Michelangelo, who in 1492 at the age of only 17 and Leonardo dissected cadavers to understand the workings of the human body. To thank the priors for their hospitality, Michelangelo carved a wooden crucifix for the church and I finally managed to see it. It was in the Casa Buonarroti before coming back here, in the sacristy, in 2000. Its authenticity is disputed.
Museo Paleontologico and Botanical garden
In June Isabel’s class had organised a trip to the Paleontological museum in Florence. I didn’t know it even existed, so was pleasantly surprised. There were 6 different collections. The main one established in 1775, contains some 200,000 specimens including some huge mastodons found in Tuscany from the Pliocene and Pleistocene periods. One was affectionately called Pietro.
Outside we visited the Giardino dei Semplici, the third oldest botanical garden in Europe dating back to 1545 and containing some pretty impressive and very old trees.
Badia Fiorentina
Badia Fiorentina, or Abbey of Santa Maria. Again a building I had walked past hundreds of times. Originally the site of the church of Santo Stefano dating back to 960 AD. The abbey was founded in 978 and underwent a Gothic makeover by Cathedral architect, Arnolfo di Cambio in 1285. It was here that Dante first saw Beatrice. The bell 70 metre high tower here is a feature of the Florentine skyline. Most of the original artworks are now in other museums. I had a nice walk round the two-floor Orange Cloister, with some cool frescoes depicting the life of St Benedict.
Painshill, Cobham
During our trip to England we visited Painshill park in Cobham, Surrey. We took both our mums, so pushing a wheelchair around the park limited what we saw. Still we did pretty well. The 81 hectare (200 acre) grounds were purchased and developed by Charles Hamilton in 1738. It was a gorgeous day and there were so many features with amazing views. Centrepiece was the ten-sided Gothic Temple. The Roman bridge across the Serpentine lake, the Ruined Abbey, Temple of Bacchus, bronze copy of Giambologna’s Rape of the Sabine women and there was even a vineyard. The only thing we didn’t manage to see was the grotto. An incredible place.
Van Gogh @ Tate Britain
I had bought tickets online for Tate Britain’s blockbuster summer exhibition, Van Gogh in Britain. Isabel had been studying Van Gogh at school and was up for a visit. The exhibition brought together 50 works from the Dutch master, revealing how he was inspired by Britain and how he inspired British artists.
The two stars of the show were his Sunflowers on loan from the National Gallery down the road and Starry night over the Rhône and from the Musée D’Orsay in Paris. Two incredible Self-Portraits, from the Musée D’Orsay and Washington, The Prison Courtyard from Moscow and many others. Isabel had a great time, it was so wonderful to see these masterpieces with their incredible brush strokes and vibrant colours in the flesh.
Arundel Castle Park
We went to see Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the grounds of Arundel Castle and had a nice stroll around before the performance. Specifically the Collector Earl’s garden complete with Oberon’s Palace fantasy pavilion, shellwork grotto and fountain. Wonderful.
Leonardo at 500 - Vinci
Back in Tuscany and to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death we made the 20-mile drive to Vinci to see what was going on. We had been here several times over the last 20 years and seen the Leonardiano museum in the small town. On this occasion, however we visited his birth house in Anchiano, a few miles outside of Vinci, which was fairly nondescript. Halfway between Anchiano and Vinci, though, is the Villa il Ferrale, which we visited. There was a didactic exhibition of full-scale high definition copies of some of Leonardo’s paintings, which was pretty impressive.
Giovanni and Telemaco Signorini @ Palazzo Antinori
In November I got to see inside somewhere I see every day, Palazzo Antinori in Via Tournabuoni. There was an exhibition of local father and son artists, Giovanni and Telemaco Signorini. The paintings were nothing to write home about, but it was cool to have a look inside this historic building.
Natalia Goncharova @ Palazzo Strozzi
My last artistic outing of the year was back at Palazzo Strozzi for the Autumn/Winter exhibition, Natalia Goncharova - A Woman and the Avant Guarde, between Gauguin, Matisse and Picasso. Bringing together 130 works, forming a journey through the Russian countryside, to Moscow and Paris. The Goncharova paintings weren’t particularly inspiring, but some by the other artists were worth coming for.
Especially The Gardener Vallier, by Cézanne, from the Tate in London.
Bowl of Fruit with a Tankard, by Gauguin, from the National Gallery also in London.
and Boccioni’s Spiral Perpendicular Construction Seated Woman, from Milan.
2020
301 Tutankhamen - Voyage to Eternity @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi, Florence
(COVID break)
302 100 Wolves - Liu Rouwang @ Piazza Santissima Annunziata
303 Archaeological Museum, Florence
304 Abbey of Michele Arcangelo @ Badia a Passignano
Tutankhamen - Voyage to Eternity @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi, Florence
Well 2020 was without doubt the least interesting year for anybody, anywhere.
The Covid 19 virus broke out in China and on 20 February the first case was reported in northern Italy. On 26 Feb between lessons on a Wednesday I went along to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi to catch the Florence leg of the Tutankhamen - Voyage to Eternity exhibition. The exhibition brought together over 100 official copies of the young pharaoh’s treasure, including the canopic jars, the statue of Anubis, the golden throne and the spectacular funeral mask. I had seen the originals 30 years ago in the Cairo Museum, so it was nice to see these copies. In addition there was also the painted wooden sarcophagus of Padihorpakhered, from the Archaeological Museum of Florence. The building was practically empty as people weren’t travelling, it was kind of eerie.
We then entered 52 days of lockdown, where we were confined to our houses. When we were allowed out nobody felt like mixing. We were at home for Easter and In July and August we didn’t go back to England. We eventually, very cautiously ventured of the house to Florence. Isabel had been studying Egypt in History, so we put our face masks on and took her to the Archaeological Museum. It was only our second time here, the first in 18 years.
100 Wolves - Liu Rouwang @ Piazza Santissima Annunziata
On our way we stopped to admire an art installation in Piazza Santissima Annunziata. 100 280 kg bronze wolves had been placed around the square by Chinese artist Liu Rouwang. Celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations between China and Italy and symbolizing man’s aggression towards the environment. They were pretty scary!
Archaeological Museum, Florence
Anyway on to the museum, again there weren’t many visitors, due to the Covid virus and various sections like the Greek one and garden were closed. However we were here for the Egyptian section which was thankfully open. Isabel enjoyed seeing various mummies, sarcophagi and various other objects. Both the Etruscan and Roman sections were open, so we got to see some very cool bronze sculptures, like the Arringatore, Minerva, Idolino and perhaps the museum’s best piece, the Chimera from Arezzo. It was a nice visit.
Abbey of Michele Arcangelo @ Badia a Passignano
In September I took a drive out to Badia Passignano. I’d been here many times before, but this time managed to go inside the abbey and had a tour by one of the missionary priests. The Vallombrossan abbey dates back to the 11th century and its dedication to Saint Michael the Archangel suggests Lombard origins.
The abbey church is 13th century and inside I got to see the two panels painted by Michele di Ridolfo Del Ghirlandaio. One depicting the archangel Michael, the other Gabriel and Raffaello.
In the refectory is a very beautiful Last Supper, which was painted in 1476, by Michelangelo’s master, Domenico Ghirlandaio, when he was just 27 years old. I also saw the pretty cloister, dating from 1470.
2021
The Wound - JR @ Palazzo Strozzi
303 America Art 1961-2001 @ Palazzo Strozzi
304 Ceramics Museum @ Montelupo
Sant Agostino @ San Gimignano
305 Brancacci chapel @ Florence
306 Jeff Koons - Shine @ Palazzo Strozzi
JR - The Wound @ Palazzo Strozzi
At the beginning of 2021 Covid numbers were still really high and most museums were still closed. In March there was a bizarre art installation in or rather on the walls of Palazzo Strozzi. French photographer and street artist, JR, created a 28X33 metre, black and white photographic collage on the side of the building. It looked like the walls had been opened up to imagine an idealized version of what was inside. The idea was to represent the lack of accessibility to places of culture during this Covid period.
America Art 1961-2001 @ Palazzo Strozzi
In May a new exhibition opened in Palazzo Strozzi, American Art 1961-2001 and in July I managed to go along and see it before we broke up for our summer holiday. There were some 80 works by 53 artists such as Andy Warhol , Mark Rothko , Louise Nevelson , Roy Lichtenstein , Claes Oldenburg , Bruce Nauman , Barbara Kruger , Robert Mapplethorpe , Cindy Sherman , Matthew Barney and Kara Walker. It was organized in collaboration with the Walker Art Center of Minneapolis and offered an extraordinary journey through some important and iconic works that marked American art from the beginning of the Vietnam War until the attack of September 11, 2001. Some highlights included:
Andy Warhol - 12 works were presented including the famous Sixteen Jackies (1964), dedicated to Jackie Kennedy in the aftermath of JFK's death.
the reflection on the figure of women by Cindy Sherman
the appropriations from the world of advertising by Richard Prince and Barbara Kruger
the denunciation of the stigma of AIDS by Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Matthew Barney - Cremaster 2 (1999)
Kerry James Marshall and Kara Walker - a wide selection of video works and drawings
Ceramics Museum @ Montelupo
After living in Montespertoli for nearly 10 years, I finally went to see the ceramics museum in nearby Montelupo. Opened in 1983, it is the result of excavations taken place between 1975 until 2007. Originally around 300 ceramics dating from the 16th century were dug up in excavations in a local kiln drain. In fact from 13th century Montelupo was one of the most important ceramics manufacturers not only in Italy, but the whole of the Mediterranean. There were 12 rooms on 3 floors, with around 1,200 pieces, so larger than I had expected. I had already seen some examples of Montelupo ceramics in the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence. There were many beautiful pieces, some coloured with a red pigment that has its own name, Rosso di Montelupo.
Sant Agostino @ San Gimignano
In August on a visit to San Gimignano I took a look inside the church of Sant Agostino, on the edge of the town.There were some frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli that I wanted to see. The exterior of the 13th century austere, brick built, Romanesque Gothic church was pretty uninspiring, but inside there were various frescoes, but unfortunately they were undergoing restoration. (2018-2023). We were just able to catch a glimpse of the choir chapel and the Gozzoli frescoes. Executed on 1464/65, they tell the story of the life of Saint Augustine in 17 different panels. Another visit when they are finally finished is a must!
Brancacci Chapel
In September I took advantage of a long break in between lessons by visiting the Brancacci Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Del Carmine. It was only my second ever visit here so I was really looking forward to it. I had a look in the refectory at the Last Supper fresco by Alessandro Allori, painted in 1582. It was very similar to one he painted in Bergamo and clearly inspired by Andrea Del Sarto’s version in San Salvi.
It was good to see the Brancacci Chapel frescoes again. I had first seen them some 18 years ago in 2002 and the colours looked as bright as ever, although they were just about to go under restoration!
Jeff Koons - Shine @ Palazzo Strozzi
To finish a second year somewhat shortened by the coronavirus, in December I attended the Jeff Koons exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi. I’d already seen some of Jeff Koons work in Florence a few years ago with his Hades and Persephone in Piazza Signoroa.
This exhibition brought together many of his most famous creations from art galleries all over the world. In the courtyard, which I walked through every day, we could see the 5 ton 12 foot long, Balloon Monkey Blue (2006-2013) inside was the Balloon Rabbit silver, the original sold for a world record $91 m in 2019. Also the Ballon Dog Red (1994-2001) even more bizarre was the Hulk tubas (2004-2018). Quite cool was, Seated Ballerina Silver, after his original 45 foot version at the Rockefeller centre in New York. A couple of even stranger exhibits were the Metallic Venus (2010-2012) and Bluebird Planter (2010-2016) both with live flowering plants! All in all a pretty surreal experience.
2022
307 Keith Haring @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
308 Donatello - the Renaissance @ the Bargello and Palazzo Strozzi
Rome 12
309 St. Peter’s square
310 Castel Sant Angelo
311 Piazza Navona
312 Bramante Cloisters
313 Pantheon
314 Torre Argentino
315 Spanish steps
316 Trevi Fountain
317 Vittoriano
318 Foro Imperiale & Romano
319 Colosseum
320 Palazzo Pfanner Contrini, Lucca
321 Donatello 2 @ Palazzo Strozzi
322 San Lorenzo, Florence
323 Murals @ North Laines, Brighton
324 Mr Arbitrium - Emanuele Gianelli @ San Lorenzo
325 Uffizi 8 (with Isabel)
326 Villa San Michele, Florence
façade - Michelangelo
Cennacolo - Nicodemo Ferrucci
the Cloud/Window and ladder - Leandro Elrich
327 Large interior form - Henry Moore @ Piazza Signoria
328 Family group - Henry Moore @ San Miniato Al Monte
329 Olafur Eliasson - Nel suo tempo @ Palazzo Strozzi
Keith Haring @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
2022 started pretty badly as I caught the Coronavirus and was stuck at home for 2 weeks. Eventually I got a negative test result and in February during our carnival break I went to Pisa to see the Keith Haring exhibition at the Palazzo Blu. I discovered that Keith Haring had come to Pisa in 1989 and painted a mural on the side of a church. He died of AIDS only a year later.
The exhibition was really cool and brought back memories of the 80s when I was into Hip Hop. I even saw one of my old record sleeves on display! (The World Famous Supreme Team’s Scratchin’) I used to copy some of his line drawing sketches. Anyway there were 170 works here from the Nakamura collection, including:
Radiant Baby (1990)
Barking Dog (1990)
Apocalypse (1988)
Flowers (1990)
And many more!
Afterwards I went to the convent of Sant Antonio to see the mural, entitled ‘Tuttomondo’. It was huge. I couldn’t believe I had been coming to exhibitions at the Palazzo Blu for years and didn’t realise it was here…
Donatello - The Renaissance
In March I wasted no time in visiting the new highly anticipated exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, Donatello - The Renaissance. It was so big it was laid in 2 museums. As well as Palazzo Strozzi, there were many pieces at the Bargello. Many of the pieces had been specially cleaned for the occasion, which was the largest ever exhibition dedicated to Donatello.
Donatello, real name Donato Di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, was born in Florence in 1386 and went on to be the most famous Renaissance sculptor of his generation, inventing new techniques and inspiring those like Michelangelo that came after him.
I went to the Bargello first. I’d been here a few times before, so had already seen his bronze David, Marble St George and rejected bronze Sacrifice of Isaac panel for the Baptistery, but also saw the very beautiful Madonna of the Clouds marble relief from Boston, sculptured in 1425 and the terra-cotta relief, Madonna of Pietrapiana (1450-1455). In fact the Bargello would go on to purchase the relief for €1.2m after the show finished.
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Afterwards I went to the Palazzo Strozzi to check out the other pieces. As opposed to the Bargello, all of the works on display here had been brought in from other museums and art galleries. The marble David carved in 1408 when he was in his early twenties had been brought here from the Bargello and on either side, Donatello’s ‘peasant-like’ wooden crucifix from Santa Croce, alongside Brunelleschi’s more refined version from Santa Maria Novella. Donatello’s marble St John the Baptist and bronze Amore Attis from the Bargello was also here. Probably one of the most beautiful pieces here was the Pazzi Madonna, a small marble ‘stiacciato’ shallow relief on loan from Berlin. It was carved in 1420 or 1422 for the Florentine Pazzi family. Other low reliefs included The Dead Christ tended to by Angels (1438-43) and the Hildburgh Madonna (1420-30) both from the V&A in London. There was the very cool bronze relief, The Feast of Herod (1427) from the Siena Baptistery. There were the two ‘spiritelli’ bronze cherubs usually in Paris. To finish with was the monumental bronze Carafa horses head cast in 1455. A once in a lifetime exhibition, I would come back for a second look later in the year.
Rome
At Easter we decided to take my daughter, Isabel to Rome for her first visit. We’d put off taking her, partly because she was too young to appreciate it and partly because the Colosseum had been undergoing a restoration, covered in scaffolding from 2013-2017. We probably would have come a few years ago if it hadn’t been for Covid, but at still only 11 years old, it was a good age to appreciate the eternal city. It was only a day trip, so it would be a whistle stop tour. We drove up nice and early and parked up near the Vatican. At 10.00am we were wandering the streets on a warm, overcast morning. We had a good look at Saint Peter’s Square and Basilica, but I’m not sure Isabel was so impressed. We walked on down to the Castle Sant Angelo and over the Sant Angelo Bridge.
I wanted to see the Bramante Cloisters, designed by n 1500, which we found next to the Santa Maria delle Pace. There was an exhibition on at the cloisters called ‘Crazy, the Madness of Contemporary Art.’ With mirrors on the floor of the cloisters and colourful murals and wallpaper in the various rooms, Isabel really liked it.
Our next stop was Piazza Navona. It was packed, but we enjoyed sitting in this lovely square and admired the Bernini fountains. I took the ladies to see the Caravaggio paintings in the San Luigi dei Francesi church, but it was closed for lunch. I also wanted Isabel to see some of the famous cats of Rome, so we walked to the Largo Argentino. Unfortunately I think they had all left the city!
After some refreshments for lunch we walked to the Pantheon. There was a small queue, but Isabel wasn’t worried about going inside. We walked past the cool Temple of Hadrian to our next stop which was the Trevi Fountain, I had never seen it so packed, we literally had to fight our way to the front to see the fountain and throw our three coins in. The Spanish Steps weren’t much better, again with so many tourists. We walked on towards Piazza Venezia and had a drink by the Vittoriano tomb of the unknown soldier, but unfortunately didn’t have time to see my favourite square, the Campidoglio.
We continued down the Via dei Foro Imperiale. This was really cool, stopping to look at the Roman Forum on one side and the Imperial Forum on the other. When we got to our final destination, the Colosseum, it looked like it had been closed off. There was lots of building work going on too for the new underground station. We eventually managed to get through the barriers. Apparently there was a concert or mass later that evening with Pope Francesco, so loads of security. Anyway Isabel got to see some of the outside of the ancient amphitheatre and it was a happy if tiring end to her first day in Rome.
We somehow managed to recover from this massive day out with a closer journey to Lucca. I took Isabel inside the palazzo Pfanner Contrini and we had some fun strolling round the gardens.
In June I went for a closer look at the Donatello exhibition in Palazzo Strozzi.
San Lorenzo
At the end of June I had a peek inside the church of San Lorenzo and stroll round the cloisters. I hadn’t really been in the actual church before. San Lorenzo was the parish church of the Medici, designed by Brunelleschi, who began construction in 1419. It wasn’t completed until after his death in 1446. Some highlights included Bronzino’s colourful Martyrdom of San Lorenzo fresco from 1569.
Filippo Lippi’s Martelli Annunciation painted in 1440 was nice too.
A very special piece were the two bronze pulpits, which was one of Donatello’s last works. The Pulpit of the Passion and Pulpit of the Resurrection. Both created in 1460 when Donatello was in his seventies. Absolute masterpieces for sure, the Passion of Christ is told over 7 panels,
They represent:
- Oration in the Garden
- Christ before Pilate and Caiaphas
- Crucifixion
- Lamentation
- Burial
- Flagellation
- Saint John the Evangelist
The Ressurection Pulpit tells the story of Christ after the resurrection. The 8 panels are as follows:
- Pious women at the tomb
- Descent to Limbo
- Resurrection
- Ascension
- Pentecost
- Martyrdom of San Lorenzo
- Christ mocked
- Saint Luke the Evangelist
There was also a cool Tabernacle in the altar of the sacraments carved by Desiderio di Settignano in 1461.
North Laines Murals @ Brighton
In August, we were back in England after a two year break because of the coronavirus. I went to Brighton for the day with my mum, Isabel and cousins, Meg and Thomas. I wanted to see some of the new murals which had been painted during my absence over the last 20 years. In particular a certain pub. We wound our way from Churchill Square through Bond Street, Gardner Street, Kensington Gardens, Sydney Street and finishing up in Trafalgar Street, where we saw the famous Prince Albert Pub Mural. In 2004 the artist, Banksy painted his famous ‘Kissing Coppers’. In 2013 a large mural of famous dead musicians was then painted by two local artists, Req and Sinner One. The mural was repainted in 2017 and more musicians were added, bringing it up to 50. We had fun trying to point out the famous faces.
Mr Arbitrium
Back in Florence, in September I decided it was time to take Isabel to the Uffizi. At 11 1/2 she was ready to take on this behemoth of an art gallery. On the way in to Florence I wanted to see an art installation at San Lorenzo. It was a giant, 5 metre resin man either pushing or supporting the walls of the giant Basilica. Created by the Rome-born, PietraSanta-based artist, Emanuele Gianelli. He places the giant figure at different locations throughout Italy, but was here until October.
The Uffizi
And so on to the Uffizi. Isabel was quite excited to be coming here. For me it was my time, so by now it was almost like a second home. Although the current museum director, German, Eike Schmidt had ‘modernized’ some of the rooms. I had booked the tickets online, but we still had to go to several different places. First to pick up the tickets, then queue. In Italy nothing is easy! When we finally got in we had to make a bizarre journey round underground passageways before finally making it up to the first floor and the beginning of the gallery. My idea was to skip some of the less interesting rooms, but Isabel wanted to see everything! She particularly liked the statues in the corridors. I generally didn’t pay much attention to these, but she was into the Percy Jackson books and Greek Mythology, so the Roman copies of Greek mythological characters appealed to her.
On to the paintings. Some of the highlights that especially she enjoyed were:
A couple of paintings featuring horses,
such as,
Gentile da Fabriano - Adoration of the Magi
Gentile was born in Fabriano, a town in Le Marche in 1370. His mother died when he was 10 and his father retired to a monastery. After working in Pavia and Venice, in 1420 he came to Florence and in 1423 painted this famous altarpiece for Palla Strozzi. It is considered the culminating work of international Gothic. The techniques he used of perspective and three dimension were at the time unique. The exotic animals and luxurious and vibrant colours he used showed the wealth of his patron. An impressive, if overlooked masterpiece in the Uffizi.
Paolo Ucello - the Battle of San Romano
This painting is actually one of a set of three. The other two being in the Louvre and National in London. The subject is a battle that took place between Florence and Siena in 1432. Executed some time between 1435-1460, they are historically important as they show the development of linear perspective. The horses are pretty cool too!
I was really looking forward to seeing the Sala del Niobe, which had been restored in 2013.
According to Greek myth , Niobe , daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, had fourteen children, seven girls and seven boys. The woman was so proud of her offspring that she dared to laugh at the goddess Latona, who had only two children, the deities Apollo and Artemis. To punish her pride, Latona sent her two sons, charged with killing Niobe's. With bows and arrows, Artemis aimed at the females and Apollo at the males. According to some versions, they killed them all, according to others a boy and a girl managed to save themselves. The Latin poet Ovid narrates that due to her terror, Niobe turned into a block of marble. This was warning against pride. The Uffizi houses a group of twelve ancient sculptures, Roman copies of a Greek original, of which neither the date nor the location is known. The statues were found in Rome , near Porta San Giovanni, in 1583. Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, future Grand Duke of Tuscany, immediately bought them for his Roman villa . Around 1770, the sculptures arrived in Florence. The statues are aligned along the walls, spaced apart to allow the visitor to admire them in isolation, partially sacrificing the relationships between the various works. The twelve statues represent the characters fleeing or shot to death in a dramatic and theatrical way . The focus of the group is Niobe , who attempts to protect her youngest daughter, and she directs her terrified and pleading gaze towards the sky.
Isabel enjoyed seeing Botticelli’s two masterpieces, Primavera and Venus and I enjoyed seeing Leonardo’s newly restored (2012-2017) Adoration of the Magi. We both enjoyed Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, Titaian’s Venus of Urbino and Caravaggio’s Medusa shield. Obviously there were many more masterpieces that we saw and enjoyed, but I think Isabel enjoyed her first visit to the Uffizi.
Villa San Michele
In September Annette’s brother, Phil came to visit Florence. While he was here he invited us up to his hotel, the Villa San Michele in Fiesole. It was my second time here, my first being in 2007. We came up and had a tour of the Villa, before our aperitivo and dinner. It was built as a convent in 1413 and the façade is thought to have been designed by Michelangelo. Today it is a boutique hotel owned by Belmond.
We saw the nice Last Supper fresco, painted in 1642 by Nicodemo Ferrucci. There were also a couple of art installations by Argentinian Leandro Erlich, entitled ‘Viewing the World.’ The ‘Cloud’ places below the fresco and ‘Ladder and Window’ in the garden.
Large Interior form - Henry Moore @ Piazza Della Signoria
Celebrating the 50th year anniversary of British artist Henry Moore’s exhibition in Florence a couple of his sculptures were being displayed in Florence for six months. I saw the one in Piazza Signoria first, his 1953/54 sculpture Large Interior Form, one of 6 copies made, in various locations such as Suffolk and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Family Group - Henry Moore @ San Miniato al Monte
Later on in November, I went up to the church of San Miniato al Monte to see his Family Group 1948/49 usually found in the Barclay School in Stevenage.
Olafur Eliasson - ‘In his Time’ @ Palazzo Strozzi.
Just before I broke up for Christmas I went across the square to catch the Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition ‘In his Time’ at Palazzo Strozzi. It was quite a small exhibition with not many pieces, but they were quite colourful. I even had a go at a virtual reality experience! The most impressive piece was the ‘Firefly Double Polyhedron Sphere Experiment’ (2020) a fitting way to end a pretty busy ‘artistic’ year, at least after a few disappointing years of Covid!
2023
330 I Pittori di Pompei @ Museo Archaeologico, Bologna
331 Escher @ Museo degli innocenti, Florence
332 Transfer (Stack) - Tony Cragg @ Cortile di Museo degli Innocenti, Florence
333 Basilica and Cloisters of Santissima Annunziata
334 Reaching for the stars @ Palazzo Strozzi
335 Ravenna
336 Venice
337 Chioggia
338 Bardini Gardens
339 Capella della Madonna Vitaleta
340 Montichiello
341 Castello Scaligero, Sirmione
342 Royal Pavillion, Brighton
343 Luca Giordano @ Palazzo Medici Riccardi
344 Chapel of the Magi - Benozzo Gozzoli
345 Children - Steve McCurry @ Museo degli Innocenti
346 Untrue Unreal - Anish Kapoor @ Palazzo Strozzi
347 Contemplation - Antonio Canova @ Lucca
I Pittori di Pompei @ Bologna
2023 saw another full year of art for me. It started nice and early in January with a very special trip to Bologna. 100 of Pompei and Herculaneum’s finest frescoes were on display at the Civic Museum and I was eager to come and see them. Obviously Pompei was somewhere very close to my heart, having visited there many times. However the frescoes discovered there are usually kept in the Archaeological Museum in Naples which I haven’t visited yet. Others like some of these found in nearby Boscoreale were auctioned off and are now scattered around the world. Some are in London and New York. I saw some of the frescoes (though not these) some years ago at an exhibition in the British Museum, of all places, so this was a good opportunity. The exhibition was entitled ‘The Painters of Pompei’ seeking to put the artist at the centre stage. Of course the Roman frescoes all pre-date the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius and were rediscovered in 18th century excavations. It’s not often you can see 2,000 year old paintings. There were of course many highlights. Here are a few:
Philosopher with Macedonia and Persia
from the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale. Showcasing the signature Pompei red coloured background, the three figures are a philosopher leaning on a staff looking at two women, one on a rock representing Macedonia and the other, Persia.
The Female Painter
An unusual subject, that of a female painter. Even though artists were predominantly male, there were several female artists named and this was a nice example of a female artist at work.
Achilles on Scyros
from the House of the Dioscuri and the House of the Lararium of Achilles, respectively, in Pompeii. Recalling the tale of Odysseus and Diomedes' unveiling of Achilles, disguised as a woman and hiding at King Lycomedes' court on the Island of Scyros, so that he would not have to participate in the Trojan War.
Admetus and Alcestis
from the Irace farm in Pompeii. Here we see the myth of Admetus and Alcestis. Apollo is seen in the centre as a prophecy is read by a young priest to King Admetus and his bride Alcestis. On the opposite side are the king's two elderly parents. Apollo reveals that Admetus, King of Pherae in Thessaly, will be able to escape death so long as someone is willing to die in his place. His young bride, Alcestis, is the only one who agrees to sacrifice herself, and then Hercules will bring her back to life by descending into Hades.
The Three Graces
The Three Graces is one of the most recognizable themes in art history, spanning the centuries since ancient times, taken up by artists such as Botticelli, Raphael, Canova and Picasso.
Three young maidens occupy the entire scene: they are the Three Graces, Aglaed, Euphrosyne and Thalia. The two on either side are seen from the front, while the Grace in the centre has her back turned to us. An ingenious, and yet simple arrangement that creates a sense of spacial depth. This fresco, datable to the first century AD, is characterised by long-limbed bodies, delicate gestures and simpler hairstyles.
Hercules and Omphale
from the House of Marcus Lucretius. A popular theme in Pompeii, with several variations, is that of the queen of Lydia, Omphale, who, after buying Hercules as a slave, sapped his strength with the help of Dionysus and the power of his wine.
This fresco captures the moment when Hercules, intoxicated in the vineyard of King Tmolus, exchanges his clothes for those of Omphale. The hero is supported by Tmolus himself; a silver cup lies at his feet, knocked over. On the right there is Omphale with the coat of the Nemean lion, slain by Hercules, and his club. Splendid details are still visible, such as the hero's elongated eyelashes,
The House of Gavius Rufus
A subtle, yet important link connects Pompeii to the Archaeological Museum of Bologna thanks to the individual that would become its first director, Edoardo Brizio. As a young man, he attended the First Italian Archaeological School, established in Pompeii by Giuseppe Fiorelli in order to create a place for the advanced training of a new generation of archaeologists. Brizio himself participated in the excavation of the House of Gavius Rufus and dedicated an article to this very fresco, taken from the East wall of the exedra, the great hall of the domus.
The fresco depicts the wedding of Hippodamia and Pirithous, King of the Lapiths and faithful companion in Theseus's exploits. Eurytion, at the head of the centaur procession, reaches the palace to pay homage to the King and kisses his hand.
Xenia
Among the recurrent subiects of home decoration were "still lifes," known as xenia (that is, "hospitality gifts"), in which fruit, animals, and writing utensils appear.
The origin of this subject derives from the custom of sending products from the countryside as gifts on the part of the master of the house to his guests. The term later came to designate small paintings with these products as their subiect. This exceptional wall was the only one detached entirely in 1755 from the tablinum of the Praedia of lulia Felix, and it is an extraordinary example of the fourth style, the last stage in the evolution of Pompeian painting.
The House of Meleager
In the Vesuvian cities, the final period of production saw painters who, still remaining anonymous, achieved advanced technical ability and artistic quality; the number of painted panels multiplied, decorative borders became true embroidery, and figures were made brighter with small touches of white. This stage of painting was based on the contrast between red (or vellow) background panels animated by figures that seemed to float on the surface and vertical black bands adorned with plant motifs.
The House of Jason
The dining room shows the encounters depicted that will change their participants' fate forever and foreshadow the death of three of their principle characters: Pelias, Troilus, and Pentheus.
On this wall opposite the entrance we find the encounter between Jason and King Pelias, a meeting that will initiate the quest of the Argonauts. Here, we see the rendering of the elegant robes, the detail of the table with a situld underneath it, a metal vase - like the one on display in the exhibition - and in the lighter colouring of the bull's front left leg, giving it a better perspective rendering.
Here I’ve just given 10 examples of the 100 pieces on display. It was an incredible exhibition and a unique insight into an ancient civilization found nowhere else.
Escher @ The Museo degli Innocenti, Florence
At the end of January I had a long break in between lessons, so I decided to come and check out the exhibition on at the Museo degli Innocenti. This one is dedicated to Dutch artist, Escher, or Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). There were around 200 of his works on show, organised into 8 different themed sections., one of which was dedicated to his trip to Tuscany in 1923, when he held his first solo exhibition. Famous for his engravings and lithographs where art, mathematics, science, physics and design converge.
This was a really fun experience. Some of his works, such as Hand with reflecting sphere (1935), had an interactive section where you could take a photo of you holding the silver sphere with your reflection. Also with Bond of Union (1956), you could have your photo with your head appearing to peel like a fruit. Several of his most famous perspective prints were here, like Relativity (1953) with the everlasting staircases. Also, Metamorphosis II (1939), Day and Night (1938) The Emblemata series, which are pictoral images with a motto and Drawing Hands (1948) Annette and Isabel came here later in the year.
Tony Cragg - Transfer (Stack) @ the Cortile of the Museo degli Innocenti
While I was here at the Museo degli Innocenti I checked out the sculpture, Stack (2018) in the courtyard that were part of an exhibition dedicated to contemporary Anglo-German artist, Tony Cragg. Cragg is a renowned artist, known for his contribution toward reviving the art of sculpture through the utilization of innovative materials and techniques. Working in a wide range of materials including wood, bronze, steel, glass and plastic, Cragg uses geometric shapes and everyday objects to study the infinite possibilities of form, creating works of art that look almost organic
Basilica and Cloisters of Santissima Annunziata
At the beginning of March a managed to have a peek in the Cloisters and Basilica of Santissima Annunziata. The inside of the Basilica wasn’t particularly interesting, but the Cloister of the Vows pretty special. During the 15th and 16th century a cycle of frescoes were painted by Mannerist artists, Andrea Del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino and Cosimo Roselli. The frescoes narrated the story of Mary and Saint Phillip Benizi. All in all some 12 lunettes can be seen in various states, but still a lot of bright colours to be seen.
Reaching for the stars @ Palazzo Strozzi
In the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi was a bizarre huge rocket like structure. It was actually an art installation entitled Gonogo Goshka Macuga preceding the new exhibition, Reaching for the Stars. On the outside of the building was the poster of a strange looking man staring out at you, which turned out to be one of the exhibits also called ‘The Revolution is Us, by Maurizio Cattelan. I went to visit the exhibition, entitled ‘Reaching for the Stars.’ There were 70 works by contemporary Italian and international artists, including Maurizio Cattelan, Cindy Sherman, Damien Hirst, Lara Favaretto, William Kentridge, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Sarah Lucas, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye to celebrate thirty years of the Sandretto Re Collection Rebaudengo, one of the most prestigious contemporary international art collections, based in Turin.
There were some weird and wonderful pieces, starting with the above aforementioned The Future is Us, by Maurizio Cattelan, a miniature effigy of himself hanging on a coat rack! Damien Hirst’s ‘The acquired inability to escape inverted‘ 1993) featured an upside down office table and chair in a Perspex vacuum cell and Anish Kapoor’s Red Sphere on the wall. Lara Favaretto’s ‘Gummo V’ was a series of 5 coloured car wash brushes. There was The anemic looking life size model by Pawel Althamer’s ‘Self Portrait’ (1993) and bulbous, Thomas Schütte’s ‘Nixe’ (2021). Certainly a weird and wonderful exhibition.
Ravenna
For Easter we booked 3 nights in a farmhouse in Chioggia, just outside Venice. We wanted to take Isabel for her first visit there and I wanted to visit somewhere that had been on my radar for some years, Ravenna. Although we had driven through here, we’d never visited and I’d been hearing about its famous mosaics. We set off from home at around 9am and by 11.30 were wandering its ancient streets. The origins of Ravenna go back to the 5th century B.C. and it was three times a capital: of the Roman Empire 402-476, Ostrogothic 493-540 and Byzantine 584-751. Hence the amount of ancient mosaics here. In 1996 it was inducted into the UNESCO list of Wirld Heritage Sites as ‘Early Christian Monuments of Ravenna.’ We bought a ticket that includes 5 different locations. We would try to see as many as possible before maxing out.
Basilica di San Vitale
Our first stop is here at the main church, constructed between 532-546 A.D. in the Byzantine style. Inside were the most incredible green and gold mosaics on the walls and domed ceiling. In the centre is Christ Pantocrater surrounded by two archangels, San Vitale and protobishop Ecclesio. There are various Old Testament stories and also Saint Justinian with his wife, Theodora and Bishop Maximian. The detail was meticulous and the overall effect mesmerizing.
Mausoleum of Galla Placida
Our next stop was the smaller Mausoleum of Empress Galla Placida, daughter of Theodosius dating back to 425 A.D. Galla Placida often stayed in Constantinople and the mosaics here reflected that. Saint Lawrence and the Good Shepherd on two lunettes, a cross and stars on the dome. Other lunettes feature the apostles, Peter and Paul. On the barrel vaults there are some incredible flowers, fruit and geometric patterns, all in the most beautiful shades of blue and green, orange and yellow.
Neonian Baptistery
Our third stop was at tre even smaller Neonian Baptistery. Again 5th century and taking its name from Bishop Neone. The dome is entirely covered with mosaics. In the centre circle is the baptism of Christ and John the Baptist. In the second band are the faces of the twelve apostles again all in colours of gold, blue and red.
After a bite to eat we were ready for our fourth building. We made our way to the Archbishop’s Palace. On the first floor was the tiny Archbishop’s Chapel, also known as the Chapel of St Andrea. This was the only Orthodox monument to be built during the reign of Throdoric from 433-495 A.D. The mosaics represent the warrior Christ, with the 4 archangels in the centre.
Dante’s tomb
We had a peek at the tomb of Italy’s national poet, Dante, who was exiled to Ravenna, died and is buried here. The people of Ravenna are obviously very proud to be associated with Dante and have refused requests from Florence to bring his remains to his birthplace.
Sant Appollinare Nuovo
Our 5th and final destination in Ravenna was the huge Sant Apollinare Nuovo. Originally a place of Arian worship from the 6th century it was concentrated to Saint Martin of Tours. The current name of the basilica dates back to the 9th century when the relics of protobishop S as pollinate were transferred here. Inside there are three naves all decorated with mosaics in three bands of colourful green, gold and white mosaics. The highest bands, which are quite hard to see, depict the life of Christ. The middle bands around the windows are figures of saints. On the lower band is the Palace of Theodoric and processions of Holy Martyrs and Holy Virgins in dazzling gold and white, with a green background. It was a fitting conclusion to probably seeing the most mosaics I was ever going to see in one day! Certainly worthwhile…
Venice
And so on to Venice. My fourth time here, but Isabel’s first. Like Rome last year it would be a whistle stop one day tour with no time for museums or art galleries. However plenty of cool architecture. We drove to Mestre and got the train onto the island. It is always something special coming out of the station right onto the Grand Canal. Straight away two things were certain. There would be a lot of people and it was going to be an expensive day. We walked over the Ponte degli Scalzi, or at least tried to and started our walk through the narrow streets of the Santa Croce district, over tiny bridges with incredible views, admiring the sleek gondolas navigating the waterways. We passed the pretty San Giacomo da l’Orio onto our first destination, the Rialto Market. Isabel enjoyed looking at all the fish. We crossed the grand canal in a gondola ferry and made our way to the Rialto Bridge. Like most places here it was pretty packed.
After a bite to eat we were off to see my favourite site in Venice, the Bovolo staircase, or Scala Contarini del Bovolo to give it its full title. I’ve seen it twice before, but in 2016 they opened it to the public, so Annette treated us with a ticket and we climbed the spiral staircase with some terrific views over Venice. The staircase and palazzo were built at the end of the 15th century for the Contarini family. The staircase was used by Orson Welles in his 1952 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello.
We finally made it to Saint Mark’s Square, always impressive with the bell tower, Basilica and the two procuracies built by Sansovino. We spent some time here, admiring the buildings and atmosphere.
We wandered round to the Piazetta to see the lovely Doge’s Palace and Sansovino’s library and out onto the grand canal. We took in the views towards the island of San Giorgio Maggiore with the Palladian designed basilica. We enquired about taking the ferry across the canal, but were quoted some ridiculous price. We settled for the views and went to see the bridge of Sighs.
Next we did take the vaporetto ferry back to the station. It was nice to get on the grand canal and see some great buildings on the way back. First we passed the church of Santa Maria delle Salute, then under the ponte dell Accademia. The boat was going quite slowly so we managed to get a look at historic buildings such as Ca’ Rezzonico, back under the Rialto bridge, past the Ca’ d’Oro and then the Ca’ Vendramin Valergi, better known as the Casino Di Venezia. We finished the day with some chicetti in a bar.
Chioggia
I had heard that Chioggia was like a mini Venice, so we came to see if that was true. It was a lot easier to park and there were a lot less people, but not really compari. Essentially it is a small island with three canals down the middle. We went in through the Porta Garibaldi, which had scaffolding round it and walked down the main canal, Canale Vena, with colourful, tatty buildings on either side and small boats moored at the water’s edge. There were several bridges crossing the canal, some small and other larger ones. It was very picturesque, but more like a poor man’s Venice.
Bardini Gardens
At the end of April Annette took Isabel to England to see her mum. I had a few days out. After work on the Saturday I went to the Bardini Gardens to see the wisteria in bloom. It was nice to have a wander around these very pretty gardens.
Val d'Orcia
On the Sunday I drove down to the Val d’Orcia. My first stop was the Capella della Madonna di Vitaleta. I’d only ever seen it from the road, so I found the narrow dirt track and had a closer look. Its origins go back to 1590, but was damaged by an earthquake and redesigned in 1884. It had also recently been restored in 2021, so a good time to visit. It is also part of the UNESCO Val d’Orcia complex.
I also visited Montichiello, somewhere I’d been in 2006. A beautiful medieval fortress on the top of a hill that has Etruscan and Roman origins. There are a couple of churches with 14th and 15th centuries which I didn’t have time to look at. Maybe next time.
I drove back into Pienza to find the location for the Gladiator film.
Lake Garda
For the first leg of our summer holiday we went to Lake Garda, which didn’t involve much art. One thing we did do was a tour of the Castello Scaligero in Sirmione. We’d admired the outside on many occasions, but thought it was time to go inside, mainly for the views.
Built at the end of the 14th century for the Della Scala family from Verona. Over the years it was taken over by the Venetian Republic and used as a fortress and armory. It was restored in 2018, so again good timing on our part. The internal dock is the only surviving example of a fortified 14th century port. We enjoyed climbing the steps and the amazing views of Sirmione and the lake.
Royal Pavillion, Brighton
After a week at the beach we were in England to see the family. I went to Brighton for the day with Isabel, her cousins Meg and Thomas and my mum. I took them to see the Royal Pavillion. I hadn’t seen it for many years and apart from mum, it was a first viewing for the others.
Luca Giordano - Baroque Master in Florence @ Palazzo Medici Riccardi
Back in Florence I caught this exhibition just before it finished. Neapolitan Baroque artist, Luca Giordano (1634-1705) painted the Gallery of Mirrors in the Medici Riccardi Palace in 1685/86, with the allegory of divine wisdom. For this reason this exhibition brought together some 50 of his works from various European, American and Florentine collections, as well as his ten sketches of the ceiling, owned by the National Gallery of London. It was really cool to see the sketches underneath their corresponding painting on the ceiling.
While I was here I took the opportunity to see the Chapel of the Magi, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1459. I’d seen it many years ago, but it was nice to have another look.
Children - Steve McCurry @ the Museo degli Innocenti
In October I just managed to catch this exhibition before it finished. 100 photos taken over 50 years had been selected by McCurry in this new exhibition to raise awareness of the plight of children, especially in the war torn areas of the world.
McCurry is of course a multi-award winning National Geographic photographer, now in his 70s. His most famous photo, 1994’s Afghan girl, was here.
It was quite an appropriate setting, here at the Museo degli innocenti, Europe’s oldest orphanage.
Untrue Unreal - Anish Kapoor @ Palazzo Strozzi
In December, before we broke up for Christmas, I visited Palazzo Strozzi for an exhibition dedicated to British-Indian conceptual artist, Anish Kapoor, called, ‘Untrue Unreal.’ I’m not sure I quite understood this kind of art and with words like; discordance, entropy and ephemerality used to describe his art, I was none the wiser, but I went along anyway!
In the exhibition notes read;
“In Anish Kapoor's art, the unreal mixes with the improbable (untrue), transforming or denying the common perception of reality. He invites us to explore a world in which the boundaries between true and false dissolve, opening the doors to the dimension of the impossible. His works combine empty and full spaces, absorbent and reflective surfaces, geometric and biomorphic shapes. In a world where reality seems increasingly elusive and manipulable, Anish Kapoor challenges us to seek the truth beyond appearances, inviting us to explore the territory of the improbable and unreal , untrue and unreal.”
Void Pavillion VII
Before even going inside the exhibition, visitors and passers by were confronted with this big white tent… maybe to arouse their curiosity! After buying my ticket I went inside and found three black rectangles. Ok I was going to need some kind of explanation… here are the exhibition notes on Void Pavillion VII;
“Upon entering the sculpture, visitors are confronted by a triad of rectangular voids that invite the gaze to descend within, offering a meditative experience of space, perspective and time that unsettles the rational geometric structure of the Renaissance building in which it sits and the orderliness it so emblematically represents. This experience cannot be fully comprehended through sight alone. It appears to embrace the unconscious of each of us in a world of shadows. It represents emptiness, a well, a physical vertigo of the unknown, the fear of falling, of being drawn into the inscrutability of the past and the future. In a place as strict and controlled as Palazzo Strozzi, Kapoor invites us to enter into a darkness where we might lose and rediscover ourselves, prompting introspection about our own interiority, about what is real or unreal, true or untrue.” I couldn’t have put it better myself!
Svayambhu 2007
The main attraction seemed to be this huge red block of wax being pulled on two tracks through a doorway.
The title of this piece was, ‘Svayambhu’, taken from the Sanskrit – it means ‘born for itself’ or ‘self-generated’.
Again here are the exhibition notes on the interpretation;
“The slow-moving juggernaut became a metaphor for all emigrations and cultural cross fertilisations, for ancient trade routes, and the melding of Kapoor’s Indian, Middle Eastern and British experience. The abstracted railway carriage moving almost imperceptibly along its blood-red tracks through the galleries like the pendulum of some great timepiece, a physical reminder of the passage of history itself. Part theatrical stage set, part sculpture, the work sat within the tradition of 20th century abstract painting from Malevich to Mondrian, from Pollock to Newman. The red splattered walls echoed those of Cy Twombly’s Bacchus paintings shown at Tate Modern in 2008, with all the suggestion of societal breakdown and orgy. But it is Rothko’s influence that dominated. The use of the same visceral oxblood red, the framing of the rectangular mass of the lumbering cube in the high doorway, reminiscent of the totemic rectangles of Rothko’s red canvases and the intense, deep void created by his surfaces.”
When asked about the meaning of Svayambh, Kapoor answered: In one way, I do not know what this piece represents. What I am sure of, however, is that it has not real subject. Nothing in particular’. It is this very lack of specificity that encourages us to think allows our imaginations free reign. I think I would go with his interpretation!
Endless Column 1992
An interesting piece was this big red column that went from the floor to the ceiling. Or as one art expert said;
“Here the artist goes beyond the physical limits of the exhibition space, creating a cylinder wrapped in red pigment that seems to extend into infinity. This column not only occupies the physical space, but also serves as a bridge between the earthly and the transcendental, with an uninterrupted flow that rises and falls.”
Exactly!
Newborn 2019, Mirror 2018 and Vertigo 2096
Into one of the more interesting rooms, there were three mirrored objects, the first, Newborn, a polished stainless steel sphere with two convex slices at the top. The second, Mirror, where you could see a reflection of yourself, but upside down. The third and most interesting was Vertigo. A polished stainless steel concave and convex sheet. You could see your reflection change from upside down to right way up, fascinating!
Non Object Black (2015) Gathering Clouds (2014) Dark Brutal (2023)
The next room was a collection of Kapoor’s ‘Vantablack’ exhibits. The first a round ball, that appeared to be concave from one angle, but convex from another. Gathering Clouds were four circles in different shades of black. Dark Brutal was another black circle on a white concave background.
A Blackish Fluid Excavation (2018) Tongue Memory (2016) Today You Will Be in Paradise (2016) Three days of morning (2016)
Probably the most bizarre and somewhat disturbing room was the one containing these sculptures. The first, A Blackish Fluid Excavation, resembled a huge male member. While on the other canvasses of thick wax and resin in black and blood red, one resembling a female genitalia. I’m not sure what the artist was trying to say, but was certainly thought provoking.
To reflect an intimate part of the red (1981)
In the penultimate room were a number of bright yellow and red mounds of pigment on the floor.
Angel 1993
In the last room the floor was covered with these bright blue rocks resembling slates.
Contemplation - Antonio Canova @ Lucca
And so on to my final outing of the year. During our Christmas holiday, we chose a nice sunny day to take a drive to Lucca as I wanted to check out this exhibition dedicated to Neoclassical master sculptor, Antonio Canova.
The exhibition was the brainchild of Italian art expert, Vittorio Sgarbi. Unfortunately except for some original marbles by other artists, all the the Canova sculptures were plaster copies, most of them from the Gypsotheca Museum in Possagno as well as from public and private collections. I was slightly disappointed, but I had been to another Canova exhibition in 2009 in Forli where I saw some amazing original marble sculptures from some of the world’s greatest museums. However, even though they were plaster. it was interesting to see some unusual pieces, such as the Three Graces, Theseus and the Minotaur. There was a really nice original marble by Lorenzo Bartolini, called 'Faith in God.'
This brought to an end a pretty good year to add to my Art Story.
2024 TBC...
Chapter 1
1968-1985
(0-16)
Pompeii 1,2,3
Reggia di Caserta
Worthing museum and art gallery
London
Royal Pavilion, Brighton
Arundel Castle and Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
Fishbourne and Bignor Roman Palaces
Hampton Court Palace
Lincoln Cathedral
Chapter 2
1985-1997
(16-28)
The British Museum
Knossos, Giza, Ephesus, Jerusalem, the Acropolis -Athens
Pompeii 4
Rome 1
Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne, Munich and Vienna.
Florence, Rome 2, Venice, Milan
Pompeii 5
Paris
The Metropolitan museum of art, New York
Pompeii 6
Rome 3
Paris 2
23
Chapter 3
1997-2001
(28-32)
Michelangelo and his influence @ the Queen’s Gallery, London 1998
Chiswick House 1998
Monet in the 20th century @ the Royal Academy, London
Rodin @ Lewis 1999
Archaeological museum @ Olympia, Greece 1999
Mantegna @ Hampton Court Palace
Florence 2000 The Uffizi 1, Galleria Accademia 1, the Bargello
Caravaggio - the genius of Rome @ the Royal Academy, London 2001
Chapter 4
2001-2010
(32-41)
St Peters @ Rome 4
Santa Maria Novella
Casa Buonarotti
Santa Croce
San Francesco @ Arezzo
14
2002
Pienza
Michelangelo museum @ Caprese
Pitti palace
Fiesole museums
Volterra
Uffizi 2 mum
Accademia 2
Uffizi 3 Chas and Mavis
Medici Ricardi
Brancacci
Medici chapels
San Marco
Archaeological museum
Verona
Venice
Villa Malcontenta - Palladio
In the shadow of Michelangelo @ Palazzo Strozzi
Cambridge
Sicily
Bologna
Cortona
Massa Marritima
Rome 5, 6
Vatican museums and Sistine Chapel
Uffizi 4
Palazzo Te @ Mantova
Massaccio @ San Giovanni Valdarno
27
Poggio a Caiano?
2003
Laurentian library (vestibule)
Santa Maria dell Fiore
Museo del Opera del Duomo
Villa Vignamaggio
Castello di Poppi
Siena Cathedral
Allinari Brothers Ospedale San Paolo
Nora museum - Chia, Sardinia
Rome 7 Tempietto Porta Pia
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
David @ Galleria dell Accademia
Piccolomini library, Siena
Badia a Coltibuono
San Biagio, Montepulciano
Castello di Brolio
15
2004
Castello di Montegufoni
Botticelli @ Palazzo Strozzi
Palazzo Ducale, Urbino
Monte Olivetto Maggiore
Caravaggio @ Rome 8
National Gallery, London
Cambridge
Oxford
Leonardo museum @ Vinci
Villa Petraia
Orvieto
Villa Castello
Todi
Assisi
Spoleto
Perugia
Palazzo Vecchio
17
2005
Cerreto Guidi
Rome 9, 10 Villa Borghese
Hadrians Villa
Tivoli gardens
Villa Medici @ Cafaggiolo
Monterchi
Gubbio
Sansepolcro
Open Villas
Villa Torrigiani
Villa Corsini sul Prato
Villa Bibbiana
Prato Palazzo Comunale
Villa Vittoria
Suvereto
Verona
Castello dell’Imperatore
Stonehenge
Bodiam Castle
San Gerasimo monastery, Kefalonoa
Argostoli museum
Spiros museum, Ithaca
Medici Chapels 2
Montepulciano
Certaldo
Biennial @ Palazzo Corsini
Villa Garzoni
26
2006
Monte Olivetti Maggiore 2
Montichiello
Bagno Vignoni
Sant Antimo
Pienza 2
Galleria dell Accademia
Arnoldo and the origins of the Renaissance @ the Museum of the works of the Cathedral
Cathedral of Como
Villa Carlotta @ Lake Como
Villa Torrigiani @ Lucca
The Ufizzi 5
Santa Croce
History of Science museum @ Florence
Glass museum @ Montalcino
Archaeological park @ Baratti
Giambologna - ‘Gods and Heroes’ @ the Bargello
Alberti @ Palazzo Strozzi
Peterhouse, St John’s, Trinity colleges and bridge of Sighs @ Cambridge
Castello of Romena & Pieve @ Pratovecchio
Ghirlandaio @ Santa Trinità
Pistoia
Barga
Apoxymenos @ the Palazzo Medici Ricardi
2007
Abbey of San Salvatore
Rocca di snd Sorano
Etruscan museum @ Chiusi
Sant Anna in Camprena
San Quirico d’Orcia
Cezanne in Florence @ Palazzo Strozzi
San Galgano
Seville Giralda, Real Alcazar, Casa Pilates
Plaza d’Espana
Cordoba Mesquita
Vermeer @ Modena
Collegiata @ San Gimignano
Villa San Michele
Avignon
Roman Museum @ Vaison la Romain
Villa Rothschild
Villa Kerylos
Larry Fink @ the Alinari museum
Palazzo Publicco @ Siena
2008
Luca Signorelli @ Cortona
Pistoia
Rome 11-14
Forum, house of Livia, Moses @ San Pietro in Vincoli, Galleria della Spada, Caracalla Baths, Museo Nazionale,
Castel Sant’Angelo
San Luigi Francesco
Capitoline museum
Open courtyards and villas pt 2
Impressionists @ Palazzo Strozzi
Puglia Lecce Alberello Ostuni
Salisbury Cathedral
Bath Royal Crescent, Spa
Verona
Isola Bella
Luca Signorelli @ Orvieto Cathedral
18
2009
Correggio @ Parma
Raphael Madonna and Chaffinch @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi
Canova @ Forlì
Uffizi 6
Vasari Corridor
Paris Louvre, Musee d’Orsay
Versailles
Walking with Palladio
Salisbury Bath
Open villas autumn edition
Venice
14
2010
Ferrara
Marc Chagall @ Palazzo Blu
Spoleto
Cathedral Filippo Lippi Roman house
Open villas
Giotto @ Scrovegni Chapel, Padova
Surrealism @ Palazzo Strozzi Magritte De Chirico
7
Chapter 5
2010-?
(41-?)
2011
Rimini
Viterbo
Cerveteri
Castel Odesalchi
Villa Lante
Pitti Palace + costume gallery
Palazzo Pfanner
Picasso Miro Dali @ Palazzo Strozzi
Hever Castle
Salisbury
Ascoli Piceno
Gubbio
Folon @ the Rose Garden
Bologna
Orvieto
Villa Petraia
2012
Money and beauty Botticelli @ Palazzo Strozzi
Picasso @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Americans in Florence, John Singer Sargent @ Palazzo Strozzi
Winchester Cathedral
5
2013
Kandinsky @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Dali @ Palazzo Medici Ricardi
Early Renaissance, Donatello, Di Cambio @ Palazzo Strozzi
Villa Mangiacane
Life and death in Pompei @ the British Museum
Ely Cathedral
Houghton revisited @ Houghton Hall
King’s College @ Cambridge
Russian Avant Garde @ Palazzo Strozzi
Impressionism @ Palazzo Pitti
9
2014
Pontormo Fiorentina @ Palazzo Strozzi
Uffizi 7 (mum and Natalie)
Bury St Edmonds Cathedral
3
2015
Modigliani @ Palazzo Blu, Pisa
Picasso @ Palazzo Strozzi
Power and Pathos @ Palazzo Strozzi
Villa Badoer
Villa Pisani
Padova Palazzo della Ragione
Villa Poiano Maggiore
Human, Anthony Gormley @ Fortezza Belvedere
Palazzo Vecchio
Castello di Sammezzano
Michelangelo and the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge
Divine beauty, Van Gogh Chagall @ Palazzo Strozzi
Jeff Koons in Piazza Signoria
13
2016
Kandinsky Pollack @ Palazzo Strozzi
Laurentian Library
Baptistery
Opere dal Duomo (refit)
Sardinia stones
Ai Wei Wei @ Palazzo Strozzi
7
2017
Museo degli Innocenti
Bill Viola @ Strozzi
Pavia
Sicily
Palermo
Selinunte
Segesta
Agrigento
Monreale
Cefalu
Erice
Uk ?
Jean Fabre @ Piazza Signoria
Ghirlandaio @ Santa Trinità
8
2018
Pisa Baptistery, Cathedral, camposanto
Dawn of a nation @ Palazzo Strozzi
Uk ?
Palazzo Davanzati
Andrea del Sarto Cennacolo
7
2019
Marina Abramovic @ Palazzo Strozzi
Santo Spirito
Badia Fiesolana
Verrochio @ Palazzo Strozzi
Van Gogh @ Tate Britain
Painshill
Arundel Castle Gardens
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