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Posted on Jul 22, 2013 in Masterpieces | 0 comments

Suardi Chapel: Lorenzo Lotto and the end of the world

Suardi Chapel: Lorenzo Lotto and the end of the world

February 1524. Throughout Italy, people were talking about something like the great flood that was believed to be coming. Astrologers had been foretelling such an event for some time, based on the alignment of the planets. Many people left their homes, seeking refuge in more secure places. Some even predicted the coming of the Anti Christ. Just a few years prior, the German theologian Martin Luther shook the foundations of the Catholic Church when he railed against the corruption that ran rampant in Rome. In response, in his Papal Bull in 1520, Leo X spoke of “barren vines that are not in Christ”. Martin Luther was excommunicated, but he ignored this and continued preaching. Meanwhile, a corrupt and mercenary war continued throughout Italy. Soldiers of fortune ruled the day and, drunk with their new power, did not hesitate to destroy the sacred images they came upon in their campaigns. So, the storm was real, but also symbolic: the world was falling into ruin. In Trescore Balneario, just a few...

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Posted on Jul 3, 2013 in Masterpieces | 0 comments

Pinturicchio in Spello: a masterpiece that merits rediscovering in the heart of Umbria

Pinturicchio in Spello: a masterpiece that merits rediscovering in the heart of Umbria

We are in the heart of Italy, surrounded by rolling hills, groves of olive trees, roads that clamber around curves and other sights that constitute one of the most extraordinary landscapes in the peninsula – Umbria. Dominated by the outline of Mount Subasio, Spello is located between the plain and hills and its character reflects both its Medieval and Renaissance history, a dual essence that has a compelling charm. Walking among the city’s defensive walls, narrow alleyways, mullioned windows, tower-houses, and finally, heading down one of its main streets, you will find Santa Maria Maggiore, the town’s most significant church. If you enter it without reading up on it, by chance, you will find the masterpiece known as the Baglioni Chapel in the center, which will amaze you for two reasons. The first is the frescoes that decorate its walls, the second for the almost complete lack of information or promotion for one of the greatest, and yet most overlooked works from the Umbrian Renaissance. The artist, Pinturicchio, was...

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Posted on Jun 17, 2013 in Artists, Masterpieces | 0 comments

Raphael and the Portrait of a Young Woman (La Fornarina): the great beauty

Raphael and the Portrait of a Young Woman (La Fornarina): the great beauty

There is a scene in Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film, The Great Beauty, in which the main character is able to gain access to some of the most beautiful buildings in Rome at night, thanks to the help of a friend. One of these buildings is Palazzo Barberini, and, in a dream-like scene, the main character walks in front of Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Woman (La Fornarina), glancing at it with an enigmatic smile. This was certainly not a random choice by Sorrentino to include this painting in a film whose main theme is beauty. When looking at Raphael’s various masterpieces, what strikes you is their beauty and proportion, the equilibrium between the figures on the canvas and the rhythmic modulation of colors, his remarkable ability to organize form in space and to make the whole piece seem solemn and composed. Ultimately, what emerges from his works is their ease, simplicity and immediacy, but particularly their gracefulness and beauty. Raphael’s gracefulness emanates from his efforts to conceal artifice, but...

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Posted on Jun 3, 2013 in Masterpieces | 0 comments

Villa Valmara ai Nani: Tiepolo’s frescoes in an enchanting setting

Villa Valmara ai Nani: Tiepolo’s frescoes in an enchanting setting

Near Vicenza, high up in the Berici hills, the upside-down keel shape of the Basilica Palladiana stands out in the city’s outline, the symbol of the historic center, which has recently been restored to its former glory. Palladio is the most recognized name in the area, after the artist that transformed architecture in the 1500s, giving rise to the model that bears his name and characterizes an entire region. UNESCO has included the Palladian villas in Veneto in its list of world heritage sites. Just a short distance from La Rotonda, the most celebrated of Palladio’s villas, you will find Villa Valmarana ai Nani. It was built 100 years later, when Giustino Valmarana commissioned Francesco Muttoni to design it. The name derives from the seventeen dwarves carved in stone that adorn the perimeter wall. There is a legend telling of a dwarf princess that lived alone in the villa, surrounded by her dwarf servants, who, after glimpsing a handsome prince wandering in the garden one day and becoming aware...

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Posted on May 30, 2013 in Masterpieces | 0 comments

Buonconsiglio Castle: the Cycle of the Months in Eagle Tower

Buonconsiglio Castle: the Cycle of the Months in Eagle Tower

Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento has immense charm and fascination, rising just beyond the city walls that date back to the 1200s. The complex was the residence of the Prince-Bishops of Trento for nearly six centuries. One of its towers, known as Aquila, or Eagle, holds one of the most important fresco cycles from the International Gothic art movement in Europe: the Cycle of the Months. Even as you approach it, through a narrow passageway straight out of a fairy tale, the tower seems to want to separate the visitor from the rest of the castle and the world, to prepare him or her for a site that evokes ages past, that recounts tales of courtly and rural life in the years spanning the 14th and 15th century. The castle was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop George of Liechtenstein who entrusted it to an artist (mounting evidence points to Maestro Venceslao from Bohemia), proving himself to be an educated humanist and a refined expert on courtly life at the beginning of the 1400s....

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Posted on May 21, 2013 in Masterpieces | 0 comments

Sacred and Profane Love: the secrets behind Titian’s masterpiece

Sacred and Profane Love: the secrets behind Titian’s masterpiece

A walk to the Pincian Hill, in Rome, sets out before you one of the most celebrated vistas in the world. People like to look out over it and point to a monument, a silhouette, a cupola and say, “Oh yes, now I understand where it is”. At the back of the scenic overlook, surrounded by an expanse of holly oaks, chestnut trees, evergreens, statues and marble busts, is Villa Borghese, one of the largest parks in the country’s capital, which houses the Borghese Gallery. This was once Cardinal Scipione’s residence and today conserves priceless artistic masterpieces, including a number of works by Caravaggio and Bernini. But today we will focus our attention elsewhere, on an equally renowned milestone in Italian art, Sacred and Profane Love by Titian. One of the many gifts that art offers us is that of forcing us to follow the significance of the work, to puzzle over the meanings that are hidden behind a painting, the mysteries and ideas that the artist wanted to...

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