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Translated
from Italian, unedited quote
The
series of exhibitions at the Diocesan Museum begins with a
solo presentation by Antoine GABER, Canadian of Egyptian origin
rightly considering himself as post-impressionist. His figurative
art of surprising immediacy communicates us through rich chromatic
range, images and sensations linked to nature, capturing fleeting
"impressions" blended with light and gaudy colours.
His galaxy of fast brushstrokes, directly pouring out of melancholy
and nostalgia, in a glittering rainbow of material colour-flamed
strokes that form and mix, creates an essential iridescence
and irrepressibly rises in a festive hymn to pulsating life,
where everything is light, even coloured shades (faithful
to the French Impressionists principles) and reflections on
water. A tribute to old masters, from Monet, with flowers
and plants carried away by the current against the sunlight
(also referencing the English pre-Raphaelite tradition) to
the Post-Impressionists with more definite, resolved and "violent"
colours - also characteristic of Michele Cascella in his latter
period.
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The beautiful
initiative Passion for life, shown at the Diocesan Museum
for Sacred Art and at the Baglioni Hotel in Florence, holds
a two-fold interest. First of all, the presence of numerous
foreign artists - so diverse by national origins, motivations
and artistic techniques, as well as by experience, career,
ability and expressive results - is a definite stimulus for
Florence. The City has been well-renowned, for too long now,
as being turned in on herself and on the recollection of its
past (though glorious), but not always welcoming, particularly
from the early 60s, more disparate cultural and artistic contemporary
trends. Secondly, it's also inspiring for young painters and
sculptors to come into contact with the great Florentine inheritance,
to meet and to compare one another in such a history-rich
and spellbound place as the Diocesan Museum. We hope this
exchange and bilateral influence contributes in the future
to reassert Florence in the global artistic arena and allows
it to play, as until a recent past, a decisive role in the
promotion of events and movements which deeply marked human
history.
For these very reasons, it seems essential, before introducing
the single artists, to remember, albeit briefly, the importance
- both historical and artistic, of the site which will, for
a few weeks, become the prestigious "recipient"
of this international contemporary arts showcase.
The Diocesan Museum for Sacred Art opened in 1995, in part
of the ancient section of the ex-monastery of Santo Stefano,
housing significant artworks, e.g. marble of the Madonna with
Child, by Nino Pisano (XIVth century), the Madonna on the
throne with Child and Angels, by Giotto (1290/1295), the Madonna
with Child by Giovanni del Biondo (XIVth century), four wooden
statue from the Orcagna workshop (XIVth century), the Quarate
altar-step by Paolo Uccello (1433/1434), an Annunciation,
by Bicci di Lorenzo (XVth century), a triptych by Filippo
Lippi and the Abraham's servant and Rebecca by the well, by
Santi di Tito (1602).
From the cloister, site of the Passion for life exhibition,
one accesses the adjacent church of Santo Stefano al Ponte.
The sacred building of ancient origin is documented as early
as 1116, likely dating back to 969 : it had then a basilica
plant with triple aisles and the apse facing East. Merged
into a single nave, it underwent enlargement works from 1233
to the early XIVth century. From the preceding Romanesque
phase of the church remains only the lower half of the stone
façade, flanked by two lateral portals. The upper half
of the façade and the beautiful central portal, in
white and green marble, dates back to the late gothic stage
of the medieval works.
In the XVIth century, in the chapter house and thereafter
monastery, the Compagnia of San Luca was created, bringing
together numerous artisans and goldsmiths from the area. The
side altars along the nave also dates back to the second half
of that century and the beginning of the next. In 1585, the
church was conceded to the Augustinians from Lecceto.
Between 1631 and 1641, the Marquess Anton Maria Bartolommei
began the internal reconstruction. In 1637, the lateral passage
towards the monastery was built (involving the destruction
of the original chapels at the end of the transept). Bartolommei
was himself the architect of the building works, with the
assistance of the engineer Andrea Arrighetti (1592-1672),
at least for the monastery part (as of 1639 and possibly as
early as 1634). A friend and follower of Galileo Galilei,
Arrighetti was admired by both Torricelli and Viviani and
member of the Accademia della Crusca. The apsidal section,
with the crypt and the presbytery, was to be completed only
in 1655 by Marquess Bartolommei's heirs. As from 1650, at
the very least, Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1682) participated
in the work.
The majestic and spectacular presbytery, almost a theatrical
backdrop, is adorned with a double Corinthian order in pietra
serena and based upon the geometrical forms of the square,
rectangle, octagon and dodecagon. Such architecture, absolutely
unique to Florence, heretically heterodox and anticlassical
is one of the most significant illustrations of the exuberant
Baroque originality in Tuscany.
In 1894-1895, the architect Luigi del Moro (1845-1897) set
the present main altar, from the Church of Santa Maria Nuova,
an extremely elegant work by Giambologna (1529-1608) completed
in 1591. The splendid and fluid front stairways was in turn
taken from the Church of Santa Trinità, a Mannerist
work by Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608).
The building was badly damaged in August, 1944, by the explosion
of mines during the Germans' retreat, and then, again during
the Florence flood of 1966 and by the bomb in via dei Georgofili
in 1993. However, each time, it has been scrupulously and
lovingly restored.
July
1st 2006
Prof.
Giampaolo Trotta, Art Critic, exhibition curator.
Florence, Italy
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