Daily Archives: May 21, 2017

Panorama Firenze

The classic view of Florence is from the Piazza Michelangelo, from a low hill on the east side of the Arno River. I was there yesterday morning and it was, as always, spectacular. But the clouds and the sky were competing with the famous skyline, so I thought to take a picture like some of the Dutch landscape painters who included mostly sky and just a sliver of land. At the far left you can see the famous Ponte Vecchio over the Arno, the only pre-World War II bridge to survive. Further right is the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio or Palazzo della Signoria, then the campanile of the cathedral and its famous dome by Brunelleschi, then on the right the bell tower of Santa Croce. In the distance the hills of Fiesole.

Trace of Genius

The renaissance painter Raphael only lived for 37 years, and yet his influence and fame was great. I took this picture, his golden signature, from the famous painting of the Deposition of Christ in the Palazzo Borghese Museum in Rome. He put his name, Raphael Urbinas, ‘Raphael of Urbino’, and the date MDVII (1507); he was merely 24 years old when he painted that brilliant work. This almost invisible fragment, the artist’s signature in golden letters in Roman-style lettering, was in a dark corner of the canvas.

SPQR

The initials SPQR are found on many ancient Roman monuments, standing for Senatus Populusque Romanus. The ‘que’ means ‘and’, thus ‘The Senate and People of Rome’. It’s kind of cool to see that the manhole covers of Rome still sport these initials, giving a marvelous sort of continuity to the history of this great city.