Chagall’s painting: a device to give shape to dreams

Pubblicato il 31 Gennaio 2012 da Beppe

There is always something going on in Lucca, there are museums, shopping opportunities and when it comes to food – a basic experience here – the dining scene offers a range of well- preserved flavors. Oil, wine, home-made products have always kept faithful to its tradition.

A reasonably good reason for a mid-winter holiday, profiting from the numerous accommodations offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent.

An interesting event these days in Lucca. A small but quite enjoyable exhibition in the Romanesque church of San Cristoforo. “Chagall’s Spiritual Universe”. The framework and the paintings of the Russian artist  perfectly match. The exhibition, lasting up to March the 11th 2012, includes the works painted between 1959 and 1982. By that time Chagall  seemed to be turning away from the  horrors of the Holocaust, from the Quartered Ox of 1947, where the gigantic animal symbolically stands for the six million Jewish innocent victims  of the second world war. The1941 German  invasion of his hometown, Vitesbk, has been turned into a grievous  memory.  In the paintings of  Lucca exhibition he, far from the issue of sacrifice, real focus of Jewish tradition, resumes the joyful amazement which belongs to a people, to a culture characterized by a continuous mixture between the sacred and the profane, by pouring off the ordinary daily dimension into a more elevated spiritual sphere. “Our inner world – he used to say – is  more realistic than the actual world but being made of dreams, wishes and memories it can fade away, that’s why we have to bring it to the surface and get fresh air”.

As a visionary painter and poet, he is able to explore the double domains of words and colors to bring out his  world, where the imaginary  characters  tell the story of his soul, fed on the cherished memories of his childhood at Vitebsk and of its sweetly unreal and snowy houses he likes indulging. Thence the colors and lightness of L’âne blanc dans le bouquet or the Profil du peintre where Chagall’s  brush  magically dances and sings in complete freedom.

The twenty precious oil paintings and mixed technique canvases, on show here, deal with the theme of love. This tenderly blossoming feeling  makes the two lovers of  Le bouquet jaune dance, as accompanied by the music of a violin, turned fantastically into a bunch of yellow flowers and similarly  drives the romantic ride of Dans le ciel de Saint-Paul towards the sun conquest.

In such a visionary world the circus, as a mixture of reality and fantasy, could not be missing. Thence the Clown au visage bleu and the Trapéziste.

The  religious issue is present too, with the 105 etchings  focused on the Bible characters, belonging to the period between 1931 1939 for  limited edition publications by Ambroise Vollard, the great impressionist art dealer.

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The Carnival of Viareggio

Pubblicato il 31 Gennaio 2012 da Genni

Lent Season is coming up soon and February is already starting off with its festive celebrations. The favourite way of celebrating here in Italy, and especially Tuscany, is the carnival. Among the most renowned, both in Italy and Europe, is the one celebrated in the coastal town of Viareggio.

The huge floats parade down the seafront promenade while onlookers, generally masqueraded, cheer them on their way. These gigantic papier-mâché movable ‘statues’ normally depict caricatures of famous people, such as politicians, showmen and sportsmen. The first carnival parade was held in 1873 when some wealthy middle-class gentlemen decided to mask themselves as a sign of protest against the many taxes they were forced to pay. They continued masking themselves every year in sign of discontent and then towards the end of the century the first floats appeared, initially made of plaster and heavy cloths, they were later made of paper-pulp.

The First World War seemed to have destroyed the Carnival of Viareggio, which, instead, resumed in 1921, after a 6 year pause, more magnificent than ever. Since then new technologies have been applied to create even more complex movements and special effects. Since 1931 the official mascot of the carnival is Burlamacco, a clown-like figure depicted by Uberto Bonetti, whose name comes from the town’s river, the Burlamacca, whereas the red and white colours of his outfit were the traditional colours of the beach umbrellas.

This month-long carnival is accompanied by masked balls and parties, a tradition born in the 1920s with the famous “colour balls”, parties in which the ladies has to wear clothes with the colour indicated, as were also the decorations, the confetti and the streamers, whereas men wore tuxedos. Famed for their balls were hotels such as the Principe di Piemonte, the Royal and the café-chantant Margherita right on the promenade.

Likewise, during the carnival period the four wards of town – Torre del Lago, Marco Polo, Darsena and Croce Verde – hold night bacchanals full of the typical wit of these celebrations, along with excellent food stalls offering the traditional, local dishes and bandstands with various kinds of music.

Since 2001 all the craftsmen have moved to the Cittadella del Carnevale, the ‘Carnival Citadel, a specially built complex where the floats can be built and kept inside huge hangars. These can be visited even outside the carnival period and it is interesting to see how these magnificent ‘statues’ are created from clay and paper. Furthermore, there is also a museum and labs where one may discover the tricks of the trade.

This year the Carnival of Viareggio kicks off on Saturday 4th February with the opening ceremony at 6.30 pm, followed by a firework display and the flag-raising ceremony. The following Sundays, until the 26th, will see the floats parading along the promenade, plus an extra show on Tuesday 21st with fireworks again. The show ends on Saturday 3rd March with the designation of the winning float and the grand finale with spectacular fireworks.

A great opportunity to see this town, known as the ‘Pearl of the Tyrrhenian Sea’, the second largest city within the province of Lucca. Viareggio is not only a well known seaside resort but also an interesting cultural centre with literary events and awards as well as worldwide famous musical events. A walk along its avenues takes you back into time, going from the 1541 Torre Matilde, a defensive fortification against corsair incursions, to the beautiful Liberty-style buildings. If you’re considering a visit to this part of Tuscany come see our  wide selection of holiday accommodations in Versilia.

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A love song to Florence

Pubblicato il 28 Gennaio 2012 da Beppe

Banish those January blues,  escape for few days to Florence, a town whose plenty treasures deserve to be discovered. Profit from the numerous accomodations offered by Tuscany Holiday Rent. Visit for example, the exhibition of Luciano Guarnieri,  called “ Le stagioni Creative”  at the Annigoni Museum inside Villa Bardini. It includes 60 works ranging from paintings to lithographs and drawings. The painter,  born in Florence in 1930, showed at a very early age an impressive  drawing skill. Apprenticed to Pietro Annigoni  in 1945, he  shared with him the adventure of the “ Pittori Moderni della Realtà”, strenghtening his guidelines of a  strictly ruled composition,  becoming later in the fifties,  the proud defender of  representational art against any abstract temptations. The exhibition, which is going to close on March the4th 2012,  explores Guarnieri’s” florentineness”. Thence the paintings of Florence  most hidden corners, of their eternal beauty and of that special light which make up that unique atmosphere, difficult to be poured into words, but easier to be caught by colours.

His involvement with Florence, far from being trapped into a political engagement, finds its way into pictorial love songs to the town on various difficult moments of its contemporary history,  when  just coming out from the wounds of the second world  war or later after the flood in 1967.  He is always ready  to fix on the canvas  icons  of enthusiasm and faith towards his hometown’s rebirth.

Sure of his Florentine roots, his breath widens beyond Italian borders towards an international background  thanks to his voyages around the world. He paints, then, American town landscapes during his travel to the States with the Italian writer Prezzolini, or to  Mexico or to Prague invaded by the Russian tanks or even farther  to  Israel after Holocaust horrors. His paintings  are able to communicate  the visitor the long  voyage  through  Guarnieri’s eyes, a politically and socially committed  painter who has always kept faithful to his noble profession.

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Milo Manara’s Rooms of Desire

Pubblicato il 27 Gennaio 2012 da Genni

Santa Maria della Scala, Siena

One of Milo Manara's works

After its huge success, the magnificent museum complex of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena has extended the exhibition, Milo Manara’s Rooms of Desire, until the 9th April. The famous Italian comic-strip artist, here at his first ever retrospective, carries us through forty years of work and passion for comics, with over 300 drawings chosen from boards, panels and original illustrations, enlarged with videos, installations and various other contributions. Siena pays a tribute to the Master of eroticism and one of the most celebrated illustrators in the world.

Frescoes in the Pilgrim's Hall by Domenico di Bartolo

The museum complex of Santa Maria della Scala in Siena has a thousand-year history of hospitality and healthcare, having formerly been a hospice. Strategically built on the highest part of town, right in front of the Cathedral, it was one of the most ancient hospitals in Europe. The hospital was founded by the Cathedral’s priest to house the pilgrims on their way to, and back from, Rome, on the Via Francigena. It also performed charitable work for the poor, including an orphanage for abandoned children. In the 15th century it went under the responsibility of the commune and received numerous donations from the local wealthy families as well as important artistic works of art. Simone Martini, Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti had created on the façade a famous fresco cycle, ‘Histories of the Virgin’, today lost. The Pilgrim’s Hall hosts a series of frescoes with the ‘Stories of the Hospital’ by di Bartolo, Vecchietta and Priamo della Quercia. Lorenzo Vecchietta also decorated the old sacristy.

The Pilgrim's Hall

Today, while the restoration is still at work, the hospital has been transformed into one of the biggest European cultural centres, and it is possible to visit more than half of the entire area. Besides the impressive Pilgrim’s Hall, the various chapels and oratories as well as the Old Sacristy, it is possible to visit the Archaeological Museum, the Art Museum for Children, the Centre of Contemporary Art, the Giuliano Briganti Library and the  Photo Library of Art on top of numerous spaces intended to house temporary displays and international conventions.  While exploring this wonderful, rambling building, alternating between narrow corridors and monumental halls, maze-like tunnels dug from tuff and large rooms with vaulted brick ceilings one discovers that the historical and artistic testimonies here treasured can be interpreted as a summary of Siena and its history, covering a span of about a thousand years.

Siena, an authentic Tuscan jewel. For those planning a visit here’s a link to one of our holiday accommodations in Siena.

Pubblicato in Exhibitions and accommodations in Tuscany | Lascia un commento

Salvatore Ferragamo: Inspiration and Vision

Pubblicato il 26 Gennaio 2012 da Genni

Still on show until the 12th March, at the Museo Salvatore Ferragamo in Florence, in the historical Palazzo Spini Feroni, since 1938 seat of this famous brand, the exhibition: Salvatore Ferragamo: Inspiration and Vision. Two halls of the museum are now being totally dedicated to the history and works of Salvatore Ferragamo, Florentine shoe designer of the early 20th century, with shifting exhibitions on his most important creations, to satisfy fans of Ferragamo’s women shoes.

The project at issue is the most complex ever built by the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum. Except for the permanent section of the museum, which will exhibit over 102 different models of shoes, as well as documents, photos, and the wooden forms of the feet of famous clients, the exhibition itself will host 255 pieces, including 99 Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, dating back to the twenties through the end of 1950, and 156 works of art from public and private collections, not only international but especially Italian and Florentine.

What does the cloak of scarlet ibis feathers, made in the 16th century in Brazil and belonging to the collection of Cosimo II de Medici, the nativity of Sano di Pietro from the early 15th century, the illustrations by Sonia Delaunay for a French prose book, or either Andy Warhol’s drawings of shoes on gold paper share with Ferragamo’s models? The answers are found in the journey in time of Salvatore Ferragamo’s imagery, in search of the sources of his creative imagination.

Questions faced by curators in preparing the exhibition were as follows: Does an artist always have a source of inspiration in developing a creative idea? How is it elaborated, which is the way it profiles, which are the results it leads to? How does one’s personal history, culture, talent and emotions interact with the artist’s inspiration? The roads to take in account with any self-respecting artist are various. In the case of Salvatore Ferragamo two are the moments in life that favourably influenced his process of inspiration: the arrival in California in the 1910s and the return to Italy in 1927, and precisely to Florence, at that time the country’s centre of artistic and cultural life.

Florence, the birthplace and earliest centre of Italy’s modern fashion industry:  a must for shopaholics. Link to one of our holiday accommodations in Florence.

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