Cari Amici (Dear Friends),
One of my Florentine friends
asked me to join him as his guest to the Galleria degli Uffizi last
Saturday morning. One of his friends works
at the famous museum here in Florence, Italy, and gave him a pass for two that
he may use anytime he likes. No queue! And free!
One of the perks for those who
live here (and have the Uffizi Card) is that if it becomes easy to visit a
museum, one does not feel the “pressure” to see or even try to see the entire
collection on exhibit. So, while we
actually sat down in the Botticelli room for a bit and peeked our heads into a
few favorite areas, in general we dodged the tourists in an attempt to visit
some of the latter rooms. My friend said
that he is often visually exhausted by the time he gets close to the end and does
not often spend much time there.
Well, as we wandered around,
noting that several rooms we hoped would be open were not (renovations), we
stumbled upon an exhibit of which neither of us had been aware! The exhibit is titled, “Il
Gran Principe Fernando de Medici (1663-1713)” and features
some truly marvelous works of art in the private Medici collection.
In my book about my experiences street painting in
Italy, I shared with you that my first street painting was “The
Blue Madonna” by Carlo Dolci. I had seen the original portrait years before
in Florida and never forgot it. So,
perhaps you can imagine my joy when I saw Carlo Dolci’s portrait “St. Mary
Magdalen.”
I do not really know how to
explain my emotional response to Sig. Dolci’s paintings. In general, I am not fond of portraits,
religious ones or not (although in truth the religious topics often strike me
as more dramatic and well done than secular subjects). There is a quality to the painting that moves
me. The face is softly lit, softly
modeled; the figure perfectly posed for her expression. The
jewelry on the dress, the round container that she is holding, the eyebrows,
the delicate lips, the hands, the skin itself: absolutely breath-taking!
Apparently the Grand Prince felt something
similar. Upon his death, the museum card
read, twelve works by Carlo Dolci were found in his collection. This Magdalen
portrait was in his “private chamber” (and I do not think that refers to the
bathroom - ha!). I apologize for the
glare on each of these snapshots. I
could not find a position without one.
Also, the book for this exhibition is wonderful (40 euro price tag). However, the image of this Carlo
Dolci painting in the book was too light and more than usual, lacked
some emotional quality of the original. The darker background in my shots is
more like the experience one had in the museum standing right in front of this
work of art. I hope you can find a
painting that moves you and teaches you as well. I was glad that I received this little gift
of a trip to the Uffizi!
