Florence, Siena and San Gimignano: Running Out Of Superlatives
For someone totally illiterate in the arts as me, the sheer volume of magnificent work by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Ghiberti, Leonardo da Vinci, Caravaggio, etc. is overwhelming. After 3 days in the museums, churches, baptisteries and cathedrals, we have seen the Madonna and Child from every conceivable angle and through the imagination of every great Renaissance painter and sculptor and every wanna-be -Michelangelo with water colours in the piazzas outside.
(This blog was delayed because of lousy connectivity at Positano, our next halt after Florence. We are now in Rome. It will take me a couple of days to catch up.)
A word of caution - if you are looking for a report that is even remotely educated, this blog is not for you; some of the observations will probably make any self-respecting art critic turn several shades of purple.
First, Botticelli. His real name was Sandro Filipepi. (No idea how he acquired the nick name which means Little Barrels. May be he had the habit of carrying around the medieval equivalent of a hip flask). Anyone who has seen Alfred Hitchcock movies knows that old Alfie liked to add a walk-on part for himself, usually in the background of a crucial scene. He did not invent that concept. The character at the extreme right of Adoration of the Magi is Botticelli himself. Come to think of it he does look a little tipsy.
Botticelli`s portrayals of the baby Jesus are the cutest. His Jesus is chubby, has fat little fingers and toes and in general looks like the little smiley kids you want to pick up and play with. Even an art-moron like me cannot help marvel at the Birth of Venus, with Venus standing in a half opened shell and the two winds Zephyr and Aura blowing her towards the Isle of Cyprus.
Caravaggio was a painter whose name meant nothing to me until we saw his work on display at the Uffizi. His 400 year old Head of Medusa looks like a digital photograph taken just the other day. The venom n her eyes is real, the bared teeth are vicious and the snake/hair is sheer poison – in fact, she is everything a married guy’s wife looks like when she is pissed because he did something he was not supposed to and knew it – but went ahead and did it anyway.
Michelangelo’s David is the best sculpture I have ever seen. Probably 9-10 feet tall, perfectly proportioned, he has hair like I used to have and abs like I always wanted. Generally speaking he is well endowed in every conceivable way. Amazing physical details, like the veins on the back of David’s hands, are a testimony to the talent of the most amazing sculptor the western world has ever produced.
Photography is not permitted within the museums but in the Piazza della Signorina not far away are copies of David and several other masterpieces. Particularly interesting is a work titled Rape of the Sabines. It depicts an older man vanquished in battle by a younger one who holds a woman rather viciously in his grip. Most sculptures can be admired from up front. This is the first one I know of that creates an urge to walk around it – and if you do you will see a work of absolute perfection and proportion.
Sometime around 1500 A.D. a zealous monk called Savonarola tried to stand up to the powerful Medici family, then rulers of Florence. He and two followers were hanged in this piazza and their bodies were then set on fire. A metal plate marks the spot. I believe this piece of local history is the root of a term later borrowed by Hollywood - Bonfire of the Vanities.
Art night the piazza came alive with street performers, mimes and musicians. A band had been allowed t set up stage between the statues and the effect was magical
Sometimes it is good to lose a war. Just ask the Onyx guy who lost Canadian Airways to Air Canada a few years ago. In this case, it was Siena losing to Florence when Italian principalities fought it out for power and influence in the Middle Ages. Florence grew into a major commercial hub. That growth has continued today so that outside the cultural core, you see a bustling city of 400,000, lots of industrial activity, cranes, traffic jams – the works.
In comparison, Siena remained a medieval back water. As a result, we got to visit a town that, for the most part, is locked in time. The buildings on the main thoroughfares are mansions of the wealthy from a time gone by. One had expected to see a medieval aristocrat in jewellery studded regalia walk down the steps with his minions in tow. We trespassed onto the entrance portals of some of these to peep into the central courtyard and admire the atrium style hallways.
The buildings have been divided into apartments but the essential character has been retained. The result is an interesting mix of old and new. Massive wooden front doors still bear the heavy cast iron bolts but these are and now no longer used. Instead they share the space with electronic buzzers and remotely operated door latches. The solid and ornate marble staircases have ceded their vertical open shaft in the centre to a state of the art elevator. Looking up, an open window reveals an astonishingly beautiful mural on the ceiling. The sounds emanating from the same room were those of a World Cup match on TV.
Siena still retains its ancient city wall. Wandering away from the tourist filled centre, we saw narrow winding streets of paving stone occupied by ordinary citizens going about the daily routine of life – a routine that has probably not changed much over the centuries.
Moving on from Siena, we abandoned the highway for a quiet drive through the Tuscan countryside to an even smaller town called San Gimignano. Founded by the Etruscans around 250 B.C., few tourists ever find this place, so if anything it is even more lost in time than Siena. The entire population still lives within the city walls, the dwellings are smaller and the little pizza shop had the best pizza in Italy.
