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
It is a pity that the light is so poor and that the frescoes have
not worn better; but their force and dramatic vigour remain beyond
doubt. The upper scene on the left of the altar is very powerful: the
Roman tax collector has asked Christ for a tribute and Christ bids
Peter find the money in the mouth of a fish. Figures, architecture,
landscape, all are in right relation; and the drama is moving, without
restlessness. This and the S. Peter preaching and distributing alms
are perhaps the best, but the most popular undoubtedly is that below
it, finished many years after by Filippino Lippi (although there are
experts to question this and even substitute his amorous father), in
which S. Peter, challenged by Simon Magus, resuscitates a dead boy,
just as S. Zenobius used to do in the streets of this city. Certain
more modern touches, such as the exquisite Filippino would naturally
have thought of, may be seen here: the little girl behind the boy,
for instance, who recalls the children in that fresco by the same
hand at S. Maria Novella in which S. John resuscitates Drusiana. In
this Carmine fresco are many portraits of Filippino's contemporaries,
including Botticelli, just as in the scene of the consecration of
the Carmine which Masaccio painted in the cloisters, but which has
almost perished, he introduced Brancacci, his employer, Brunelleschi,
Donatello, some of whose innovating work in stone he was doing in
paint, Giovanni de' Medici and Masolino. The scanty remains of this
fresco tell us that it must have been fine indeed.
Masaccio died at the early age of twenty-six, having suddenly
disappeared from Florence, leaving certain work unfinished. A strange
portentous meteor in art.
The Pitti side of the river is less interesting than the other,
but it has some very fascinating old and narrow streets, although
they are less comfortable for foreigners to wander in than those,
for example, about the Borgo SS. Apostoli. They are far dirtier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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