An almost spiritual moment while walking out of the Baptistery brought London-born Alison Salmon to feel that it wasn’t the first time she’d been here and that she had come home. A connection to the past and a desire to see illuminated art brought forward led to the creation of practical classes that see participants create their own intricate illustration in the style of centuries-old decorated manuscripts.
Based in San Giovanni Valdarno, Alison had a popular English language school that closed during the pandemic. When doors close, a window opens, and Alison dedicated her time to undertaking art courses that eventually brought her onto her new path as a museum educator and teacher of illuminated art.
Finding her passion
“Around 30 years ago, I was working as a graphic designer in London, but I had a passion for the Italian Renaissance. I came to Florence on holiday and, after having had that experience while exiting the Baptistery of Saint John, I spoke to a lecturer and said, ‘How do I get your job?’ She told me that I’d need to go to the best art history university in the world, but it’s unlikely they’d take me because they only take 40 people a year from around the world. I said, ‘I’m going there’, and I did!”
“I was 34 and studying with a bunch of 19-year-olds at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. One of the wonderful things about it was that they had an incredible collection of art, including drawings by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. We were given gloves and could hold them. What I love when I’m really close to a work of art is the awareness that I’m occupying exactly the same physical space as the person who created it and that the only difference is the time we’re in. That, to me, is the greatest thrill. It just feels so special and such an honour. I think that feeling comes from the fact that I am also an artist and can imagine the physical process of the creation of the work. My favourite proverb is by Confucius: ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.’ That’s how I feel about art. You can study all you like, but you won’t understand unless you actually try it yourself.
When I’m hosting my workshops, I always say that the point isn’t to produce something like Fra Angelico, but to give you new eyes to the art form and an enhanced appreciation for it. It’s such a therapeutic, meditative and spiritual process. The only frustration is that once you start it, you actually don’t want to stop! I currently teach bi-monthly courses at The British Institute of Florence, monthly courses in the new Museo del Restauro of Palazzo Spinelli and in April I will be teaching at the Istituto de’ Bardi and St Mark’s English Church in addition to various courses in the Arezzo area. I also participate in living history events and educational lectures in costume as ‘The English Painter’.”
The art form
Alison’s workshops often include gold leaf gilding and she makes some of the inks and pigments that she uses herself from mostly organic materials such as leaves, flowers, roots, wood, fruit and berries, and the little shells into which she places them, as would have been done originally. There’s the goatskin parchment and a vegan alternative, and a practically three-dimensional sample where I’m struck by the gold as it catches the light and a playful fox curling through the painstakingly inked lettering. It’s easy to be entranced.
Alison details a little about the history of the art form. “The decoration of manuscripts is said to have started in Britain and Ireland, very famous for the likes of the Book of Kells or the Book of Durrow. After the Roman Empire had fallen and they wanted to spread the word of Christianity, Bibles were copied at the monasteries so that they could be carried around by a priest to spread the word. These books are beautifully decorated, firstly because there was no punctuation and it was a way of showing that there was a new chapter, and also as a form of divine worship.
Everyone who comes to Florence knows about Renaissance art in the sense of all the incredible frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue, Beato Angelico, etc., but very few people realize the importance of illuminated art in the city. Fra Angelico was actually trained as an illuminated manuscript artist, as was his brother. Florence, as such a humanitarian centre, began to see many nobles acquire these works for their collections, due to their passion for knowledge and beauty. Many of these have since been left to places like the Laurentian Library.”
“The recent Fra Angelico exhibition between Palazzo Strozzi and the Museum of San Marco was a wonderful opportunity to see some of these manuscripts, because they are rarely shown given how delicate they are, having been made from mainly plant-based materials. That delicacy, for me, adds to the charm. It helps us understand that these are precious. Gold is a symbol of eternity, but the other colours would fade without care. It makes them all the more magical. They could just disappear if not treated well, and I’m passionate about teaching this craft so that we won’t see it die out in the future.”
Meet the artist
The next workshop takes place on March 28 at the Museo del Restauro (via Maggio 13), where participants will create the letter T from the Book of Kells, c.800 AD.
To book individual or group lessons and other upcoming classes, see IG @alisonsalmonsgv
