LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE
Make believe for a moment that you’re the Medici’s favourite architect Bartolomeo Michelozzo. The year is 1444, and Cosimo the Elder has asked you to design him a new town palace. ‘We,’ says Cosimo, ‘will have our courtyard with columns, arches, archivolts, roundels
In a city where people come from all over the world to feast their eyes on the most classic bits of art, hurried tourists and eager students have become quite commonplace. To keep its masterpieces viewable, Florence is constantly in a state of restoration under the watchful eyes of its
It would be easy to miss the Marini museum, sandwiched as it is between two of Florence’s busiest and most elegant streets, Via della Vigna and Via della Spada (where shops such as Gucci, Roberto Cavalli, Dolce and Gabbana, Ferré are found). There is nothing to proclaim
It is not often that one witnesses an exhibition curator pushing a large black projection box balanced precariously on bicycle wheels through the streets of Florence. It is also decidedly rare to see the side of the Duomo being appropriated as a make-shift screen for an independent short film.
Have you ever noticed those small little windows in the walls of the old palazzi in Florence—not really windows at all but more like Lilliputian doors? Miniature copies of their full size counterparts, the main entrances to each palazzo, these tiny doors are made of solid wood, sometimes
Afather carries his raggedly dressed child upon his shoulders as his wife hangs behind, guiding along their other son and lugging the family’s only suitcase. The father solemnly dresses the youngest boy, whose eyes see not the soiled linens hanging behind him but in-stead reveal an eagerness
As William Shakespeare once wrote, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ (As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7). Florence has always been host to some of the most interesting and renowned casts of characters in the world, many
Once the cradle of the rebirth of art, Florence is again host to an exciting new way forward for art. ‘The Shape of the Mind’, an exhibition of psychedelic art by American artist Isaac Abrams, consists of all new works by the artist, both large-scale oil paintings
The unstoppable success in the last two years of The da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has certainly renewed interest in Leonardo Da Vinci, already one of the most popular Italian Renaissance masters. In order to meet the public’s desire for more knowledge regarding Leonardo and his
A lot goes on under the Tuscan sun, especially when the hillside becomes a classroom and the landscape a springboard for young contemporary artists to experiment with regional colour. It has been a few years since Professor Adriano Bimbi first decided to replace his classroom with a more stimulating setting,
They say ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,’ but what about ‘One man’s trash is another man’s art?’ You probably don’t think about it often: the fact that rubbish can be turned into art. Indeed,
The agony and the ecstasy of Holy Week and Easter have given rise to some of the most inspired musical masterpieces of our heritage. At this resonant time in the Church year, the extremes of human existence – suffering and consolation, darkness and light, death and rebirth - are laid bare
All over the city from banners, to billboards, to the back of your bus ticket you see the bas-relief sculpture of a graceful Gabriel who delivers his urgent message to the Virgin Mary and simultaneously announces a remarkable exhibition of Florence’s nearly-forgotten Renaissance master: Arnolfo di
Florence has more than its fair share of palazzi. These once opulent residences of the wealthy and noble have been transformed to accommodate the evolving needs of a crowded destination city and now serve as museums, offices, rental apartments, hotels and retail spaces. Expensive to maintain and renovate
Athletes at this year’s Winter Olympics may have been surprised to find that the coveted medals they had come to the Apennines to compete for were missing their golden centers. The Olympic officials who had commissioned the new medal design said that the hole was no mistake - it
