FIRENZE: CAPPELLA BRANCACCI

The Distribution of Alms and Death of Ananias by Masaccio

The Brancacci Chapel (in Italian, "Cappella dei Brancacci") is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by Pietro Brancacci and begun in 1386. Public access is currently gained via the neighbouring convent, designed by Brunelleschi. The church and the chapel are treated as separate places to visit and as such have different opening times and it is quite difficult to see the rest of the church from the chapel.

The patron of the pictorial decoration was Felice Brancacci, descendant of Pietro, who had served as the Florentine ambassador to Cairo until 1423. Upon his return to Florence, he hired Masolino da Panicale to paint his chapel. Masolino's associate, 21 year old Masaccio, 18 years younger than Masolino, assisted, but during painting Masolino left to Hungary, where he was painter to the king, and the commission was given to Masaccio. By the time Masolino returned he was learning from his talented former student. However, Masaccio was called to Rome before he could finish the chapel, and died in Rome at the age of 27. Portions of the chapel were completed later by Filippino Lippi. Unfortunately during the Baroque period some of the paintings were seen as unfashionable and a tomb was placed in front of them.

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HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216 801

Fax 0039 055 212 039

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LITERATURE IN FLORENCE

Decameron (1350–1353) by Giovanni Boccaccio.

Despite Latin being the main language of the courts and the Church, writers such as Dante Alighieri and many others used their own language, the Florentine dialect, in composing their works. The oldest literary pieces written in vernacular language go as far back as the 13th century. Florence's literature fully blossomed in the 14th century, when not only Dante with his Divine Comedy (1306–1321) and Petrarch, but also poets such as Guido Cavalcanti and Lapo Gianni composed their most important works. Dante's masterpiece is the Divine Comedy, which mainly deals with the poet himself taking an allegoric and moral tour of Hell, Purgatory and finally Heaven, during which he meets numerous mythological or real characters of his age or before. He is first guided by the Roman poet Virgil, whose non-Christian beliefs damned him to Hell. Later on he is joined by Beatrice, who guides him through Heaven.

In the 14th century, Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio led the literary scene in Florence after Dante's death in 1321. Petrarch was an all-rounder writer, author and poet, but was particularly known for his Canzoniere, or the Book of Songs, where he conveyed his unremitting love for Laura. His style of writing has since become known as Petrarchism. Boccaccio was better known for his Decameron, a slightly grim story of Florence during the 1350s bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, when some people fled the ravaged city to an isolated country mansion, and spent their time there recounting stories and novellas taken from the medieval and contemporary tradition. All of this is written in a series of 100 distinct novellas.

In the 16th century, during the Renaissance, Florence was the hometown of political writer and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, whose ideas on how rulers should govern the land, detailed in The Prince, spread across European courts and enjoyed enduring popularity for centuries. These principles became known as Machiavellianism.

Visit Florence and stay at Hotel Mario's.

Hotel Mario's

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze - Italy

Tel. 0039 055 216 801

Fax 0039 055 212039

E-mail: hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com

Internet site: www.hotelmarios.com

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was born in 1313, in either June or July out of wedlock to Boccaccino di Chellino and an unknown woman. In 1319 Boccaccino di Chellino marries and Boccaccio's stepbrother, Francesco is born.

The work he is perhaps most known for is the Decameron (which means "Work of Ten Days") 100 stories told over 10 days by 10 people escaping from the plague. It was one of the final stories The Tale of Griselda which Petrarch read and then translated into Latin. It was composed between 1349 and 1353.

Although he is first exposed to Petrarch's works in 1333, it isn't until 1350 that the two of them first meet face to face, in Rome. By that time Boccaccio was the undisputed leader of Florentine literary culture.

Under Petrarch's influence, he turned increasingly away from vernacular fiction (Italian fiction) in favor of Latin scholary works. He took lessons in Greek, solicited translations from Greek texts, and in 1360 successfully worked to establish at Florence the first chair of Greek in non-Byzantine Europe. In 1373 the citizens of Florence chose him to give the world's first lecturae Dantis, probably the first lecture series ever dedicated to the exposition of a European vernacular text.

The two formed a friendship which lasted their entire lives, so much so that Boccaccio is the recipient of a large number of letters which appear in Petrarch's collections.

There are many unknowns in history, and one of those unknowns when it comes to Petrarch is how much is real. Although Petrarch tells us he was crowned poet lauriet in Rome, there is no other account for this in history, except in the writings of Boccaccio.

Boccaccio died on December 21, 1375. Together Petrarch and Boccaccio could be called the founders of Humanism. Besides the time they lived in and their contributions to the world they also shared many similarieties. They both fed of each other for inspiration and support through the years as both lost many friends during the plague. They both had loves which they lost to the plague as well, Petrarch's Laura de Noves and Boccaccio's Maria d'Aquino. 

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, called DONATELLO

Donatello's statue outside of the Uffizi Galleria.

In Florence, Donatello assisted Lorenzo Ghiberti with the statues of prophets for the north door of the Florence Baptistery, for which he received payment in November 1406 and early 1408. In 1409–1411 he executed the colossal seated figure of Saint John the Evangelist, which until 1588 occupied a niche of the old cathedral facade, and is now placed in a dark chapel of the Duomo. This work marks a decisive step forward from late Gothic Mannerism in the search for naturalism and the rendering of human feelings. The face, the shoulders and the bust are still idealized, while the hands and the fold of cloth over the legs are more realistic.

In 1411–1413 Donatello worked on a statue of St. Mark for the church of Orsanmichele. In 1417 he completed the St. George for the Confraternity of the Cuirass-makers. The elegant St. George and the Dragon relief on the statue's base, executed in schiacciato (also known as bas-relief or basso rilievo) is one of the first examples of central-point perspective in sculpture.

From 1423 is the St. Louis of Toulouse, now in the Museum of the Basilica di Santa Croce. Donatello had also sculpted a tabernacle for this work, but it was sold in 1460 to house the Incredulity of St. Thomas by Verrocchio.

Between 1415 and 1426, Donatello created five statues for the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, also known as the Duomo. These works are the Beardless Prophet; Bearded Prophet (both from 1415); the Sacrifice of Isaac (1421); Habbakuk (1423–1425); and Jeremiah (1423–1426); which follow the classical models for orators and are characterized by strong portrait details. From the late teens is the Pazzi Madonna relief in Berlin. In 1425, he executed the notable Crucifix for Santa Croce; this work portrays Christ in a moment of the agony, eyes and mouth partially opened, the body contracted in an ungraceful posture.

Between 1425–1427, Donatello collaborated with Michelozzo on the funerary monument of the Antipope John XXIII for the Battistero in Florence. Surely by Donatello is the recumbent bronze figure of the deceased, under a shell. In 1427, he completed in Pisa a marble panel for the funerary monument of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci at the church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo in Naples. In the same period, he executed the relief of the Feast of Herod and the statues of Faith and Hope for the Baptstery of San Giovanni in Siena. The relief is mostly in stiacciato, while the foreground figures are done in bas-relief.

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Hotel Mario's
via Faenza, 89
50123, Florence
+39-055216801 tel
+39-055212039 fax
info@hotelmarios.com
www.hotelmarios.com