03/11 DECEMBER 2011: Biennale Internazionale dell'Arte Contemporanea

The Florence Biennale was founded in 1997 as a global convocation of artists with all their diversity. It was the right time for an idea like this. By the late 1990s, contemporary art was at a cross road. The old assumptions – that art came in waves, each named with an ‘ism’ by the end, that auction prices equal the value received, that painting was ‘dead’ and so on – those assumptions were collapsing. Suddenly it was obvious that art was alive, thriving, and as varied as humanity. Artists are everywhere. Around that time, in the old Florence, something new was stirring. A committee of Italian artists and curators proposed a biennial where talented and recognized artists could exhibit their latest work. The artists would decide the way of exhibiting their work. The risks were enormous: there had never been a show on this scale with a direct connection between artists’ studios and the exhibition walls. The evaluation of unfiltered results would be assigned to an International Jury. In 1997, with hardly any publicity, the invitations were sent. The response was impressive: 317 artists from 17 different countries.
By 2003, the 4th Florence Biennale had grown into the world’s most comprehensive exhibition of contemporary art, showing more than 800 artists from 70 different countries. This year’s 7th Biennale builds on those numbers and broadens its horizons.

Those expecting a single curatorial vision will be astonished by its polyglot multiplicity. The only curator is who visits the show. Here are 3000 paintings, sculptures, prints and installations. Make your ‘short list’ – there aren’t going to be two lists alike.
Artists at every stage of their careers, including the most eminent artists, play key roles at the Biennale. Their presence is the confirmation that the garden of art yields wondrous fruit when tilled by many hands. Past distinguished recipients of the "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Award for Career Achievement include Chen Cheng-Hsiung (2001, the first Chinese abstract expressionist painter), David Hockney (2003), Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Richard Anuskiewicz (Optical Art in the '60) and Gilbert and George in the 2007. This year Career Awards will be bestowed on Marina Abramovic, and Shu Yong.

The Biennale believes in promoting respect and tolerance among the world’s artists. In 2001, the Biennale was recognized by the United Nations as an official partner in its program, Dialogue among Civilizations. In 2005 features its collaborative association with the Triennale of India, the most important contemporary art exhibition in Asia, and in 2003 with the Turku Biennale in Finland. The interaction of art and science is an ongoing theme of the Biennale. FB03 presented exhibitions of the Vatican Museums Conservation Laboratory and historic Ferrari racing cars. Streamlined speed was again seen in this 2005 show of classic motorcycles by Harley Davidson.
The 7th Edition of Florence Biennale confirm the role of this exhibition in the world of contemporary art, with its 650 artists, 84 nations represented and more than 2500 artworks exhibited. 

 

Stay at Hotel Mario's and enjoy this important exhibition.

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BEATO ANGELICO: San Marco, Florence, 1436–1445

Posthumous portrait of Fra Angelico by Luca Signorelli

Fra Angelico (c. 1395 – February 18, 1455), born Guido di Pietro, was an Early Italian Renaissance painter described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He was known to his contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John from Fiesole) and by Vasari as Fra Giovanni Angelico (Brother John the Angelic One).

Fra Angelico is known in Italy as il Beato Angelico, the term "Il Beato" ("Blessed One") being already in use during his lifetime or shortly thereafter, in reference to his skills in painting religious subjects. In 1982 Pope John Paul II conferred beatification, in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making this title official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from other Fra Giovannis. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, nicknamed Angelico".

Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico:

But it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety.

In 1436 Fra Angelico was one of a number of the friars from Fiesole who moved to the newly-built Friary of San Marco in Florence. This was an important move which put him in the centre of artistic activity of the region and brought about the patronage of one of the wealthiest and most powerful members of the city's Signoria, Cosimo de' Medici, who had a large cell (later occupied by Savonarola) reserved for himself at the friary in order that he might retreat from the world. It was, according to Vasari, at Cosimo's urging that Fra Angelico set about the task of decorating the monastery, including the magnificent Chapter House fresco, the often-reproduced Annunciation at the top of the stairs to the cells, the Maesta with Saints and the many smaller devotional frescoes depicting aspects of the Life of Christ that adorn the walls of each cell.

The Maestà (Madonna enthroned) with Saints; San Marco, Florence

In 1439 he completed one of his most famous works, the Altarpiece for St. Marco's, Florence. The result was unusual for its times. Images of the enthroned Madonna and Child surrounded by saints were common, but they usually depicted a setting that was clearly heavenlike, in which saints and angels hovered about as divine presences rather than people. But in this instance, the saints stand squarely within the space, grouped in a natural way as if they were able to converse about the shared experience of witnessing the Virgin in glory. Paintings such as this, known as Sacred Conversations, were to become the major commissions of Giovanni Bellini, Perugino and Raphael.

 

Visit Florence's culture and stay at Hotel Mario's

 

HOTEL MARIO'S

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50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216 801

Fax 0039 055 212 039

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Internet site: www.hotelmarios.com 

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

ART IN FLORENCE

Florence has a legendary artistic heritage. Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, forefathers of the Renaissance, Ghiberti and the Della Robbias, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Their works, together with those of many other generations of artists, are gathered in the several museums of the town: the Uffizi Gallery, the Palatina gallery with the paintings of the "Golden Ages" the Bargello with the sculptures of the Renaissance, the museum of San Marco with Fra Angelico's works, the Academy, the chapels of the Medicis Buonarroti' s house with the sculptures of Michelangelo, the following museums: Bardini, Horne, Stibbert, Romano, Corsini, The Gallery of Modern Art, the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, the museum of Silverware and the museum of Precious Stones. Great monuments are the landmarks of Florentine artistic culture: the Florence Baptistery with its mosaics; the Cathedral with its sculptures, the medieval churches with bands of frescoes; public as well as private palaces: Palazzo Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Palazzo Davanzati; monasteries, cloisters, refectories; the "Certosa". In the archeological museum includes documents of Etruscan civilization. In fact the city is so rich in art that some first time visitors experience the Stendhal syndrome as they encounter its art for the first time.

Uffizi hallway

Florentine architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1466) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) were among the fathers of both Renaissance and Neoclassical architecture,

The cathedral, topped by Brunelleschi's dome, dominates the Florentine skyline. The Florentines decided to start building it – late in the 13th century, without a design for the dome. The project proposed by Brunelleschi in the 14th century was the largest ever built at the time, and the first major dome built in Europe since the two great domes of Roman times – the Pantheon in Rome, and Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The dome of Santa Maria del Fiore remains the largest brick construction of its kind in the world. In front of it is the medieval Baptistery. The two buildings incorporate in their decoration the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. In recent years, most of the important works of art from the two buildings – and from the nearby Giotto's Campanile, have been removed and replaced by copies. The originals are now housed in the Museum dell'Opera del Duomo, just to the east of the Cathedral.

Florence has large numbers of art-filled churches, such as San Miniato al Monte, San Lorenzo, Santa Maria Novella, Santa Trinita, Santa Maria del Carmine, Santa Croce, Santo Spirito, the Annunziata, Ognissanti and numerous others.

Palazzo della Signoria

Artists associated with Florence range from Arnolfo di Cambio and Cimabue to Giotto, Nanni di Banco, and Paolo Uccello; through Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Donatello and Massaccio and the della Robbia family; through Fra Angelico and Botticelli and Piero della Francesca, and on to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Others include Benvenuto Cellini, Andrea del Sarto, Benozzo Gozzoli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Filippo Lippi, Bernardo Buontalenti, Orcagna, Pollaiuolo, Filippino Lippi, Verrocchio, Bronzino, Desiderio da Settignano, Michelozzo, the Rossellis, the Sangallos, and Pontormo. Artists from other regions who worked in Florence include Raphael, Andrea Pisano, Giambologna, Il Sodoma and Peter Paul Rubens.

Brunelleschi's dome

The Uffizi and the Pitti Palace are two of the most famous picture galleries in the world. Two superb collections of sculpture are in the Bargello and the Museum of the Works of the Duomo. They are filled with the creations of Donatello, Verrochio, Desiderio da Settignano, Michelangelo and others. The Accademia has Michelangelo's David – perhaps the most well-known work of art anywhere, plus the unfinished statues of the slaves Michelangelo created for the tomb of Pope Julius II.

Other sights include the medieval city hall, the Palazzo della Signoria (alsdo known as the Palazzo Vecchio), the Archeological Museum, the Museum of the History of Science, the Palazzo Davanzatti, the Stibbert Museum, St. Marks, the Medici Chapels, the Museum of the Works of Santa Croce, the Museum of the Cloister of Santa Maria Novella, the Zoological Museum ("La Specola"), the Bardini, and the Museo Horne. There is also a collection of works by the modern sculptor, Marino Marini, in a museum named after him. The Strozzi Palace is the site of special exhibits.

Visit Florence and stay at Hotel Mario's

FASHION DESIGNERS OF FLORENCE

Luxury boutiques along Florence's prestigious Via de' Tornabuoni.

Florence being historically the first home of Italian fashion (the 1951–1953 soirées held by Giovanni Battista Giorgini are generally regarded as the birth of the Italian school as opposed to French haute couture) is also home to the Italian fashion establishment Salvatore Ferragamo. Gucci, Enrico Coveri, Emilio Pucci, Patrizia Pepe, Ermanno Scervino and many others are founded and located in Florence. Prada, Roberto Cavalli, and Chanel have large offices and stores in Florence or its outskirts. Florence's main upscale shopping street is Via de' Tornabuoni, where major luxury fashion houses and jewelry labels, such as Armani, Ferragamo and Bulgari, have their boutiques.

The San Lorenzo market is now largely for tourists. Great places to walk include along the Arno and across any of its bridges, through narrow, medieval back streets in the Santa Croce area and in the Oltr'Arno – on the south side of the river, in many ways like Rome's Trastevere or Paris's Left Bank – but far smaller. There are also superb shopping streets, such as the Via Tornabuoni, the Via del Parione, and the Via Maggio.

Visit Florence and stay at Hotel Mario's.

Hotel Mario's
Via Faenza, 89
50123 Florence - Italy
Tel. 0039 055 216 801
Fax 0039 055 212039
E-mail: hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com
Internet site: www.hotelmarios.com 

FORTE DI BELVEDERE

Fortification

The Forte di Belvedere or Fortezza di Santa Maria in San Giorgio del Belvedere (often called simply Belvedere) is a fortification in Florence, Italy. It was built by Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici during the period 1590–1595, with Bernardo Buontalenti as the designer, to protect the city and its rule by the Medici family.

On the same side of the river as the Grand Ducal palace, the Pitti Palace in the Oltrarno district of the city, today the grounds provide spectacular outlooks over Florence; the buildings are used to hold works of art, and as a venue for exhibitions of contemporary sculpture.

The design and construction of the Fort were entrusted to architect Bernardo Buontalenti, the chief architect for both Cosimo I and his son, Ferdinando. The Fort served many purposes: to protect the center of government in Florence, the Pitti Palace; to protect the south end of the city of Florence and the Oltrarno district; to demonstrate the power of the Medici family; hold the treasury of the Medici; and finally to provide a shelter for the Grand Duke if the city came under attack. The fort was connected to Palazzo Vecchio via the Vasari Corridor over Ponte Vecchio, passages in the Pitti Palace and paths through Boboli Gardens.

Buontalenti applied contemporary fortification principles when he designed the Fort. The walls are designed at angles that allow for all the walls to be seen by another wall, allowing for cross fire to assist in protecting the other walls. The location where the fort was placed had long been considered of strategic importance since the time of Michelangelo, then head engineer of fortifications. An earlier version of the fort was built of earth and stone gabions as seen in frescoes in Palazzo Vecchio.

In addition to being a fortification, the Belvedere was meant to be a sign of Medici prestige. The villa inside the fortress was designed to be elegant and did not adhere to the military purposes of the rest of the fort. Since the villa was meant to be used as the residence of the Grand Duke during times of unrest or epidemic, it was built as a comfortable, luxurious palace, another sign of Medici domination in Florence.

The Fort served as a garrison for troops for over 100 hundred years after its completion.

Visit Florence and stay at our hotel:

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze - Italy

Tel. 0039 055 216 801

Fax 0039 055 212 039

E-mail: hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com

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OSPEDALE DEGLI INNOCENTI

The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a historical building in Florence, central Italy. Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, who received the commission in 1419, it was originally a children's orphanage. It is regarded as a notable example of early Italian Renaissance architecture. The hospital, which features a nine bay loggia facing the Piazza SS. Annunziata, was built and managed by the "Arte della Seta" or Silk Guild of Florence. That guild was one of the wealthiest in the city and, like most guilds, took upon itself philanthropic duties.

The façade is made up of nine semicircular arches springing from columns of the Composite order. The semicircular windows brings the building down, earthbound and is a revival of the classical style, no longer a pointed arch. In the spandrels of the arches there are glazed blue terracotta roundels with reliefs of babies suggesting the function of the building. There is an emphasis on the horizontal because the building is longer than it is tall. Above each semicircular arch is a tabernacle window (a rectangular window with a triangular pediment on the top).

The clean and clear sense of proportion is reflected in the building. The height of the columns is the same width of the intercolumniation and the width of the arcade is equal to the height of the column, making each bay a cube. The simple proportions of the building reflect a new age, of secular education and a sense of great order and clarity. Also half the height of the column is the height of the entablature, which is appropriate for a clear minded society.

Ospedale degli Innocenti

Children were sometimes abandoned in a basin which was located at the front portico. However, this basin was removed in 1660 and replaced by a wheel for secret refuge. There was a door with a special rotating horizontal wheel that brought the baby into the building without the parent being seen. This allowed people to leave their babies, anonymously, to be cared for by the orphanage. This system was in operation until the hospital's closure in 1875. Today the building houses a small museum of Renaissance art.

Visit Florence and stay at our hotel:

HOTEL MARIO'S
Via Faenza, 89
50123 Florence - Italy 

email: info@hotelmarios.com

www.hotelmarios.com

Roman origins of Florence

A wooden model of Florence

Florence was established by Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 80 BC as a settlement for his veteran soldiers and was named originally Fluentia, owing the fact that it was built between two rivers, which was later corrupted to Florentia. It was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated at the Via Cassia, the main route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. The Emperor Diocletian is said to have made Florentia the seat of a bishopric around the beginning of the 4th century AD, but this seems impossible in that Diocletian was a notable persecutor of Christians.

In the ensuing two centuries, the city experienced turbulent periods of Ostrogothic rule, during which the city was often troubled by warfare between the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines, which may have caused the population to fall to as few as 1,000 people. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century. Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to grow again and commerce prospered. In 854, Florence and Fiesole were united in one county.

FLORENTINE CUISINE

Florentine food grows out of a tradition of peasant eating rather than rarefied high cooking. The majority of dishes are based on meat. The whole animal was traditionally eaten; tripe, (trippa) and (lampredotto) were once regularly on the menu and still are sold at the food carts stationed throughout the city. Antipasti include crostini toscani, sliced bread rounds topped with a chicken liver-based pâté, and sliced meats (mainly prosciutto and salame, often served with melon when in season). The typically saltless Tuscan bread, obtained with natural levain frequently features in Florentine courses, especially in its famous soups, ribollita and pappa al pomodoro, or in the salad of bread and fresh vegetables called panzanella that is served in summer. The most famous main course is the bistecca alla fiorentina, a large (the customary size should weigh around 1200 grams – "40 oz.") – the "date" steak – T-bone steak of Chianina beef cooked over hot charcoal and served very rare with its more recently derived version, the tagliata, sliced rare beef served on a bed of arugula, often with slices of Parmesan cheese on top. Most of these courses are generally served with local olive oil, also a prime product enjoying a worldwide reputation.

Historic Florentine Football

Calcio Storico Fiorentino ("Historic Florentine Football"), sometimes called Calcio in costume, is a traditional sport, regarded as a forerunner of soccer, though the actual gameplay most closely resembles rugby. The event originates from the Middle Ages, when the most important Florentine nobles amused themselves playing while wearing magnificent costumes. The most important match was played on 17 February 1530, during the siege of Florence. That day Papal troops besiged the city while the Florentines, with contempt of the enemies, decided to play the game notwithstanding the situation. The game is played in the Piazza di Santa Croce. A temporary arena is constructed, with bleachers and a sand-covered playing field. A series of matches are held between four teams representing each quartiere (quarter) of Florence during late June and early July. There are four teams: Azzurri (light blue), Bianchi (white), Rossi (red) and Verdi (green). The Azzurri are from the quarter of Santa Croce, Bianchi from the quarter of Santo Spirito, Verdi are from San Giovanni and Rossi from Santa Maria Novella.

SUMMER IN FLORENCE

During the summer, Florence became a big open air stage where they are often tourists, visitors to play the part of the protagonists. With its squares, its churches and monuments to admire without getting bored, Firenze is ideal for young couples, families and groups of friends.

First we start with some advice. Florence in the summer is a very hot city, then try to limit your outputs to the cooler hours, preferring perhaps visiting museums and places indoors during the time when the sun is strongest. Of course this advicehas to be applied  to European tourists, because those Americans are certainly more accustomed to high temperatures. Ultimately the climate of Florence is still a Mediterranean climate.

We start from the center. Just a few months ago the entire area around the Piazza del Duomo, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with Giotto‘s frescoes, the famous dome of Brunelleschi and the Baptistery, had been pedestrianized. This is a great scene, one of the marvels of humanity, even more enjoyable now breathing cleaner air and less noise.

From here I awant to create two paths. The first takes you through the Via dei Calzaioli, where are boutiques of fashion: Gucci, Prada, Valentino and so on. A pause in Piazza della Repubblica, sipping a coffee at one of the famous bars, where the artists of the vanguard of primo novecento The second route takes you from the Duomo to Borgo San Lorenzo, where it is to be  visited the Church designed by Michelangelo and the museums of the Medici Chapels. Spread around a small market of leather handicrafts made by Florentine artisans. Bags, shoes, girdles, jackets. Here is a must to visit the Central Market, where you’ll find the authentic flavors of Tuscan cuisine and especially the Florentine. It starts primarily from meat, queen of the tables in the restaurants. The famous Fiorentina Cut, a cut of rib eye steak, cooked on the outside and rare inside.

You eat natural, or with oil and pepper, served with arugula and shavings of Parmesan cheese or perhaps with a beautiful chapel of fresh porcini mushrooms. At Central Market of San Lorenzo, a small restaurant offers some of the best specialty of Florence, at really low prices.

Try the sandwich with Lampredotto, or the one with the Bollito, tripe, Peposa and other dishes prepared daily. Then in the market you will find spices, cheese, bread and cake for all tastes. 

Many special exhibitions are also organized this year in Florence. Four hundred years after his death, Michelangelo Merisi in the Uffizi, along with Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Botticelli. Then the largest collection by many artists of the Reinassance period.

HOTEL MARIO' S
Via Faenza, 89
50123 Firenze
tel +39055216801
fax +39055212039
hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com
www.hotelmarios.com   

How to get to Florence

Florence is well-connected with the rest of Italy and with Europe, and is easy to get to by air or land. In the last few years there has been a significant increase in traffic in and out of Florence's Vespucci Airport, and the infrastructure and facilities are constantly being upgraded.
Florence is also a key node on the Italian railway network. It has good connections with the main cities in the north, while to the south Rome is only about an hour and a half away. Work on the Bologna-Florence stretch of the high-speed railway line (TAV, Treni Alta Velocità) is at an advanced stage, and a new station is due to be built in Florence.
The A1 motorway, the main road artery linking the north and south of the country, runs past Florence, which has four exits. A third lane is currently being built on the Barberino-Incisa stretch of the A1. The A11 motorway and the Florence-Pisa-Livorno (FI-PI-LI) dual carriageway link the city with the west (Tyrrhenian Sea) coast.

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com

TRL Awards 2011: Firenze, 20 aprile 2011

TRL Awards 2011: Firenze, 20 aprile 2011

Anche nel 2011 tornano i TRL Awards, un maxi evento che porterà a Firenze i personaggi più amati dal mondo della musica, del cinema e della televisione per una sfida a colpi di voti che premierà i più amati dal pubblico! 

Preparati alla serata finale dei TRL Awards 2011, un maxi-evento nel cuore di Firenze con tutte le premiazioni dei vincitori nelle varie categorie, tanti ospiti e performance dal vivo. Comincia a segnarti la data: 20 aprile 2011. 

Hotel Mario's

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

hotelmarios@hotelmarios.com

ART 75° Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell’Artigianato: Fortezza da Basso, Firenze, dal 30 Aprile all' 8 Maggio - ART International Arts and Crafts exhibition: Fortezza da Basso, Florenze, from Friday, April 30 to Sunday, May 8, 2011

Dal 30 Aprile all' 8 Maggio 2011 nei suggestivi spazi espositivi della Fortezza da Basso torna l’appuntamento con ART - Mostra Mercato Internazionale dell’Artigianato, giunta alla 75^ edizione.
Nove giorni interi per valorizzare e commercializzare le culture innovative e le produzioni tradizionali a cui si legano i diversi comparti artigiani nell’ottica di un proficuo incontro e scambio fra il made in Italy (con la sua innata creatività e originalità) e la multiculturalità. A Firenze, capitale per antonomasia, dell’arte e della raffinata e secolare esperienza del ‘fatto a mano’.
La mostra sarà aperta al pubblico con il seguente orario: tutti i giorni dalle ore 10,00 alle ore 23,00 (ultimo giorno: chiusura alle ore 20,00).
Una serie di iniziative collaterali, workshop e convegni, promossi ed organizzati in collaborazione con Artex e le principali associazioni di categoria, con la partecipazione di opinion leader e personalità di spicco del comparto artigiano, affiancheranno la kermesse commerciale con il fine di rafforzare il ruolo di ART quale osservatorio annuale permanente di riferimento per il mondo dell’artigianato e test di mercato unico per il prodotto esposto. 

Identico il format delle edizione passate che prevede la suddivisione in sei grandi aree tematiche: TERRITORI - SCENE D’INTERNI - IL GUSTO - SCENARI DAL MONDO - SCENARI DI MODA & PREZIOSI - VISIONI, nelle quali gli espositori potranno presentarsi sulla base delle specifiche caratteristiche merceologiche dei loro prodotti a coprire l’intero mondo artigiano, colto nel suo costante cambiamento ed innovazione.
Un’occasione da non perdere dunque come punto di incontro fra produttori e consumatori: artigiani, piccole e medie aziende, interior designer, arredatori, architetti, titolari di negozi e gallerie specializzate. Questo e altro ancora è ART, lo storico salone internazionale dell’artigianato di Firenze, che da sempre premia la creatività, l’estro e l’abilità manuale di tanti maestri artigiani, suscitando intorno, sempre e comunque, nuove emozioni e desiderio di bellezza.

Art breasts the tape of 75 years of history, a period in which it has been able to develop and to keep pace with change, thus becoming one of the most prestigious shop-window of high quality artistic handicraft, both on a national and international level. Creating is an art. It is not by chance that ART, the International Handicraft Fair, was born and developed in Florence, and it is now housed
at the Fortezza da Basso, in the appealing exhibition areas of FirenzeFiera.
A top level location where to show and enjoy the creativeness and art of artisans from all over the world, who meet Florence’s and Tuscany’s history and tradition.
Artistic handicraft is an important richness of our culture and economy, one of the sectors which made the ingeniousness of “Made in Italy” products known and well-regarded all over the world.
ART 2011 is a unique meeting place for people who love that which is beautiful, for those who regard creativeness as valuable. A shop-window of innovating ideas and projects for professionals working in this field, and for consumers, whose tastes and needs are continuously changing.

The 75th Fair will be characterised by a very peculiar flavour: a look to the past, but mainly to the future, aiming at new shapes, new materials, new colours, taking into account, at the same time, the traditional refinement and taste that are peculiar to products which are never out-of-date.
ART 2011, the International Handicraft Fair, is not only a trade show, with over 700 exhibitors; it is a cultural event as well, which crosses Florence’s and Tuscany’s history.
And it is also the quality of exhibitors, the quality of side exhibitions, meetings and workshops: an irrevocable choice, that is well-regarded by artisans and visitors, both end-consumers and professionals such as architects, interior designers, shop owners and specialised galleries.

HOTEL MARIO'S Via Faenza, 89 50123 Firenze Tel. 0039 055 216801 Fax. 0039 055 212039 www.hotelmarios.com info@hotelmarios.com

ART 2011 - 10TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AIPND: Firenze Fiera Congress & Exhibition Center, April 13th - April 15th 2011

The world art heritage needs constant, accurate and loving care.
Non destructive analysis, in particular, has proved to be the gold standard to achieve more
successful and long-lasting preservation. In order to promote education and competence in this
area, the “art” logo was created over twenty years ago and it still represents, with national and
international meetings, one of the peaks among the numerous projects in this field.
Many non-destructive techniques and evaluation methods applied in the natural sciences offer
advantages to cultural heritage preservation. The synergy between experts will lead to the
continuous development and adjustments of new scientific methods and their application in the
fields of preservation, reconstruction and diagnostics of museum and archeological objects.
The last edition of the “art Conference” was held in Jerusalem and its growing and encouraging
figures have confirmed the interest of the international community: more than 150 papers, coming
from 32 countries, 75 posters and over 300 attendees.
The “art’11 Conference” accepts that challenge, resuming the prestige of a traditional success and
bringing together, in one or the world art capitals, conservation scientists, curators, art historians,
architectural researchers and experts in non-destructive evaluation and material analysis.
Florence will be on our side, with its unrivalled charm and, hopefully, with some warm, Italian
sunshine!

General information
VENUE
The Conference will be held in Florence, at “Palazzo degli Affari” (part of the “Firenze Fiera”
congress/exhibition district of Florence). The “Palazzo” lies within walking distance from the
railway station “Santa Maria Novella”.
Firenze Fiera Congress & Exhibition Center - Piazza Adua, 1 I-50123 Florence, Italy - www.firenzefiera.it
DATES
The meeting will start on Wednesday, April 13th and will close on Friday, April 15th 2011.
WORKING LANGUAGES
The official language of the Conference is English. Italian can be used only for posters and short
presentations. All abstracts, full papers and slides must be in English.

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com

BACI 2011 XX° Balloon Arts Convention International: Fortezza da Basso, March 24, 2011 - March 29, 2011

24 / 25 MARCH 2011 - Large Sculptures Competitions
If you’re not yet ready to be a team captain we can assign you to a team,
a truly unique and invaluable learning experience!
Se non sei ancora pronto per essere un capitano sarai assegnato ad una squadra,
un'esperienza di apprendimento unica e preziosa!

26 MARCH 2011 - Florence BACI Tour
Choose your favorite activities, detailed information will be sent to all delegates:
- tour the city, the museums, the shops and the trattorias
- visit fashion outlets
- participate in special event décor classes
Scegli le attività che preferisci,
- visita la città, i musei, i negozi e le trattorie
- visita gli outlet- partecipa a lezioni ed eventi speciali

27 / 29 MARCH 2011 - Courses
Inauguration March 27th, 16:00.
CBA examination March 27th , 09:00.
Inaugurazione il 27 Marzo alle ore 16:00.
Esami CBA il 27 Marzo alle ore 09:00.

28 MARCH 2011 - Gala Theme Party
Bring or make your best ISLAND theme costume for an unforgettable party!
Prepara il tuo costume (tema l'isola) per una festa indimenticabile!

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89

50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax. 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com

Firenze Tango Festival 2011 in Florence

Firenze Tango Festival 2011 will take place in Florence from April 28th to May 1st, 2011.
30 international artists, 40 workshops, performances every night, tango dancers from all over the world.
Dancing in the Saschall Theatre means: 2500 sq dedicated to tango in a location with high quality light and sound system, 2 orchestras, big tangoshow on the stage, 2 dance floors (“traditional” and “alternative”), afternoon milonga, table reservation and table service, exposition of tango shoes and clothes.

HOTEL MARIO'S

Via Faenza, 89      50123 Firenze

Tel. 0039 055 216801

Fax: 0039 055 212039

www.hotelmarios.com

info@hotelmarios.com

Dante Alighieri: the Paradiso

At noon on Easter Wednesday Dante mounts with Beatrice straight up into the world of light. The planets and stars he passes through spell out in images and language a vision as lost to us as the classical myths once read so popularly in the constellations. Not lost entirely, perhaps, for Dante teaches the reader how to sift the seeds of light from the chaff of mere superstition. Although the earth-centered Ptolemaic universe has vanished, as C. S. Lewis observes in The Discarded Image, each of us can still place ourselves in the midst of the galaxies by gazing up into the starlit night sky and wonder at our consciousness of such myriad lights. We may not be the physical center any longer, but in a profound spiritual sense our knowledge of the cosmos has never been more exciting, honest, and searching.

Through the nine spheres of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Fixed Stars, Primum Mobile, and beyond them to the Empyrean, Dante the pilgrim moves up into the rose of paradise to the vision of the triune God. Resuming the imagery of the sea-voyage in Purgatory, the poet cautions those readers following him in little skiffs to turn back to port. The sea he ventures upon has never been crossed before and those who sail in his wake will be more amazed than were the first seafaring Argonauts by the exploits of Jason. Only the wayfarers who look for manna from heaven will take this journey:

You other few who stretched your necks on high

In time to taste the bread of angels which

People here feed on, but never have their fill,

You well may put your boat out on the deep

By staying in the furrow of my wake

Before the water flows back smooth again.                                                 (Paradise II, 10-15)

Greater than the power to see visions is the gift of interpreting them, Saint Augustine claims. Pharaoh has dreams but Joseph gives them meaning; Belshazzar sees the hand-writing but Daniel tells him its significance. Dante’s vision of Holy and Easter Weeks in 1300 raised him to mystic heights, but how was one to re-visit such an apex of human consciousness and make it real to others? In the opening of Paradise the poet sounds a note that he will ring often again in the lines that follow:

I have been to that heaven where his light

Beams brightest and seen things that none, returning,

Has the knowledge or the power to repeat,

 

Because as it draws near to its desire,

Our intellect sinks down to such a depth

That memory cannot trace its way back there.

                               (Paradise I, 4-9)

So overwhelming was the experience that the mind cannot retain the profound dimensions felt at the time.

The poet must now seek the aid not of the Muses but of Apollo, god of sunlight and poetic inspiration. He asks the god to "come into my breast and breathe in me," as if the deity were another Holy Spirit. The gift of verbal music is not just for himself but for the poets with greater talents who shall follow Dante:

A little spark is followed by huge fires:

Perhaps, after me, prayers will be so raised

With stronger voices that Cyrrha may respond.

                               (Paradise I, 34-36)

The peak of Parnassus called Cyrrha was dear to Apollo — already the interpretation of the vision begins with these references to the pagan god who is himself being metamorphosed by the poet.

Dante’s task is to put the transcendent into speech until God grant others the similar grace of rising, here and now, above the human condition:

This passing-beyond-the-human cannot be

Expressed in words; let the example then

Serve him for whom grace reserves the experience.

                               (Paradise I, 70-72)

Dante employs the verb "trasumanar" to express the action of "transhumanizing" or moving above the earthly state into the heavenly realm. Like Saint Paul, the wayfarer does not know how he ascends, "whether in the body or out of the body" (2 Corinthians 12:2).

Even as he speaks and without being aware of it, the pilgrim soars with Beatrice at incalculable speed to the first sphere. The pair enters the moon, and Dante first sees faces like reflections in water, as faint as a pearl on a white forehead. He turns to look at the faces he thinks mirrored in front of him, but he finds nothing there. The reflections are real! Among souls he meets Piccarda, sister of his friend Forese Donati and cousin of his wife Gemma. These spirits have been inconstant like the moon. Dante wonders whether or not they aspire to a higher place in heaven, and Piccarda responds with one of the central themes of Paradise:

"So, how we dwell from threshold up to threshold

Throughout this kingdom gladdens the whole kingdom

And the King, too, who wills in us what He wills.

 

"For in His will is our peace. It is the sea

To which all things existing flow, both those

His will creates and those that nature makes."

                               (Paradise III, 82-87)

The poet here transforms the ocean imagery into a sea of light. The individual souls literally bathe in the single radiance of God which pours down through the nine spheres like luminous rain.

In the wheeling spirals of the sparkling souls that dazzle his gaze amid the planets and constellations, Dante is delighted to discover patterns within patterns of light. One of his most elaborate and complex configurations occupies the first eight stanzas of Canto XIII. In the previous two cantos the poet has described two twirling rings of twelve dancers that move around him as they sing their praises. Dante asks the reader three times to "imagine" the scene by taking any fifteen stars of the first magnitude, the seven stars of the Big Dipper, and the two stars from the mouth of the Little Dipper and then grouping them in two concentric circles, each like the Corona Borealis which, in Greek mythology, was made from the bridal wreath of Ariadne when she was brought to heaven to be the wife of Dionysus. With these twenty-four stars spinning in two circles, we may try to picture the two rings of twelve dancers rotating one within the other’s circle and in opposite directions, but such a splendid design would be only a pale shadow of what the poet witnessed, as far from the experience as the swift motion of the Primum Mobile is from the sluggish flow of the Chiana river in Tuscany. In one multi-layered epic simile, Dante fuses heaven and earth, sky and legend, vision and interpretation, into one coherently brilliant image.

In the pure white light of the planet Jupiter, the pilgrim watches as souls fly up like birds to form themselves into sparkling letters; their sky-writing spells out a message in Latin for rulers, the last character M becoming in turn a unit composed of many spirits:

And I saw other lights descend to where

The top of the M rose, and come to rest

There, singing, I believe, the Good that draws them.

                               (Paradise XVIII, 97-99)

In the next canto, the letter becomes an eagle that speaks with a single voice — the most unusual of all Dante’s conversationalists — and with clarity and vigorous warnings defends God’s justice.

Dante’s most inspired pattern is the white rose with its yellow center which the souls form in the highest heaven, the Empyrean. The rose is like a massive Colosseum with souls of both Dispensations seated in tiers that rise up higher and higher. It is divided vertically and equally between the Old and New Testaments with the upper rows on one half lined with souls who believed in Christ to come and on the other half those who believed in Christ when he came. Along the one dividing line sits Mary and downward under her the holy Hebrew women; opposite them sits John the Baptist and along the dividing line under him are Christian male saints.

Did Dante draw the pattern for his rose from the great rose windows of the French Gothic cathedrals? His first two biographers, Villani and Boccaccio, state that in the early years of his exile Dante visited Paris and attended the University. In Canto X the poet mentions the rue du Fouarre which begins on the left bank of the Seine across from the church of Notre-Dame. The rose of the poem combines the North and South windows in Notre-Dame’s transept, one depicting Mary with the Child Jesus surrounded by witnesses of the Old Dispensation and the other showing Christ ringed with the faithful from the New Covenant. About Mary are enthroned in the North rose first the sixteen prophets; in the second circle sit the thirty-two kings, royal ancestors of her Child; and in the outermost circle are thirty-two patriarchs and high-priests. The South rose (completely restored in the nineteenth century) pictures Christ surrounded by similar ranks of martyrs, confessors, and saints.

Not only does Dante join the ranking groups into one image but he also reverses our perspective. Instead of being a bystander gazing up at the flower from the outside, the pilgrim moves up through the tiers from within. As a result, Dante turns the rose inside out so that it is seen entirely in reflection, all mirrored in the one radiance that shines down from above:

The whole expanse is fashioned by the ray

Reflected from the top of the first-moved

Sphere from which it takes its might and motion.

 

And as a hillside is mirrored in a lake

Below, as if to look on its own beauty

When it is lush with flowers and fresh grass,

 

Just so, above the light and round and round,

Reflected from more than a thousand tiers,

I saw all those of us who have returned there.

                               (Paradise XXX, 106-115)

The pilgrim wonders: if the lowest ranks where the innocent children are ranged looks so vast, how wide must be the circumference of the "farthest-reaching petals"!

One of the problematic patterns that confounds the wayfarer and the reader involves reconciling the concentric model of the universe and its ever-widening orbits around the fixed earth with the center of the heavens in the Point of God on which all depends. In the first model the Primum Mobile occupies the outermost circle and in the second version the Primum Mobile forms the innermost ring. How can the universe possess two opposite centers? In Canto XXVIII Beatrice distinguishes between the material earth-centered cosmos and the Light-pivoting heavens. Employing the paradox of mysticism, she explains that the contradiction is only apparent since the principles of both patterns is the same and the spheres accelerate in speed as they draw nearer to God: the Primum Mobile whirls fastest in both worlds. To each physical sphere an angelic Intelligence is assigned with a wonderful correspondence between them. God as the center of the hierarchy of angels and as the circumference of the material cosmos manifests his omnipotence and omnipresence as both the immanent and transcendent One. And the earth? It recedes into insignificance.

The poet has turned the pilgrimage upside down and inside out, from a universe that takes the earth as its starting-point to a universe that offers an Archimedean point outside space and time, a total change in gravitation from the Satanic pull of the Inferno to the divine attraction of Paradise. This otherworldly reorientation takes place in human consciousness — Dante’s mystical vision intends to transform his readers in the here and now, in the course of moving through the Comedy. Kierkegaard remarked in a journal entry for 1848: "The Archimedean point outside the world is an oratory where a man really prays in all sincerity — and he shall move the earth." Dante has moved the earth with the fulcrum of his vision: first it moved him as an actual turning around of his life in 1300 and then it moved him again to write the poem.

Twice the pilgrim looks back from paradise to peer downward at the physical world so far below him:

I traveled back in gazing down through all

The seven spheres, and then I saw this globe

So paltry that I smiled at its appearance.

 

And that opinion I approve as best

Which holds the earth as least, and he whose thought

Is elsewhere may be named as truly upright.

                               (Paradise XXII, 133-138)

In his second farewell glance in Canto XXVII, Dante sees the madcap course followed by Ulysses, recalling the Greek’s speech in Inferno XXVI and the island of Mount Purgatory. Like the Omega Point of Teilhard de Chardin, the Point that attracts the pilgrim and all the blessed is a lodestone of Love, of dynamic energy and light, and of converging forces that receive their motion and charge from its attraction.

Like the previous canticles, Paradise proceeds to its climax through a series of personal encounters between the pilgrim and the spirits of the dead. Dante’s drive to go onward first comes from his contact with Beatrice as she grows more luminous and gracious in his eyes. But Dante also learns from others along the way. In Canto VI, the Emperor Justinian provides Dante with a summary of heroic deeds accomplished under the ensign of the Roman eagle. Dante’s great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida in Canto XVI offers a detailed account of the past achievements of noble families in Florence. Both histories follow a pattern of rise and fall, the ancient prowess yielding to gradual decline and breakdown into factions. The Holy Roman Empire on the national and local levels has fallen on evil days. As Charles Martel of Anjou predicts in Canto VIII, darker days of warfare lie ahead.

The panoramic view of Roman history provided by Justinian and the story of the Florentine families and of Dante’s own lineage recounted by Cacciaguida present the public and personal narratives that the poet balances in turn with the past and future summaries of events. The public prophecy of Martel is counterpointed by the private revelations of Cacciaguida regarding Dante’s own exile and suffering:

"You shall leave everything most dearly loved:

This is the first one of the arrows which

The bow of exile is prepared to shoot.

 

"You shall discover how salty is the savor

Of someone else’s bread, and how hard the way

To come down and climb up another’s stairs."

                               (Paradise XVII, 58-63)

This rising and falling pattern also marks two of the most perfectly symmetrical speeches in the Comedy: the eulogy of Saint Francis by Saint Thomas Aquinas in Canto XI and the eulogy of Saint Dominic by Saint Bonaventure in Canto XII. In each case the speaker follows his words of praise for the founder of the other religious order with a denunciation of the present state of his own: Thomas laments the degeneracy of the Dominicans while Bonaventure grieves for the loss of the original Franciscan fervor. The same rhythm that sends the exile up and down the stairs of strangers marks the cadences of the lives of popes, princes, and ordinary people.

From the fall of man, however, all are called to rise through the cross and resurrection of Jesus to the summit of new love. The poet’s path traces the footsteps of the scriptural authors and their interpreters who mapped out the road before him. To Saint Bonaventure, Dante possibly owed not only the Christological bent of his mysticism but also the framework for his triadic poem. Like Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis ad Deum (The Soul’s Journey Into God), Dante’s Comedy derives its inspiration from a mystical experience, takes the form of an ascent toward the Being of God in Christ, and employs the number three and its combinations as the key to order the passage into the eternal. The threefold way according to Bonaventure begins with the physical world, then enters into the soul itself, and finally goes beyond it to attain the vision of the Trinity. These three ways conform to the triadic existence of things: matter, creative intelligence, and eternal art; to the three parts of the day: evening, morning, and noon; and to the triple substance of Christ, who is the ladder to God: the corporeal, spiritual, and divine. Lastly, the threefold way embodies the very nature of the person: body, spirit, and mind so that the whole being mounts up to God, loving him with all one’s mind, with all one’s heart, and with all one’s soul (Mark 12:30). Dante’s journey begins on Good Friday evening in the material world of Inferno, climbs on Easter morning up the spiritual mountain of Purgatory, and rises on Wednesday at noon to the mind of God in Paradise.

Three visions of Christ occur in the journey through paradise: the cross seen in Mars in Canto XIV, the triumph of the risen Lord in Canto XXIII, and the vision of the human Jesus in the center of the circle of Godhead in the final canto. These experiences complete the initial sight of the divine and human natures of Christ shining in the eyes of Beatrice as she gazes on the half-eagle, half-lion griffin at the climax of Purgatory XXXI. Seen against the ruby-red glow of Mars, the white light of the cross within the circle, traced by the radiant spirits glittering as they proceed through the sky, surely forms one of Dante’s most brilliant configurations:

Here now my memory outruns my talent,

For Christ flamed from that cross with such a flash

That I can find no pattern fit for it.

                               (Paradise XIV, 103-105)

As he looks on the moving lights, Dante hears hymns of praise being sung within the cross, and he grows "enraptured" and "moved with loving." Heaven, Saint Augustine says, is "one Christ loving himself."

In the sphere of the Fixed Stars, the pilgrim is directed by Beatrice to turn his eyes to the shining followers of Christ in triumph, all illumined by his light:

I saw, above a million burning lamps,

A Sun that kindled every one of them

As our sun lights the stars we glimpse on high;

 

And through its living light the shining Substance

Glowed out so brightly down upon my gaze

That my eyes dazzled and could not endure it.

                               (Paradise XXIII, 28-33)

Dante is overwhelmed by the vision but, encouraged by Beatrice, he recovers to find that his mind, now enlarged, breaks free from itself, although his mind cannot "recall what it became" at the moment. The vision prepares him for a new, profound insight into the smiling face of Beatrice; she tells him:

"Open your eyes and look at what I am,

For you have seen such things that you are able

Now to withstand the vision of my smile!"

                               (Paradise XXIII, 46-48)

Just as Lucia prepared Dante for the ascent of Mount Purgatory by raising him to the threshold during his first night of sleep on the mountain, so Beatrice introduces the poet to the Queen of Heaven who with them made up the trinity of women, in Canto II of the Inferno, responsible for Dante’s salvation.

Three moments of vision make up the movement of the final canto, climaxing in the last face to face meeting with the Incarnate Son. In the first moment, Dante views the world as composed of numerous pages bound together in a single volume within the eternal light:

Within its depths I saw gathered together,

Bound by love into a single volume,

Leaves that lie scattered through the universe.

                               (Paradise XXXIII, 85-87)

The image is all important because, the poet states, he believes he saw in it "the universal pattern of this knot" that makes the whole cohere in one. The famous metaphor, in fact, contains a meaning too often missed. The volume here is a sacred text: in the book of nature we are to read the Word of God, the Lord revealed in the book of the Gospels.

A codex of the Gospels commonly began with a depiction of Christ in glory, Alpha-Omega, seated on the throne of majesty and circled by an oval mandorla around which stood the four figures of the Apocalypse, here representing the four evangelists. In his hand Jesus holds the book of the Gospels which is himself. The cover is studded with precious jewels. Each individual page inside shares in the beauty and unity declared from without, but each makes up only part of the whole. Thus the meaning of what is revealed cannot be grasped in one passage or in one human life; it is gathered up in one volume, the person of Jesus. Like the cover, nature too glitters in earth and sky with the variegated light of its maker. The book then is not a static symbol for Dante but alive with color, speech, and motion; it is a portal into the real and a container of the treasury of heaven.

The second moment of vision comes in the form of the three circles of Light; they are of "one dimension and three different colors":

One seemed to be reflected by the other,

Rainbow by rainbow, while the third seemed fire

Breathed equally from one and from the other.

                               (Paradise XXXIII, 118-120)

The poet confesses that his words fail to match his conception of the Trinity. All he can manage is to exclaim in the form of a prayer:

O everlasting Light, you dwell alone

In yourself, know yourself alone, and known

And knowing, love and smile upon yourself!

                               (Paradise XXXIII, 124-126)

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gaze, meditate, and smile upon its Self — the Three in One — circle within circle within circle as the Knower, Known, and Knowing and the Lover, Loved, and Loving.

The moment of the third vision arrives, the epitome and apex of the poem:

That middle circle which appeared in you

To be conceived as a reflected light,

After my eyes had studied it a while,

 

Within itself and in its coloring

Seemed to be painted with our human likeness

So that my eyes were wholly focused on it.

                               (Paradise XXXIII. 127-132)

Fascinated and drawn to this likeness of our features (nostra effige), Dante longs to know how in "this new vision" our image fuses into "the circle and finds its place in it." His own capacities fail, but then he is "struck by lightning" and grasps the God-man in the center as embodying divine Light that shines from within the features through the eyes. Gaze meets gaze, and the seer becomes one with the "Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

Dante prepares us for this vision by already seeing Christ reflected in the eyes of Beatrice when they meet in Purgatory and by the previous instances in Paradise when he has looked into her face. In fact, at the conclusion of the Vita Nuova, Dante sees the pilgrims who go to gaze on the Holy Shroud, which bears the imprint of the Crucified’s face, at the time he is imagining the blessed face of Beatrice in paradise. So all features join in the true image (vera icona) of Christ’s countenance, just as the pilgrim from far away Croatia comes to Saint Peter’s in Rome to look on the Veronica and cannot "see enough":

But in his thought says, while it is exposed,

"My Lord Jesus Christ, true God and Savior,

Was this your face then as you once appeared?"

                               (Paradise XXXI, 106-108)

The face the poet sees at the end of the poem is the true image of God, the "OMO" glimpsed in Canto XXIII of Purgatory.

In icons of Christ "made without hands" (archeiropoietos), as the image on the Holy Shroud, the head is modeled on the Omega form with the halo, the hair, and the face itself making three circles within each other. The pattern is intended to reflect the inner reality of the Triune God. The whole appears illuminated by a divine effulgence suffusing the countenance and by a harmonious inner light radiating from within the God-man. Around him the halo is inscribed with the revealed Name: "The Being." Dante’s last face to face meeting sums up the eternal art made human by the Artist Himself.

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