Andrew Johnson's RENAISSANCE IN TUSCANY
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Altar of San Giovanni Restored in Florence -- and much more at the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore

4/7/2012

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We happily spent a few days in Florence over the festa of  San Giovanni Battista (Florence's patron saint)  -- a highlight that anyone can enjoy visiting Florence in years to come is the newly restored silver 'altar' of San Giovanni, back on view in the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (the cathedral of Florence) after six years of painstaking restoration.   The results are magnificent!!   

Technically speaking, it is not an altar but an enormous and enormously rich, complex altar frontal -- over three meters long, all of silver with dozens of figures of angels, prophets, saints surrounding twelve scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist and large central figure of the saint.   It took over a century to complete, involving the most renowned goldsmiths of the late fourteenth century through the great renaissance artists Michelozzo, Antonio del Pollaiolo, and Verrochio.   To our eyes, one of the greatest differences is how wonderfully many figures stand out against cleaned coloured enamel backgrounds of their niches.  But the whole 'altar' is stunning, beautifully displayed and lit.   

Visitors to the Museo can see the 'altar' any day, unlike people of the renaissance itself: for centuries, it was only displayed on Florence's greatest annual event, the June 24 celebration of San Giovanni, and occasional other major days.

And, if you do not know the Museo dell'Opera, it is one of the very best in Florence -- which means one of the best in the world, really -- even though over-shadowed in fame by the Uffizi, the Bargello, and the unfortunate Accademia burdened by throngs wishing only to say they have seen 'The David'.   Yet the Museo displays a wealth of extraordinary works originally on and in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and  the Baptistery of San Giovanni -- renaissance masterpieces by Donatello, Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, and the list goes on (yes, Michelangelo too).  To boot, it is one of the most simply enjoyable museums in town, with unusually good explanations of many of the works: and due -- with its expansion completed in 2015, we hope -- to become remarkable for displaying great masterpieces in a recreated context evoking their original locations on the cathedral facade and its facing baptistery, and their original meanings for renaissance observers, not simply as museum pieces.

In the meantime, another treat is in store: the great 'Doors of Paradise' by Ghiberti from the Baptistery, under piecemeal restoration for many years, are due to be unveiled on September 8 this year as, once more, a complete portal in the Museo dell'Opera.  (Not coincidentally, September 8 is the anniversary of the historic commitment in 1296 (or 1298) to build the new cathedral, on the religious celebration of the birth of Mary.)

Here is the link to the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the museum and more --  http://museo.operaduomo.fi.it/ -- with tantalizing images of some of its glories which inevitably fall far short of their impact 'in person': especially, I think, for sculptures more than paintings, and even more especially for sculptures made for particular locations, fulfilling religious and civic purposes.   Remember, the Museo dell'Opera is the immediate neighbour of the cathedral still today maintained by the Opera (offic: see and appreciate them together. 

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Welcome Centro Studi Pientini !!

22/6/2012

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Today I want to flag an especially interesting  initiative promoting  appreciation of Pienza and its beautiful countryside, for scholars , visitors and a wider  public: the non-profit Centro Studi Pientini.  On its site you will find notices of activities, an excellent bibliographic 'Guida alle Guide di Pienza', a growing number of publications on-line,  regular access to the local 'Bollettino Parrocchiale', and the first issue of the Centro's own serial publication 'Canonica'.  Congratulations and thanks to the very knowledgeable, all-volunteer founders of Centro Studi Pientini, Umberto Bindi its co-ordinator and Aldo Lo Presti, Alfiero Petreni,  Fausto Formichi, Francesco Dondoli, and Giancarlo Bastreghi !!

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Happy Birthday Machiavelli

4/5/2012

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May 3 -- the birthday of Niccolo Machiavelli in 1469:  Ironic, perhaps, for one renowned as a sceptic in his own time, suspected of atheism, certainly anti-clerical, because May 3 is the Catholic Christian feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem by Saint Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine.  This is the high point of the story from the 'Golden Legend' depicted most famously by Piero della Francesca in Arezzo.   Of course Machiavelli was baptized a Christian  (perhaps -- to speculate -- on May 9, which was the secondary feast day of his name-saint Nicholas who died or was 'translated' to heaven that day: latterly, of course, transmuted into jolly Saint Nick).   Whether Machiavelli died a Christian is debated still.   Is it perhaps fitting that he died in 1527 on June 21: the traditional date for the summer solstice, hence a scientific date or perhaps a somewhat more pagan than Christian date?   Still, the summer solstice was doubly commemorated in Machiavelli's Florence.  In the city's ancient heart, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, as recorded by the fourteenth-century historian Villani,   the summer solstice sun through the then-open oculus window illuminated a mosaic zodiac in the floor.  And in the still-new cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore the fifteenth century physician-astrologer-astronomer Paulo Toscanelli had established an analogous effect in about 1468 whereby the summer solstice sun through a slit  at the top of the cathedral's enormous cupola struck a precise point on the floor far below -- in this case, for astronomical calculations.   Yet June 21 was also a sort of harbinger of the imminent civic festival of all festivals in Florence, that of the city's patron Saint John the Baptist on June 24.  Happy Birthday to you, 'Machia' the patriotic Florentine -- thanks for your life!
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The Site is back -- for Aeneas Sylvius!

23/2/2012

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Renaissance In Tuscany is back, in its improved ‘beta’ version -- and back to stay.  

Comments and suggestions are most welcome!

Today, February 22, is the anniversary of the return to his native town, Corsignano in southern Tuscany, of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, after many years as a diplomat, chancellery official and advisor to popes, an anti-pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, latterly as bishop and cardinal.  He returned in triumph as Pope Pius II.

As he wrote in his unique memoirs: ‘A high mountain rises from the valley of the Orcia  River, crowned by a plateau...There is a town of little repute but possessed of a healthful climate, excellent wine, and everything else that goes to sustain life...Here Pius was born and passed his childhood...He hoped to feel delight in seeing again his native soil; but he was disappointed, for most of those of his own generation had died and those who were left were feeble and crippled and like harbingers of death...(But) the people were delighted and in holiday mood over the presence of the Pope...Pius decided to build there a new church and a palace...that he might leave as lasting as possible a memorial of his birth.’ *

He succeeded, as we see in Pienza, the former Corsignano, over five centuries later. By his death in 1464, Pius had rebuilt the town’s medieval centre into a crown jewel of the Renaissance, and renamed the town after himself.

Andrew Johnson

Quotations from Pope Piccolomini are from Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, "Secret Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini Pope Pius II: An Abridgement", translated by Florence A. Gragg, ed. Leona C. Gabel (Folio Society, 1988), Book IX (July to September 1462), pp. 274-281.]


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First Post!

30/11/2011

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Renaissance in Tuscany is now up, in its test version  -- fittingly, for an endeavour in substantial part stimulated by Pienza's superb renaissance cityscape, on the day commemorating Pienza's patron saint.    A patron saint's day which also , in effect, commemorates Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II,  to whom Pienza owes  its great buildings, its name and renown.  
Grazie to Aeneas Sylvius!  and to the citizens of Pienza today who sustain its vitality.  

To those whom come across this site in its early days,  comments or suggestions are welcome.

Over time, I aim to build Renaissance in Tuscany as a place of interest, a resource and if possible a forum for some exchange of views, ideas and and knowledge.

So, away we go!
Andrew Johnson

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