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The Florentine
Art and culture from Florence, Italy, focusing on exhibitions, museums, artisans and more.
For its 10th anniversary, the Tuscan Sun Festival is introducing new culinary traditions of excellence. From June 11 to 18, the festival will bring the world's best chefs, artists and musicians to Florence for a jam-packed week of food and culture that promises to delight all tastes. The
During 2012, The Florentine and the city of Florence are celebrating the sesquicentennial of Amerigo Vespucci's death. But what of the famed woman who also carried this last name? In the middle of the sixteenth century in Florence, a group of scholars, philosophers and artists-actors in the
There is a charming drawing, Leaving Montepulciano, in the current exhibition, Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists, at Palazzo Strozzi (see TF 159). One of the eight works in the show by American printmaker, illustrator and writer Joseph Pennell, it depicts the artist and his wife, writer Elizabeth
No other outdoor monument in the historic centre of Florence represents it neighbourhood as much as the statue of Ludovico di Giovanni de' Medici, known as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, situated in piazza San Lorenzo. Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici commissioned the statue in honour of his father, the
On the occasion of Palazzo Strozzi's exhibition Americans in Florence. Sargent and the American Impressionists (see review in TF 159), Kevin Huizenga, a leading American comic artist and graphic novelist, has created a graphic novel, Alla Prima, based on the experience of the young American painters whose work is
For a few short months last year in Rome, a fascinating exhibit, entitled Caravaggio: Restauro Aperto allowed visitors to see art restorers working on one of Caravaggio's most intriguing paintings, the Adoration of the Shepherds. The exhibit, sponsored by Fastweb, the Internet provider, and held in the lower chambers
When ethnologist, mountain climber, travel writer, poet and photographer Fosco Maraini died on June 8, 2004, at 92, the Gabinetto Vieusseux in Florence acquired his unique collection of over 8,000 volumes and 42,000 photographs centred on Asia, and especially Tibet and Japan. It was therefore fitting that, on
The Medici family has always been associated with balls. Six of them to be exact. Their family emblem, five red balls (palle, in Italian) and one blue, on a gold shield, decorate numerous buildings all over Florence and Tuscany-any palazzo, church or monument to which the Medici had connections
Filmmaker David Battistella moved to Florence from Canada in 2011 to pursue his dream: writing and producing a feature film based on Ross King's 2000 book Brunelleschi's Dome, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi and the building of Florence's Cupola. This column, which began with TF 149,
Greeting pedestrians and motorists carefully negotiating busy traffic at the roundabout in front of Porta Romana is a tall marble figure who appears to look two ways at once. The sculpture is the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto, one of the leading exponents of Arte Povera, the Italian art phenomenon that
The last time a contemporary British artist’s work was showcased in a prestigious Florence venue was last year when Damien Hirst‘s diamond skull was displayed in Palazzo Vecchio. Now Florentines ...
The portrait of American author Henry James is amongst the paintings by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) currently at Palazzo Strozzi in the exhibition Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists (see TF 159). James was a close friend of Sargent and instrumental in promoting the artist's career
The American Dream of success through thrift and hard work has taken a battering in recent decades. Diverted from the traditional path to economic independence, ‘early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,' as in Benjamin Franklin's commonsense proverb, a ‘Super
About the exhibit Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists, private donor Maria Manetti Farrow writes, ?My life has been shaped by two countries and two cultures. My world is not split by this fact but has been deeply enriched on every level. To support speaks directly
Filmmaker David Battistella moved to Florence from Canada in 2011 to pursue his dream: writing and producing a feature film based on Ross King's 2000 book Brunelleschi's Dome, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi and the building of Florence's Cupola. This column, which began with TF 149,
Sunday lunch seemed as good a time as any to test one of my pet theories: people will pass by monuments or statues for years without ever really looking at them or knowing anything about them. Of the 12 of us sitting around the table, 9 were Italians (5 of
The Florentine's culture editor, Dr. Jane Fortune, is known in Florence as ?Indiana Jane' because of her efforts to identify and restore art treasures by women artists in Florentine museums and deposits. Author and philanthropist, she is founder and chair of the Advancing Women Artists Foundation and creator of
Anglo-American biographer and author Iris Origo took up writing after the untimely death of her seven-year-old son in 1933.
Filmmaker David Battistella moved to Florence from Canada in 2011 to pursue his dream: writing and producing a feature film based on Ross King's 2000 book Brunelleschi's Dome, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi and the building of Florence's Cupola. This column, which began with TF 149,
For all of 2012, which has been declared Vespucci Year in Florence, events, exhibitions and conferences will commemorate the Florentine explorer. With this debut article, TF will be publishing a monthly column focused on Vespucci and U.S.-Italy relations for the rest of the year. In seeking
Filmmaker David Battistella moved to Florence from Canada in 2011 to pursue his dream: writing and producing a feature film based on Ross King's 2000 book Brunelleschi's Dome, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi and the building of Florence's Cupola. This column, which began with TF 149,
The brooding statue of Girolamo Savonarola, the fire and brimstone monk burned at the stake for heresy in front of Palazzo Vecchio on May 23, 1498, stands in the piazza named after him not far from piazza Libert?. Looking at it, it is easy to see why American author and
Filmmaker David Battistella moved to Florence from Canada in 2011 to pursue his dream: writing and producing a feature film based on Ross King's 2000 book Brunelleschi's Dome, about the life of Filippo Brunelleschi and the building of Florence's Cupola. This column, which began with TF 149,
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, photographer Brian Duffy created the look of modern, creative Britain. With contemporaries David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy (he was always known by his surname) enlivened the pages of the world's leading style magazines with fashion shots and advertising images that were as restless,
