Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi

Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi Hello travellers, pleased to meet you! I am Isabella, your guide in Florence!

Antonio Vite, , , 1390-1399 c., someplace in marvellous I don't recall. .
04/05/2025

Antonio Vite, , , 1390-1399 c., someplace in marvellous I don't recall.

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You finally made it to part 3 (READ PREVIOUS POSTS)..! Around the mid-11th century, Amalfitan merchants allegedly obtain...
02/03/2025

You finally made it to part 3 (READ PREVIOUS POSTS)..!
Around the mid-11th century, Amalfitan merchants allegedly obtained permission to establish a hospice in , which was initially under the authority of Benedictine monks. From this institution emerged a community devoted to the physical and spiritual well-being of pilgrims traveling to the , offering medical care as well. Over time, this community evolved into the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (or Order), later known as the Order of Rhodes (from 1309 to 1522, when the Order ruled the island), and eventually as the (or Melitense Order, from 1530 to 1798, when it controlled the island of Malta).
Initially dedicated to the "servitium pauperum" (service to the poor), in 1136, it adopted a military vocation at the behest of Raymond De Puy. From this male branch of the Order, a female branch soon emerged, developing in parallel with the original institution. The sorores, originally nuns, in Jerusalem were primarily engaged in assisting and sheltering women in need (do not expect some sort of shield-maidens)..!

Amongst the surviving constitutions of three Jerusalemite ( , , and ), the oldest appear to be the Florentine constitutions (1395–1404?) produced by Fra' Lionardo Buonafedi for the Florentine Sisters of . Said nuns, starting from 1563, settled in former convent San Pietro del Murrone, thenceforth known as or San Giovannino dei Cavalieri (second picture, courtesy of ), in in Florence (the stunning is by Gherardo Silvani, with an imposing made out of Marne del Sugame). In the first picture you see yet another on display in in Florence of the ones made out of fragments of stone from the cave (courtesy of ; see previous post), depicting Saint Ubaldesca Zati (TO BE CONTINUED).

Picture of the story: courtesy of





(READ PREVIOUS POST FOR STARTERS..!)The cave where this 's is said to have taken place is located in ( ). In th...
10/02/2025

(READ PREVIOUS POST FOR STARTERS..!)

The cave where this 's is said to have taken place is located in ( ). In there are small pieces of said cave: they're to be found in , the mansion built in honour of Michelangelo ..! There are some on display there which are made out of fragments of stone from that very Rabat saint Paul cave (second picture, courtesy of ). They are believed to be able to protect the carrier from any snake's bite. Brother Francesco Buonarroti commissioned them .
Who do the are?
(TO BE CONTINUED...)





You lovely guests keep saying to me that you love the way I "interweave" the stories. Here some "interweaved" stories I'...
03/02/2025

You lovely guests keep saying to me that you love the way I "interweave" the stories. Here some "interweaved" stories I'd love to delight you with..!

This permanently in the Carrand depicts surrounded by animals of all species (right plaque) and 's miracles (left plaque). It's a Milanese or Roman artefact dating back to the IV-V century a. C.. in the left , in the central row, it's possible to see a bald and bearded, clad in sandals, robe and tunic like an ancient philosopher saint Paul handling a venomous , standing right next to a burning fire of . The viper's bitten the Saint's hand, but the venom hasn't harmed him. According to the (28, 1-10) said event took place in .

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

(READ PREVIOUS POST) If we consider the famous cycle depicting the Stories of by in the Upper in , believed b...
28/01/2025

(READ PREVIOUS POST) If we consider the famous cycle depicting the Stories of by in the Upper in , believed by scholars to have been initiated in the , we can see (first picture) that in Assisi Giotto "quotes" his own Florentine viewed from the back, in the episode of the and later in the episode of the Verification (second and third picture)! Even more brilliantly, Giotto, fully aware of the importance of the changes he'd introduced in the of the Crucifix with his masterpiece in , depicts in another episode of the Stories of Saint Francis – the one in which the Crucifix of the San Damiano church speaks to the Saint (fourth picture) – a Crucifix even more archaic than Giunta Pisano and Cimabue's " ", namely a " " (the "triumphant " or "living Christ": think, if you will, of the Crucifix painted by d' in in Arezzo, fifth picture), with wide open eyes, to proudly emphasize the greatness of his inventive departure from traditional iconographies. Therefore, our Santa Maria Novella must have been painted before the frescoes of Assisi, or at the beginning of their ex*****on..!






This 's masterpiece in (first picture) is revolutionary not only as a per se, but also as a specific type of " "...
26/01/2025

This 's masterpiece in (first picture) is revolutionary not only as a per se, but also as a specific type of " " (the "suffering " or "dead Christ", a theme already present in Western art since the 9th century and not developing solely in conjunction with the new Franciscan spirituality as commonly believed). Keeping in mind the Crucifix by , Giotto's master (second picture, taken before the 1966 flood in Florence) in in , one can see how in Giotto’s version ' limbs actually hang down like those of a real dead body; for this reason, one can observe how His arms partially obscure the lower part of the short side of the , and how His pelvis covers the right side of the panel rather than the left as was the case in previous works by Giunta Pisano and Cimabue when the 's sacrum unnaturally arched in the opposite direction to where it should have been due to gravity; Jesus' hands are nailed to the wood of the Cross not with the thumb pointed upwards and the palm open, but with the fingers naturally hanging downwards; the ’s loincloth is no longer knotted in the front, but on the right side; Christ’s feet are pierced by a single nail, and placed on top of one another, rather than being pierced by two separate nails.
Chronologically, the Santa Maria Novella Crucifix can be placed, with several "supporting pieces of evidence," in the 1290s. How can this be dated? It is known that this Crucifix was already documented in 1312, the year in which a certain "Ricuccio del fu Puccio del Mugnaio" mentions it in his will, even naming the artist; moreover, the presence of a Crucifix (third to sixth picture) bearing the date 1301 by the modest Lucchese painter Deodato Orlandi in the convent of the in which shares many of the iconographic innovations seen in Giotto’s Crucifix, confirms that the latter must have been executed before this date (since we must necessarily exclude the possibility that these iconographic innovations were introduced by a "minor" painter like Deodato).

(TO BE CONTINUED)...


📅 In the 1570s Father from Perugia - , , "anemographer", Dominican - actively partook in fulfilling one of '...
12/01/2025

📅 In the 1570s Father from Perugia - , , "anemographer", Dominican - actively partook in fulfilling one of 's greatest wishes and ambitions: to have the great honor to finally "fix" the Julian , in which the was no longer aligned to the solar (LINK IN BIO to learn more about it).

💫⭐🌟 Egnazio Danti constructed two instrument (a and two equinoctial 'armillae') on the façade of the , so to better catch the sun beams.The quadrant is made of several smaller solar quadrants with six each of them measuring time in six different ways. These include: the “oriolo all'Italiana” (Italian dial), which begins at sunset and counts 24 hours; the “oriolo boemico” (Bohemian dial), which begins at dawn; the “astronomical dial”, which begins at midday and counts 24 hours; the “oriolo comune de' Franzesi, Tedeschi, Spagnoli” (the dial used by the French, Germans, and Spaniards), which begins at midday and counts 12 hours, beginning again at midnight; a planetary dial; a canonical dial. They date back to 1572, while the ‘armillae’ date back to 1574.

🌌🌠 One of the equinoctial armillae lies parallel to the plane. Understanding, as he did, Florence’s latitude (43° 40'), Danti tilted the armilla so that it would align perfectly. The ring perpendicular to the wall is the line, from North to South. When the Sun is at zenith with the Celestial – i.e., when the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the Equator itself – we have an Equinox. This is the day of the year when night is equally long as daylight (from "aequus", which means ‘equal’, and "nox", which means ‘night’).
At midday of the Solar Equinox, this projects a perfect cross-shaped shadow on the church’s façade. It was essential to know the day of the to be able to calculate the – especially when it came to Easter, with its ancestral Christian significance of sunrise and rebirth. Unfortunately, those armillae weren’t able to measure the Equinox but with a discrepancy of eight hours.

These beautiful pictures are courtesy of Francesco Bini .Paolo di Stefano Badaloni known as Paolo Schiavo, , 1460, ,...
06/01/2025

These beautiful pictures are courtesy of Francesco Bini .

Paolo di Stefano Badaloni known as Paolo Schiavo, , 1460, , , della Querce , .
This is truly a in . Paolo Schiavo (whose painting I'm currently writing an about) decorated this oratory with depicting (besides the Adoration of the ), the Annunciation, the Four Evangelists, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Quirinus the Martyr, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Julian the Hospitaller, Saint Christopher, and the coat-of-arms of the family , the and . He also "sealed" the cycle with a beautiful (signed and dated) panel representing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary .

Paolo Schiavo was such an interesting . His art was rooted in style (he was probably a pupil of his), but he genuinely tried his best to keep up with the times getting inspiration from great masters such as (with whom he actively collaborated in Castiglione Olona), , , , . He was sometimes somehow pleasantly eccentric and poetic, capable of depicting true humanity (see that beautiful 's candid head), but he also started getting tired pretty fast of desperately trying to imitate artists who were far better than him. Still, we appreciate his vivid blues, greens and pinks, and the vivacity of his trait.

Happy ..!

Trasporto di Master, the Greater's co**se being shipped to , second decade of the , , San Domenico church coun...
04/01/2025

Trasporto di Master, the Greater's co**se being shipped to , second decade of the , , San Domenico church counterfacade.

in his "Book Of The Arts" writes: "When you wish to create a water, a river, or whatever kind of water you prefer, whether with fish or without, on a wall or on a panel; on a wall, remove that greenish tint that shadows the faces on the lime plaster; make the fish by shading them with this same greenish tint, always shadowing the tops of their bodies. Keep in mind that fish, and generally every irrational animal, must have its shadow above and its light below. Then, after shading with the greenish tint, lighten the bottom with white (sangiovanni) on the wall; (...) Keep adding some shadow of the same greenish tint over the fish, and across the entire field. And if you wish to create some unusual fish, add some golden spines. For dry work, you can spread verdigris mixed with oil across the field (...). If you don't want to use oil, take verdeterra or blue-green pigment, and cover everything equally; but not so much that the fish and water waves don’t still show through. And if necessary, slightly lighten the waves with white on the wall and with tempered white lead on the panel. This will suffice for the coloring process."

, the and with nana and grandpa ( and ) and His future youngest and , . , , 1522 circa.The majestic a...
25/12/2024

, the and with nana and grandpa ( and ) and His future youngest and , . , , 1522 circa.

The majestic architectural background of this panel, with decorations and a frieze depicting an ancient battle (clearly inspired by ), is a proof of the artist's antiquarian culture. The central group with the , and Saint Anne recalls 's model, heavily influenced by 's engravings. The cherries that St. Anne hands over to the Child symbolises the blood to be shed during the Passion. In the second half of the 16th century, since the Devolution of to the Papal States in 1598, many works by Mazzolino belonging to House d' entered the Roman and the collections.

and a by ..!

with , from Paris, about 1320-1340, , , .Said writing tablets were normally coated with a thin layer of wax on...
28/04/2024

with , from Paris, about 1320-1340, , , .

Said writing tablets were normally coated with a thin layer of wax on one side to engrave. They were literally small carnets for the writing..!

These writing table in particular depicts the on the beach of , as this story is recounted by the illuminated manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques de (the only other media this tiny takes inspiration from).

The defeat of Sidon, when the Arabs slaughtered the Christians, took place on the beach, on July. The dead bodies were left everywhere by the sea to rot; a few months later, finally went to Sidon to see what had occurred to his soldiers, and found nothing but decaying and rotting co**ses. One can almost smell the stench simply by looking at the people accompanying the King, that are about to vomit. Saint Louis insisted that those poor remains were sacred relics to touch and honour, for the had died in the name of Christ: and started personally to collect the bones, and to stack them in a bag, wearing no gloves.





..!"Hodie nobis celorum...In die nativitatis domini" , 60v of the "B" of the Museo Diocesano di , dating back t...
25/12/2023

..!

"Hodie nobis celorum...In die nativitatis domini"

, 60v of the "B" of the Museo Diocesano di , dating back to the 1270s.


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