30 April Firenze morning errands

The 8.30 bells are ringing now in Firenze. I slept with the window open only a crack but those mosquitos found me anyhow. I can see they walked up and down my arms, feasting.

Yesterday while walking I happened to see a sign, buy Firenze card here, with one of those paper link icons. Or it said, download from Apple App Store. I've just done it.  It's free but a valid Facebook or email account is needed to login.  I had heard something like this was coming! Now I will have free WiFi in the city center. Hurray!

My first early stop, was the 'Springtime in the Renaissance' exhibition in Palazzo Strozzi, where I spent an hour. If one only had time to see one museum, these exhibitions at Palazzo Strozzi bring in the best of the best. I noticed one piece of sculpture I've never seen before. It's here on loan from a museum in Cinncinati, Ohio. I would have loved to have bought the show book. 30€ and way too heavy. I did look through the restoration guide. Again 30€ but I'm done shopping.

An amazing art piece in the courtyard!  Its title:  Di Fragilita' e Potenza by Frederico Gori

 

 

There were numerous school groups there today (and few tourists). Each teacher had about 12 students and one adult volunteer to bring up the rear. The teacher sat on the floor in front of a work of art. The students sat on the floor, facing her and the art. I wanted to join a class.

We saw one huge fabulous bronze horse head by Donatello. I need more information. It was about 5 feet square. According to the information sheet it was impressive in Donatello's time too. No pictures were allowed, but I later found this one on the Palazzo's website.

I was also impressed by sculptures by Andrea della Robbia. I love his porcelain pieces but this is the first time I've seen his other art.  In the bookstore I bought an English book on Savonarola.

~~.~~.~~ Quote from:  http://www.palazzo-medici.it/mediateca/en/schede.php?nome=Testa_di_cavallo,_di_Donatello

Work:

Horse’s head - sculpture

Author, circle: Donatello (c. 1386 -1466)

Epoch, date: before 1471

Location: Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Inventory: Napoli, Museo Archeologico Nazionale

Technical details: bronze; h. 175 cm, max. width 181 cm

Provenance: Florence; Naples, Palazzo Carafa (from 1471); donated to the Archaeological Museum by the last prince of Colubrano Carafa in 1809.

Description, subject:

The magnificent head is perfectly aligned with the neck, with its short, crested mane. The singular oblique cut of the neck indicates that the head has been taken from a larger monument, conceived to be seen from a distance and from low down, as the rapid and synthetic workmanship also suggests.

Historical information:

The Horse’s head is mentioned for the first time in a letter of 1471 in which Diomede Carafa, Count of Madaloni, a prominent figure at the Aragon court of Naples, thanks Lorenzo il Magnifico for having sent the sculpture to him from Florence as a gift. After this the bronze remained in the courtyard of Palazzo Carafa (later Santangelo), built in the fifteenth century on what is now Via San Biagio de’ Librai, in an area corresponding to the ancient Greco-Roman city. The huge sculpture was surrounded by various sculptural pieces, equally worthy of admiration, most of them antique. In 1787, during his sojourn in Naples, Goethe admired the bronze work which was still in the courtyard of Palazzo Carafa, positioned at the time in a niche close to a fountain, the same arrangement made in 1576 for the Horse’s head in the garden of Palazzo Medici in Florence.

The sixteenth-century sources refer the work to the circle of Donatello. Vasari, instead, in the first edition of the Lives (1550) refers to it as an archaeological find, while in the following edition (1568) he attributes it to Donatello, even though - the biographer adds - many consider it to be antique. From the end of the sixteenth century up to the end of the nineteenth the Naples bronze was considered to be an antique piece. The issue has remained controversial up to the present, since even in recent times the work has been variously considered as antique - datable in the third century BC - and fifteenth-century, referable to the circle of Donatello.

Recently, as a result of illuminating documentary research and meticulous historic-artistic analysis, the story of this impressive work has been reconstructed (Caglioti in The Light of Apollo... 2003).

In effect, the Naples Horse’s head must have been part of an equestrian monument that Donatello had begun for Alfonso V of Aragon, King of Naples from 1442 to 1458. The monarch aspired to have an equestrian monument to himself similar to that which Donatello was completing in Padua for Gattamelata, to set in the centre of the upper arch of the vast entrance gateway to the Castel Nuovo in Naples, one of the most impressive and ambitious works of the early Italian Renaissance, marked by a profound interest in the antique. Having for some time wished to have Donatello in Naples so that he could work on the creation of the gateway of Castel Nuovo, begun in 1453, Alfonso managed to contact the artist through the offices of the Florentine merchant Bartolomeo Serragli. Serragli was in fact the agent for numerous commissions from Florentine artists for Neapolitan patrons, also making purchases on the antiques market for Florentine collectors.

In February 1453 Serragli sent one of his intermediaries to Padua to draw up an agreement with Donatello and to pay him an advance for a “bronze horse yet to be made”. In the autumn of 1456 Serragli made other payments to the artist, who must have made fair progress on the upper part of the monument. The inspiration behind the work was very probably the antique Horse’s head that Donatello had seen in Florence in the garden of Palazzo Medici.

However shortly afterwards the sculptor must have abandoned the bronze work, being unable to keep pace with his numerous commissions, and in 1457 he went to Siena, returning to Florence only in 1461. In the meantime, in 1458 both King Alfonso and the agent Serragli died. Donatello’s monument for Castel Nuovo remained unfinished, also in view of the fact that the successor to the throne of Naples, Ferrante I, had neither the interest nor the funds to continue work on the vast gateway, which was taken up again only in 1465 and concluded in 1471. In the interim Donatello too had died, in 1466.
In April of the same year Lorenzo il Magnifico visited Naples and certainly saw the new gateway ofCastel Nuovo, still in the course of construction and devoid of the equestrian monument to Alfonso of Aragon. It is not hard to imagine that, once he had returned to Florence, the Magnifico retrieved Donatello’s unfinished sculpture, having it adapted to a free-standing equine protome, and then sent it to Diomede Carafa as the leading exponent of the Aragon court. The work in fact reached Naples in 1471, the very year in which the gateway was completed.

~~~.~~~.~~~

I planed my morning with the Santa Maria Novella train station as my destination.  From there, I'll catch the early afternoon train to Arezzo.

I stopped at Kiko to get eye shadow and then Feltrinelli (bookstore) to get several Valentina books. I have a list of what I need, but I've only bought 4, enough for this trip.

Last night after seeing my friend, I slipped onto Chiesa San Ambrogio.  A young group was surrounding a teacher and music leader. They sang like angels. I lit a candle for Alessandro. For the first time, I saw a home man sleeping on a pew, right inside the church.  

 

By noon I had wandered through Borgo San Lorenzo, where I finally found scarves. I was thinking no scarves this trip. The stand, run by an Italian girl had some really nice made in Firenze scarves, so I bought a few for gifts.

 

Hungry, I went onto the Mercato Vecchio and found a long line of tourists waiting at my favorite stand. This panino of trippa was only my list of must do.  My Italian must be progressing. I paid 3,50 for the panino and 1€ for water. With receipt in hand, I took my place in the sandwich making line. There were ten people ahead. What a surprise!! The counter man handed over the crowd,  my sandwich on a plate with two napkins. Quickly quickly I said 'with sauce please, both the picante and the verde. Wow. I was in shock. To make the experience complete, I stood and ate at the end counter with three Italian men. The sandwich was wonderful. So so delicious. My Florentine heart loves to be here.

Walking toward the train station I passed a sight I was lucky to witness.  I've always wondered how they remove the trash from these new style trash containers. 

~~~.~~~.~~~

I'm on the train for Arezzo now. 7€ each way.

In Santa Maria Novella Stazione, the McDonald's and the other eating place have been relocated to new combined spot in the station. Clean beautiful bathrooms with an attendant, washing the floors, constantly. I took the time to brush my teeth.

It's about an hour trip from Firenze to Arezzo. Two friends, who started as students of Alessandro and I are meeting up at the train station. We are all arriving within 29 minutes of each other, Laura by autobus and Sara, by train. We are fortunate we can meet twice a year for an afternoon together. We call ourselves Team Trojani. Alessandro always seems to be a part of our gatherings.  The girls feel his presence too.