Florence Cathedral

And he was sort of a character in the early Renaissance, and he had a very bombastic, hot temper, and he refused to work with anyone.

And so at the time, the cathedral in Florence, the Santa Maria del Fiore, had been built several years before Brunelleschi was even born.

And this was common during the day.

They knew that cathedrals were the work of generations.

And so he had struck a deal to marry his brother, Giuliano, who we saw in that painting, to the teenage daughter of the Appiani family.

But in 1478, with the Pazzi conspiracy, Giuliano was murdered, stabbed 19 times, bled to death on the floor of Florence Cathedral.

So he had to do a switcheroo.

He had to find someone else who could marry this girl.

Then we take the train to Florence, where the trip includes a guided walking tour and entrance into the Accademia Gallery to see Michelangelo's David.

You'll also see the Duomo, Giotto's Bell Tower, Piazza della Signoria, and there'll be some free time for the Uffizi?

The Uffizi

Gallery.

ourselves to it.

So okay so from there on our tour we're going to then head south to Naples for a private tour of the historic center, including the Spokanopoly.

How did I do the Spokanopoly and the Duomo of San Giorno.

There's also an optional visit to Pompeii and then one of the trip highlights that I think is going to be really cool is a hydrofoil to Capri, which is a basically a two hour boat tour around the island.

In San Francesco in Pisa where he wrought as had been said above certain other works there is in the cloister beside the door that leads into the church in a corner a small panel in distemper by the hand of Cimabue wherein is a Christ on the cross with certain angels round him who weeping are taking with their hands certain words that are written round the head of Christ and are presenting them to the ears of a Madonna who stands weeping on the right and on the other side to St John the Evangelist who is on the left all grieving and the words to the Virgin are Mulier ecce filius tuus and those to St John ecce mater tua and those that an angel standing apart holds in his hand say ex illa hora accept eam discipulus in suam wherein it is to be observed that Cimabue began to give light and to open the way to invention assisting art with words in order to express his conception which was certainly something whimsical and new.

Now because by means of these works Cimabue had acquired a very great name together with much profit he was appointed as architect in company with Arnolfo Lapi a man then excellent in architecture for the building of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence but at length having lived sixty years he passed to the other life in the year 1300 having little less than resurrected painting.

He left many disciples and among others Giotto who was afterwards an excellent painter which Giotto dwelt after Cimabue in his master's own house in the Via del Cocomero.

Cimabue was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore with that epitaph made for him by one of the Nini Credidit ut Cimabus Picturae castra teneret Sic tenuit Vivens Nunc tenet astra poli I will not refrain from saying that if to the glory of Cimabue there had not been contrasted the greatness of Giotto his disciple his fame would have been greater as Dante demonstrates in his Commedia wherein alluding in the eleventh canto of the Purgatorio to this very inscription on the tomb he said Credete Cimabue nella pittura Tener lo campo Ed ora ha Giotto il grido Sicce la fama di colui s'oscura In explanation of these verses a commentator of Dante who wrote at the time when Giotto was alive and ten or twelve years after the death of Dante himself that is about the year of Christ 1334 says speaking of Cimabue precisely these words Cimabue was a painter of Florence in the time of the author very noble beyond the knowledge of man and withal so arrogant and so disdainful that if there were found by anyone any failing or defect in his work or if he himself had seen one even as it comes to pass many times that the craftsman errs through a defect in the material whereon he works or through some lack in the instrument wherewith he labours incontinently he would destroy that work however costly it might be Giotto was and is the most exalted among the painters of the same city of Florence and his works bear testimony for him in Rome in Naples in Avignon in Florence in Padua and in many parts of the world This commentary is now in the hands of the very reverend Don Vincenzo Borghini prior of the Innocenti a man not only most famous for his nobility goodness and learning but also endowed with such love and understanding for all the finer arts that he has deserved to be elected by the Lord Duke Costimo most properly as his lieutenant in our academy of design But to return to Cimabue Giotto truly obscured his fame not otherwise than as a great light does the splendour of one much less for the reason that although Cimabue was as it were the first cause of the renovation of the art of painting yet Giotto his pupil moved by laudable ambition and assisted by heaven and by nature was he who rising higher with his thought opened the gate of truth to those who have brought her to that perfection and majesty wherein we see her in our own century which being used to see every day the marvels the miracles nay the impossibilities wrought by the craftsmen in that art is now brought to such a pitch that nothing that men do be it even more divine than human causes it in any way to marvel Well is it with those whose labours deserve all praise if in place of being praised and admired they do not thereby incur blame and many times even disgrace The portrait of Cimabue by the hand of Simone Sarnese is to be seen in the chapter house of Santa Maria Novella made in profile in the story of the faith in a figure that has the face thin the beard small reddish and pointed with a cap according to the use of those times that is wound round and round under the throat in lovely fashion He who is beside him is Simone himself the author of that work who portrayed himself with two mirrors in order to make his head in profile, placing the one opposite to the other; and that soldier clad in armour who is between them is said to be Count Guido Novello, then Lord of Poppi.

There remains for me to say of Cimabue that in the beginning of our book, where I have put together drawings from the own hand of all those who have made drawings from his time to ours, there are to be seen certain small things made by his hand in the way of miniature, wherein, although to-day perchance they appear rather rude than otherwise, it is seen how much excellence was given by his work to draughtsmanship.

End of section 4.

And having wrought these by his own self and with much better manner, they brought him very great fame.

Wherefore, growing in courage and being disposed to work by himself, he applied himself continually to studying the Greek manner together with that of Cimabue.

It has been spoken of as the most perfect example of Gothic art in existence.

a little way farther on the via calzeoli merges into the piazza del duomo that world-famed square in which when we visit it for the first time we would be almost inclined to imagine ourselves in fairyland were it not for the tramcars which radiate from this centre to all parts of the city and to the surrounding suburbs as well for before us rise three buildings all of which are coated with different coloured marbles white dark green and pink making a picture which is almost startling in its brilliancy these are the ancient octagonal church of s giovanni battista once the cathedral at all times the baptistery of florence the larger and more modern cathedral of s maria del fiore st mary of the flower which besides being coated with the three varieties of marble which i have mentioned glitters with mosaics and is crowned by a dome of rosy red and loveliest of all the tall slender campanile or bell-tower built by giotto which is so delicate in its beauty so calm and fair and stately that it has been compared to the lily of the annunciation the baptistery is the oldest building in florence and as it was built on the site of the roman temple of mars it is probable that the stones of its walls hidden under their coating of marble are identical with those which were employed in the erection of the earlier building this custom of covering stone walls with slabs of marble is peculiar to italy where this costly material is so easily obtained and has probably been handed down from the days of the etruscans as the term used for this special kind of mosaic is geroni from an etruscan word which means small pieces compared with the radiant freshness of the duomo and campanile this curiously shaped church with its worn metal dome seems old and weather-beaten but in its three double gates which stand on the north south and east it possesses treasures which are reckoned among the greatest trophies of art for one of these gates was fashioned by the hands of Andrea Pisano, and the other two by Lorenzo Ghiberti, almost sixty years being spent by the two sculptors on their production.

It was of the gates on the east, which face the Duomo, and are the work of Ghiberti, that Michelangelo said that they were worthy to be the gates of Paradise.

These, however, are always closed, and entrance must be sought by the north or south gate.

at all times of the year the interior of the baptistery is dark and cool and it is very restful to pass out of the heat and glare of the piazzo into its dim light and hushed mysterious atmosphere the windows are narrow and placed high up in its walls but they give us sufficient light to let us see the beautiful mosaics set in a background of gold with which the entire dome is encrusted and the massive granite pillars and tessellated pavement of black and white marble which is said to have suggested patterns to the silk weavers when they first settled in florence in the beginning of the thirteenth century but beautiful as the baptistery is in its form and ornamentation its principal interest lies in the fact that all the infants born in florence from the days of dante down to the present time have been baptized here the font that we see is old but it is not that in which the poet and his beatrice were baptized That appears to have been a very curiously shaped font, having a large basin in the centre, suitable for immersion, and smaller basins round it.

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By Church and Palace 2 It is impossible in a book of this size to do more than mention some of the other churches and palaces of Florence, no matter how full of interest and beauty they may be.

Next to the Duomo and the Baptistery, the most interesting churches are, perhaps, Santa Croce, in the southeast corner of the city, not far from the Arno, and Santa Maria Novella, on the west, close to the central station.

Obviously, depending on the time allotted, you will have to choose.

But first the main piazzas are the Piazza Signoria, the Piazza della Repubblica, the Piazza del Duomo, and there are a few more I will mention later.

There is a long list of possibilities, so here we go.

Always try and see at least one museum if you can.

I think for the education of art and history, particularly in Florence, after much musing over travel, I think that Travel in itself is the best educations one can get.

Visiting one of the many museums kind of sets the tone for the city and gives you a little bit of an entry or an invitation to understand more about the culture of this particular city, Florence.

And so, in the Piazza del Duomo, you see that grand beauty of a basilica, Santa Maria del Fiore, the church called St. Mary of the Flowers.

You cannot miss this major cathedral if in the city because it absolutely dominates the city skyline.

Stick with me here for a moment.

In 1464, officials from the Cathedral of Florence ended up commissioning a man named Agostino di Duccio to do something with this massive marble block.

For whatever reason, he ended up abandoning that commission very early on, and it ended up passing a decade later to another man by the name of Antonio Rusolino.

When Rusolino got his hands on this marble block, he ended up describing it as being, quote, flawed and filled with imperfection.

Continuamos.

Diecisiete: Santa María del Fiore.

Tambor octogonal de Brunelleschi con treinta y tres metros de base libre.

El anillo de cimentación interior de la cúpula doble de Brunelleschi se sostiene sobre el tambor de soporte modulado en treinta y tres metros de apertura Bien, en este caso, obras tan monumentales.

But...

When you taint and you have the audacity to step on the sacred grounds of Il Duomo in Milan, then now you got me crazy.

That's where I get worked up.

You got these punks, these cockroaches.

I don't care what they're doing.

And you go on the grounds of Il Duomo.

And I looked on Facebook, by the way.

By the way, you know what? I'm one of those old guys that gets technology and loves it.

The first thing anyone noticed was the dome.

It rose over the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which Florentine simply called the Duomo.

People said it was large enough to cover every Tuscan with its shadow.

More than a hundred other churches stood around it, and a short walk away loomed the Palazzo della Signoria, heavy and fortress-like, its bell tower climbing into the sky.