In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city . y his hatedrivals. Next to the Pitti (and Uffizi) it containsthe most precious treasures of art housed in anyFlorentine palace; for in it is that wholly lovely andjoyous little chapel frescoed by Benozzo this is not the most fascinating and enlivening littleroom in all Europe, as some hold stoutly, it is atleast no mean second to whatever that more entranc-ing room may be. Here is the joy, the color, the lifeof Medicean Florenceanimate on flat walls. Itassumes to be a holy pic-ture as befits the placeand the art tradi
In and out of Florence; a new introduction to a well-known city . y his hatedrivals. Next to the Pitti (and Uffizi) it containsthe most precious treasures of art housed in anyFlorentine palace; for in it is that wholly lovely andjoyous little chapel frescoed by Benozzo this is not the most fascinating and enlivening littleroom in all Europe, as some hold stoutly, it is atleast no mean second to whatever that more entranc-ing room may be. Here is the joy, the color, the lifeof Medicean Florenceanimate on flat walls. Itassumes to be a holy pic-ture as befits the placeand the art tradition ofthe time; a Procession ofthe Magi; but all that isin it of humanity andNature is insistently andsecularly Florentine. As in the frescoes of Ghir- - ^^ landajo behind the great altar of Santa Maria ^°^°^ Cypresses. Novella, the pictured people of Gozzoli and theirsetting are of the painters personal are Cosimo and Lorenzo dei Medici, thepainters patrons, and here is the joyous artist him-self. And the procession winds its pageantry and. 158 Castles and Palaces caroling life down the hill-slopes of Fiesole andSettignano. The caretaker of the chapel is a man ofintelligence and enthusiasm, as he should be withsuch a charge in his care. His exploring lantern onits long pole and his facile running commentary as heslowly moves over all the walls are a part of mymemory of the little room that I would not lose if Icould. And how exceptional that is! Besides these chapel pictures there is Luca Gior-danos swiftly painted apotheosis of the Medici in thebanqueting hall, a hall whose ornate decorative wallsand ceiling recall the great corridor in rooms and halls have, too, their attractions;but of greater interest are the memories clinging tothese chambers and corridors of the lives of thatextraordinary family that made this modest palace itsabode. Here poetry and statecraft, love of beautyand of power, philosophic broadness, and personalmalice liv
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidinoutofflore, bookyear1910
