The Road Goes Ever On

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Pisa: Buffalmacho and Other Stuff

The cemetery on the Field of Miracles is a place few tourists get to. It contains all the usual things you'd expect for a Medieval/Renaissance cemetery, tombs and memorials and such. But it also houses some incredible frescoes from the 14th century, including Buffalmacho's more-than-enormous pieces dealing, seemingly, or presciently, with the catastrophe of 1348, that greatest catastrophe mankind has ever known, at least until our own time. Before going there, we visited the Sinopia, across the Field, where are displayed the mark-ups, as it were, for the great frescoes.

Before painting the fresco (quickly, on wet plaster), the master

would first do a full scale sketch, the sinopia, which his pupils

would then copy on to a full-scale cartoon, to guide the actual

painting; many such sketches survive at Pisa; this is one of

the Universe (seriously) according to Thomistic doctrine

Now we are in the Cemetery, which contains scores of giant

Medieval and Renaissance frescoes

And here is the finished Universe

Interior of the Cemetery; soil from the Holy Land

The two gigantic Buffalmacho frescoes, the Judgement and

The Triumph of Death, were what interested us

The Triumph of Death is too large to capture on any normal

lens; here, on its left third, a knightly party encounters

corpses in the woods, representing the three estates; a third

or more of Europe died in the Black Death...

In the right third, a group of young women have retreated

to the countryside to avoid the plague, a la Boccaccio, but

Death, partly obscured (scythe), stalks them

In the right third of the Judgement, there is a fierce battle

for souls...

Spiritual tug-of-war

Cauldron of the damned

Snake pit of the damned (I'd really be concerned if they had

South Island sand flies)

Enough eschatological gloom; an artsy-fartsy view of the

duomo from the cemetery; redemptive, no?

0, 1, 1, 2,3,5,8,13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144... tomb

of the 12th century mathematician Fibonacci,

aka Leonardo of Pisa; Vicki says she thinks

she remembers this from calculus; or maybe

from The Da Vinci Code; having flunked

algebra II and not having read The Da Vinci

Code, it is all beyond me, except I know that

no educated person refers to the great

Leonardo as "Da Vinci"

Pisa: the Touristy Stuff

We can't remember whether this is our third or fourth visit to Pisa. First time you go to see the leaning thing. Second time you go to show the kids, who, in our case, actually got to go up to the top: one of our treasured family photos. Third time, for old time's sake. Fourth: well, really, for the Buffalmacho frescoes in the cemetery, but that's another story, or post.

First view of the Field of Miracles, the Baptistry and beyond

Cathedral and tower

Tourists

Other tourists; I have often thought an interesting photo

book might be one of all the silly poses people undertake at

such sights...

Yes, even after all the repairs of the past two

decades, it really does lean, disturbingly

Recylcing stones on the cathedral

Cathedral facade...its own style, Pisa Romanesque...begun in

1073...that's way old for Europe...

Interior; people who are too stupid to dress

appropriately get these attractive little

disposable wraps to wear...

In 1073, we were still very much under the

Byzantine influence

Pantokrator and all

Pulpit by the same team that did Siena

Nice, swirling Ascension dome, however

In the huge Baptistry, which also leans, though

not as perceptibly

The Bapistry has an incredible 10 second echo; I went up to

the balcony and sang a couple bars of "Stranger in the night,

some people say I'm stranger in the night," but Vicki, below,

at one o'clock, claimed she couldn't hear me; I think it was

another case of SHDS (Spousal Hearing Deficiency

Syndrome)

Volterra Crossbow Tournament

So we have traveled all over France and the UK of GB and all sorts of other places one associates with crossbows--usually wielded by the bad guys--and never yet have we seen a live crossbow tournament. Not until Volterra, that is. And with all the pageantry and pomp and circumstance and history and color that should accompany such an event. I wish I could say "and in English, too," but knowing what was going on probably would have ruined it for us.

Attending the crossbow tournament was Vicki's idea. She's always interested in "folk" things. Well, anything involving costumes. I don't know how many times I have been asked to photograph some poor innocent in a costume, usually a child cruelly forced by parents to engage in some civic pageantry. But here I sensed an opportunity for amusement, even mirth. Nor was I disappointed.

Always comforting to know the Cruce Rosso and EMTs are

present at such events; we arrived early and took seats well

behind the firing line

Local press covered the event; although every
non-widowed woman in Italy wears tights, this
is the only male I have seen so dressed; notice
that I am not the only one shooting in his
direction...