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Published: April 16th 2005
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Giambologna's famous sculptures of birds. Watch or be watched.
Second floor of the Bargello museum. Rooms are filled with various types of art from various decades and more often centuries...makes a great visit for those with attention deficit of the "artistic" kind...here there's a taste of everything at every turn. Planned to go to Pisa today. Woke up at 10 to the gentle sound of rain on my roof. I open the shutters and peer at the steady sheet of drizzle. Just what I thought. Back to bed.
This seems to be happening every Saturday I decide to break from my sleepy, dreamy rest. Well, I'm up.
And I've got an entire day ahead,
and a working umbrella.
THE BARGELLO An hour later, however, I decide to visit a museum in Florence I’d never been to, but had been reading about. The Bargello, originally called the Palazzo del Popolo in mid 13th century, and then the seat of the Podesta’ or the chief Magistrate 100 years later. 16th century Medici’s made it the seat of the chief of Police, calling it the Bargello, but not before each century had it’s turn at adding to its history and decoration. One century the courtyard displayed bodies of executed criminals and in the15th century it housed law courts and small prison rooms. The walls now display the shield emblems of various Florentine families and inhabitants of the Palace. Mid 19th century the Bargello opened as a museum and 3 floors of mix-match
of marble sculptures, ancient coins and bronze figures, reliquaries and ivory carvings, a collection of 13th century iconography, 11th century jewelry, armor and a tremendous array of 700 year old spears and weapons of various degrees of deadliness, terracotta relief by the hands of the Della Robbia family, and much more.
The Della Robbia Family Lucca Della Robbia invented the technique now famously called “terracotta invetriata”. A Florentine family, Lucca created this technique of terracotta relief sculptures glazed in lucid whites and blues, as well as yellows, browns and greens. He invented the chemistry to produce the “azzuro” or blue, and used a brown/maroon instead of red, which was a pigment very difficult to form. He used clay instead of expensive marble. These techniques were passed to his nephew Andrea, who in turn taught his sons the techniques-Marco (Fra Mattia), Lucca Il Giovane, Francesco, Girolamo and the popular Giovanni who continued to teach and produce the famous Della Robbia work in workshops or “botega”.
The mysterious, repeating ouch I can generalize and say every depiction of Christ that I’ve seen, spanning 400 years of iconography, I have wondered about the slash on the right-side rib area of Christ.
empty 21st century wooden seats ready for those with tired feet and heavy guide books
i love going to places and feeling that I could possibly be the only here...having one grand, intimate conversation, one unique vision, inspiration given to me, just me. Whether he is illustrated upon the cross, with his head heavily hanging to the front, or depicted in the “Deposition” and in the arms of the weeping Mary, there has always been this gash, not even placed near the heart which would make sense. Instead, I have heard a story that explains at least one theory that his gash was where the Roman soldiers inserted their spears to see if Christ was truly dead. A question indeed.
Italian Hands (watch where you're putting those madam) Admiring Donatello’s black bronze depiction of David (depicted young, supple, perhaps even a little arrogant and naïve in his youth), is a group of 15-20 Italians. I watch as they point and peer at the famous sculpture, while their guide moves onto another piece. They are curious and intrigued, and I watch with some hesitancy as well as humor, as they touch and caress in admiration, pointing here, and even knocking lightly on the famous bronze foot of David resting on the bearded head of Goliath. Satisfied with their examination, they moved on. The curious and expressive hands of Italians have no limits.
The Romance of War Armor is made of thick
Bargello courtyard
the courtyard. the wall ahead was laden years after the original palazzo was built, displaying the emblems and shields of various inhabitants and powerful Florentine families. metal meant to be impermeable to blades and arrows and blows of various kinds. It is also a sign of authority and wealth and is therefor also carefully crafted and adorned with incredible incesions and relief sculptures. The birth of fashion, a balance between function and form. Dressing that weighs as much as you do, versus the practically nude styles of today.
So, think about this armor, heavy and thick with joints bolted with metal pins, which may rust, wear or simple fall out.
The battle I believe is slow motion. No wonder sword fighting while wearing armor LOOKS so easy. Enemies grunted as they fought to lift a metal encrusted arm to swing a 10 foot blade at their nemesis, who in turn took half a minute to do the same.
No easy stunt.
Copies and art. Copies and art. Copying. Controversial among my students, constantly copying from books, but sometimes relying a little too heavily on the visual concepts of others. Copying, technically, teaches precision, proportion, focus and provides a source of steady study. Masters of European art, from the greek culture to the Renaissance and onward through the 17th century, have always the method of copying
to celebrate and symbolize a previous culture, to copy and to flatter, to renew and honor. Composition, color and concept are repeated continually in depictions of Christ, the Visitation of the Angel on the left, Mary on the right, the Madonna on the left, the Christ child on her left knee, often his hand uplifted in one religious position or another, the fur-wearing St John the Baptist. Figures recognized by the illiterate public, the story of Christianity diffused through imagery. There is the “School of Del Sarto” or the “Bottega of Giovanni Della Robbia” . It was not until much later 19th century perhaps, that ART had the potential to be personal, different, secular, original.
I stopped into a ceramic store to compare prices between shops.
To my surprise was a painting in progress, an exact replica of a Bronzino painting, completed in small sections. The oil painting was richly colored, and the pencil design still visible as some parts were perfected while others still a pure, bright white. The artist, named Michele, a graduate of the Accademia delli Belle Arti, is a father of 3 and has been working in the ceramic shop for about 15 y ears. Every month he completes a commission, and this one will receive about $2000. He has painted several Madonna’s 15 times. This Bronzino is a virgin for him. I sit in his chair, with permission and admire.
We begin an hour long conversation. He explains that a truly incredible artist is one that can breath life into the painting. Michele is working from a high quality color copy of the painting (which he also breaks down into quadrants to enlarge proportionally). He talks about using intuition to paint each section NOT as it is represented in the photocopy, but as if he were painting the original. A truly living and believable and dynamic painting depicts believable materials, not a believable copy of those materials… the brilliant white of pearls, the gleam of silver and gold, the softness of a velvet cushion, the living flesh of an arm, a flushed face. He copies because the original is perfect and is commercially WANTED.
But he copies without loosing his creative mind, his intuitive sense of color and light, and seeks to create a copy that is just as alive as the original, or perhaps the very scene as it were to look the very moment it was conceptually (heart beating and warm blooded and all) alive.
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