1st year in Florence & A Tribute to the Duomo of Florence

             I had just passed my one year mark staying in this beautiful city on 30 April 2013. As I think back to that one year ago where I first landed, I reflected on people I have met, places I have been, what I have learned. It had been a positive and productive year. I'm a little of a Bohemian now, not knowing what's on next year, where I'd be and just taking things one step at a time. But I am happy. Living with less, but also with more. Living out of the security of predictability, yet not totally boundless like no tomorrow.

          How can I express my joy and gratitude to a city I have come to live and love? This one year calls for a little way to mark its significance to me. Perhaps the best I can do not is to pay a small tribute to the city of Florence, starting from one of it's many remarkable icons, the main Cathedral of the Duomo.

      "Duomo" simply means the main cathedral of the city. Hence every Italian city has only one duomo. Florence's main cathedral has the full name of Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore or in English means Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower. Its entire construction is labelled with huge names from the Renaissance period. Brunelleschi's cupola or dome, Giotto's campanile or bell tower, the astronomical clock at the entrance of the church interior designed by Paolo Uccello as well as the frescoes of Giorgio Vasari.

           I had done a series of 8 sketches on the cathedral, the baptistery as well as the bell tower.

         Here's my latest sketch, approaching from Via del Proconsolo. I take this road every weekend on my way to work, but as I am usually in a hurry, I hardly have time to stop and appreciate it properly. It is a re-sketch from the same angle done exactly one year ago on 14 May 2012. I had not realized till I looked at the photo of my old sketch again (which is no longer with me now).

 View from Via Pronconsolo, the path I always take when going to Piazza della Signoria. 

Too dark and perspective of dome is a little off.

        This was my very first glimpse on the icon of Florence, its enormity slowly looming into full view as I approached it with caution from Via de' Cerratani. There are so many details and nothing I've ever seen before that it sent shivers down my spine. I was barely 24 hours in the cradle of the Renaissance and never in my life even know what the word Renaissance means. It was just too much to take in at first sight. 

Giotto's Campanile

          Giotto's campanile is a free standing bell tower. Its polychrome marble is very rich in sculptural decorations, of which, many of the originals are currently housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence. What we see on the bell tower today are replicates made to withstand the elements of nature.  Worth mentioning are the sculptural panels on the lowest two rows which consist of hexagonal panels and lozenges. I always knew lozenges as cough drops for a sore throat, but the actually meaning is a rhombus or diamond shape. The panels and lozenges depict biblical contents from the Book of Genesis, representations of the mechanical arts, creative arts, liberal arts, as well as the theological and cardinal virtues.

 

This sketch was my first attempt at the Duomo. I rather like the perspective of it, focusing on the bell tower rather than the dome. I think it was the 10th sketch after starting on this new interest.

Brunelleschi's Dome

            The ingenuity of Brunelleschi provided the city of Florence with a dome that had been missing for almost a century after the cathedral's construction. With it's massiveness, there weren't sufficient timber in Tuscany to construct its scaffolding and Brunelleschi had to consult the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. The Florentines were really looking to build their own unique city as buttresses, a very Gothic architectural feature were forbidden to be used in supporting structures. Besides considering them as "ugly", buttresses were a style favoured in northern Italy, then considered the enemies of central Italy.

                              On the north side, approaching Via dell'Oriuolo, the path that leads to the public library.

  Sketch done from the public library or Oblate of Florence with a terrace that boast a magnificent view of the Duomo. 
Not easy to concentrate on what you have to study with such a view. Better to take a place indoors.

 

The Façade

         Only completed in 1887, the neo-gothic façade or facciata was designed to be in harmony with the bell tower. It had a turbulent and scandalous history and for a long period, the Florence Cathedral had to stand without a face. The entire façade is dedicated to the Mother of Christ.

       

 The one angle outside a cafe where I can capture the all 3 features - façade, baptistery and bell tower. Overcrowding of the sketch with all three together, but challenging to get the perspective right. Bell tower done with pencil to give it a lighter tone.

The Baptistery

       As its name says Battistero di San Giovanni or Baptistery of St. John, this octogonal building is attributed to the patron saint of the city of Florence. In June, the city celebrates the day of the patron saint, with fireworks along the River Arno. Instead of being clad in polychrome of white, green and pink like the façade and bell tower, it is in bi-chrome of green and white. It is famed for its Gates of Paradise by Ghiberti, and a breathtaking mosaic ceiling in Byzantine style that depicts stories from the Book of Genesis, stories of Joseph; stories of Mary and the Christ and finally in the lower tier  - stories of Saint John the Baptist.

View from Via dei Pecori. Wanted to focus just on the baptistery, hence just an impression of the façade

          I hope to approach this magnificent architecture from different angles. There are many streets radiating out from the piazza itself and each boast a different view of the cathedral. That shall be my priority when the Tuscan sun is ready to show its face again.

Art Restoration in Florence

             There is so much Christian Art all over Italy, especially the theme of Madonna and Child that at one point of time, I got almost sick of it. After understanding the different periods in artistic developments - from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, I begin to appreciate the changes represented in a recurring theme; and how challenging it must be for the artists at that time to continually be creative and find a way to breakthrough from their predecessors.

             For me studying art conservation, I was interested about the history of the art piece and even more intrigued by the techniques that go into making it. The study of materials used also involve ancient artistic techniques. When I look at them, I love to detect where they have been restored, the materials used and which techniques applied. 

            Here's a practise piece of restoring Filippo Lippi's Madonna and Child with Angels the original in the Uffizi. It's a calendar page, where my teacher selected sections to be cut off. The page is then mounted on a board. Sections that were cut off were mended with stucco or plaster.

The missing sections were then reconstructed by following the lines on sections of the painting that were preserved well. 

After the painting was restored with tempera colours, I worked on the decoration of the border with gold-leafing or known in Italian as doratura. The base was prepared by a clay like material known as bolo. It is a Fiorentine traditinal method, hence you can see a reddish base on most artworks with gold leafing. The design on the sides is a technique known as pastiglia or paste. It is done with thicker plaster and a very fine brush.

It is a technique to provide this relief effect. It is applied commonly to annotate areas of importance, like Madonna's halo or robes of noblemen. One example is in Gentile da Fabriano's Adoration of the Magi in Uffizi.

After the preparation of the bolo base, gold leafing technique called missione is applied. There are several methods of applying gold leaf, but for techniques with pastiglia relief, a dry method of the missione technique mentioned above is applied. In order to reduce the luminosity of the gold leaf, a very diluted coat of tempera (colours black and terra d'ombra naturale) is brushed lightly to give it an antique feel. This technique is known as patinatura. Patina the name given to the phenomenon of darkening over age on all materials.

Visiting & Revisiting. Before & After

              The most wonderful thing about living in Florence is learning and looking at the same time. I love to revisit the museums or an architecture after reading about their history, then returning to look at them in detail again. One do not need to know a lot to appreciate art. Our instincts allow us to appreciate the aesthetics, which is why people find different things appealing. Some prefer contemporary art while others are fascinated by the ancient art. However, knowing about history and the motive in its making enable us to do more than look at it, say it's beautiful and walk away after 2 minutes.

            I also love to re-visit the places I have sketched and try to re-do them from a different angle. Especially huge architectures like the many churches, we can only fully appreciate them from different angles.

          One of my favourite churches and piazzas in Florence in Santa Maria Novella. Here's my interpretation of it, first in May 2012 then in March 2013.

       
               Here's Ponte Vecchio done 11 months apart. I made an error in the first sketch, thinking that I was sitting on Ponte alle Grazie which was actually on the other side of Ponte Vecchio. It is really pleasant staring out at the river and this old bridge on a fine spring day. The water quality of the River Arno is not good, being to basic for swimming or consumption. I have never seen fishes in the river. Hence water activities are limited to rowing.

         Ponte Rialto from Venice again. Exactly the same angle but some added details like the silhouettes of people passing the bridge and the water underneath, the little bird resting (if you can spot), relief carvings on the bridge front which I omitted previously. More details on the central portico.