Florence Santa Maria Novella Church, 2017

Santa Maria Novella is one of our favorite churches in Florence, mostly for its age and the age and historic importance of its art. We visited in 2011 and 2013, and I blogged about SMN twice, at http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/06/santa-maria-novella.html and at http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2013/10/santa-maria-novella-2013.html. Photography is now permitted in the church, and consequently I have scores of new pix that are composed and not clandestine. Nonetheless, I'll focus below on art not mentioned in the previous posts, some of it very newly restored and displayed.

Interior view of the great 14th century Italian Gothic, Dominican

A large, exquisite Botticelli Nativity, high above the main door

Water conservation measures in effect...

OK, I've posted this twice before, Massacio's Trinity; can't do
this church without noting its greatest masterpiece

Rene Ssance, Saint Stabbena, 1489

Detail said to be of Dante in the Strozzi di Mantova Chapel

Brunelleschi's Crucifix, done as a reaction to Donatello's rather
more famous one; nude

Stained glass, designed by Ghirlandaio, who did the great frescoes in the apse
(previous posts)

High up there, three boys, done, it is said, by Ghirlandaio's pupil, Michaelangelo
Buonarrotti

In the Strozzi chapel, Filipino Lippi's St. Philip Driving the 
Dragon from the Temple of Hieropolis

After being driven from the temple, the dragon farts

Dragon farts are particularly noxious

Most interesting umbrella stand ever, so far

The large cloister at SMN is covered in 14th century frescoes, many faded beyond
recognition (not pictured here department: the Spanish Chapel...see 2011 and 2013
posts for this pretty incredible place and its beautifully-preserved 14th century
frescoes by Andrea di Bonaiuto)

Among the cloister frescoes was a Genesis cycle by Ucello, thought to have been
damaged beyond saving in the 1966 flood; its most interesting instance, this
Flood scene...

And others, now miraculously restored and prominently displayed

Detail: orchard scene; note the Serpent is a woman, a Medieval convention that
will shortly disappear

Part of the whole glorious room of restored 15th century Ucellos

Same area, refectory, a painting now restored simply by having removed the
painting below, which had covered the older scene's lower center for centuries

Gotta have a food scene in the refectory; incredible church; always our first stop
in Florence

Travel Update #122

So we are in Rome now, a few days to visit favorite sights, a few days to pack and get Le Duc ready for winter storage. We were five days in Florence, then a day each in Arezzo, Assisi, Orvieto, Bomarzo (Monster Park) before getting here, so, obviously, I have some catching up to do on the blog. More than obviously: much to our pleasant surprise, there has been a change in Italian policy for national cultural sites...photos are now permitted! No more will the cry of "NO FOTOS!" be heard in so many famous museums, cathedrals, chapels, and other institutions. The upshot for the blog is that I now have many pix from the Uffizi, the Santa Maria Nueva, the Medici/Riccardi Palazzo, Francesco's Legend of the True Cross in Arezzo, the New Chapel in Orvieto, and so on. Hundreds, certainly, maybe thousands of new pix, and not just the quick, clandestine, parthian shots of yore. So, we may be a bit further into November before I get all this sorted and posted. Until then, "NO FLASH!"

Genoa To Florence

We spent an administrative/rest day at Camping Vesima, and then, wisely electing to drive the autostrada, bypassed Genoa, hoping to do some of the coastal towns to the south, to Portofino, and perhaps even around to La Spezia and maybe a piece of the Cinque Terre again. The driving proved difficult, the parking nil, and the hikes we were interested in in the Sink Terror all were closed. So we headed south and east to Florence. All this on October 30th.

You know you're at an Italian campground when...at Camping Vesima...11 hours
of rest at night and then 3 hours of siesta in the afternoon

A bit of Camping Vesima; low season, all the amenities closed, but still nearly full

The autostrada some hundreds of feet above

Looking back at the campground: its little beach on the left,the train tracks
to Genoa...sort of hemmed-in, but nice enough

Scenes on the coast south of Genoa...no place to stop, much less park

We'll return, maybe in a Smart Car

Marble mountain; I remember the first time I saw it, in 1989; I thought we'd
missed a turn and were back in the Alps

The coast along Carrara was remarkable for its relative lack of development

Mile after mile of small holdings along the beach, no hotels, no condos...

At length we made it to Florence and our old friend Florence Park sosta/storage
on Via Scandicci, already crowded for the holiday week...

Genoa Art

We were impressed with the art we saw in a single day in Genoa. There is no Uffizi nor other major museum, but scattered about the galleries and palazzos are works of masters and items of great interest.

Luca Giordano big here; his Rape of the Sabines

At the Spinola...house archives going back to the 16th century; not art, but the stuff
that art history is often based upon

Teapot collection

Muy importante: Antonello di Messina's Ecce Homo: the
first Italian oil painting...late 1460s

Show-stopper at the Spinola: Breughel Jr.'s Temptations of St. Anthony

A very, very good student of Bosch (perhaps by way of Sr.)

A magnificent Rubens, his portrait of Gio Carlo Doria
(Rubens and Van Dyke both did extensive time in
Genoa, doing family portraits, profitably, one assumes)

Yes!

Never miss a Rogier van der Weyden (Deposition)

Nor, especially, a Durer Gentleman

And certainly not a detail from a Wildens winter scene

Palace floor

Palace ceiling (see previous post on buildings)

Van Dyck

Also never miss a Guido Reni, and especially a St. Mark sans
chemise 

And an early Mr. Fruity Butt Pants, Ecce Homo

And Filippino Lippi's St. Sebastian (arrows) in sacred
conversation with St. John the Baptist and St. Francis
("Does it hurt much?" "Jeez, try having your head
removed!" "Maybe I'll just preach to the birds")

Another beautiful Pedro Paulo

Rooms full of ceramics and other things I know little about

And then, at the City Hall, a whole room of Paganini

One of his fiddles

Wowsers