A Wanderer in FlorenceLucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
History
A Wanderer in Florence
Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)
Art -- Italy -- Florence; Florence (Italy) -- Description and travel
We find Fra Bartolommeo again with a pencil drawing of S. Antonio
in that saint's cell. Here also is Antonino's death-mask. The
terra-cotta bust of him in Cosimo's cell is the most like life, but
there is an excellent and vivacious bronze in the right transept of
S. Maria Novella.
Before passing downstairs again the library should be visited, that
delightful assemblage of grey pillars and arches. Without its desks
and cases it would be one of the most beautiful rooms in Florence. All
the books have gone, save the illuminated music.
In the first cloisters, which are more liveable-in than the ordinary
Florentine cloisters, having a great shady tree in the midst with a
seat round it, and flowers, are the Fra Angelicos I have mentioned. The
other painting is rather theatrical and poor. In the refectory is
a large scene of the miracle of the Providenza, when S. Dominic and
his companions, during a famine, were fed by two angels with bread;
while at the back S. Antonio watches the crucified Christ. The artist
is Sogliano.
In addition to Fra Angelico's great crucifixion fresco in the chapter
house, is a single Christ crucified, with a monk mourning, by Antonio
Pollaiuolo, very like the Fra Angelico in the cloisters; but the
colour has left it, and what must have been some noble cypresses are
now ghosts dimly visible. The frame is superb.
One other painting we must see--the "Last Supper" of Domenico
Ghirlandaio. Florence has two "Last Suppers" by this artist--one at
the Ognissanti and this. The two works are very similar and have much
entertaining interest, but the debt which this owes to Castagno is very
obvious: it is indeed Castagno sweetened. Although psychologically this
picture is weak, or at any rate not strong, it is full of pleasant
touches: the supper really is a supper, as it too often is not,
with fruit and dishes and a generous number of flasks; the tablecloth
would delight a good housekeeper; a cat sits close to Judas, his only
companion; a peacock perches in a niche; there are flowers on the wall,
and at the back of the charming loggia where the feast is held are
luxuriant trees, and fruits, and flying birds. The monks at food in
this small refectory had compensation for their silence in so engaging
a scene. This room also contains a beautiful della Robbia "Deposition".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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