The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 1, December, 1850Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 2, No. 1, December, 1850
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
The Dominican Monastery of San Marco at Florence has for centuries been
regarded with special interest by the lovers of art for the share it has
had in the history of their favorite pursuit. Nor has its part been of
less importance in the sphere of politics. The wanderer through its
halls is reminded not only of Fra Angelico da Fièsole and Fra
Bartolommeo, to whose artistic genius the monastery is indebted for the
treasures which adorn its halls, refectory, corridors, and cells, but of
Cosimo de Medici, Lorenzo his great descendant, of Savonarola, and the
long series of contests here waged against temporal and spiritual
tyranny. The works of Giotto and Domenico Ghirlandajo are likewise to be
found in the monastery, and there also miniature pictures of the most
flourishing period of art may be seen ornamenting the books of the
choir. Every historian who has written upon Florence has taken care not
to omit San Marco and its inhabitants.
We are glad to announce that a society of artists at Florence has
undertaken to give as wide a publicity as possible to the noblest
productions of art in this monastery. A former work by the same men is a
good indication of what may now be expected from them. Some years since
they published copies of the most important pictures from the collection
of the Florentine Academy of Art. They gave sixty prints with
explanations. Among engravings from galleries this was one of the best,
containing in moderate compass a history of Tuscan art from Cimabue to
Andrea del Sarto. The new work, which has long been in preparation but
has been delayed by unfavorable circumstances, will now be carried
through the press without delay. Its title is, _San Marco Convento dei
Padri Predicatori in Firenze illustrato e inciso principalmente nei
dipinti del B. Giovanni Angelico_. Antonio Parfetti, the successor of
Morghen and Garavaglia as professor of the art of engraving on copper at
the Florentine Academy, has the artistic supervision of the enterprise.
Father Vincenzo Marchese, to whom the public are indebted for the work
well known to all students, on the artists of the Dominican order, is to
furnish a history of the monastery, a biography of Fra Angelico,
together with explanations of the engravings. Everything is thus in the
most capable hands. The execution of the copperplates leaves nothing to
be desired. The draughtsmen and engravers having had the best
preparatory practice in the above-mentioned series from the Academy,
have fully entered into the spirit of the originals; both outlines and
shading are said by the best critics to combine the greatest delicacy
with exactness, and to reproduce the expression of feeling which is the
difficulty in these Florentine works, with tact and truth. As yet they
have finished only the smaller frescoes which adorn almost every cell;
but they will soon have ready the larger ones, which will show how this
painter, whose sphere was mainly the pious emotions of the soul, was
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