Unpredictable Florentine weather

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We all grew up saying that “April showers bring May flowers.”  And they do!

But, this year it is raining well into May as well.  The weather has been very unsettled. Cold and raining one day, warm and clear the next.  However, I am not complaining.  The hot summer temperatures can wait as long as possible to arrive.  When they hit, they are not unsettled in the valley that surrounds lovely Firenze.  They arrive and stay, well past their welcome.

But, all this rain has the fields and hills around Florence alive with flowers!  Yes, we do have flowers!  Bright red poppies are everywhere, they grow wild and are a welcome sign that the fields are not being sprayed with pesticides or herbicides. On the train from Rome to Florence, this view below is a constant right now.

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The grape vines are looking incredible, maybe this will be a great year for wine production.

However, the olive oil forecast is not as great. Local olive oil makers are already are warning that it looks like there will be little no oil this year.  The olive trees should already be blossoming and they aren’t.

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Olive+Harvest

Maybe it will just be a late harvest.  Olive harvest in the past was done in late November and through December. But, recently, due to the changes in the weather conditions, harvest now happens earlier.

Last weekend, was another religious holiday in Tuscany. It was Ascension Sunday which falls 43 days after Easter is often celebrated with flowers. Some towns decorate streets with designs created with petals, and others have large celebrations where you can buy lovely plants.  Plus, great food and drink accompanies any holiday!

If you want to learn more about this moveable feast, then here you go:

The Ascension of Our Lord, which celebrates the day on which the risen Christ, in the sight of His apostles, ascended bodily into Heaven (Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11), is a moveable feast. When is Ascension?

How Is the Date of Ascension Determined?

Like the dates of most other moveable feasts, the date of the Ascension depends on the date of Easter. Ascension Thursday always falls 40 days after Easter (counting both Easter and Ascension Thursday), but since the date of Easter changes every year, the date of Ascension does as well.

Ascension Thursday Versus Ascension Sunday

Determining the date of Ascension is also complicated by the fact that, in many dioceses the celebration of Ascension has been transferred from Ascension Thursday (40 days after Easter) to the following Sunday (43 days after Easter).

Since Ascension is a Holy Day of Obligation, it is important for Catholics to know on which date Ascension will be celebrated in their particular diocese.

(See Is Ascension a Holy Day of Obligation? to find out which ecclesiastical provinces continue to celebrate Ascension on Ascension Thursday, and which have transferred the celebration to the following Sunday.)

 

https://www.thoughtco.com/when-is-ascension-541611

 

 

 

 

Palazzo Davanzati and Elia Volpi

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One of my favorite places in Florence is the Palazzo Davanzati. One look at one of the rooms in the palazzo will show you why I love it.  I visited it on my very first trip to Florence, almost 40 years ago.  It hasn’t changed one bit, except maybe it is even better now with more didactic info available.

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We have the art dealer, Elia Volpi (1858–1938), to thank for having saved the Palazzo as it appears today.  In Florence, Volpi is known as the “father” of the Museum of the Old Florentine House in Palazzo Davanzati, as he was responsible for restoring the building and turning it into a private museum in 1910.

 

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Now the museum, on via Porta Rossa, is opening its “Homage to Elia Volpi the Painter” exhibition, which offers the chance to discover a lesser-known side of the illustrious collector and antiquarian, that is, to see him as an artist.

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Volpi trained at Florence’s Academy of Fine Arts. The current exhibition focuses on his training and the paintings he produced from the 1870s through the 1890s, with examples of his sketches and finished paintings, mostly in pristine condition.  All of these works have been donated to the museum from private collections.

Volpi’s sketches are testament to his studies of the Italian Renaissance masters and, along with the male nudes, show off the early artistic skills of a young Volpi.

The paintings demonstrate his broad range; during the 1880s he explored church scenes before concentrating on the subjects and style of the Macchiaioli and more contemporary artists such as Francesco Gioli and Niccolò Cannicci.

 

The show also includes a multimedia section featuring a video that focuses on the artist’s personal life and a touch-screen panel with photographs that demonstrate the creation of the museum.

 

The exhibition is open from May 6 to August 5 in the Palazzo Davanzati Museum.

 

The source of this info comes from:

http://www.theflorentine.net/art-culture/2018/05/elia-volpi-exhibition-palazzo-davanzati/

The end of the Corcoran Gallery of Art

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A few years ago it was announced that the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington’s oldest private art museum, and its venerable college of art and design would cease to exist as an independent institution, and its components — artwork, historic building and school program — will be taken over by the National Gallery of Art and George Washington University.

Folinsbee_21_7John Fulton Folinsbee’s “Grey Thaw,” one of the works in the Corcoran’s collection. (Corcoran Gallery of Art’s board of trustees )

This week it was announced that the Corcoran’s board of trustees has decided that it will distribute almost 11,000 works remaining in its renowned collection, a historic giveaway that includes paintings by Washington Color School artist Sam Gilliam, photographs by Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, and prints by 19th-century French master Honoré Daumier.

Almost 9,000 pieces will go to the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, with others headed to 10 Smithsonian Institution museums, several universities and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The distribution marks the final stage of the dismantling of the famed Washington institution. Under a controversial 2014 deal, the National Gallery of Art had first dibs on the entire collection and ended up acquiring about 40 percent of the 19,493 works. George Washington University gained control of the museum’s independent school and its two historic buildings, including the Flagg Building on 17th Street NW.

 

For more, please see these sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/the-end-of-the-corcoran-gallery-of-art/2014/02/19/accd8a38-99a3-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html?utm_term=.e1e71071df4d

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/bulk-of-corcorans-remaining-collection-headed-to-au-museum-at-the-katzen/2018/05/13/1ae68b48-5550-11e8-9c91-7dab596e8252_story.html?utm_term=.0801f8cb53cc

Città Nascosta, Firenze

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cittanascosta

Chi siamo

Città Nascosta – Via Lungarno B. Cellini 25, 50125 Firenze

Tel. 055.68.02.590 / 055.68.01.680 | info@cittanascosta.it

 

Fondata nel 1994, Città Nascosta è un’associazione culturale nata per promuovere la conoscenza del patrimonio artistico e storico di Firenze e della Toscana.

Le attività proposte prevedono visite guidate, itinerari ed eventi personalizzati, esperienze uniche e indimenticabili, alla scoperta dei gioielli d’arte più nascosti della città e della regione.

Storici dell’arte, architetti, botanici, restauratori, proprietari e addetti ai lavori accompagnano i visitatori, offrendo sempre una prospettiva originale e privilegiata, con un’attenzione particolare alla qualità dei contenuti e alla modalità della loro divulgazione.

 

Le fondatrici

FOTO_B2_lowMarcella Cangioli, storica dell’arte e Presidente dell’Associazione, coordina e gestisce l’associazione.
Maria De Peverelli, storica dell’arte, lavora a Londra e si occupa di collezionismo privato.
Tiziana Frescobaldi, storica, si occupa dell’immagine e comunicazione dell’azienda di famiglia.

 

Città Nascosta oggi

Marcella Cangioli, presidente, storica dell’arte. Si occupa della promozione, del coordinamento e della gestione delle attività dell’associazione, e dei progetti speciali in italiano e in lingua straniera. Contatto: marcella@cittanascosta.it

Arianna Nizzi Grifi, segretario, storica dell’arte. Si occupa del programma dei soci “Percorsi d’Arte”, del coordinamento del programma dei soci “Sostenitori” e dell’organizzazione delle attività per clienti italiani. Contatto: arianna@cittanascosta.it

Sylvie Levantal, consigliere, storica dell’arte. Si occupa dell’organizzazione delle gite, viaggi e delle attività per i clienti stranieri, in particolare francesi. Contatto: info@cittanascosta.it

Emily Grassi, consigliere, storica dell’arte e guida turistica di Firenze e provincia. Si occupa della comunicazione, del coordinamento del programma “Grand tour fiorentino” e dell’organizzazione delle attività per i clienti stranieri, in particolare anglofoni. Contatto: emily@cittanascosta.it

Carlotta Quentin, consigliere, storica dell’arte. Si occupa della segreteria organizzativa e dell’accoglienza dei soci italiani e stranieri, in particolare anglofoni. Contatto: info@cittanascosta.it

Lemon tree update and meet the newest member of my garden

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My lovely little lemon tree is still alive and survived the move to my new place.  Here are some recent close-ups:

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The same 2 original lemons are still hanging on for dear life.  I was amazed they didn’t fall off in my recent move.

 

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Some baby lemons have started to form.

 

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And new blooms still show up from time to time.  This tree is very active.  Something is happening all of the time!

 

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And, may I introduce my new jasmine plant!  It came home with me from the recent plant sale at the horticultural garden near my new apartment.  It is so fragrant.  I have big plans for this vining plant, I have a big terrace to cover!

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Florence was literally carved out of the surrounding rocky hills

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Quarries and their role in the construction of Florence

An itinerary through Tuscany’s ‘cave’

Sabine Eiche
The Florentine, SEPTEMBER 8, 2006

Has it ever occurred to you that the stony city of Florence was literally carved out of the surrounding hills?  It’s quite true. Countless local quarries provided the blocks of stone for the walls of medieval and Renaissance churches and palaces, and for the columns and architectural ornaments to decorate them. Pietraforte, a kind of light brown limestone, came from quarries at Costa San Giorgio, in the Boboli hill between Santa Felicità and Porta Romana, at Bellosguardo, and around Marignolle and Le Campore, all south of the Arno. To the north, the hills of Fiesole, Maiano and Settignano provided the blueish-grey sandstone pietra serena.

In the 13th century, load after load of pietraforte was hauled over the Arno to the outskirts of Florence to construct the enormous basilicas of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce. Even the piers inside these two churches are of pietraforte. Look at Palazzo Vecchio, the Log-gia dei Lanzi, the Bargello and Orsanmichele, and you are looking at pieces of the southern hills transformed into architecture. The gigantic blocks of rustication that you see on the façades of the 15th-century Palazzo Medici were cut out of pietraforte quarries. Filippo Strozzi, whose palace rivals that of the Medici in size, had endless loads of stone brought from quarries at Boboli and Marignolle. It is said that between November 1495 and March 1497, Strozzi’s heavily-laden carts rattled over the Arno more than a thousand times. At Palazzo Pitti, the builders had it much easier, since their source (the Boboli hill) was right behind the palace. In fact, Palazzo Pitti sits on the hollowed out part of one of these quarries.

 

If pietraforte was used mainly for the construction of walls, pietra serena was used above all for columns, stairs, doors and windows. The oldest of these quarries, dating back to Etruscan times, were at Monte Ceceri in Fiesole, and they continued to be worked during the Roman and early medieval periods. The demand for pietra serena was so high that in the 13th century new quarries had to be opened further east, around Vincigliata and Settignano. By the 15th century, when Brunelleschi’s architectural style boosted the popularity of pietra serena to unprecedented heights, it was also being extracted at Golfolina, west of Florence.

 

Brunelleschi chose quarries that would provide enormous blocks of pietra serena from which he could cut entire column shafts. He quarried the stone for the loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti at Trassinaia, near Vincigliata. The columns for San Lorenzo came from a site nearby, still known as the Cava delle Colonne.

 

http://www.theflorentine.net/art-culture/2006/09/quarries-near-florence/