BRONZINO at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

Bronzino, Bia - Daughter of Cosimo de Medici, 1542, oil on panel

I've just returned from a brief trip to Italy, and was fortunate to catch a magnificent exhibition of Bronzino at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. It's an extensive survey of the artist's life with works borrowed from all over the world. For me, Bronzino's complex mannerist compositions are not so interesting, and never really transcend their inheritance from Michelangelo or the work of his teacher Pontormo. It is his portraits that place Bronzino in a class of his own -- not just for their crystalline precision and their stately presence, but more important, for their exquisite color. Each painting is built from a distinct color idea, and embodies its own unique color world. The subtleties are impossible to discern in reproductions, but these works are knockouts. (There was a strict NO PHOTO policy at the Strozzi, and guards everywhere -- so these images are lifted from the internet).

Bronzino, Lady with a Small Dog, 1532, oil on panel

Bronzino, Stephano IV, 1546, oil on panel

Bronzino, Lucrezia Paniatichi, 1540, oil on panel

Bronzino, Lorenzo Lenzi, 1527, oil on panel

Bronzino, Woman, 1530, oil on panel

Bronzino, Eleonore of Toledo & her Son Giovanni de Medici, 1545, oil on panel

There is a virtual walk-through of the entire exhibition HERE.

The Baptistery & San Miniato, Florence

This is the last of the posts from my residency in Florence. The Baptistry is sometimes the first and always the last place I go when I'm in Florence. The oldest building in the city, it is thought to have originally been a pagan temple, converted to Christian use in the 5th century. The building we see now was reconstructed in about 1050, then embellished over the next four centuries. The interior is an amazing amalgam of symbols and influences -- East/West, Pagan/Christian, Antiquity/Byzantium/Renaissance. The domed ceiling and other parts of the interior are covered with impressive 12th century gold-leaf mosaics in the Byzantine style. But I'm much more interested in the earlier stuff - the intarsia patterns and symbols based on natural forms and obviously derived from Pagan iconography that occupy the walls, upper niches, and the floor.

The exterior of the Baptistry is also amazing. It is of course famous for the Ghiberti bronze doors on the north side -- all polished and shiny, they are constantly surrounded by a herd of tourists. But around each corner of the octagonal building is a remarkable set of niches and relations created by the distinctive green & white marble.

High on a hill overlooking Florence is another magnificent place, San Miniato Al Monte, completed in 1207 and formally influenced by the Baptistry. Here we see a large-scale improvisation on many of the elements that make the Baptistry such a special place.

Aesthetics of Decay - Part 2: Cimabue & Giotto at Assisi & Uccello's Green Cloister

For painters, the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi is one of the most magnificent places in the world. Being there, it's easy to imagine this place as a hot-house of creative activity and experimentation in the late 13th and early 14th century, when the greatest painters in the world at that time, Cimabue and his student Giotto and all their crew, were throwing down on every surface on both levels of this cavernous cathedral.

Seven hundred years later, the color here is like no other place -- deeply rich, warm and sensuous, with a gentle gray/green patina on every surface -- it absolutely envelops your senses. What we see here is possibly just as overwhelming as it must have been when it was made. But the fact is, what we see now is not at all what was originally made, but rather a hybrid, a collaboration between the painters and the natural elements over time. There is no way to know what these paintings looked like originally -- what we do know is how they look now, which is unimaginably beautiful.

Cimabue, Crucifixion, 1280, Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi

Giotto, St. Francis Exorcising Demons, 1296-1304, Upper Church, Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi

Giotto, Sermon to the Birds, 1296-1304, Upper Church, Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi

In Florence, in the cloister of Santa Maria Novella is a remarkable early cycle of paintings by Uccello that are so weathered by time and moisture that some are almost gone. Here are a few of the less decayed fragments. Much like the Cimabues at Assisi, the color and value contrasts are transformed to a radical new state.

Paolo Uccello, Scenes from the Flood, 1432, Cloister, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Paolo Uccello, Scenes from the Flood, 1432, Cloister, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Mercato Centrale - Florence

Laura getting a taste from her favorite cheese guy

A vegetarian's paradise

For any hard core foodie, Italy is the place. Yea there's great art, great architecture...but the food! One of the real privileges of an extended residency in Florence is having a kitchen and being able to prepare meals with all the best ingredients in the world, and shopping at the Mercato Centrale, a massive two-story warehouse the size of a city block full of vendors --- fresh produce upstairs, cheeses, meats, homemade pastas downstairs. Why don't we have places like this in the states?

And we won't even mention the coffee.

Back from FLORENCE

A small portion of an exterior wall of the Baptistery, Florence, Italy

I've just returned from my too-short residency in Florence with lots of stuff to show and tell. To begin, just a little taste of the magnificent visual richness that permeates this great city. Having spent quite a bit of time in Florence over the past ten years, I feel very much at home in this place. I will be posting images and observations from Italy in the coming days.