Heaven, Hell, Warriors and Mechanics; A Visit to Florence's Cathedral
Florence is a city of images. The language here is visual; paintings, sculpture, architectural elements, created at different times in history, to serve different purposes, many grafted on to existing structures. The result is layer upon layer of history, with a final layer of modern city grime. As we walk around Florence these images meet the eye because they are in prominent places, inhabited spaces, not confined to museums. From a present day perspective, amid the bustle of our busy lives, they can appear incongruous. We are confused by how to read these images. If you are a visitor to Florence, you may find yourself walking quickly across the Piazza del Duomo to get to the money exchange booth, thinking about the current rate of exchange, or perhaps how to get to the airport, when your eye falls casually on some of the reliefs carved on the famous bell tower beside the cathedral. "I think there is a bus that goes to the airport from the station, oh there is a winged man, I must remember to ask at the hotel..."
It is not an angel, it is a mature man with a beard equipped with wings. It may seem strange as an ornament for a church. A quick search through the memory banks of things vaguely remembered, perhaps touched on in school, may turn up something to do with mythology. Indeed this is Daedalus, who, according to Greek mythology, constructed wings for himself in order to escape with his son Icarus from the Labyrinth of King Minos. A pagan myth. So what is he doing on the bell tower of this bastion of Christianity?
For the answer we need to look back to the early fourteenth century when the bell tower was constructed, and its decorative scheme conceived. The cathedral was the centre of life for the citizens of 14th century Florence, and the tone of life was very religious. The bell tower was to occupy a prominent position in this important piazza. Fittingly its decoration, probably designed by Giotto, and executed for the most part by Andrea Pisano, was chosen to portray man’s road to salvation through daily work. It starts off with a quick summary of history since the beginning of time (see the relief of God creating Adam, then the one of Eve being pulled from Adam’s rib). Then follow depictions of how man redeems himself through daily toil and intellectual pursuits, divided accordingly into representations of the mechanical arts and the liberal arts.
It is among the figures in the lower realm, representing the mechanical arts, that we find the figure of Daedalus. This relief symbolizes the art of mechanics, and Daedalus is chosen as the first mechanic, or craftsman, to represent this skill. The fact that this figure comes from Greek mythology is very interesting because it is one of the first examples of the use of antique (Greek or Roman) imagery in the 14th century. Here we are at the birth of the Renaissance. One of the main characteristics of the Renaissance was a rebirth of interest for things antique. Artists started to collect and study remnants of antique statuary and to introduce these images into their art. It was a part of a new humanist philosophy that recognized the societies of ancient Greece and Rome as great in there own right, even although they had existed without Christianity. Here this pagan mythological figure is inserted into the great scheme of things, where he is absorbed as part of a whole Christian universal view, as yet unthreatened by humanist thought.
Perhaps intrigued by this strange assortment of images on the bell tower, you may wish to step inside the cathedral for a few minutes. The interior is fairly dim and imposing. Footsteps sound on the marble floor. If you walk up the left aisle you will notice that the walls are quite bare, yet halfway along there are two huge monumental paintings of warriors on horseback. These are memorials to two mercenaries. Again you may be puzzled at the appearance of images such as these in a church, but we must look at these images with the perspective of the times in which they were created. In the early 15th century artists were called upon mostly to execute works of art with a religious subject matter, but the motivations behind the patronage were not always religious. Florence was a very prosperous city and a true centre for learning and culture in those times, and therefore Florentines felt a great deal of civic pride. Here, Florentines wished to pay tribute to warriors who had served their republic. The Artist Paolo Uccello was commissioned to paint the earliest of these two equestrian paintings. The result, this strong simple composition, is a memorial to the English captain, leader of the Florentines troops from 1377 until his death in 1434, Sir John Hawkwood. He was known as "Giovanni Acuto" by the Italians who were unable to pronounce his name. The second, done twenty years later by Andrea del Castagno commemorates Niccolo da Tolentino another successful leader of the Florentine army.
If you proceed along the darkened apse of the cathedral until you come to be standing under Brunelleschi’s magnificent dome you will witness a marvelous opening up into the realms of light and your gaze will be led upwards. A passage from the terrestrial to the celestial. It is interesting to note that the area here covered with frescoes is greater than that of Michelangelo’s famous Sistine chapel in Rome. We mortals must remain at ground level and look up, unable to take flight like the hosts of angels that we see above us. But let’s look closer. Here things look pretty scary. There are demons at work, torturing condemned souls, skinning them alive. There is a skeleton standing up there and old woman with many breasts lying down. What can this mean?
The artists of the time have here depicted the Last judgment of Christ, as was common subject matter for church decoration, with a few innovations of their own, as were fitting to their epoch. The artists of note at work here were Giorgio Vasari, who died before the work was completed, and then Federico Zuccari. Zuccari is responsible for most of the turbulent figures who have aroused our curiosity. He was commissioned to finish the work on the dome by the Medici Grand Duke Francesco, at the end of the 16th century. This duke was a strange figure, not well loved by the people and even accused of practicing witchcraft, together with his mistress, Bianca Capello. Zuccari was an outsider, that is to say, not a Florentine, (He came from Le Marche), and was thus regarded dubiously by Florentines. He took great liberties with the original designs for the dome by Vasari, and introduced many new elements of his own. After this work was revealed, he fell decisively into disfavour with the Florentines and eventually left the city.
If you stand and look up at the side of the dome that faces the main doors of the cathedral, you can observe the figure of Christ in Majesty, judging mankind on the final day of creation as predicted in the book of the Apocalypse. The dome has eight segments, and here the pictorial scheme uses the eighth segment to depict the eighth, or final day. Here Zuccari has employed symbolism and allegorical figures to represent concepts, as was common in the late Renaissance. In the lower part of this segment, in the centre, the old woman with many breasts is nature, and she is going to sleep with her children, because at the end of time there will be no more need for her. Similarly, Death, the skeleton to the right is breaking his scythe over his knee, and Time, to the left, is breaking his hourglass. All around the lower level are the regions of hell, where Christ the judge is sending the sinners. Zuccaro seems to have been quite excited by the visual possibilities of such a representation because he has devoted the most space to this. It is here that we see the demons at work inflicting ingenious tortures on the damned souls.
Stepping back outside into the piazza you may be caught up once again in the bustle of shoppers and sightseers. But you can’t walk ten yards in Florence without being confronted yet again by reminders of her great and varied history. Churches and palazzi, sculpture and paintings all attest to her great past. And the present? The present here is intrinsically linked to the past. Here we must coexist with the relics of other times, assimilating them into our daily lives, sometimes quite subconsciously. The Florentines that walk these streets are usually dressed beautifully, the colours of their fashionable clothes are like those of a 15th century fresco. The craftsmanship of the painted and gilded frames produced in the artisan workshops is exquisite. Pottery and leatherwork, fabrics and painted papers, are all produced with that special touch, that combination of colours that makes them uniquely Florentine.
We thank Alison Bukhgalter for pointing out a number of things
we had never noticed. She does this for a living, as director of
Art
Immersion Tours of Florence
Via Mariotto Albertinelli, 10
Firenze,
Italia
Tel/fax: (I-55) 714033
If you would like to know more about her work, or perhaps ask her to guide you in your discovery of Florence or Tuscany, you can either visit her website, or send her an email, to bkhwly@tin.it
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