Food
and nostalgia aside, Philip and I also decided to pay homage to the Early Renaissance
artist Piero della Francesca (c.
1412 -1492), born in nearby Sansepolcro, famed for his realism/humanism
and his geometric accuracy, particularly for perspective. He was also made
famous (in England, at least) by John Mortimer's book ‘A Summer’s Lease’, in
which the main character follows the renowned ‘Piero della Francesca Art
Trail’. Philip and I had watched the film of this book during our first joint
visit to Italy, which was also our first encounter of Piero’s work. My parents
had in fact done the whole Piero trail and their subsequent enthusiasm further
inspired us to do the same.
We
started with the ‘The Polyptych of
Perugia’ (also known as ‘Polyptych
of St. Anthony’), which is a wonderful series of paintings that Piero
completed around 1470. It is kept in the Galleria Nazionale del Umbria in
Perugia, which in itself is a fascinating town that we had visited on our first
trip together, so it was interesting to return.
Piero’s polyptych
was painted for the Franciscan convent of Sant'Antonio da Padova in Perugia,
and portrays Mary and baby Jesus in the centre, flanked by various saints in
side panels. The top of the polyptych is the Annunciation, whose light-filled pastel
shades and clean, crisp lines typify Piero’s style and also show his great
ability to depict both humanism and architectural features. This piece is
considered to be one of the best Renaissance art representations of
perspective.
The next ‘Piero’
was located in the most unlikely of locations – a tiny village-like town called
Monterchi, which appeared eerily abandoned with all the buildings securely shuttered
during the Italian summer holiday. That is, all save a small museum which
housed Piero’s ‘Madonna del Parto’ (Madonna with child) and a little oasis of a
venue for our cherished espressos (see later). ‘Madonna del Parto’ (1465) was
not in fact one of my favourite pieces on account of its rather sombre dark colours,
and the fact that Mary and the two symmetrical angels are not particularly attractive
nor in proportion with one another. Apparently, it was the traditional style of
medieval art to portray Madonna larger in size than other human figures –
this may be the case but, with or without this knowledge, it simply looks like
the figures are mistakenly out of scale.
After the museum,
we strolled around Monterchi, which was in fact a very attractive hill town,
aside from its deserted ambiance. We had resigned all hope of finding a café
for our regular morning treat, when I (forever the optimist) asked a solitary
gentleman who pointed towards a tiny little street, where we discovered an
insignificant ‘tabaccaio’ (tabac) ‘hiding’ behind a couple of plastic chairs. We
were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the coffee served in this whimsical
setting, further confirming our faith in Italian coffee’s consistently high
standard, regardless of location.
This was to be a rather
‘Piero-packed’ day, as we also visited his birthplace, Sansepulcro, after a very pleasant picnic lunch in the Italian hillside. We sat amongst
the trees in what would have been the extensive grounds of an extremely
attractive Tuscan casa, which was now deserted and ripe for renovation. The red
and white stripe design on the exterior walls of the house gave it an
ecclesiastical noble air, rendering the whole building and setting rather
enchanting.
Back to Piero and
Sansepulcro, which was a relatively large town but equally quiet, especially
as we had arrived during siesta time. We walked around the attractive winding streets
to find the museum in the 14th century Palazzo Comunale. It was
strange to find so few people visiting such renowned works of art, but it made
it all the more pleasurable to have a semi-private viewing of such wonderful
pieces, giving us the time to admire and study them in detail. The most famous
exhibit in this location is ‘The Resurrection’ (1463) in which a resurrected
Jesus Christ stands behind four sleeping soldiers. Once again, the colours are rather
sombre except for Christ’s naked body, partly covered by a peach robe, from
which light radiates. The soldiers are in front of a Roman-style marble wall, which
is juxtaposed by the wild, time-less forest behind Christ.
In the same room
there was Piero’s polyptych of ‘Madonna della Misericordia’ (Madonna of Love
and Kindness), which was one of Piero’s earliest works started in 1445 and completed
in 1462 (when Piero was fifty – so hope for me yet!). This was a commission for
the ‘Compagnia della Misericordia’ - a Christian confraternity (charity organisation)
based in Sansepulcro. There were many specifications for the painting, one
being that it had to be completed in three years; another was that it had to be
in precious colours on a gilt background; and it also had to incorporate
members of the confraternity. Piero obviously ignored the first stipulation,
completing the work of art in a total of seventeen years (again, hope for me,
as my perfectionist trait hinders quick results). It was rather difficult to
paint on the gilt background, but Piero overcame this problem by ‘cheating’ a
little on main/central panel, cleverly using Madonna’s cloak, painted in oil, as
a backdrop to the kneeling members of the confraternity (once again, the
confraternity are miniature/child-size figures relative to the Madonna).
The pièce de
resistance of our Piero tour was the ‘True Cross’ (1452-66) in the 13th
century basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo (our Piero tour was in fact
directed more by personal choice, than the guide books, our aim being to see as
much as possible, particularly those of special interest). Our visit to the
‘True Cross’ was made all the more poignant by it being the first ever Piero
that we had seen during our initial visit together (albeit under renovation at
that time, so mostly covered in scaffolding). This stunning work of art also
features in the film ‘The English Patient’ accompanied by Gabriel Yared’s film
score. The scene is exceptionally romantic and should be seen to be appreciated
– love and art conquers all in war-torn Italy:
Back to our visit to
marvel at Piero’s fresco-narration of ‘The True Cross’ adorning the walls of
San Francesco’s apse chapel. Piero was commissioned to paint the Bacci family
chapel relating the popular ‘Golden Legend’ of a 13th century monk, which
is a very long detailed and digressive history of Christ’s wooden crucifix,
from its origins linked to the death of Adam, up until its return to Jerusalem
by the 7th century Emperor Heraclius.
Fact or fiction, I
was simply mesmerised by the intricate frescoes painted in Piero’s palette of
beautiful illuminating pastels, the clever expression of light and attention to
architectural detail and perspective. I’m also fascinated by the way that
artists of former times were strictly directed by their commissioners and
hierarchy, as shown by the abstract inclusion of key characters of significance
within paintings, as well as local countryside and towns; thus explaining why,
in this case, Tuscany (including the town of Arezzo itself) is the setting for Roman
battlefields and Jerusalem.
This was indeed a most
memorable visit, made even more so by the fact that we had the whole apse chapel
to ourselves (we had expected the contrary on account of the guidebook’s
recommendation ‘to book in advance for a restricted viewing time’ - thankfully
the guidebook had over exaggerated the effect of tourism, or perhaps we had the
guardian angel of Piero by our side ...?).
We were not quite
so fortunate during our visit to Firenze (Florence), where we had pre-booked
tickets for the Uffizi in the hope of seeing Piero’s ‘Duke and Duchess of
Urbino’ (1460). However, in hindsight it all turned out for the best, that was,
to end our Piero tour on a high note with what is renowned to be his most
important surviving example of art – ‘The True Cross’. The carefully planned
visit to the Uffizi had been scuppered by civil servants protesting in the
streets for their rights, versus manning public institutions, such as the
famous gallery. Their relatively
calm, yet noisy, demonstrations added to the crowds of tourists and locals who
seemed to have doubled in number since our last visit to Florence; this somewhat
clouded our view, and also made for a rather exhausting tour, trying to find
the hidden corners where we could avoid the masses. We did in fact manage to escape
to little side streets that were familiar from previous visits, when we had
stayed with Italian friends. We thus enjoyed our morning espresso in a tiny
café in the company of charismatic Italians, followed by a meander through the streets
via the antique and hand-marbled paper
shops, and the exclusive haute couture boutiques such as Ferragamo,
Bulgari, Gucci, Pucci, Roberto Cavalli and Prada in Via della Vigna
Nuova and Via de’ Tornabuoni (all surprisingly devoid of tourists). We then
went to the ‘Oltrano’ district (‘Oltrano’ literally meaning ‘across the Arno’) that I had first visited in 1993 in pursuit of a handbag from the rustic
‘leather district’, whilst staying in Florence with my Italian friend Chiara. The
area had certainly changed over time - the small leather workshops had become
smart, glass-fronted retail outlets with fine displays. I was somewhat
disappointed, although I should selflessly congratulate the leather craftsmen
on their success, that is, if the current owners are those tradesmen of old, or
perhaps now their descendants.
The simple facade
of Brunelleschi’s Santo Spirito church (his last design before his death in
1446, which was completed posthumously), was much more in keeping with my
memory of the Oltrano. We enjoyed a very pleasant lunch sitting in the
relatively tranquil surroundings of the Piazza di Santo Spirito, where I could
have sat all day, feeling tired after our active morning. However, our 2pm
Uffizi appointment pulled us into action to skirt along the high walls of Palazzo Pitti’s Boboli Gardens (a ‘must’ for another time), followed by the
stone facade of the palace and its grand entrance.
As we braved the
crowds of tourists on the Ponte Vecchio, and the streets leading to the Uffizi,
I could not help but feel guilty for my lack of enthusiasm for an afternoon in
one of the most renowned art galleries and collections in the world. My vision
was obscured by aching feet and overwhelming fatigue, making it appear as a
mammoth marathon. However, the guardian angel of Piero was by our side after
all, as we were met by a firmly closed Uffizi devoid of its protesting civil
servant staff. Piero della Francesca had cunningly guarded his Urbino Duke and
Duchess for us to revere on a more appropriate occasion.
We made our way
back to our final destination, Stazione Centrale di Santa Maria Novella, where
we were to catch our train. We decided en route that we could replace the
Uffizi with a relatively lighter viewing of artwork in the Gothic church of
Santa Maria Novella, built by Dominicans in 1279 to 1357, who have been present
ever since. However, little (and most ironically) did we know that this church
contains some of the finest works of art in Florence by Giotto, Masaccio,
Botticelli, Lippi, Brunelleschi and Michelangelo - to name but a few! We somehow
managed to find enough energy to slowly amble around the gallery and absorb
this wealth of art, knowing that it would sustain us for the next year or so,
on our Caribbean isle devoid of such works of art.
After a much
needed refreshing limonata in the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, we caught our little
train back to Florence. An ideal way to end an eventful day - comfortably
nestled by a window of a rather dated-looking Tuscan train, which meandered through
the Italian countryside, past rocky rivers, babbling brooks, cypress-lined rolling
hillsides topped with castellos ... picture perfect. With such backdrops for inspiration, no wonder there were so
many Italian Masters! 
