DINING AND SHOPPING "EATALIAN" STYLE - THE "EATALY" EXPERIENCE - IN AMERICA!

It's a change of tack this month as I've recently travelled to the United States to do a series of lectures there. My travels took me to the prairie city of Chicago which I last visited in 1990, so it was wonderful to make a long awaited return visit and this time I stayed in a 17th floor room in a downtown hotel, visted the late 19th century Driehaus Mansion Museum (where, incidentally, there was an exhibition of Downton Abbey costumes drawing huge crowds) and spent a day out in the suburb of Oak Park to see Frank Lloyd Wright's house and studio and other properties designed by the illustrious American architect. On the first day in town my colleague and friend Jenny McCahey, asked me if I'd ever been to "Eataly" and I said I was a frequent visitor to the country, having been there only in February this year. "I don't mean the country" she said "its the shop and restaurant I'm talking about - its famous" I had to admit to Jennie that I'd never heard of it! We were having this conversation on the pavement outside the hotel and the doorman suddenly came forward and exclaimed - "Any visitor to this town has to go to "Eataly" - it's just round the corner and you'll be amazed!".

Eataly was literally a couple of blocks from the hotel and when we came to the front entrance I was filled with anticipation as to what we'd find inside. The best way to sum it up  - think of a huge city department store devoted to one thing - Italian food - and you have it in a nutshell. It is quite simply a phenomenon.

THE CHICAGO BRANCH OF "EATALY"

The whole emporium is dedicated to celebrating the Italian food experience - both in terms of selling fine artisan, organic foods and wines from the home country supplemented with fresh, seasonal organic locally sourced produce - and also providing customers with freshly cooked "Italian" meals and snacks. In different parts of the two storey humungous store there was for example a pizza-pasta restaurant, a prosecco bar, a gelato counter and a coffee bar - and so it goes on. It's all a bit overwhelming when you first enter but the cleverly designed orientaion space at the entrance helps sort it all out. There's even a bookstore, a cooking school and a private events venue.

Eager to discover more about this intriguing shop cum restaurant I was soon talking to some of the friendly staff  and reading the information panels about the history of Eataly.

Eataly was and is the brainchild of Oscar Farinetti an Italian entreprenuer. He has an interesting background. In 1978 he began working for UniEuro, a small Italian appliance and food retail store and played a key role in developing it in to one of the largest retailers of electronics in the country - opening 150 stores between 1978 and 2003. Moving on in 2003 he founded Eataly in 2007 in the Lingott district of Turin. The shop was to be located in a closed down vermouth factory and easily accessible by metro from the centre of town. From the beginning he thought big and his mission was simple "to make high quality Italian foods available to everyone, at fair prices and in an environment where people can shop, learn, eat and enjoy themselves." The concept of combining excellent quality produce and food in an Italian style market environment would prove to be a brilliant business model. 

THE VERY FIRST "EATALY" STORE IN TURIN - ITALY

The New York branch of Eataly, located near Madison Square Park, opened in 2010 as a joint venture between Eataly, Italy and the Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group. At over 50,000 square feet  and creating 300 new jobs it was a welcome addition to the Big Apple food scene and opened in August of that year with huge press coverage. Batali described it at the time as "a grocery store with tasting rooms". Two weeks after opening there were still long queues down 5th Avenue as would be customers patiently waited to experience Eataly. Today, according to my New York pals, its packed out most of the time and difficult to get a seat during peak periods.

EATALY - NEW YORK

On December 2nd 2013 Eataly opened its Chicago branch, the one I was experiencing, at 43 Ohio Street and with 63.000 square feet it was even bigger than the bustling New York store. The Chicago branch is co-owned by Mario Batali andJoe Bastianich and its estimated the store cost in excess of 20 million dollars to open. 

I went to Eataly, Chicago twice during my stay - once at lunch time and once in the evening. On both occasions it was a terrific experience and not one to be rushed. Wandering through the various departments we leisurely examined hundreds of Italian wines, tarried over a department displaying endless varieties of pasta and watched the butchers preparing the meat for amazing displays. Cheese tasting was another wonderful diversion. In the pizza/ pasta restaurant our waiting staff were friendly, knowledgeable and suitably advisory in helping us choose a home made pasta dish. In the evening I chose a tagliatelle with bolognese sauce topped with shavings of parmesan which was simply delicious and it was perfectly accompanied by a generous glass of prosecco. Afterwards we tried our hand at the downstairs coffee shop and that didn't disappoint either. 

DINING WITH MY FRIENDS JENNIE AND SCOTT AT EATALY - CHICAGO

Since opening the store in Turin the company has not looked back. The chain opened more stores in Italy including one in Rome, its largest megastore, in a disused Airport Terminal building near Ostiense station. There's now a store in Tokyo and plans to open other outlets in Boston, Hong Kong, Montreal, Mexico City, Moscow, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Philadelphia and Washington DC. How could I not know about this Italian food chain?? - well it hasn't arrived in Britain yet, but I'm delighted to know there's one planned for London in the near future. If you are an Italian foodie - go find one and enjoy!!!

EATALY - JAPANESE STYLE - THE TOKYO BRANCH

CIAO AND KBO - IAN 

A PAINTING BY PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA - AN ANNUNCIATION NOT TO BE MISSED

Well Easter is almost upon us again and March 25th, as well as being Good Friday, also happens to be the Feast of the Annunciation - the day the Angel Gabriel visited Mary and gave her the news she would bear a son through the intervention of the holy spirit. During my visits to art galleries in Britain and abroad over the years I've come across many Annunciation paintings, many of them commissioned to originally adorn the walls of monasteries and churches in the late medieval and Renaissance periods. Carlo Crivelli's huge and impressive painting in London's National Gallery comes to mind and when I visit I always search it out. It's attention to detail and mastery of mathematical perspective is always a marvel to me and I love the way it deals with a second subject connected to the life of St Emidius. It's rich in symbolism too.

Carlo Crivelli - The Annunciation - National Gallery London 

Fra Angelico's tranquil and simple Annunciation scene in a painting displayed in the quiet monastery corridors of San Marco, Florence, is another favourite and I can recall its detail now sitting at my desk.

Fra Angelico - Annunication - Monastery of San Marco, Florence

The one I want to tell you about today though is special to me and part of its subject just happens to be one of my favourite fridge magnets; its shown below. I saw the painting and bought the magnet almost three years ago just after we'd bought our apartment in Umbria and made our first visit to the historic city of Perugia just 50km away from Citta della Pieve. Until that time I'd always associated the city with the terrible, violent murder of English student Meredith Kircher and the trial of her house mates Amanda Fox and Rafaello Sollecito - not exactly a subject I like to recall often and its a legacy Perugia doesn't deserve. But then we went to the city and it was a revelation, Not only does it have a spectacular hill top "centro historico" with splendid views over the surrounding countryside, it also has a wonderful cathedral and special civic buildings too. During that first trip we visited the National Gallery of Umbria in the Palazzo dei Priori just off the main piazza and it was a sublime experience. The art collection is a fine one and includes works of the Umbrian School of painting as well as pictures related to commissions undertaken for city churches and other buildings during the Renaissance. It's a must see stop off if you visit the city.

My Annunication Fridge Magent from the National
Gallery of Umbrian Art - Perugia

This is the fridge magnet I mentioned above and it shows a detail from the larger painting in the Perugia Art Gallery. A kneeling Angel Gabriel in one of the most wonderful pale blue robes kneels before the Virgin Mary who we can't see. Behind him is a beautiful receding columned arcade.

The Annunciation scene is part of a polyptych painted by the renowned Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. It was commissioned and produced as an altarpiece for the convent in Perugia known as Sant Antonio delle Monache - the Convent of St Anthony - and it remained there until 1810. Following Napoleon's invasion of Italy and his purging of religous institutions it was transferred to a picture gallery in the city.

The overall composition of the polyptych, as its seen now, was described by Vasari in the 16th century. In the centre the Madonna and Child is flanked by St Anthony of Padua and St John the Evangelist on the left and by St Elisabeth and St Francis on the right. Underneath there are, unusually, two predellas (strips of paintings), the upper one featuring St Clare and St Agatha and in the bottom one three miracle scenes including St Anthony bringing a boy back to life and another showing St Elisabeth saving a boy from a well. A further one shows the stigmata of St Francis.

THE ST ANTHONY POLYPTYCH - PERUGIA ART GALLERY
BEFORE 1468

The Annunciation scene is at the top of the polyptych and has a stepped outline. It looks different to the rest of the art work and its shape and the fact that its stylistically at variance with the rest would suggest it was added later - its shape determined by the space available in the place wihere the altarpiece was displayed in the convent. Restoration work carried out on the painting in the 1990's supported the theory that it's a later addition to the main work.

THE ANNUNCIATION SECTION OF THE ST ANTHONY POLYPTYCH
by PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

The Angel Gabriel and the Virgin are placed in the foreground of the painting close to the picture plane. Between them is the illusory colonnade which gives the painting great depth - the depth also suggested by the red and white pavement. Its a beautifully painted picture and it creates in the viewer a feeling of serenity and peace.

Piero della Francesca (1415-1492) is one of my favourite Renaissance painters and I first came across his work at the National Gallery in London where his - Baptism of Christ in the Sainsbury Wing always draws large crowds.

Self-Portrait of Piero della Francesco as it appears
in his painting "The Resurrection"

He was born in a village called Sansepolcro in the Tiber valley, the son of a tanner, somewhere around 1415, but relatively little is known about his life. He seems to have led a quiet, provincial existence, though he probably studied under Veneziano in Perugia, in the late 1430's. He's not recorded though as belonging to any particular workshop. Most of his painting career appears to have been spent in his home town of Sansepolcro and in the Tuscan town of Arezzo- but he also did some freelance work in Rome, Ferrara and Urbino. Perugia was on the main route from Sanseplcro to Rome and an important centre of culture in the 15th century. As an accomplished artist it would have been appropriate for him to pick up a commission here. The St Anthony polyptych is a mature work in terms of his career.

As well as becoming an artist, however, Piero was a master geometrician producing a learned treatise on the rules of perspective. It's this combination of skills and insights which create his unique, alluring style. His paintings are underpinned by precisely worked out geometrical compositions which focus on horizontal and vertical lines, circles and triangles all arranged in a balanced and harmonious whole. The use of a clearly defined vanishing point in the centre of this composition (its right in the centre of blank arch at the end of the arcade) with all the orthogonal lines leading to it creates an impression of great depth behind the angel and the virgin. Careful use of light and dark colouring (the blue of the angel's robe I find just gorgeous) help create the peacful, tranquil atmosphere which exudes from the picture. Only the white dove surrounded by a golden shower representing the holy spirit is suggestive of movment in this momentous scene as it flutters towards the body of the virgin Mary.

I look at my little fridge magnet every day - but it's been a pleasure to have had the opportunity to consider the entire work again at this significant time of year in the Christian calendar. I hope you will enjoy it too. 

PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING UP TO BECOME A REGULAR READER - THERE ARE GETTING ON FOR A HUNDRED POSTS HERE WRITTEN OVER SEVERAL YEARS - CHEERS. IAN

SAYING HELLO TO DAVID - MICHELANGELO'S MOST FAMOUS SCULPTURE

I'm sitting here in my Lincolnshire study thinking about a talk I'm preparing for a trip to the States at the end of the month, but I've suddently become distracted by a tiny 3 inches by 3 inches fridge magnet calendar I bought in Florence last year. I have it fastened to the side of the filing cabinet which adjoins my desk. The image for the month of March is of the famous Michelangelo statue of David and its an iconic and alluring work I've been meaning to blog about for ages.

Only a few weeks ago, when Jon and I were in Florence, we'd renewed out acquaintance with it and said "hello" to David as we saw him on his pedestal outside the main entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio.

THE "DAVID" STATUE OUTSIDE THE PALAZZO DELLA SIGNORIA, FLORENCE

I first came across David in another context years ago at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London long before I'd become seriously interested in the history of art. Strolling along one of the ground floor corridors, not really knowing much about what I was looking at, I came across an entrance to a huge galleried room and from my viewpoint all I could see was what looked like a massive 14 foot tall marble statue of a handsome and nude young man. Curious to discover more (who could resist such a challenge?) I ventured in to explore this amazing and colossal work of art.

VICTORIAN PLASTER CAST OF MICHELANGELO'S "DAVID"
IN THE CAST COURTS AT THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM IN LONDON

There's something about sculpture which draws me to it like no other art form and I think it must be its three dimensionality - enabling as it does viewings from multiple angles. Today, be it a Henry Moore a Tingueley or a Michelangelo - I'm always enthralled and as I think back to that day at the V and A - I realize the viewing of David was a singular step in my growing attraction for Renaissance art.Years later I would find myself taking student groups to see it and we would sit on fold-up stools surrounding the sculpture and have the most engaging and wonderful discussions about what was in front of us and how it was to be interpreted and what people were experiencing as they looked at it. I can remember some of these sessions as if they took place yesterday and I've just thought of the fact that during one of them a young Prince William joined our viewing briefly whilst on a tour of the gallery with his art tutor from Eton College. I can hear you saying, however, "but David's in Florence" and indeed he is. The sculpture at the V and A is one of hundreds of accurately copied plaster casts of world famous works of art that were commissioned and collected by the museum in the second half of the 19th century and displayed in these Cast Courts to help students study and educate themselves about sculpture.  When you think about it this was a progressive and forward looking initiative for those unable to visit the sites where the originals were. Today these cast courts are gems of the museum and worthy of a visit at any time of year. The room where the David can be found has been recently restored to its original decorative scheme and the David statue has also been cleaned as can be seen in the illustration below.

CLEANING THE "DAVID" PLASTER CAST AT THE V & A

In the Spring of 1501 the 26 year old Michelangelo Buonarotti was working away from his native Florence in Rome when he received a message from friends to return to his home city to try for an important sculpture commission. A huge block of fine Carrara marble, which had been standing in the yard of the Office of Works of the cathedral for 40 years, was to be offered to an artist for an important sculpture commission to produce a statue that would stand high up on one of the Duomo's buttresses. The piece of marble was one Michelangelo had had his eye on for a while and it presented many challenges. The block had been quarried at Carrara near Pisa in about 1460 and taken to Florence and abandoned. One of the biggest challenges for an artist in 1501 was to sculpt a block which had first been used by another sculptor. The artist Antonio Rossellino, assistant to Donatello, had attempted the first blocking out stages of a figure of Hercules in the 1460's, made mistakes and then lacked the skills to put them right. The young Michelangelo was attracted to solving this problem as well as being drawn by the opportunity to produce a giant statue that would be seen by everyone in Florence, locals and visitors alike. In his home city the chance of improving his own and his family's good name was irresistable.

Michelangelo took the comission and agreed to complete the statue in two years and for the sum of 6 gold florins a month. The subject was to be a traditional Old Testamont one - the story of David, slayer of the Philestine giant Goliath. Within a month he'd completed the modellos for the piece and was ready to start work on the block. A secretive artist he ordered the block to be completely covered with a wooden screen and he would soon be working hard with hammer and chisel commenting "my task is to remove everything that is not David" - an insightful way of expressing how the sculpture was to be created. This technique of removing material from wood or stone by a carving process to reveal the sculpture is an awesome task. Once material has been removed it can't be replaced. To produce something like the David is mind boggling in its complexity of creativity and execution - particularly when the block was flawed to begin with. In reality - it would take almost twice as long to produce, despite the artist toiling ceaselessly day after day on the project. He was soon to discover that the great marble block was flawed in another way - in what was to be the area of David's legs, the marble was streaked with veins making the potential for breakage huge. What a daunting task!

The statue was virtually finished by the sumer of 1504 and what emerged from behind the screens was a 14 foot tall nude male Greek god like figure of David, the maximum height he could get out of the block. It had no drapery, an exaggerated head and huge hands. The artist was compensating for the fact people would view it high up on the parapet of the Duomo. First persion to see it was the Florentine Gonfalonier - Pier Soderini - who according to Vasari writing about the incident in 1568 - is noted as saying to the artist that David's nose was too thick. At least he wasn't commenting on another part of the statue's anatomy! Michelangelo is said to have climbed the scaffolding surrounding the statue, grabbing his chisel on the way and also collecting a handful of dust from one of the scaffold planks. When he reached the head level he struck the chisel on a piece of marble and allowed dust to fall through the scaffolding to the floor - in fact he hadn't touched the statue at all.
When he climbed down to the ground Soderini is noted to have said to Michelangelo."You have given it life!"

So impressed were the commissioners with the statue that the decision was soon taken not to place it high on the duomo and a committee was formed to consider other suitable sites. After much debate and disagreement, the decision was taken to place it on a pedestal outside the Palazzo Vecchio - the civic headquarters of Florence in the Piazza della Signoria. The statue was to be moved to its new place starting on the 14th May 1504 but even before the delicate operation began an incident occurred which shocked Michelangelo and the commissioners. Youths threw stones at the statue in the evening when it was  dark. Were they objecting to the statue's nudity or to its potential political symbolism? Nobody seems to have known. It took 4 days and 40 men to move the statue to the civic square. Finally, after great difficulty, it was hoisted on to its new pedestal on the 8th June and officially unveiled to the public on the 8th September 1504.

Such a huge and monumental classical statue had not been seen in Europe since antiquity. Many considered Michelangelo had achieved the impossible, producing such a magnficent and grandiose unique sculpture which would become the very symbol of the city itself. When I've taken students to see the David reproduction statue in London I've always tried to draw out of them what they see as being most important about what Michelangelo achieved when he created this beautiful object.

The artist, always more of a sculptor than a painter, had made the statue in the image of a beautiful Greek God and interpreted David as an "ideal" man embodying all the attributes of the finest specimens of the type. Yet at the same time David is represented as an individual and a man of the moment. Other earlier statues of David, the one undertaken by Donatello for example, show him victorious over his opponent, his foot on Goliath's head. Here the deed has not yet been committed and David is only moments away from firing his shot off against his opponent. Michelangelo's intimate knowledge of anatomy, gained by meticulous study and dissection of human bodies, show not only his ability to represent the male body accurately, but also to show the behaviour of muscles in tension as David gets ready to use his sling. Notice the tension in the huge hand hanging next to his leg. Similarly, if one looks at the head of David - the psychological angst is also evident; his expression is full of apprehension.

The subject of "David" was highly significant in relation to commission. In the Old Testament David had fought for the freedom of his people - an underling against a great giant of an opponent, but he came out victor. The message is clear - Florence is not to underestimated or messed with by its potential enemies or the consequences could be dire. David was the symbol of Florence's freedom and strength.

DAVID IN FLORENCE'S ACCADEMIA GALLERY

Michelangelo returned to Rome to work in 1505 and David remained on his pedestal outside the Palazzo Vecchio all the way through to 30th July 1873. Following the Unification of Italy the decision was taken, for conservation reasons, to remove the original to Galleria dell Accademia and he arrived there on August 8th of that year. He was placed in a dedicated space in the Tribune Gallery and has remained there ever since, undergoing a major cleaning and restoration in 2004. A reproduction of the original was produced and placed on the original pedestal outside the Palazzo Vecchio and a rather pathetic bronze facsimile was also erected in the Piazza Michelangelo high above the city. David remains one of the most popular tourist attractions in Florence and every year thousands flock to see him in the Galleria. Some days the queues wind all the way round the block.

Oh - and two final things. When a visit to the Cast Courts at the South Kensington Museum was proposed for Queen Victoria the powers that be decreed that she might be offended by David's nudity. A specially designed plaster fig leaf was produced to cover the statue's modesty and there is still a hook for this at the rear of the statue above his bottom. It is shown below. The other point is amusing. So iconic has the David become in modern society that it has been used for all sorts of paraphernalia. I've seen table lamps sculpted from plastic of the David's head with different coloured light bulbs inside, fridge magnets of David with assortments of 'cool' clothes to dress him in and adverts like the one below for designer underpants. Is this a travesty? - I don't know the answer to that question - you can make your own minde up about that one!!

Ciao & KBO
Ian

FRIDGE MAGNET ART - AN EARLY VIEW OF FLORENCE - COMPARE IT WITH THE FLORENCE OF TODAY

Visit any tourist location in Italy, or in any other part of the world on the visitor trail for that matter, and you are likely to come across shops selling fridge magnets; they are usually displayed on suspended boards at the entrance to a retail outlet to catch the eye and entice the prospective shopper to purchase one when entering or leaving the establishment. They are the perfect item for the would be souvenir hunter for they cost little and when you get home and stick one on the fridge you have a permanent reminder of a visit made to a favourite place and the opportunity to reminisce about it.

I don't think they make the ideal gift though, for give one to a friend and you run the risk of incurring jealosy if they think you are rubbing it in about your visit to a  particular spot they haven't been to, or they may not like the image anyway. I have friends who consider fridge magnets to be the height of naffness. Personally I view my collection  as a pleasing permanent record of enjoyable places I've been to, or of buildings and art objects I've seen.

PART OF MY COLLECTION OF FRIDGE MAGNETS

I also know I don't want to add other peoples destinations and paraphenalia to it. I find it fascinating that friends think that because you collect fridge magnets - any old magnet you haven't already got will do. A few weeks ago one good friend gave me a magnet from Gizza in Eygypt showing an arab bloke on a camel with a pyramid in the background. He's one of the rare species of being who has dared to venture down the Nile in a cruise boat in recent times, but even this didn't dispose me to treasure it. I threw it in the bin when he'd gone home! I just hope he doesn't go looking for it next time he comes round, but I have a strong suspicion that he will!

Italian fridge magnets come in a variety of shapes and sizes and I have a distinct preference for the type I like best and know the ones I hate most. Most of my magnets are simple straightforward photographic images which have been stretched over board and then had a strip magnet applied to the back. The ones I really dislike are the plastic moulded variety that attempt a bas relief impression of a place or building. These are usually ghastly as far as aesthetics go and they never get my attention. I also eschew the ones which have a clear plastic frame to which an image has been stuck from behind. In England the National Trust have gone in for these and I can't understand what possessed them to do so.

Whilst travelling round Italy since Jon and I bought our apartment in Umbria a couple of years ago I've had plenty of time to build up an extensive collection of magnets on a small budget. Rarely have they cost me more than 3 euros each. What has been even more fun is choosing ones that appeal  to me aesthetically or perhaps those that arouse some sort of academic curiosity. I've been impressed by the fact that these days many don't just show the usual standard image of a place from the most popular viewpoint (St Mark's Square comes to mind) but show an unusual aspect or perhaps a detail from a work of art. I've got very interested in these and will share some of them with you in later postings.

FRIDGE MAGENT SHOWING A DETAIL FROM THE MASACCIO'S FRESCO
SERIES IN THE BRANCACCI CHAPEL, FLORENCE

In short I like to think of myself as a budding Italian fridge magnet connoisseur - now there's ambition! What I like most about my Italian fridge magnet collection however, is that I am the sole creator of it. Just like a museum curator I'm responsible for acquisitions, research, cataloguing the collection, display and interpretation and sometimes I even organize themed exhibitions on part of the fridge based round particular topics if I feel the urge to make links or explore ideas. The side of my large American style fridge is my very own gallery space and I control every aspect of it. In the quiet world of retirement these notions have proved to be an extraordinarily powerful fantasy as well as inspiring creativity. They always say you should try and keep the brain cells active in impending old age and its struck me that this is one interesting way to do it. I've decided the first one I will write about will be one of  many I have collected whilst in Florence.

The Italian city of Florence, which I visited again for a few days only last week, has always had a special place in my heart. I first visited it getting on 50 years ago when I was in the 6th form doing my A levels. My mum was friendly with the wife of the Head of Modern Languages at the local Girl's High School in Skipton and I had the good fortune to be invited to accompany Mr and Mrs Taggart on a school trip to Italy in 1967. We stayed in Rimini for a week and to this day I can vividly recall the visit we made to Florence.

I remember the first stop was the Piazza Michelangelo to see the wonderful vista over medieval Florence and that experience can still raise hairs on my neck today. Later I would get the opportunity to have an hour on my own exploring the narrow passage ways between the Ponte Vecchio and the Piazza della Signoria and as I write this blog, for a brief moment, I'm walking out into Florence's main civic square for the first time and marvelling once again at its scale and beauty. In more recent times my partner Jon and I chose Florence as our Christmas holiday destination the year after my mum died and now  that we have our own place in Umbria we are  regular visitors to the Tuscan capital. I bought the fridge magnet I'm introducing today on our Christmas visit in 2011 and it has pride of place in my display. I find myself being surprised at how powerful a simple tourist souvenir like this one can be - acting as it has done as a trigger for a bit of  Italian "mindfulness" and generating vivid visual memories which have been stored in my subconscious all these years.

ENLARGED VIEW SHOWING RAFAELLO'S
"VEDUTA DELLA CATENA" OF 1887

The magnet shows a wide view of Florence in the late 15th century. It's actually an image of a painting in the museum of the Palazzo Vecchio (the main civic building in the Piazza della Signoria) done by an artist named Rafaello Petrini in 1887 who was reproducing a woodcut cut in the workshops of the early cartographer Piero del Massaio in 1472. The artist was Francesco de Lorenzo and original prints from his block are now in the Vatican Museums and in a museum in Berlin. For the first time Florence is depicted in its entirety and the view includes many of the city's important landmark buildings of the time.

ORIGINAL WOODCUT - VIEW OF FLORENCE
BY FRANCESCO DI LORENZO ROSSELLI c1472

When examined closely the original and the reproduction present a lively view of the city with a huge amount of detail. In the foreground to the right there's a young man sketching the city and on the left a dead beast being picked over by carrion. There's lots of activity on the river including fishermen and men on a scaffold perched above a weir. It's the overall highly accurate depiction of the city however which is fascinating. By the 1470's despite a smaller population after the 14th century Black Death, Florence is flourishing as an independent city state, its wealth based on luxury textiles production and banking. Arnolfo's magnificent walls - encircling the urban development on both sides of the river, remind us of the city's vulnerability to attack from rival city's both near and far.The city's organisation and powerful institutions are expressed in the imposing buildings which reflect different aspects of it's social structure. Almost in the middle of the view is the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore complete with Brunelleschi's recently completed amazing dome and the campanile is visible too. To the right of it and no less important is Florence's most important civic building, the Palazzo della Signoria - the city hall and military garrison - complete with its iconic crenellated tower. Florence's aristrocracy - patricians of wealth and derived from the mercantile and banking communities are well represented in the Palazzo Pitti visible on the right bank on the Via Romana. The Palazzo de Medici by Michelozzo can also be spotted complete with its own church, San Lorenzo and monastery at San Marco. Other major religous institutions of the time can be seen at Santa Croce and Santa Maria. And don't forget to note at least four of the city's medieval bridges including the famous Ponte Vecchio! Notice on this video clip that when you see them enlarged the buildings are named!

There are two more points of interest. I'm captivated by the notion that at the time the original woodcut was constructed a young Michelangelo was growing up in the city - his home was near Santa Croce and he would have walked the streets and known the buildings we can see in this view of Florence. The other point concerns the fact that when you visit Florence today the central area is well preserved and though much of the city wall has disappeared, within its original boundaries the layout of the streets and the positioning and survival of all the major buildings is largely as it was in the late 15th century.This final video shows just how little the city has changed over the last 500 or so years.! Amazing.

I visited quite a few places whilst in Florence last week so look out for new postings in the coming days; I've rather got the blogging bug again whilst its all fresh in my mind! There will be one on Florence's most famous statue, another on a fabulous recently renovated church cross and a further one on Florentine paper crafts. Don't miss them.

Ciao & KBO
Ian

BELLA FIGURA, ARMANI, DAVID BECKHAM & A CURIOUS LADY IN YELLOW

At the time of writing my Italian blog is two years old!! Happy birthday Italian blog!

Until we bought our home in Italy a couple of years ago I don't think I was aware of the term "bella figura" at all, though I guess I've always known that the Italians, both men and women, are mightily into cutting the right appearance when out in public, either at work or when at leisure. Take a stroll down the main street in any Italian community during the late afternoon "passeggiata" and the locals will parade in their finest - conscious of the need to impress their friends and neighbours with their choice of clothing, shoes, hairstyle and general appearance. The other thing that always amuses me is that Italians, when at work, must also look "appropriate and proper" in relation to their occupational roles. A policeman must look like a policeman - a tennis coach must be dressed in the latest sports gear appropriate to the coaching tasks in hand. A pair of baggy shorts and a worn out pair of trainers is not an option. Our bank manager in Citta della Pieve, Fabio, always makes us smile with his sharply cut suits and beautifully razored sideburns which must take an age to perfect every morning. Lately he's taken to wearing those fashionable drainpipe trousers that are all the rage amongst European males which I must admit I don't have a preference for myself! Outside in the square the local caribiniere parade up and down in their well tailored blue uniforms with red ribbons down each trouser leg. It must be a pain keeping the creases so well pressed but they always look perfect to me.

 A wonderful example of this "bella figura"is given to me every time I play virtual tennis on my ipad when I'm travelling on a train or plane or just passing an idle half hour at home. The game is extremely realistic and forces one to compete against a selection of male and female players and they differ in age, sex and background. They are wonderfully stereotyped with names to match and whenever I select the tennis court based on the Colusseum in Rome (the court is in the middle of a virtual Roman amphitheatre!) inevitably I will be required to play against Giatta - a sexily mature Italian brunette, not unlike Sophia Loren, with formidable skills on the tennis court.

GIATTA CORVO IS A FORMIDABLE VIRTUAL TENNIS OPONENT
BUT SHE ALWAYS LOOKS GOOD

Before the game starts she appears as a cartoon figure, her amply rounded body tightly clad in a tailored and well cut pink dress complete with fashionable accessories; she has a designer hand bag over her left arm. A blob from her mouth sometimes informs me when we compete "I like to look good when I'm playing". Invariably she beats me! It's a carefully constructed image and a brilliant take on the concept I've been trying to outline in this posting.

Today the sharply cut suit typical of the output of Giorgio Armani is another reminder that bella figura is as important as ever to the modern Italian male and its an image that's promoted their wares well on world markets for years.

THE SHARPY CUT ARMANI SUIT MAKES
BELLA FIGURA EASIER TO ACHIEVE FOR MANY MEN

And if looking good in the bedroom is important - well Armani can entice you to wear their designer underwear as well. The advertisements featuring the legendary footballer David Beckham have done wonders for the sale of Armani underpants.

DAVID BECKHAM AND THE ARMANI UNDERPANT ADS

Bella figura is deeply rooted in Italian society and I love to think about it in relation to some of my favourite Renaissance paintings dating from the 15th century. There's a portrait in the National Gallery, London which comes to mind. Entitled "Portrait of a Lady in Yellow" it was puchased by the gallery not long after its foundation in 1866. It's by a Florentine artist called Alesso Baldovinetti and was probably painted in tempera and oil on panel in about 1465.

PORTRAIT OF A LADY IN YELLOW
by Alesso Baldovinetti C1465

The incorporation of oil paint in to the painting medium, a relatively new innovation for the date, has enabled the painter to produce a work of accomplished refinement and elegance. The dark blue background emphasises the person to be contemplated and studied and the representation of the sitter in half profile reflects the fashion for the antique at the time - there was considerable interest in portrait heads in profile to be found on rediscovered Roman coins. The oil pant has enabled the painter to represent great detail in every aspect of the lady's "bella figura" - in the fabric and patterning of the dress, in the details of her hairdressing and in the jewellery she wears. Who she is remains a mystery, but there is one aspect of the composition we are drawn to focus on - the stand out black patterning on the sleeve.

Sleeves were highly important features of the camura (dress) of a lady in Italian society in the second half of the 15th century. They were often made separately and affixed to the dress they were to be worn with by knotted laces called points. Sometimes the camicia undergarment would be pulled through to provide a decorative ruffle at the joining though that is not the case here. We know from documents surviving from the time that the sleeves were often more valuable in monetary terms than the rest of the dress. Here the visible sleeve is embroidered in black silk with three stylised palm leaves tied together with a ribbon. Almost certainly they represent a heraldic device related to her family or perhaps to the family she was to be married in to. They are a fundamental part of her "bella figura" and an expression of her status as an elegant if not beautiful Florentine noblewoman.

So if I had to make a choice between a poster of David Beckham in his underpants or a portrait of a Renaissance lady in a fine outfit which would it be I can hear you asking? Well - there is no choice really is there? - it would be the Renaissance painting every time!!

Ciao & KBO
Ian

Look up my other Italian blog - ITALIANFRIDGEMAGNETS.BLOGSPOT.CO.UK if you are interested in more Italian stuff.