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Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- General
- Wall Street Journal
Giotto's ‘The Legend of St. Francis': Assisi's Devotional Frescoes
When I first saw Giotto's fresco cycle 'The Legend of St. Francis' in the upper church of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi—a small Italian town two hours from Rome by train—I thought: Is this really what I traveled halfway around the world to see? The colors have faded into ghosts of what they once were. The figures are as boxy as the houses that surround them. Their stiff faces look like those of cadavers that have been stretched into place. But spending more time with these huddled masses of earnest zealots slowly reveals the complex inner lives behind their static masks. If we set aside our modern biases and 800 years of artistic advancement, we can start to understand why medieval viewers thought these images were the most lifelike they had ever seen—and why the founding father of art history, Giorgio Vasari, stated in his 'Lives of the Artists' that Giotto alone rescued painting from 'an evil state and brought it back to such a form that it could be called good.'
Associated Press
15-04-2025
- Associated Press
CiaoFlorence Enhances Cultural Offerings in Florence with Exclusive Art and History Tours
Two exceptional guided experiences that celebrate the city's artistic heritage, with the long-awaited reopening of the Vasari Corridor. FLORENCE, TUSCANY, ITALY, April 15, 2025 / / -- As Florence continues to attract art lovers from around the world, CiaoFlorence Tours & Travel enriches its cultural portfolio with two exceptional guided experiences that celebrate the city's artistic heritage and historical depth. With the long-awaited reopening of the Vasari Corridor, the company now offers privileged access to one of the Renaissance's most iconic architectural marvels through two new tours: 'Small Group Guided Tour of the Uffizi Gallery and the Vasari Corridor with Skip-the-Line Entrance' and 'The Great Beauty: Private Tour to Discover the Vasari Corridor and the Uffizi Gallery.' The Vasari Corridor, built in 1565 by Giorgio Vasari for Cosimo I de' Medici, is an elevated passageway that connects Palazzo Vecchio to Palazzo Pitti, passing through the Uffizi Gallery and over the Ponte Vecchio. Once reserved for the private use of the Medici family, the corridor offers a unique window into Florence's political and artistic past. After years of meticulous restoration, it has now reopened to the public—offering a rare opportunity to walk this secret route above the city. The Small Group Guided Tour offers an expertly led exploration of two of Florence's most iconic landmarks. Guests admire Renaissance masterpieces inside the Uffizi and then gain exclusive access to the Vasari Corridor, all in a comfortable, intimate group setting that ensures personalized attention and cultural depth. For travelers seeking a more private and customizable experience, The Great Beauty tour provides complete flexibility and one-on-one guidance. Ideal for art enthusiasts and curious explorers alike, this private option allows visitors to discover both the Uffizi and the corridor at their own pace, guided by a dedicated expert. With these two new tours, CiaoFlorence reaffirms its dedication to offering immersive, high-quality cultural experiences that bring Florence's history, art, and architecture to life. By granting access to the newly reopened Vasari Corridor - a space hidden from public view for decades - the company enhances its portfolio and reinforces its role as a cultural ambassador of the city. These curated experiences provide meaningful engagement with Florence's artistic heritage, allowing visitors to explore its masterpieces within their historical context and to experience firsthand the enduring legacy of the Medici era. Veronica Migliorini CiaoFlorence Tours and Travels srl +39 055 354044 email us here Visit us on social media: Facebook Instagram YouTube Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
The Independent
23-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
The insider's tour of the Tuscan city at the heart of Renaissance painting
Ten kilometres east of Siena, a mound rises above a Tuscan valley studded with stone-built farmhouses. It's a scramble to the top of the tumuli (or burial mounds), but it's worth it: looking to the horizon I can see the silhouetted outline of the city's still largely extant medieval centre. Behind me, among the cypress trees that crowd the summit, I find an obelisk memorialising the death of more than 30,000 men who fell when Florence tried and failed to defeat its rival city state at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260. That's a long time ago, but for some, history still rankles, and if you're the kind of traveller who likes an ancient gripe as much as an ancient building, then Siena – pitted against its neighbour for centuries – is the place to be. And it's not just Montaperti that irks – there's the Renaissance as well. Ever since the virulently pro-Florentine 16th-century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari drastically downplayed Siena's importance, art historians have been giving Florence the credit for starting the Renaissance. But as will become clear in a revelatory new show at the National Gallery in London, featuring artists like Duccio, Martini, and the brothers Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti – with works reunited, in some cases, for the first time in centuries – it was the emergence of a new kind of painter in 14th-century Siena that enabled the revolution. All of them were encouraged by an enlightened merchant republic governed by a revolving council of nine, which treated painters as artists rather than artisans. Back in town, I find rich evidence of this at the staggering brick and stone headquarters the republic built, the Palazzo Pubblico. Finished in 1310, the Palazzo is one of the wonders of medieval Europe, and once I've got the Tuscan mud off my boots, I head inside for two more vistas. First from the front, which overlooks the scallop-shaped Piazza del Campo, where the Palio horse races are run every July and August between the city's districts (contrade). Then, from the back of the Palazzo, an open terrace looks out across fields. This was where the nine, who were not permitted to leave the building for the duration of their year in office, would come to check the republic's crops were all in good order, knowing that behind them the painters were hard at work embellishing the Palazzo's walls. The painters' work is still there, and soon I stand gobsmacked in front of Simone Martini's huge 1315 fresco Maesta, in the Palazzo's Sala del Mappamondo. Taking up an entire wall, it shows the Virgin Mary in her majesty beneath a canopy attended by the saints. But only a staircase away from the Maesta, in the Chamber of Nine where the ruling council would meet, another work even better exemplifies this new relationship between authority and art: Ambrogio Lorenzetti's series of frescos titled the Allegory of Good and Bad Government, painted between 1338 and 1339. I'm funnelled with other visitors up the staircase, but our chat falls away when we emerge beneath Lorenzetti's masterpiece, each of us coming to the hushed realisation that we have entered a magical portal to the 14th century and its social and philosophical aspirations. One side of the room shows a rural chaos peopled by devils, the other a happy and industrious populace going about their business in the ochre-brick and grey-stone streets, or making merry with tambourines. The Sienese today live, work and study in pretty much the same medieval city, spread along an axis between the Franciscans at the Oratorio di San Bernardino and the Dominicans at the Basilica Caterina San Domenico church, a huge brick barn erected in the early 13th century. Navigating around this axis, I stumble upon the bone-white 13th-century Duomo (cathedral), which is on the pilgrim route to Rome, along with the Pinacoteca Nazionale, a wonderful museum in a former palazzo dedicated to Siena's late medieval and early Renaissance art, and finally my hotel, the sublimely old-school Grand Continental. This is another former palazzo, and the only five-star hotel within the city walls. From my room, I can see the Duomo and the Basilica Caterina San Domenico balanced on top of the steep ridge I'd seen from Montaperti. Just how steep becomes clear later on: having been tempted down plunging alleyways by the smell of cooking, I return sated by pappa al pomodoro and ravioli stuffed with ricotta and herbs, and have to clamber back up past street-corner flags that mark the territory of the contrade. I end up, as all visitors do, back at the Piazza del Campo, sipping a contemplative digestivo in a happily thronged bar and considering all those thousands of bricks before me. Even when it's littered with tipsy revellers, it's a space that, like Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good and Bad Government, seems to embody all the admirable civic virtues of medieval Italy. All it lacks is tambourines. Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 -1350 is at London's National Gallery from 8 March until 22 June 2025
