Italian Holidays: Travel Notes: Art, History, People, Challenges
166
Italian Holidays: Travel Notes: Art, History, People, Challenges
166eBook
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781546229827 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 03/06/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 166 |
| File size: | 350 KB |
| Age Range: | 9 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Florence: The Governatissima
FLORENCE IS A fascinating city, not only because of its magnificent works of art, but also because throughout its history, it has experienced all types of government, under leaders who – as we will see – were extremely important figures.
The ancient Roman town of Florentia was founded in 59 BCE, when Julius Caesar (102-44 BCE) allotted plots of land to his veteran soldiers through the enactment of agrarian laws. However, the actual allocation would take place only under Augustus, between 30 BCE and 15 BCE.
The name "Florentia" appears to have been auspicious: it derives from the Latin word "Floralia", the festivities dedicated to Flora – the Roman goddess of springtime and harvest – celebrated between end April and early May. The colony was established according to the standard form of the castrum (military camp): a rectangle protected by a brick wall, with circular towers and four main gates. Two large roads divided the settlement, meeting perpendicularly at the centre of the city: the north-south road was called cardo (today, Via Roma and Via Calimala); while the decumanus (contemporary Via Strozzi, Via degli Speziali and Via del Corso) ran from east to west. At the intersection between the cardo and the decumanus, the forum developed. This was the main square and centre of the life of every Roman city (today, it is the Piazza della Repubblica).
Florentia's economy soon became prosperous and soon drew about 15,000 inhabitants, also thanks to the Via Cassia, the road opened in 123 CE linking Florentia to Rome. During Hadrian's reign (117-138 CE), important public buildings were erected in the southern part of the city: two big baths, one on the current Via delle Terme and another, even more imposing, in Piazza della Signoria; a fullonica, or industrial complex for dyeing wool; a theatre (between the contemporary Via de' Gondi and Palazzo Vecchio); and an amphitheatre, whose existence is still visible in the curve of Via Torta, Via de' Bentaccordi and Piazza Peruzzi. The Arte della Lana, or Guild of Wool, was one of Florence's seven arti maggiori (greater guilds). The Arte della Lana was one of the city's most powerful guilds and had the most members – approximately one third of Florence's population. Its headquarters were in Via di Orsanmichele.
Santa Maria Del Fiore: The Masterly Solution To Brunelleschi's Dome
The Arte della Lana sponsored the construction of Florence's cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. This name alludes to the mystery of the Incarnation, to the Virgin Mary's conception: indeed, the phrase "the flower and beginning of our redemption" refers to the Feast of the Annunciation, which is celebrated on 25 March and was the first day of the ancient Florentine calendar.
In 1296, the construction of the Cathedral was commissioned to the sculptor and architect Arnolfo di Cambio, who also designed the Palazzo della Signoria and the Church of Santa Croce. However, Arnolfo died in 1302. Three years later, Giotto was chosen to lead the site. However, he only succeeded in designing the bell tower, because he too died shortly afterwards, in 1337. Andrea Pisano was then called to the role, which he fulfilled until his death in 1348. Works resumed after 1350 when Francesco Talenti was appointed foreman, and presented a new plan. Lapo Ghini later took his place, but Talenti regained control of the works in 1370, overseeing the completion of most of the structure, including the octagonal drum. At this point, the problem of the dome had to be addressed.
The construction of the dome gave rise to delicate issues. Such a large dome had not been built since the Roman Pantheon, and concerns grew as to its stability. A public competition was launched, in which Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti participated. Ultimately, Brunelleschi's project was deemed the best. His plan, based on a knowledge of ancient Roman construction techniques, stood out because it did not require a supporting frame but rather a double self-supporting dome, with a cavity wall between each layer. This solved the intractable technical and economic problems of achieving a sufficiently large supporting framework in wood, which all the other competitors had suggested. Brunelleschi, instead, managed to design an original and rational structure, superseding the forms of Gothic architecture to devise solutions that heralded the advent of the Renaissance age.
In 1436, when the church was consecrated by Pope Eugene IV, Brunelleschi presented a wooden model of the dome. Its construction began in 1438, while the temple-shaped lantern was started in 1445 and completed by Verrocchio with a bronze ball and cross in 1461, after Brunelleschi's death in 1446. In 1461, the dome was assembled, a phase that was completed only in 14711.
The Convent Of San Marco: The Government Of Fra' Girolamo Savonarola In Lorenzo De' Medici's Florence
Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar born in Ferrara in 1452, started preaching against the corruption of morals and of the clergy around 1482, from the pulpit of the church of the Florentine Convent of San Marco. The friar's followers soon began to grow relentlessly. From 1491, to accommodate the crowd, the larger church of Santa Maria del Fiore had to host Savonarola's thundering sermons. On 9 November 1494, after Emperor Charles VIII's victorious descent into Italy, the Florentines forced the Medici family to leave Florence.
Piero de' Medici was therefore made to suffer the ignominy of exile and see Savonarola, the staunch anti-Medicean, be appointed as the person who would organize the Republic.
Savonarola spared no effort in issuing extremely strict orders against usury, luxury and corruption. With his impassioned rhetoric, he captivated the Florentines, the objects of his wrath being the Medici family, the oligarchs and the Church itself: evil resided in the corruption of morals, in uninhibited luxury, in the ruthless accumulation of wealth. In Piazza della Signoria, "bonfires of the vanities" were held to burn luxury goods, profane books and works of art. A theocratic government was formed in which the elective body was the Maggior Consiglio (Greater Council), gathering 1,500 people.
However, the friar's rigour soon turned out to be inconvenient for everyone. Pope Alexander VI excommunicated him for heresy. However, this did not stop his scorching rhetoric. In 1498, the Medici family returned to Florence and immediately got rid of the friar in a highly exemplary way: he was first hanged and then burned at the stake in Piazza della Signoria.
Savonarola's Treatise on Good Government is thought to have been written between end 1497 and early 1498. Its subject was the defence of the new republican regime that had been introduced in Florence after the fall of the Medicis.
The work compares the damage done by the Medici's tyranny and the new "civil regime", which was embodied by the Florentine people and in Savonarola's view was ingrained in the city's very DNA. For the Dominican friar, political stability and civil balance were the main foundations of an ideal project according to which Florence would become a sort of new Jerusalem, from which a sweeping Christian reform could stream forth.
The Convent of San Marco played a crucial role in Medicean Florence and in Savonarola's Republic at the end of the 1400s. The complex first belonged to the Silvestrine monastic order, which converted it into their headquarters in 1300. In 1435, it passed to the Dominican order. Cosimo de' Medici the Elder commissioned Michelozzo with its renovation, under whom the complex was expanded between 1437 and 1452. Today, the Convent can be visited and hosts a great body of work by Beato Angelico.
In the Ospizio dei Pellegrini (Pilgrims' Hospice), visitors may view the Deposition (1425-1432) and the Final Judgment (1431). The friars' cells may be found on the first floor; their marvelous decorations truly justify Beato Angelico's definition as painter "at the service of God". Across the staircase, you may see the Annunciation (1442), which represents a moment of great reflection and contemplation for the artist.
Beato Angelico was born Guido di Piero and, when he became a Dominican friar, took the name of Friar Giovanni. He was later called "Beato Angelico" because of the delicateness and religious fervor transpiring from his work. A humble and modest man, he never returned upon his work because he believed that it was inspired by divine will. Of Beato Angelico's figures, Vasari wrote that they were "so beautiful that they truly seemed to belong to Paradise" – a definition that earned him the moniker of Beato Angelico, expressing his extraordinary evocative skills. Beato Angelico is the patron saint of artists.
At the end of the second corridor are Savonarola's three cells. Here, visitors may see a portrait of the friar, painted by Friar Bartolomeo, a painting of his burning at the stake made by a Florentine artist in the late 1400s, and illuminated manuscripts of the 13th century.
From the corridor, you may access "Cosimo's quarters", two cells that Cosimo de' Medici the Elder had asked to be set aside for his personal use, prayer and meditation. It may be interesting to learn that Cosimo de' Medici had financed the renovation of the Convent in return for a papal bull absolving him of all his sins. A few years after Cosimo's death, a small confidential accounting booklet was found, in which he had made careful notes of the Medicis' donations to art and charity between 1434 and 1471: in terms of 1992 purchasing power, they amount to about 300-400 million US dollars. And the records only started when Cosimo was forty-four years old. How could Heaven be denied to such a generous supporter!
Of course, the family's immense wealth must be considered: in the space of ten years, Cosimo de' Medici bought no less than twenty-seven banks and reunited the same number of Medicean family units. In effect, he governed the city without ever holding a single public post: he believed that wealth was the benchmark against which to measure ethics and culture, and through which he sponsored the work of artists and intellectuals to enhance the Medici family's popularity, the pride of Florence. Cosimo de' Medici managed to de facto affirm the Signoria (lordship) model of government even within an established republican framework.
Finally, the gardens of San Marco were home to the famous collection of statues and antiquities of Lorenzo il Magnifico (the Magnificent), which had such great influence on the young Michelangelo.
Savonarola's Treatise contains some notions on the essential features of good government. First, fear of God, because it is certain that every kingdom and every government flows from God, as all things flow from God, He being the first cause that governs all things. The government of the natural world is perfect and stable because natural things are His subjects. Therefore, if citizens fear God and submit to his commandments, this would no doubt contribute to the perfection of the government and would enlighten them in every way.
Second, it is necessary to commit to the common good of the city, and for magistrates and other personages to leave all their property and benefits to relatives and friends, such that they have only the common good in mind.
The ancient Romans could dramatically expand their empire because they sought the common good of their cities; God thus rewarded them with temporal goods commensurate with their work, spreading their empire to encompass the whole world.
Third, citizens must love one another, leaving behind all anger and offences of the past, because hatred and envy blind the intellect from the truth.
Therefore, councilors who have not been cleansed of such ill feelings often make mistakes. God will punish them for their sins, but will then enlighten them once they have been liberated of such emotions. And when they love one another, God will reward this affection by granting them a perfect government. Because the Romans loved one another and lived in harmony, they experienced good and natural (albeit not supernatural) charity, and God rewarded them. Therefore, if the citizens of Florence would also love one another with natural and supernatural charity, God would multiply their spiritual and temporal goods.
Fourth: justice must be done, because justice purges cities from evil people. This ensures that good and fair men will prevail.
"If, then Florentine citizens would consider diligently and with justice the reason that no other form of government is suited to them than this we have spoken of [i.e., civil government], and if they would believe with faith that it has been given to them by God, and if they put into practice the four things listed above, there is no doubt that in a brief time such a government would be perfected [...]."
"Given, then, that the present government derives more from God than from man, those citizens who, motivated by great zeal for the honor of God and for the common good to observe the things mentioned above, will strive as much as they are able to restore it to perfection, will acquire earthly, spiritual, and eternal happiness."
In Piazza della Signoria, across the fountain sculpted by Bartolomeo Ammannati, among the cobblestones a bronze disk is nestled to indicate the exact spot of the execution, on 23 May 1498, of Friar Girolamo Savonarola, the implacable denouncer of morals and great political enemy of Lorenzo il Magnifico.
To the extent that, it was rumoured, when Lorenzo il Magnifico called Girolamo Savonarola to his deathbed for his final confession, the friar refused to absolve him of his sins. The friar told him that if he should 3 Savonarola. Treatise on the Government of Florence. In Selected Writings of Girolamo Savonarola: Religion and Politics, 1490-1498, A. Borelli and M. Pastore Passaro (transls, eds). Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, USA, pp. 256-257. live, he set Florence free. When Lorenzo refused, Savonarola left without granting him absolution and Lorenzo died without receiving the last rites. Agnolo Poliziano, the poet, philosopher and humanist, witnessed the death of Lorenzo, and tells us more about how this final encounter in a missive today contained in Book IV of his Letters. The story introduces us to one of the most beautiful monuments left by the Medicis, in which they exhibit all their power, wealth, love for the arts and great faith: the Medici Chapels.
"Thus, on the final day before he paid nature its inevitable due, as he lay sick in bed in his villa at Careggi, a complete collapse came so instantaneously that he no longer offered any residual hope of recovery. When the man, scrupulous as ever, realized this, his first priority was to summon a doctor of the soul so that he could, by the Christian sacrament, make confession regarding the wrongdoings he had accumulated over the course of a lifetime. I later had occasion to hear this person relate, full of wonder, that nothing had ever appeared to him greater or more incredible than the way in which Lorenzo, steadfast, ready for death, and unafraid, had recalled past events, had set present affairs in order, and likewise had taken extremely wise and conscientious precautions regarding the future.
"In the middle of the ensuing night, as he rested and reflected, a priest was announced to have arrived with the sacrament, and thereupon roused, he said, 'Far be it from me to suffer that my dear Jesus, who made me, who redeemed me, should come all the way to this bedroom. Lift me out of here, I beg you, lift me out of here at once, so that I may go to greet the Lord.' Even as he spoke, he raised himself as much as he could by himself and supported the fragility of his body on his spirit, and then he proceeded, surrounded by the hands of his friends, all the way to the hall to meet his elder. [...] "When he, weeping, as was everyone present, had said these and other things, the priest finally gave instructions to lift him up and carry him back to his own bed, so that the sacrament could be administered with greater ease. Although he insisted for a while that he would not do this, nevertheless, in order to avoid being less deferential to his elder, he allowed himself to be won over and, having repeated words roughly to the same effect, full now of sanctity, and made venerable by a kind of divine grandeur, he received the Lord's body and blood.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Italian Holidays: Travel Notes"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Virginia Paola Lalli.
Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.