Cathy's Art Diary

Excellent online study morning by Paula Nuttall looking at the sculptors who came after Donatello in Florence. Nuttall had already done a good three-week course on Donatello himself to reflect the exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. That course had led to questions about the artists legacy and how sculpture in the city evolved from him to Michelangelo’s David in 1501-5 and this study morning addressed some of those issues. The talk could have descended into just a lost of names and pretty pictures but Nuttall crafted the narrative to show a continuation and development over the period emphasising the links between artists. I was surprised at how much of the work I knew from trips to the city without realising its significance. We are so often distracted from a lot of work by the power of a few artistic superstars. I learnt about some fantastic artists who I will look out for in the future.

Fascinating online lecture from the Courtauld Research Forum looking at the effect of a wedding in 1566 on the cultural exchanges between Florence and the Holy Roman Empire. Adriana Concin led us through some of the themes of the Phd she is working on which looked at the wedding of Francesco de Medici and Johanna of Austria, how Florence   used its cultural capital to raise it’s status in the negotiations, how those negotiations led to an exchange of ideas and artistic practice and how the event introduced the courtiers of the Holy Roman Empire to Florentine art leading to them starting to collect it. I had not known anything about this and was entranced. It’s so logical that if two courts and mixing in this was that they would exchanges ideas and, just like any of us going on a holiday, how the Austrians would want to take things they had seen back home with them. Most intriguing was the idea that the artists of the day, including Vasari and Bronzino, built and decorated arc...

Fabulous online lecture from Paul Nutall on the chapel of the Journey of the Magi in the Medici Palace in Florence. Nutall moved seamlessly from describing the space, talking about how it would have originally looked and how it was altered over the years, what it was built for, how it was painted by Benozzo Gozzoli and the iconography of the scheme. It is a space I know and love as it is like entering a jewel or stepping back in time to 15th century Florence and I knew a lot about it, but I learnt even more. I was most interested in how it might have related to contemporary history with portraits of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, son of the Duke of Milan, and Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, to mark their visit to the city and audience in the space. She also talked about how some of the symbolism relates to the Medici’s place in the city and influence on its government.   It certainly left me wanting to read around the subject even more and possibly watch the cheesy but fun TV s...

Fascinating online lecture from ArtScapades looking at Vespasiano da Bisticci described as the bookseller of Florence. Ross King introduced us to his new book on Bisticci, the 15 th century bookseller who not only sold manuscripts but also sourced ancient texts and had them copied to bring them to market. His bookshop also became a centre for scholars and conversations. The shop still exists although it is now a pizzeria. He outlined who some of Bisticci’s main clients, many of whom I have studied recently, and looked at how he helped them to build their collections. I can’t wait to read this which gives a different view of Florence in the early Renaissance not just as a city of great art but also of great learning. I have read some of Ross King’s earlier books and they are very detailed but clearly written.

Lovely exhibition at the National Gallery focusing on the altarpiece by Botticini which was commissioned by Matteo Palmieri for San Pier Maggoire in Florence. The show looked at the church, the picture, the artist and the commissioner. There was a lovely video looking at how the research team went to Florence to discover what was left of the church which no longer exists and found bits of it still extant in people’s kitchens! It looked closely at Palmieri both at his work as an apothecary and his writings on civic humanism. It discussed the iconography of the picture and hung it with the wonderful multi-panelled gold altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione from the Sainsbury Wing which had hung in the same church. Finally it looked at the artist whose father had been a painter of playing cards and compares his to his Florentine contemporaries Verrocchio and Botticelli. The show gives a super overview of life in Florence in a very particular period. Closes on 16 February. ...