Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi

Name: Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi
Address: Piazza Duomo, Florence, 50100, IT
Telephone: +393408243006
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Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi

Expert Florence Guide - Isabella Tronconi Hello travellers, pleased to meet you! I am Isabella, your guide in Florence!

02/03/2025

You finally made it to part 3 (READ PREVIOUS POSTS)..!
Around the mid-11th century, Amalfitan merchants allegedly obtained permission to establish a hospice in , which was initially under the authority of Benedictine monks. From this institution emerged a community devoted to the physical and spiritual well-being of pilgrims traveling to the , offering medical care as well. Over time, this community evolved into the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (or Order), later known as the Order of Rhodes (from 1309 to 1522, when the Order ruled the island), and eventually as the (or Melitense Order, from 1530 to 1798, when it controlled the island of Malta).
Initially dedicated to the "servitium pauperum" (service to the poor), in 1136, it adopted a military vocation at the behest of Raymond De Puy. From this male branch of the Order, a female branch soon emerged, developing in parallel with the original institution. The sorores, originally nuns, in Jerusalem were primarily engaged in assisting and sheltering women in need (do not expect some sort of shield-maidens)..!

Amongst the surviving constitutions of three Jerusalemite ( , , and ), the oldest appear to be the Florentine constitutions (1395–1404?) produced by Fra' Lionardo Buonafedi for the Florentine Sisters of . Said nuns, starting from 1563, settled in former convent San Pietro del Murrone, thenceforth known as or San Giovannino dei Cavalieri (second picture, courtesy of ), in in Florence (the stunning is by Gherardo Silvani, with an imposing made out of Marne del Sugame). In the first picture you see yet another on display in in Florence of the ones made out of fragments of stone from the cave (courtesy of ; see previous post), depicting Saint Ubaldesca Zati (TO BE CONTINUED).

Picture of the story: courtesy of

10/02/2025

(READ PREVIOUS POST FOR STARTERS..!)

The cave where this 's is said to have taken place is located in ( ). In there are small pieces of said cave: they're to be found in , the mansion built in honour of Michelangelo ..! There are some on display there which are made out of fragments of stone from that very Rabat saint Paul cave (second picture, courtesy of ). They are believed to be able to protect the carrier from any snake's bite. Brother Francesco Buonarroti commissioned them .
Who do the are?
(TO BE CONTINUED...)

03/02/2025

You lovely guests keep saying to me that you love the way I "interweave" the stories. Here some "interweaved" stories I'd love to delight you with..!

This permanently in the Carrand depicts surrounded by animals of all species (right plaque) and 's miracles (left plaque). It's a Milanese or Roman artefact dating back to the IV-V century a. C.. in the left , in the central row, it's possible to see a bald and bearded, clad in sandals, robe and tunic like an ancient philosopher saint Paul handling a venomous , standing right next to a burning fire of . The viper's bitten the Saint's hand, but the venom hasn't harmed him. According to the (28, 1-10) said event took place in .

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

28/01/2025

(READ PREVIOUS POST) If we consider the famous cycle depicting the Stories of by in the Upper in , believed by scholars to have been initiated in the , we can see (first picture) that in Assisi Giotto "quotes" his own Florentine viewed from the back, in the episode of the and later in the episode of the Verification (second and third picture)! Even more brilliantly, Giotto, fully aware of the importance of the changes he'd introduced in the of the Crucifix with his masterpiece in , depicts in another episode of the Stories of Saint Francis – the one in which the Crucifix of the San Damiano church speaks to the Saint (fourth picture) – a Crucifix even more archaic than Giunta Pisano and Cimabue's " ", namely a " " (the "triumphant " or "living Christ": think, if you will, of the Crucifix painted by d' in in Arezzo, fifth picture), with wide open eyes, to proudly emphasize the greatness of his inventive departure from traditional iconographies. Therefore, our Santa Maria Novella must have been painted before the frescoes of Assisi, or at the beginning of their ex*****on..!

26/01/2025

This 's masterpiece in (first picture) is revolutionary not only as a per se, but also as a specific type of " " (the "suffering " or "dead Christ", a theme already present in Western art since the 9th century and not developing solely in conjunction with the new Franciscan spirituality as commonly believed). Keeping in mind the Crucifix by , Giotto's master (second picture, taken before the 1966 flood in Florence) in in , one can see how in Giotto’s version ' limbs actually hang down like those of a real dead body; for this reason, one can observe how His arms partially obscure the lower part of the short side of the , and how His pelvis covers the right side of the panel rather than the left as was the case in previous works by Giunta Pisano and Cimabue when the 's sacrum unnaturally arched in the opposite direction to where it should have been due to gravity; Jesus' hands are nailed to the wood of the Cross not with the thumb pointed upwards and the palm open, but with the fingers naturally hanging downwards; the ’s loincloth is no longer knotted in the front, but on the right side; Christ’s feet are pierced by a single nail, and placed on top of one another, rather than being pierced by two separate nails.
Chronologically, the Santa Maria Novella Crucifix can be placed, with several "supporting pieces of evidence," in the 1290s. How can this be dated? It is known that this Crucifix was already documented in 1312, the year in which a certain "Ricuccio del fu Puccio del Mugnaio" mentions it in his will, even naming the artist; moreover, the presence of a Crucifix (third to sixth picture) bearing the date 1301 by the modest Lucchese painter Deodato Orlandi in the convent of the in which shares many of the iconographic innovations seen in Giotto’s Crucifix, confirms that the latter must have been executed before this date (since we must necessarily exclude the possibility that these iconographic innovations were introduced by a "minor" painter like Deodato).

(TO BE CONTINUED)...

12/01/2025

📅 In the 1570s Father from Perugia - , , "anemographer", Dominican - actively partook in fulfilling one of 's greatest wishes and ambitions: to have the great honor to finally "fix" the Julian , in which the was no longer aligned to the solar (LINK IN BIO to learn more about it).

💫⭐🌟 Egnazio Danti constructed two instrument (a and two equinoctial 'armillae') on the façade of the , so to better catch the sun beams.The quadrant is made of several smaller solar quadrants with six each of them measuring time in six different ways. These include: the “oriolo all'Italiana” (Italian dial), which begins at sunset and counts 24 hours; the “oriolo boemico” (Bohemian dial), which begins at dawn; the “astronomical dial”, which begins at midday and counts 24 hours; the “oriolo comune de' Franzesi, Tedeschi, Spagnoli” (the dial used by the French, Germans, and Spaniards), which begins at midday and counts 12 hours, beginning again at midnight; a planetary dial; a canonical dial. They date back to 1572, while the ‘armillae’ date back to 1574.

🌌🌠 One of the equinoctial armillae lies parallel to the plane. Understanding, as he did, Florence’s latitude (43° 40'), Danti tilted the armilla so that it would align perfectly. The ring perpendicular to the wall is the line, from North to South. When the Sun is at zenith with the Celestial – i.e., when the rays of the sun are perpendicular to the Equator itself – we have an Equinox. This is the day of the year when night is equally long as daylight (from "aequus", which means ‘equal’, and "nox", which means ‘night’).
At midday of the Solar Equinox, this projects a perfect cross-shaped shadow on the church’s façade. It was essential to know the day of the to be able to calculate the – especially when it came to Easter, with its ancestral Christian significance of sunrise and rebirth. Unfortunately, those armillae weren’t able to measure the Equinox but with a discrepancy of eight hours.

06/01/2025

These beautiful pictures are courtesy of Francesco Bini .

Paolo di Stefano Badaloni known as Paolo Schiavo, , 1460, , , della Querce , .
This is truly a in . Paolo Schiavo (whose painting I'm currently writing an about) decorated this oratory with depicting (besides the Adoration of the ), the Annunciation, the Four Evangelists, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Quirinus the Martyr, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Julian the Hospitaller, Saint Christopher, and the coat-of-arms of the family , the and . He also "sealed" the cycle with a beautiful (signed and dated) panel representing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary .

Paolo Schiavo was such an interesting . His art was rooted in style (he was probably a pupil of his), but he genuinely tried his best to keep up with the times getting inspiration from great masters such as (with whom he actively collaborated in Castiglione Olona), , , , . He was sometimes somehow pleasantly eccentric and poetic, capable of depicting true humanity (see that beautiful 's candid head), but he also started getting tired pretty fast of desperately trying to imitate artists who were far better than him. Still, we appreciate his vivid blues, greens and pinks, and the vivacity of his trait.

Happy ..!

04/01/2025

Trasporto di Master, the Greater's co**se being shipped to , second decade of the , , San Domenico church counterfacade.

in his "Book Of The Arts" writes: "When you wish to create a water, a river, or whatever kind of water you prefer, whether with fish or without, on a wall or on a panel; on a wall, remove that greenish tint that shadows the faces on the lime plaster; make the fish by shading them with this same greenish tint, always shadowing the tops of their bodies. Keep in mind that fish, and generally every irrational animal, must have its shadow above and its light below. Then, after shading with the greenish tint, lighten the bottom with white (sangiovanni) on the wall; (...) Keep adding some shadow of the same greenish tint over the fish, and across the entire field. And if you wish to create some unusual fish, add some golden spines. For dry work, you can spread verdigris mixed with oil across the field (...). If you don't want to use oil, take verdeterra or blue-green pigment, and cover everything equally; but not so much that the fish and water waves don’t still show through. And if necessary, slightly lighten the waves with white on the wall and with tempered white lead on the panel. This will suffice for the coloring process."

25/12/2024

, the and with nana and grandpa ( and ) and His future youngest and , . , , 1522 circa.

The majestic architectural background of this panel, with decorations and a frieze depicting an ancient battle (clearly inspired by ), is a proof of the artist's antiquarian culture. The central group with the , and Saint Anne recalls 's model, heavily influenced by 's engravings. The cherries that St. Anne hands over to the Child symbolises the blood to be shed during the Passion. In the second half of the 16th century, since the Devolution of to the Papal States in 1598, many works by Mazzolino belonging to House d' entered the Roman and the collections.

and a by ..!

28/04/2024

with , from Paris, about 1320-1340, , , .

Said writing tablets were normally coated with a thin layer of wax on one side to engrave. They were literally small carnets for the writing..!

These writing table in particular depicts the on the beach of , as this story is recounted by the illuminated manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques de (the only other media this tiny takes inspiration from).

The defeat of Sidon, when the Arabs slaughtered the Christians, took place on the beach, on July. The dead bodies were left everywhere by the sea to rot; a few months later, finally went to Sidon to see what had occurred to his soldiers, and found nothing but decaying and rotting co**ses. One can almost smell the stench simply by looking at the people accompanying the King, that are about to vomit. Saint Louis insisted that those poor remains were sacred relics to touch and honour, for the had died in the name of Christ: and started personally to collect the bones, and to stack them in a bag, wearing no gloves.

25/12/2023

..!

"Hodie nobis celorum...In die nativitatis domini"

, 60v of the "B" of the Museo Diocesano di , dating back to the 1270s.

11/07/2023

, and with , and another also known as " dell'impannata", 1513-1514 circa , , ; , The miracles of San Bernardino: the healing of a mute (detail), 1473, , .

This sublime painting is known all over the world for the "impannata" in the background. Long before windows had glass, due to its cost, they were covered up with "impannate", a cloth soaked in turpentine to make it water-resistant.

Credits: first picture .artblogger

Second picture: Claudio Paolini

03/07/2023

Let's talk about
today!

, from the Rofeno Abbey, 1332-1337 circa, , slaying the , central ; , central ; , left panel; , right panel; , left pediment; Saint Louis of France, right pediment.

Nowadays, the most common products used in restoration are of synthetic origin; being these resins obtained from fossil oil, they are devoid of 14C ( ). Therefore, a not complete removal from the sample to be dated can be the cause of a consistent apparent ageing of the dated artworks. A chemical pre-treatment is required in order to clean the samples before the measurements. At INFN-LABEC laboratory in , a new procedure based on the use of an extraction with chloroform as solvent was tested.

According to its style, the can be clearly dated to a following period, the XVI century (it's attributed to the Olivetan monk Raffaello da Brescia). The goal of was verifying whether the wood frame was obtained using timbers of a possible original frame or using new wood. For the radiocarbon measurements, two significant wood samples were collected.

Turned out, the radiocarbon ages relative to the two samples subjected only to the ABA standard protocol are not compatible and are much older than the expected value. This result is the effect of the apparent ageing due to the presence of Paraloid B72 that was not completely removed with this pre-treatment. On the contrary, the measured radiocarbon concentrations and the corresponding radiocarbon ages of the two samples treated with the new procedure are consistent between them, and in agreement with the style of the picture frame. This suggests that the frame was rebuilt without any reuse timbers of the original wooden frame.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876619613000065

Credits©: First picture_@camminarte_in_toscana
Second picture_thebestofpainting
Third picture_@paolodigiglio

02/07/2023

Do you remember the Patriarchs frescoed on the sails of the Strozzi Chapel vault in the Santa Maria Novella church..? Let's now skip to another vault in another chapel, boasting yet more amazing murals (and yet more amazing Patriarchs): the cycle in the Sassetti Chapel in in , painted between 1482 and 1485 by (Michelangelo's teacher) and his many assistants. Francesco Sassetti was an agent of the Medici bank. The six main represent scenes from the life of , Sassetti’s patron saint: The Renunciation of Worldly Goods; The Confirmation Of The Franciscan Rule, The Test of Fire, The Miracle Of The Stigmata, The Death Of St. Francis, The Resurrection Of The Boy.
Let's talk first about the fresco technique, which Domenico Ghirlandaio mastered -don’t forget that he taught this technique to Michelangelo Buonarroti..!
“Fresco” means “fresh” in Italian, i. e. “painted on wet plaster” with water-based pigments. When plaster dries, they become part of the matrix of the wall. Pigments become part of the matrix of the wall due to the chemical process of carbonatation. The fresco painting consists of three strata and the materials they're made of; the arriccio, a rough under layer to smooth out the wall, 3:1 sand to lime paste, which is absorbent, retains water, and dries slowly; intonaco, a smooth upper layer upon what the final painting is performed (1:1 fine sand to lime paste), drying fast; the painted surface, which in this way becomes very durable, as resistant as stone, and lasts forever with its brilliant, vibrant colours. As a matter of fact, this fresco cycle looks as if it were painted only a short time ago. Florentine painters were actually the most skilled at this technique..!

Read more 👉🏻 https://expertflorenceguide.com/the-sassetti-chapel-by-domenico-ghirlandaio-in-santa-trnita/?fbclid=PAAaapyy4-a_pNKz4ifIQWM1SMDRU59FXSalAOsTu9gf3_zEnUxz2h84ujbAU

25/06/2023

of a head of a warrior; terracotta highrelief depicting the torso of a warrior, both pieces from the of , III century b. C., Fiesole, .

The is said to have been decorated with stories of Eteocles and Polynices (two of the four children Aedipus had had with Jocasta, unbeknownst of her being his own mother) crossing swords, and killing each other ( ). According to King , Polynices wasn't worthy of being buried, for he had betrayed his own homeland. His sister had his body buried out of compassion nonetheless, this resulting in Antigones being sentenced to death by being buried alive.

The pieces can possibly depict the previously mentioned .

di Fiesole

02/06/2023

, of Isabella Brant, , 1625-1626,

Everytime I look into Isabella's eyes, I truly feel like there's a connection between the two of us. Could be the name we share?She was Pieter Paul ' first wife, that he married in 1609 right after going back home from Italy, and who he deeply loved and cared for. You can tell. This painting could be enlisted amongst the so-called "speaking likeness", portraits that communicate so much about the feelings and personality of the portrayed ones. It almost looks like Isabella is caught mid- reading her booklet of prayers and blissfully smiles to her husband. According to some scholars, the painted this artwork right after his wife's death in 1626 (she died of plague in her early thirties): the ivy around the column in the background might mean . The portrait was a gift to Grand Prince Ferdinand of the from his brother-in-law Elector Palatine Prince Johann Wilhelm Von Der Pfalz: in this mail of December 10th 1705 Grand Prince Ferdinand thanks Prince Johann for the paintings he received as a gift: "All these art pieces are really beautiful in every genre, as well as they all were painted by accredited painters, but that one by Rubens is beyond imagination, and the wonder of that famous "paintbrush"".

The painting was executed on a whole, single panel; the is a gorgeous .

30/04/2023

"Draw me not without reason; sheath me not without ."

Detail of the statue depicting (Ludovico di Giovanni de' ), father to under the . It's by Temistocle Guerrazzi and dates back to 1856.

Courtesy of .

09/04/2023

with the great, rather unknown and this from the superb and sumptuous of the of , Gastone della Torre, presumably executed near to the 's date of death (August 20th, 1318) and built in the right nave of the in .Gastone della Torre felt by accident from his horse during a journey that would supposedly take him to Aquileia. The conception of the monument could have taken place in a deeply pro- political context, with the Florentine authorities possibly showing interest in the burial of Gastone della Torre, easily seen as a sort of illustrious martyr of the cause. When the lord of Florence was Robert of himself, the bishop was Antonio d'Orso, very close to the Angevin ruler either: he would die just a few years after Gastone della Torre, and would be buried in a tomb by the same Tino di Camaino. The decision to place the tomb of Gastone della Torre in was consistent with the pro-Guelph climate in which the commission could probably take place.

Picture by (https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tino_di_camaino,_monumento_del_patriarca_di_aquileia_gastone_della_torre,_1318-19,_09_resurrezione_1.jpg)

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24435269

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Ostension of the Holy Girdle of #virginmary from the external #pulpit by #donatello and #michelozzo (1428 - 1433, copy). #prato , #cathedral of #santostefano , #august15 2022. #expertflorenceguide #florenceoffthebeatentrack #pratocity #visitprato #ferragosto #santamaria #assumptionoftheblessedvirginmary #assumptionofmary

🌟 A pochi giorni dal mio #tour del 5 Dicembre E le stelle stiamo a guardare. Firenze, museo di Scienze...a cielo aperto..!, ricordo con emozione quando ho assistito al passaggio del #sole nella #basilica di #santamarianovella il 22 Settembre di quest'anno, giorno dell' #equinoziodautunno . 🌞 Il sole -non un suo raggio, bensì proprio la proiezione della sua immagine, ribaltata, di 36 centimetri- è penetrato in chiesa attraverso un foro gnomonico grande un millesimo della sua altezza dal pavimento (20,45 metri), aperto dal cosmografo #egnaziodanti nel 1574 nel #rosone in facciata. ♀️Pensate che una volta, con l'ausilio di un foglio bianco, fu possibile vedere un puntino nero che transitava davanti all'immagine del Sole, Venere..! 🧭 Questo foro stenopeico è parte di una #meridiana a #cameraoscura , costituita da quello e da una banda metallica sul pavimento, una piattina, posizionata in direzione Sud-Nord (in questo caso la piattina, che indica il tratto compiuto dal fascio di luce nell’arco di tempo tra la minima altezza - nadir, #solstiziodinverno - e massima altezza, zenith, #solstiziodestate ) lungo la linea meridiana è lungo 41 metri circa). La maggior parte delle #meridiane a camera oscura si trova in #italia ..! ⛪ La piattina non è originale, ma fu costruita nel 2016 ispirandosi alla meridiana costruita da Egnazio Danti in Vaticano, nella Torre dei Venti. Anche il foro stenopeico del #rosone è stato rifatto sulle indicazioni menzionate da Leonardo Ximenes nel suo trattato quando fu smontata e restaurata la vetrata nel 1982. #expertflorenceguide #florenceoffthebeatentrack