Rebirth

Rebirth

Yesterday we were back to the Renaissance in Italy and there was much attention to Florence. The photos of the Duomo brought me back some years to my first trip there in February 1996. The weather was cold and clear - ideal for a lot of walking and looking. Listening yesterday to the names of the churches and various buildings such as the Ospedale degli Innocenti brought it all back. I remember taking photos in the evening light of the Della Robbia roundels.

The dome of the Duomo was frascinating because we climbed to the top of it and the 'stairs'  run up inside the ribs you can see here

 

 

We were lucky to see all this so easily at that time of year because when I visited Florence again in June of a later year there were queues 500m long in the Piazza del Duomo simply to get into the Duomo itself.

 

Ghibertis' doors on the Baptistry are an absolute wonder andyou could spend a whole day just examining them; there is his head peeping out happily forever!

 

 

 

The churches of Florence are oveflowing with art but it would be a mistake to leave the Renaissance there.

 

A visit to San Sepolcro will lead you to one of the painters of the time who has stuck deeply in my consciousness - Piero della Francesca(1415-1492)

 

 

The Flagellation of Christ (1455) demonstrates his grasp of space even if there is much that is extremely strange about this picture -what are the men in the foreground discussing, while this leisurely lashing is going on behind them?

 

In 1455, he produced 'The Dream of Constantine':

 

The space and light in this are very unusual for the time.

It's probably a bit hackneyed to profess deep admiration for Sandro Botticelli(14415-1483), but that's beside the point. I have always loved this mans' work,

There is an internal glow to the skin tones that despite the age of the work, never seems to have faded, and of couse there is the face of Venus who, it appears, turns up in so much of his other work.

I will tell you more about the rails and edge orject in my next post. Some interesting things have happened.

Ps I should have included this next piece yesterday when I was writing, because I had not realised that this artist had done any work remotely like it:

 

 

This is Mary Magdalene by Donatello who would more normally be known for smoother work such as his David.

 

There is real pain here and is so realistc as to even have missing teeth.It has a far mor north European feel and could havd been done by someone like Matthias Grunewald.