Today we get up and head on over to a much anticipated stop… the Santa Maria del Carmine, which is on the other side of the Arno River (The area known as "altrarno", which is Italian for "other side of the Arno"). Inside the church is the Brancacci Chapel, which contains the highly influential fresco cycle painted by Masaccio in 1423. This fresco cycle depicts events from the life of Saint Peter. The scene referred to as "The Tribute Money" shows up in art history textbooks due to Masaccio's revolutionary use of linear perspective, consistent modeling of light, and greater naturalism of figures than was present in previous gothic painting.
 |
| The Tribute Money (Masaccio) |
 |
| Brancacci Chapel |
 |
| Brancacci Chapel |
 |
| Brancacci Chapel |
Besides the Brancacci chapel, we have three other churches on the list for today, whose order of visitation is thrown out the window when the hours they are open don't agree with what I had researched online. Of utmost importance is that we visit the Badia Fiorentino church, which is open, and which we hit up first. The reason for the urgency is because it is only open 3 hours per week… and the air of exclusivity implied by that limit fills my heart with a snobbish joy.
 |
| Badia Fiorentina exterior |
The church contains the painting "Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard" by Filippino Lippi. As I said before, my interest in Lippi's work was piqued the day before at the Uffizi.
Also in the church is the Chiostro degli Aranci (Cloister of the Oranges), which contains a fresco cycle (1435-1439) on the life of Saint Benedict, by the mostly unknown Portuguese painter Giovanni di Consalvo (a follower of Fra Angelico).
 |
| Cloister of the Oranges (Badia Fiorentina) |
|
|
 |
| Cloister of the Oranges with view of frescos |
 |
| Cloister of the Oranges with view of fresco |
Of particular interest was an unfinished fresco that revealed and under-drawing. I had never seen this before. It looked so clear that I thought it might have been applied recently, rather than 500 years ago, but I am unclear on the matter...
After leaving the Badia Fiorentina, we still have an hour before the other two churches are open. So I walk back to the art supply store that I spotted yesterday (but which was closed). I look everywhere, but there is no cool or unusual stuff to buy there. Same old crap. Here is a picture of the charming exterior of the shop, and a picture of the employees appearing like dedicated old-school craftsmen in their white aprons. What a crock-o-shit... they had nothing you couldn't find at Dick Blick.
 |
| Zecchi (ordinary art store that looks cool) |
 |
| Poser Smocks |
A bit later we find our way back to the churches that weren't open earlier. The first is the The Santa Trinita ("Holy Trinity"). This church is art historically relevant due to the Sassetti Chapel, which contains frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio (who was the master to the young Michelangelo). These are considered the masterpieces of his oeuvre..
 |
| Santa Trinita |
 |
| Ghirlandaio's fresco in the Sassetti Chapel |
 |
| Ghirlandaio's fresco in the Sassetti Chapel |
|
 |
| Ghirlandaio's fresco in the Sassetti Chapel |
|
 |
| Ghirlandaio's altarpiece in the Sassetti Chapel |
|
I didn't find the frescos particularly interesting for their own sake, which is probably due to the dingy light the chapel receives, and the difficult angle one must look at them from. This is a shame, because when I look at images of these frescos later on the internet, they are quite striking. The central altarpiece (The Adoration of the Shepards, 1485) is more well lit and more refined. But it suffers from what I read was Ghirlandaio's having been influenced by the Norther Renaissance (Flemish) painters. Those Flemish painters were masters of the oil medium, rendering a greater sense of illusion than Italian painters. However, they seem to lack the elegant pictorial compositions of the Italians, favoring instead the clustering of symbolic details. The day before in the Uffizi I had seen the "Portinari Altarpiece" by Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes, which has a similar feel to Ghirlandaio's altarpiece, though it is much more refined...
 |
| Ghirlandaio's altarpiece "The Adoration of the Shepherds" |
|
 |
| Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece |
The last church on the list was the Chiesa di Ognissanti (All-Saints Church). The church contains a few pieces by Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, but is most notable for being the burial site of Sandro Botticelli himself. A testament to the popularity of Botticelli are the handwritten notes left at his grave.
 |
| Ognissanti, Main Altar |
 |
| Botticelli's Tomb (circular plaque on floor) with notes left for him |
All of this running around to churches is exhausting. We cross over to the altrarno and get some gelato at a "recommended" place. We stumble upon another art supply store. It is well stocked with ordinary shit, and I buy something ordinary that I kind-a need (for 4 euros)… because I am dying to buy something.
We head back to the grocery store for more essential food items… once again proving that Americans can get to the checkout on one day with more food than Italians eat in a week. Then we head home and begin eating it.
No comments:
Post a Comment