Tuscany Holiday rent BLOG

A door from the old  to the contemporary and viceversa. It is not a  metaphor. In San Pancrazio Square, Florence,  the homonymous deconsecrated church hides a Renaissance jewel, unjustly unknown to most people, a chapel by Leon Battista Alberti, commissioned in the 15^th century by the Rucellais,  a rich merchant family turned into  bankers.

Finished in 1467 to receive the mortal remains of Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, it includes the notable small temple of the Holy Sepulchre,  built according to  Renaissance golden section rules.  It is a masterwork, rich in polychrome marble tarsias, reproducing natural elements such as laurel or oak leaves or  geometrical forms. The history of  Florence’s glorious period is hinted at  in the coats of arms of its forefathers, Cosimo the Elder,  Piero de’ Medici  and  Lorenzo the Magnificent.

The church,  along the centuries, accomplished different tasks,  ranging from Napoleon’s Imperial Lottery Seat to tobacco factory and finally, in the eighties, it was renovated by the Italian  architects Lorenzo Papi and Bruno Sacchi  to house the Museum  of Marino Marini, a great contemporary artist. The final result is quite interesting,allowed to watch the sculptures from different viewpoints and perspectives in compliance with Marini’s  progressively enriching states of mind of his  artistic career. going to be restored to a special unity, though not original.

Within  the end of the year the two areas, the Ruccellai Chapel and  the Marini  Museum , will be connected by a door, able to establish a constant dialogue between the past and the present.  A little revolution, something new,  because the chapel,  a small treasure, sometimes unjustly neglected,  will be able to be enjoyed by the visitors to the Marini Museum, passing directly from one to the other. The works, financed by the Marino Marini Foundation in accordance with the Superintendent of Public Works are going to kick off in June.

Finally in September 2012 we will be able to admire this little Renaissance treasure, joined to our times by a metaphorica, though real door,  which someone has cleverly called  the Door of the Time

Unforgettable mid-spring evenings on the terrace of Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence, sipping a glass of Tuscan wine to celebrate  the sun setting on  Florence,  after a  guided tour in the area of the new Uffizi.

The eye runs onto the icons of the celebrated landscape  and the foot  walks over the Perseus by Benvenuto Cellini or the Rape of the Sabine Women by Jean de Boulogne,  masterworks of  renaissance and  mannerism respectively. You can really imagine to go back to the  Medicis’ times  when the Grandukes used to  spend,  in a unique environment,  pleasant evenings with such breathtaking views. That is the project of  Cocktails for Art, an initiative by the Polo Museale Fiorentino, Firenze Musei,  ATAF and NTV which propose  an appetizer buffet on top of the Loggia dei Lanzi. It is going to kick off from April 26^th 2012. A date for visitors and Florentines every Thursday from 19,30  up to 21,30. It schedules a guided tour to the recently opened part of the New Uffizi, the so-called eight blue rooms, devoted to Spanish, French, Flemish and Dutch paintings. As testimonial  of the weekly event a masterwork on show here, the Countess of Chinchon, painted by Goya in the years between  1797 and  1801. The staff of the State Museum of Florence are going to  accompany groups of 25 people, departing every half hour, at the price of 10 €, from the western wing of the Uffizi, just behind the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Reservation at the call center Ataf is advisable.

On Saturday,  April the 14^th , 2012  the Culture Week started. It is going on for nine days up to the 22^nd.  In Florence, like in many Italian towns, state museums, mansions, archeological sites,  libraries  welcome  visitors, for free. Public and private institutions have  jointly planned many programs to enhance the love and interest  for  huge Italian art heritage. Special events such as workshops,  tours and concerts are going to enrich these days devoted to discovery of Florence jewels.  In addition the Ministry of Culture has involved teachers and students as guides: a professional training and commitment to the cultural heritage for  students and a wider  artistic perspective for  visitors. Many the opportunities. In the heart of Florence, at the Uffizi and at Palazzo Strozzi important exhibitions  about  the Flemish tapestries of the Medicis and about American Impressionists respectively.

On purpose have a look at  the following posts on blog.tuscanyholidayrent.com

- A Firenze “Galleria degli Arazzi: Epifanie di tessuti preziosi “ published on March 22^{nd     2012}

- Japan in Florence on April  7th, 2012

-  The Seine and Paris replaced by the Arno and Florence in the American Impressionists on April the 11^th , 2012

- The virtually confident world of American Dreamers at the Strozzina  published on March the 9^th 2012

Among the many events not to be neglected the restored painting by Max Klinger “The Mermaid” which will be on show at the Galleria d ‘Arte Moderna for long.
At the Museum of San Marco it is possible to admire some restored paintings by Fra Angelico, accompanied by explanatory panels.

Many other treasures can be discovered in Florence these days.

An opportunity not to be missed

Florence has always been  a place of affection for  Americans. Together with Rome and Venice, compulsory stops of the Grand Tour, it  was, and still is,  an unavoidable magnet for the lovers of art, especially as far as Renaissance is concerned.

At present, on the fifth anniversary of the death of  the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci,  the  town celebrates the fertile relationship between the old and new worlds with an exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi ”Sargent and the Impressionists of the New World” going on up to July 15^th, 2012. The issue is the Impressionism of  the American painters, who  lived in Tuscany and in Florence  between the end of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20th. .It is possible to admire artists like William Morris Hunt, John La Farge and Thomas Eakins who, though not explicitly subscribing to the Impressionist movement,  formed the new generations of American painters.

The exhibition includes the great cosmopolitan forerunners such as John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. The main part deals with remarkable artists belonging to American Impressionist group,  known as the Ten American Painters among whom William Merritt Chase and Frederick Childe Hassam.
An interesting appendix the Italian painters  Giovanni Boldini and Telemaco Signorini who, keeping in touch with  the American community, mutually  exchanged themes and techniques.

A new energetic flow  introducing  a more modern approach to painting involves Florence, still thinking over the past pictorial experience of the Macchiaioli.

A  pivotal character, a link with the American group is  Egisto Fabbri, born to an Italian wealthy and cosmopolitan family in New York in 1866. The Fabbris, after decades in the States,  came back home, to the Florentine palace in Via Cavour. Here the versatile Egisto,  dandy and great art collector (his Cezanne paintings were greatly admired) shared the passions of the Americans who incessantly moved  among Paris, Venice and Florence such as Whistler, Sargent, Mary Cassatt,  Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Vernon Lee, Henry James and Bernard Berenson.

A new  revolutionary wind in Florence brought by  painters  from Boston and New York. Abandoned the traditionally academic  training and invigorated by the new trends of Paris and Munich,  they translated into  the impressionistic style their daily experiences. Thence paintings of  the landscapes along the Arno River, of views of Florence or the immediate surroundings like Fiesole or the countryside around Lucca villas, the marble quarries of Massa Carrara or the Etruscan Volterra. The Tuscan world  is declined through portraits which seems to be coming out of James’ and Foster’s  novels. The old and new worlds emerge in a varied synthesis ranging from the rebounding taste of the Capponcina,  home of D’Annunzio to  the splendor of the Tatti, Tuscan villa of Berenson, the most acclaimed Renaissance expert of the period.

“Sargeant and the Impressionists of the New World” at Palazzo Strozzi  and its counterpart  ” American Dreamers” at the Strozzina  (on purpose  see  the article “The virtually confident world of American Dreamers at the Strozzina” published in the blog of Tuscany Holiday Rent  on March 9^th,2012) stand as faithful  witnesses of the on- going  historical fil rouge between Florence and the United States