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Rudy standing at the Piazza Michelangelo, the Duomo behind him.
Confidence, pride, and a thirst for knowledge so great that it changed the
course of history: I'm standing in the small city in Italy that gave birth
to the modern world.
Next up, Florence, on Smart Travels.
Standard Open.
Scenes of Florence set to classical music - Florence from Giotto’s tower, a
craftsman working, details from a Botticelli, a Donatello statue, David's
face, the Duomo from below.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, an electric
combination of enterprise, wealth, and a growing sense of the power of the
individual created an explosion of ideas called the Renaissance.
Rudy walking through streets of Florence. Architecture and art, slo fade to
stautes of artists. End with shot looking up at Giotto’s tower.
A trip to Florence is more than a tour of a famous city and its art - it's a
trip to another time. Behind the sublime architecture and dazzling art loom
the great personalities that shaped the Renaissance. Their rivalries and
collaborations drove art to extraordinary heights. And their work continues
to draw admirers by the millions.
Rudy on camera.
Florence is hot, overcrowded and can be overwhelming. My advice is to come
prepared. I've read enough to get a feel for the Renaissance, the art I
want to see and the art I'm willing to catch next time.
Montage of the treasures of Florence.
The galleries and churches of Florence overflow with art.
Even the streets themselves are alive with the story of the Rennaissance.
Map
of Florence.
Florence is small and the main attractions are easily explored
on foot.
Rudy on the medieval back streets - Borgo Santi Apostoli. The Arno, pan to
the medieval section.
I'm headed to the center of town along the dark back streets
and alleys that still evoke the Middle Ages.
More medieval streets, a tower, a corner turret, a shrine, a dark street, a
lone figure walking. Palazzo Feroni. Tower at Via delle Terme. Santi
Apostoli.
From the 5th until approximately the 14th century, Europe
struggled through the Middle Ages. Barbarians regularly pillaged towns;
independent city-states fought brutal battles against each other. Disease,
starvation, and poverty took many lives.
A
shot of a dark street opening to the Mercato Nuova.
Now, as then, the cries of vendors and the buzz of shoppers
reverberate in the streets and alleys. No matter where you wander, you’re
never far from one of Florence’s many open air markets.
Mercato Centrale - near San Lorenzo.
It's no surprise the Florentines know how to throw a good
market, they've been doing it for centuries. It was precisely this -
commerce and trade - that transformed Italy in the middle ages. Italian
merchants opened trade routes to the East, money and new ideas flowed into
Europe. This market, the Mercato Centrale, is the largest and the most
entertaining.
But it was textiles, not hats, that made Florence’s fortune. By the 13th century, Florence became the wealthiest of the Italian city states - wealthier than most countries! (fast read)
Capitalizing on all this trade was a family of bankers named the Medici. Their austere palace dominates this area of town. While never official rulers of the quasi-democratic Florence, because of their wealth and prestige, the Medici held the reigns of power.
Cosimo de Medici the elder was a consummate businessman and politician. He was a kind and modest man, revered by the people. His grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent swept the people of Florence off their feet with his personal charm, political savvy and love of the arts. Lorenzo opened a school for sculptors and painters in his garden. One day he discovered a boy with exceptional talent and invited him to live at the Medici palace. His name was Michelangelo and Lorenzo raised him like a son.
Rudy on camera in the market.
Their wealth gave the Florentines something new - confidence. Their focus
shifted from life after death, to life in the here and now, from the divine
to man. This new way of life demanded a new philosophy.
Piazza della Signoria - the statues of Hercules, Neptune, Perseus Holding
the Head of Medusa, David etc. Details of faces, the human form,
expressions of pride, confidence and invincibility.
Florence found that new philosophy in their ancestors, the
Greeks and Romans. They adorned the Piazza della Signoria in front of their
town hall with art that reflected their ideals: beauty, reason, the
grandeur of the human form.
Wide shot of the Bargello, then the gallery of Donatello's work. Details of
Donatello's work - Saint George, the Lion and the Cupid - in the National
Museum (Bargello).
The National Museum, the Bargello, houses the sculptural
treasures of one of the first artists to adopt this new philosophy -
Donatello. In Rome, ancient art was being excavated and the young Donatello
eagerly went there to study and measure the new discoveries.
Donatello's David.
Donatello's bronze statue of David was the first free-standing nude since
antiquity. Yet the statue is by no means a copy of the ancients - the
grace, the individuality, and the palpable shyness of the boy make the
statue distinctly modern.
Saint George, his other sculptural works in the museum.
To our eyes, there is nothing so revolutionary about these
statues and busts. But their realism astonished the citizens of Florence.
Rudy on camera with Palazzo Vecchio in background.
The darkness of the Middle
Ages lifted and an explosion of art was underway. Artists were everywhere.
One famous poet complained that so many people were writing poetry that soon
even the cows would start to low in verse. I'm off to Florence's left bank
to find out where all these artists came from.
Map
of Florence.
On the other side of the Arno river is the area of town known
as the Oltr'arno.
Shot of the Ponte Vecchio.
To get there we cross the lovely Ponte Vecchio.
Scenes on bridge - crowds of tourists, shoppers, the goldsmiths.
In 1345 when it was built, butchers, blacksmiths and tanners
crowded the bridge. A couple of hundred years later, the ruler of Florence
took a walk across the bridge and found the sights and smells repulsive. He
evicted the lot and permitted only goldsmiths on the bridge where they
remain today.
Rudy walking in the Oltrarno - cafes, shops, restaurants.
The Oltrarno makes a cool escape from the crowds in central
Florence. Of course the only way to avoid crowds in Florence altogether is
to visit during the off-season.
In these narrow streets a trace of the Renaissance lives on.
Many artists in Renaissance Florence were craftsmen. They earned their living by painting wedding chests, setting gems, designing palaces or floats for pageants. The famous Renaissance artist Leonardo DaVinci decorated stables and even designed women's girdles. Most Oltr’arno artisans are happy to have visitors peer into their workshops. Many have showrooms or shops attached.
Pitti Mosaics – the show room and some examples of inlaid stone.
You can ring the bell outside to visit the Pitti Mosaics
showroom. Inside you’ll discover the Florentine art called Pietra Dura -
inlaid pictures made from hard stones.
Interview with Frieda – she says it is a typical Florentine handicraft started with the Medici family. They were stone collectors. Having all these stones they wanted to do tables, so they got artisan people from all over Italy. Rudy asks – Has this craft been handed down for generations? Yes, it has been handed down from – this is 3rd generation.
Frieda
(v.o.)
First you make a design and for the coloring we look to the
stones. If you find the coloring exactly of the paper, you put it on the
stone and from there it is cut. Then it is glued with a kind of wax – a
hard wax.
Rudy asks - how much does it sell for? She answers $14,000. It’s beautiful, says Rudy.
Rudy on camera outside the artisan shop.
The wealthier Florence grew, the more the citizens wanted to express their
new found prestige by adorning the city with art.
The
Bapistry - wide shot, then zoom into the doors.
In 1401 the woolmaker's guild announced a contest to select an
artist to design the doors of the Baptistery.
The
doors again - details from the north doors and then the east doors.
Close-up of Ghilberti's self portrait.
A goldsmith named Ghilberti won the day and he spent the next 48 years
working on the doors. Michaelangelo is said to have gazed in awe at the
east doors and named them the Gates of Paradise. You'll find a
self-portrait of Ghilberti on the East doors.
pop
up:
The door panels are copies – originals are in the Museo dell' Opera del
Duomo.
Cathedral from the front.
Just across from the Baptistery is the cathedral of Florence, the Duomo.
Rudy on camera, the city behind him.
In 1420, a competition was underway in town to build a dome on the
unfinished cathedral. A committee of architects and officials was gathered
around a table, arguing about how it could be done. The fact is, everyone
was terrified. No one had built a dome this big since the ancient Romans.
One of the architects, Fillippo Brunelleshi passed an egg around - "Make
it stand on end" he told them. Everyone tried and failed. When the egg
came back to Brunelleschi, he did this. (Rudy crunches one end of the
egg on the table) The other artists scoffed - "we could have done
that," they said. "Yes, but you didn't." Brunelleschi replied. He got the
job.
Close-up of the egg. Cut to a shot of the dome on the Duomo that matches
the egg shot. Various dome shots – inside and out.
The result is the crowning masterpiece of Florence - a
glorious elongated dome, shaped very much like an egg.
Giotto's tower. A shot from below looking up - and detail work - especially
on the first tier.
The bell tower next to the Duomo was designed some eighty
years earlier by the painter and architect, Giotto. When asked once for a
sample of his work, Giotto drew in freehand a perfect circle. His point was
made - geniuses don't submit samples.
People climbing up to the top of the tower. The view and a look down at the
Dome.
The tower is adorned with bas reliefs by Andrea Pisano that
celebrate Florentine arts and industries. The climb up the tower is
arduous, but there are plenty of places to rest along the way. From the top
you can survey all of Florence and gaze across at Brunelleschi's
masterpiece.
pop-up: Great reading on Renaissance artists- Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari
Engravings of artisans found on the walls of buildings – or pan of the
mural. Shopping montage. Via Tournabuoni.
The Florentine genius for design is evident, not only in the
architecture and art, but in the shops. Next to Milan, Florence is Italy’s
biggest fashion center. Designer shops cluster around the Via Tournabuoni.
And everywhere, Florence shows off its fine leather products.
Leather goods inside.
At the shop Anna, I got some tips on buying leather.
Rudy and Antonio on camera. Antonio is paraphrased.
Interaction with Antonio:
In the market place they try to sell you suede – but it is the
cheapest stuff. Rudy: So if someone offers you suede for $150 . . . It’s
impossible to buy for that price answers Antonio. Rudy asks if the market
isn’t a good place to buy a jacket, how do you find a store. Antonio
answers: If the owner is in his or her 60’s or 70’s then you know the store
has been around – that is a Florentine tradition.
More shopping shots, crowds of tourists.
POPUP: Watch your belongings while shopping! Pickpockets abound.
Crowds, long lines.
When the crowds and long lines for museums start to get you
down, check out the churches. They hold some of the city’s best art.
A
church montage, ending with Santa Maria Novella.
The church of Santa Maria Novella offers a primer in how art changed during
the Renaissance.
Exterior - facade pan or tilt, details of geometric shapes.
Simple playful forms, squares and circles, and elegant green
and white marble enliven this mid 15th century façade.
The
interior - long aisle.
Inside - a virtual treasure trove of art.
An altarpiece in a side chapel, the Polyptych is representative of the art of the middle ages. The figures and space are flat, and the faces stylized.
Compare it with a fresco in the nave – the Trinity. Painted only seventy years later, in 1428, by the artist Massacio, the Trinity introduced perspective for the first time.
Frescoes by
Ghirlandaio - details of the life. Close up of the nobles in the scene -
Lorenzo's mother.
The frescoes in the main altar by Domenico Ghirlandaio round out the
Renaissance experience in Santa Maria Novella. Painted in 1485, the figures
and faces have truly come to life. In fact, Lorenzo de Medici’s uncle
commissioned the work and the Biblical scenes are peopled with his family,
including Lorenzo’s mother.
Rudy on camera in the car.
When he had enough of the heat and the crowded city, the Renaissance man
grabbed his horse and took off for the Tuscan countryside.
Map
of route – Florence is marked as well as Villa Poggio a Caiano, Artimino and
Vinci.
I’m off on a leisurely day trip from Florence in search of two
of the brightest stars of the Renaissance: Lorenzo de Medici and Leonardo
da Vinci.
The
Villa Poggio a Caiano. Shots of the interior - the halls, the pseudo Roman
paintings, the roundtable.
The Medici family owned several villas outside of town and
Lorenzo the Magnificent in particular loved to retreat to the country.
Lorenzo commissioned the villa Poggio a Caiano, declaring that he wanted
open air and light. The portico on the villa resembles a Greek temple and
the frescoes in the upstairs drawing room depict stories of the Medici
family in the guise of Roman heroes.
The
table, frescoes
In addition to being a banker and a statesman, Lorenzo was a
poet and a scholar. He gathered the most famous artists and thinkers of the
Renaissance around him. At the villas they drank wine and debated the
qualities of the ideal man, utopia, and the immortality of the soul.
Their group was called the Platonic Academy, for they loved discussing Greek
philosophy, most particularly Plato.
WS of the garden. Details of the garden - flowers, symmetrical rows, fountains.
Pop
up:
Florence city buses go to the villas. Contact the tourist
office for help.
Montage of the countryside – grapes, hillsides, a distant town.
The vineyards, the groves of olive trees and the rippling
green hillsides of the Tuscan countryside seem themselves a Renaissance work
of art. Here and there, medieval villages appear on the hilltops.
Artimino – the streets, the people sitting outside, the cantina.
Peaceful little towns like Artimino are a great change of pace
from hectic Florence. It’s a great treat to visit local cantinas and
sample the different Tuscan wines. The villa pictured on the bottles is
another Medici villa just east of Artimino, known for its profusion of
chimneys.
The
town of Vinci set in among olive groves and vines.
Several kilometers from Artimino lies the town of Vinci.
The
museum - Museo Leonardiano exterior, then wide shot of interior.
It was here that Leonardo da Vinci spent his youth, the
illegitimate son of a clerk and a peasant woman. The Museo Leonardiano is
dedicated to his inventions.
The
bust of Leo, then gadgets, gears and drawings.
Leonardo epitomizes the Renaissance man – in addition to being
a painter, he was a sculptor, engineer, architect and scientist. He
sketched designs for hundreds of inventions in his lifetime and this little
museum has created many of them.
More shots of the things he designed - a tank, machine gun, catapult etc.
When he was thirty years old, Leonardo wrote a letter to the
King of Milan. He was looking for a job. Among his capabilities and ideas
he listed: plans for bridges, tanks, and catapults. He offered to build
buildings, construct water lines, and execute sculpture in marble, clay or
bronze. What couldn't he do? Naturally, he got the job.
The
helicopter, water skis and bicycle.
Imagine the early 16th century mind trying to come to terms
with his plans for a helicopter, water skis or a bicycle! It is almost as
though Leonardo at one time had a glimpse of the future and was trying to
reconstruct the wonders he had seen.
Sunset over the river Arno.
Back in Florence, the heat has subsided. For a lively
Florentine night, I’m headed back to the Oltr’arno.
Scenes from the restaurant Vinesio.
Plenty of great restaurants are tucked away in these streets.
From trendy spots that feature regional cooking to family trattorias.
Rudy going into a restaurant.
At the family run Trattoria “La Baricuola” I’m taking a
Renaissance approach and experimenting with a little of everything. In
Italy, a traditional meal has five courses: an appetizer, followed by a
primo - a first course of pasta or rice. The secondo or second course is
meat or fish. Afterwards, some formaggio – cheese. Then finally a dolce -
a dessert, and some coffee. Mama mia!
San
Spirito at night – the bar, dancers, etc.
For lively after dinner entertainment, try the Piazza San
Spirito where bartenders dance the night away in the shadow of a
Renaissance church designed by that man about town, Brunelleschi.
Rudy walking in front of the Uffizi museum.
Early the next morning, I’m ready to take on the museum of all
museums.
Rudy on camera outside the Uffizi.
Over the years Lorenzo and the Medici family commissioned so much art that
their palace began to overflow with it. They started storing the artwork
here - in their administrative offices. The Uffizi museum was born.
Galleries of Uffizi.
The first fifteen rooms of the museum are dedicated to the
Florentine Renaissance and the focus of my visit.
Room 2 - the Madonna altarpieces by Giotto, Duccio and Cimabue. Details of
the painting aboves.
The 13th century Madonna altarpieces in room two
provide a starting point and contrast for the Renaissance paintings to
come. The stylized, one-dimensional figures are on the brink of becoming
fuller and more individual.
The
Leonardo Da Vinci room.
The portrayal of individuals may well have reached its zenith
in the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. His unfinished Adoration of the Magi is
strikingly modern. So brilliant, so rich with ideas, Leonardo often left
his work unfinished. He felt that his hands could never adequately express
the perfection of his ideas.
The
Botticelli room. Details of Venus and Primavera.
All but ignored until the late 19th century, the Botticelli
paintings are now the most popular in the gallery. Sandro Botticelli and
Lorenzo de Medici were fast friends. The painter partook in Lorenzo's
roundtable discussions of Plato and the ancients. Secular themes and the
legacy of ancient Greece are clearly on display in his work. He peopled his
ideal world with his friends – Lorenzo in particular. The model for Venus
is thought to be Simonetta Vespucci, the mistress of Lorenzo’s brother and a
renowned Florentine beauty.
The
line at the Uffizi.
Pop up: You can make a reservation for the Uffizi
by telephone and avoid the lines.
Rudy on camera outside the Duomo.
All this new art, this talk of Plato and the ideal man rubbed some people
the wrong way. A monk named Savonarola preached here at the Duomo to a
fervent crowd of 10,000 people. He denounced the pleasures of the senses
and love of the arts.
Piazza della Signora.
Savonarola organized a huge “bonfire of the vanities" here at
the Piazza della Signoria to burn frivolous items like hair ribbons,
mirrors, and books. Botticelli offered his own paintings to be
burned on the bonfire. Many of Lorenzo's artist and philosopher friends
repented, and some went to monasteries. Lorenzo died soon afterwards, and
the golden age of the Florentine Renaissance came to an end.
Rudy on camera at the hotel in the foyer.
I myself am staying at a monastery on this trip to Florence.
Okay, so it isn't exactly roughing it. The Villa San Michele is one of the most magnificent hotels in Europe and is priced accordingly. The rooms feature canopied beds, terra cotta floors and period furnishings.
This former 15th century monastery is incredibly picturesque. I mean, how can you go wrong when Michelangelo designed your hotel.
Located several minutes outside of Florence, the hotel has it's own shuttle bus to town. And in the hot summer nothing beats this cool, wooded retreat.
Rudy on the deck at the restaurant.
This Renaissance man has fulfilled his quest. I've found perfection, the
ideal vacation spot. There's nothing more to say. Well actually, there is
one more story . . .
Quick cut to David. Wide of David, tilts, tight of face, hand clenched etc.
The Renaissance is said to have culminated in this work of
art: David by Michelangelo. David was carved from a huge leftover
piece of ruined marble. When it was completed, the mayor of Florence
admired the statue, but complained to the artist that the nose was too big.
Michelangelo grabbed his chisel and scooped up a handful of marble dust. He
climbed to the nose, pretended to chisel and let the dust fall. “Much
better” the mayor exclaimed. “It really comes to life now.” David
went on, nose and all, to become the most celebrated statue of all time.
Florence –the art, the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, Giotto's Tower.
The 19th century American novelist Henry James wrote:
“Florence isn't yet extinct. It still works spells and almost miracles."
The
people on the streets of Florence - the tourists and locals alike.
The miracle of the Renaissance is still very much alive. Our
philosophy, our desire to excel, our belief in the power of the individual -
many of the tenets of the Western World were born or born again in Florence.
Rudy on camera - the Duomo behind him. He has an egg in his hand.
The lesson the Renaissance has taught me is to think big, take risks and
expect the impossible. (he makes the egg stand on end without crushing it)
Well, what do you know. Just call me Maxa the Magnificent. Well, I gotta
go build a couple of domes of my own. Ciao.