Donatello and his David
This is a detail of Donatello’s bronze David in the Bargello Museum in Florence, likely produced in the 1440s, though no really firm date exists for its creation. The art historian Laurie Schneider once suggested that this diminutive and sensuous bronze (click here for the full information) was an expression of the sculptor’s homosexuality. That it’s a pretty boy nobody can deny. I took this image, rather mischievously, thinking of her thesis. It’s the part of the body that most conveys the work’s cheeky sensuality. In the same room of the Bargello stands an earlier David, also by Donatello. It could hardly be more different. Made of marble, of an older David as a young man, it is also twice as tall as the diminutive bronze. While soft of features, indicating David’s youth, it is monumental and heroic in scale and pose. Both statues, however, share the same moment in David’s famous act: they stand victorious with Goliath’s head at their feet.
Taormina
Taormina, on the east coast of Sicily just south of Messina, has been a tourist destination for centuries. It has two spectacular vistas, one towards Mount Etna and another of the town itself from the castle above. In this shot you can see the medieval town and, in the top left, the curves of the Roman theater, which still attracts visitors and hosts performances today. I had to climb the switchback stairs to get this picture, which was taken from the terrace of the lovely little cave church of Santa Maria della Rocca.
Ilaria
One of the most beautiful tomb effigies ever sculpted was this one of Ilaria del Caretto of Lucca, by the artist Jacopo della Quercia in 1413. Ilaria’s fate was not, alas, so uncommon. She married at the age of 24 and died at 26 after giving birth to her second child. It was common practice among the noble classes to give a baby to a wet nurse so that the wife could return to fertility immediately and conceive again quickly. This practice led to the early deaths of many young women whose bodies could not endure the physical demands placed on them. She rests today in a chapel of the Cathedral of Lucca, admired by many, but not often pitied for her short life. Della Quercia may have made her sort of immortal, but she died before her time.
Lorenzetti’s Ladies
One of the greatest and without doubt the most interesting work of art in Siena is Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco cycle of the Allegories and Effects of Good and Bad Government in the Palazzo Pubblico (ca. 1340). This is a detail from the fresco showing the effects of good government in the city: women dancing in the streets, a symbol of civic harmony. Note that on the backs of two of the ladies’ dresses are dragonflies and caterpillars. One interpretation of these motifs is that they support the allegorical function of the women, and their circular dance may allude to springtime festivities often held in medieval towns of Tuscany. Real women in elaborate costume may well have sung and kept rhythm with tambourines during such festivities. The caterpillar signifies metamorphosis into something beautiful, and thus the processes of nature towards the good parallel the metamorphosis of society when good government reigns.
Siena Cathedral
The facade of the Siena Cathedral is my second favorite in the country (the first is Orvieto). But it’s a close second. It’s such an exemplar of its Gothic moment, all recently cleaned and glowing. Believe it or not, what you see here was once planned only to be south end of one of the transepts of a much larger church. See the arches in the right background? Those arches were to be part of the bigger nave planned centuries ago. Yet work stalled and the large version was never completed. Today those partial elements of that unrealized project can still be seen. But what was built was plenty impressive and sufficiently monumental.
Slopes of Etna
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago on the flanks of the famous volcano of Mount Etna on Sicily. There were many cinder cones–in total, there are over 400 on the mountain’s slopes–in this area, some tinged rust with high iron content and others dark gray with pumice. There was even signs of old lava flows emanating from a couple of them. The scale is made evident when you notice the people in the distance. It’s one of the most impressive mountains of the world.
At the Races
This picture is of a detail of a Byzantine ivory in the Bargello Museum in Florence. It’s from the 5th century CE. In the whole piece, an emperor stands above this scene of the chariot races in the hippodrome in Constantinople. He’s embraced by an allegorical figure representing, I think, a city. You can see four teams of four-horse chariots zooming around the track, which is marked by the ‘spina’ or ‘spine’ along which obelisk-like monuments are arrayed (they resemble bowling pins). At the end, the emperor declares a winner. If you look closely at the chariot drivers, their torsos are hatched with horizontal lines, indicating the cords they wrapped around their tunics to keep them from fluttering in the wind.
Carrara
This may seem like a nice landscape picture, but it has some connection to art and architecture. What at first seems like it might be snow is in fact marble. These are the quarries of Carrara, the most famous marble quarries in the world. Look closely and you’ll be able to see them. From here the stone for Michelangelo’s masterpieces came, as did the material for Bernini’s stunning sculptures and many other works of art from ancient Roman times to the present. Of course, today kitchen counter tops are also made from the beautiful stone. Michelangelo might have been angered that such fine material was used for such a purpose.
Ancient Agrigento
The city of Agrigento, ancient Akragas, is on the south coast of Sicily. In the 4th and 5th centuries BCE great temples were built there in the Doric style, and today their impressive ruins can be seen in the legendary ‘Valley of the Temples’. This picture shows the Temple of Hera in the distance, but also shows the arched niche of an early Christian tomb that was carved into the cliffs that also served as part of the city’s defenses. The Christians carved so many tombs, however, that the cliff walls began to break apart and fall, as this one did, down the hillside.
Greek Figures
I took this picture in the Archaeological Museum of Agrigento, in Sicily, of a detail of a Greek vase where a warrior is killed. That’s his soul escaping in the upper left. The painter of this vase made a nice echo in the composition, making the little soul figure in ‘red’ figure (never sure why they always say that; it’s clearly orange) and the warrior on the shield in black figure. They’re almost mirrors of each other. Ancient Greek vases began with black figures on an orange (terra cotta) background, then later vases were ‘red’ figures on a black background. Some transitional vases were ‘bilingual’ with both techniques. So many Mediterranean museums are filled with them, but the museum in Agrigento has a few real masterpieces.
Rondanini Pieta
Everyone knows Michelangelo’s famous Pieta in Rome, in St Peters in the Vatican, but the sculptor worked on another of the same theme near the end of his life, from around 1555 to his death in 1564 at the age of 88. It was great to see it, for the first time, a couple of days ago in the Castello Sforza in Milan. The sculpture is unfinished and gives the impression of a three-dimensional sketch in marble. This image shows the faces of Mary and Christ, just roughed out and displaying the chisel marks of the work. By this time the artist must have had pain in every one of his joints. Perhaps he hoped that the same pity evoked in the statue would be extended to him when his soul was judged.
Portofino
Portofino, a picturesque little harbour on the Ligurian Coast of Italy (Genoa is the principal city), is the best known of the scenic little spots of the ‘Cinque Terre’ or ‘Five Lands’. It’s the heart of the Italian Riviera. This is, I suppose, the ‘classic’ view, taken from the Castle Brown, which was built by an English Consul in the 1800s. The super-rich anchor their yachts here and take in the sunshine, which was plentiful today. In September the Italians, and others who come here, are taking what’s left of summer on the beaches and rocks. The waters are crystalline and have all those appealing and radiant Mediterranean hues. The name of Portofino is a corruption, taking place over the centuries, of the Roman name for the port: Porto Delphino, or ‘Port of the Dolphins’, which got shortened to the modern form.
Names of the Dead
At the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi there is a retaining wall below the temple upon which the Athenians inscribed the names of those who died at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. Many people walk by the wall and don’t see the inscriptions. They’re so weathered after 2500 years they’re hard to see. Those of you who know the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC now know where the inspiration came from: the names of the Marathonomachoi, or heroes of the Battle of Marathon.
