The February and March Gallery Talks Trip to Florence were truly wonderful! Everyone thoroughly immersed themselves in the unforgettable beauty and culture of this tiny city where the flowering of a new European art took place in the 14th to 16th centuries under the enlightened patronage of the Medici, other wealthy Florentine families and the Church.
During our four day visits, we visited Masaccio’s ground-breaking frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, admired Fra Angelico’s brilliant, jewel-like decorations of the peaceful San Marco Monastery, wondered at the innovative engineering of Brunelleschi’s Dome and absorbed the calming atmosphere of his stunningly beautiful churches at San Lorenzo, the Pazzi Chapel and Santo Spirito. Ghiberti’s exquisite bronze doors adorning the ancient Baptistery were a delight to our eyes and the new Duomo museum displaying the originals and other sculptures was well worth visiting. We could have spent hours in Santa Croce admiring Giotto’s frescoes and some of the oldest surviving in paintings in Italy together with the tombs of many eminent Florentines and one of the most tranquil cloisters in the city.
Of course no visit to Florence is complete without a visit to the Uffizi Art Gallery and there we were overwhelmed by the consummate beauty of Botticelli’s philosophical and sophisticated paintings, the huge altarpieces created by Ciambue and Giotto with technical mastery designed to embellish churches and inspire devotion, Leonardo’s supreme paintings and the remarkably realistic portraits of the Medici family by Bronzino. We studied the superb collection of Renaissance sculpture, by artists such as Donatello and Michelangelo, at the Bargello Museum and very much appreciated the palace’s history and architecture.
Florence is an architectural and artistic unity, a complete expression of the spirit of the Renaissance, with its wealth of architecture, monuments, paintings and sculptures created within the space of 200 years. It is truly astonishing that so many figures of genius came from Florence during the Medieval and Renaissance period, including Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, Galileo and Machiavelli.
Our hotel was perfectly situated overlooking the River Arno (some of us had a “Room with a View”) within walking distance to most of our destinations with comfortable rooms, helpful staff and a good breakfast. We sampled wonderful Tuscan cuisine in beautiful roof-top cafés, traditional restaurants and in piazzas where we soaked up the Florentine atmosphere and watched the world go by!
Planning for further Gallery Talks Florence Trips, including ‘Florence Part 2’, is underway!